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| Renaissance means "rebirth". Many people who lived in Italy between 1350 and 1550 believed that they had witnessed a rebirth of antiquity or Greco-Roman civilization, marking a new age. To them, a thousand or so years between the end of the Roman Empire and their own are constituted a middle period(the Middle Ages), characterized by darkness because of its lack of Classical culture. The Swiss historian and art critic Jacob Burckhardt created the modern concept of the Renaissance in his book, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860). |
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| Rulers who began to transfer their titles to underground minerals to financiers as collateral for loans. |
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| The Renaissance inherited its social structure from the Middle Ages. Society remained fundamentally divided into three ESTATES: the First Estate(the clergy)the Second Estate(the nobility), and the Third Estate (peasants and inhabitants). |
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Concern for the capability and uniqueness of the individual personality.
A social theory favoring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control.
The habit or principle of being independent and self-reliant.
One of the characteristics of the Italian Renaissance. |
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Basic concern with the material world instead of with the external world of spirit. Though medieval business people searched for wealth, their dominant goals regarded life after death.
Secularism is a principle that involves two basic propositions. The first is the strict separation of the state from religious institutions. The second is that people of different religions and beliefs are equal before the law.
One of the characteristics of the Italian Renaissance. |
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The scholarly interest in the study of classical texts, values and styles of Greece and Rome. Humanism contributed to the promotion of a liberal arts education based on the study of the classics, rhetoric, and history.
A Renaissance cultural movement that turned away from medieval scholasticism and revived interest in ancient Greek and Roman thought.
The most important literary movement associated with the Renaissance. |
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In Florence, the humanist movement took a new direction at the beginning of the fifteenth century when it became closely tied to Florentine civic spirit and pride, giving rise to what one modern scholar had labeled as CIVIC HUMANISM.
The individual is responsible for applying his knowledge for public service.
The modern term for the moral, social and political philosophy that in the course of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries began to be articulated in Italian city-states and most notably in Florence. |
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Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) dedicated his life to the translation of Plato and the exposition of the Platonic philosophy known as NEOPLATONISM.
Exposition of the Platonic philosophy, translation of Plato. |
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| Product of the Florentine intellectual environment of the late 15th century, these manuscripts stressed the occult sciences with an emphasis on astrology, alchemy, or magic, and theological and philosophical beliefs and speculations. |
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Pantheism refers to his belief that God was the universe. Everything that exists is god.
The doctrine that God is the transcendent reality of which the material universe and human beings are only manifestations: it involves a denial of God's personality and expresses a tendency to identify God and nature. |
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In the first half of the 15th century, European states continued the disintegrative patterns of the previous century . In the second half of the century, however, recovery set in, and attempts were made to reestablish the centralized power of monarchical governments. To characterize the results, some historians have used the label "Renaissance states"; others have spoken of the "new monarchies", especially those of France, England and Spain at the end of the 15th century.
These rulers consolidated power to themselves by reducing the power of the nobility and clergy as well as creating efficient bureaucracies. They did not, however, achieve absolutism. |
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The practice of appointing family members to positions of favor. The practice was very common in the Catholic Church.
The practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs. |
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