c. 1300 – c. 1500

Intro to the Renaissance: The Late Middle Ages

1. Review of the High Middle AgesGovernment :

centralized?Economy: agriculture?

Commerce?Role of the ChurchValues: among the lords,

vassals, towards women, code of chivalry?

Views of the Classical world: positive?

1. Review of the High Middle AgesGovernment:Economy: Role of the Church:

Religious:

Political:

Cultural:

decentralized (rival lords)

agriculture (wealth: land)

salvation, fight against heresy

upper clergy: aristocrats, landowners

education, keepers of Classical knowledge

1. Review of the High Middle AgesValues:

among the lords and vassals:Code of chivalryWarrior’s code:

values honor, loyalty and courage

Towards women: Courtly love:

idealization of aristocratic women

1. Review of the High Middle AgesViews of the

Classical world: Classical world is

PAGAN in a world dominated by Christian values.

Some aspects of the Classical world are imitated but Christianized, others are suppressed.

14th century: an age of changeDisastrous event?Economy: commerce or agriculture?Political situation?Church?

2. The Late Middle Ages

2. The Late Middle Ages

The Black Death First appeared in

Italy in 1347 and spread to the rest of Europe.

It killed more than a third of Europe’s seventy million people.

Consequences of the Black Death:DepopulationMigration to cities: revitalization of urban

lifeOpportunities for class mobility: demand

of workersDislocation of social order and social

clashesRising secularismEnd of feudalism in many areas

2. The Late Middle Ages

2. The Late Middle Ages

Political situation:Raising of constitutional

monarchies (parliament).Political and territorial

consolidation of the French, English, and Spanish monarchies.

Creation of a national identity.

2. The Late Middle Ages

The Church:Religious and

cultural leadership in the High Middle Ages.

Great economic and political power

The raising of national monarchies diminishes the power of the Church

2. The Late Middle Ages

As rivals to other kings the Popes make political alliances.

Sell pardons (indulgences) and offices (simony) to increase their revenue.

Appoint family members to office.

2. The Late Middle Ages

Repression and religious intolerance:Holy Inquisition

suppressed “heretic” movements though torture and executions.

In Spain it was used to forcibly convert Muslims and Jews into Christianity.

ConsequencesLost of prestige for the institution. Rise of anticlericalism/ secularismRise of devotional piety and

mysticism: individual experience of God.

2. The Late Middle Ages

2. The Late Middle Ages

Literature:New patrons and

audiences: urban nobles and middle class.

Rise of literature in vernacular languages.

A revolutionary technological invention?Invention of the printing

press by Johannes Gutenberg (1450): production and distribution of literature.

3. High vs. Late Middle AgesHigh Middle Ages

Rural societyAgricultureDecentralized power

No national identitySocial stabilityPredominance of

religion in all aspects of life.

Late Middle AgesIncreasingly urbanRaise of tradeUnified monarchies:

France, England, SpainNational prideSocial unrest: middle

class, Black DeathRaise of secularism

Medieval? Middle Ages?Renaissance?

4. Terminology

2. TerminologyMedieval: (Lat) medium

aevummiddle age

Renaissance: Re-birth (of the Classical World)

(It: Rinascimento, <Lat nascor, natum (to be born), French: Renaissance)

From the point of view of the people of the Renaissance the Middle Ages is the period between the Classical World and its rebirth in their time.

2. Terminology

3. Renaissance vs. Medieval Art: A

3. Renaissance vs. Medieval Art: A

3. Renaissance vs. Medieval Art. B

3. Renaissance vs. Medieval Art: B

3. Renaissance vs. Medieval Art: C

3. Renaissance vs. Medieval art: C

3. Renaissance vs. Medieval Art: D

3. Renaissance vs. Medieval Art : E

3. Renaissance vs. Medieval Art: F

3. Renaissance vs. Medieval Art: G

4. Florence Baptistery (1401-1402)