C H A P T E R

12
Recovery and
Rebirth: The
Age of the
Renaissance
CHAPTER OUTLINE

• Meaning and Characteristics of the Italian Renaissance

• The Making of Renaissance Society
• The Italian States in the Renaissance
• The Intellectual Renaissance in Italy
• The Artistic Renaissance
• The European State in the Renaissance
• The Church in the Renaissance
• Conclusion

FOCUS QUESTIONS

• What characteristics distinguish the Renaissance from the Middle Ages?

• How did Machiavelli’s works reflect the political realities of Renaissance
Italy?
• What was humanism, and what effect did it have on philosophy,
L

education, attitudes toward politics, and the writing of history?

• What were the chief characteristics of Renaissance art, and how did it
differ in Italy and northern Europe?
• Why do historians sometimes refer to the monarchies of the late
fifteenth century as “new monarchies” or “Renaissance states”?

M EDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE HISTORIANS

have argued interminably over the significance of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Did they witness a continuation of the
Middle Ages or the beginning of a new era? Obviously, both positions
contain a modicum of truth. Although the disintegrative patterns of the
fourteenth century continued into the fifteenth, at the same time there
were elements of recovery that made the fifteenth century a period of
significant political, economic, artistic, and intellectual change. The
humanists or intellectuals of the age called their period (from the mid-
fourteenth to the mid-sixteenth century) an age of rebirth, believing
that they had restored arts and letters to new glory after they had been
“neglected” or “dead” for centuries. The humanists also saw their age
as one of great individuals who dominated the landscape of their time.
Michelangelo, the great Italian artist of the early sixteenth century, and
Pope Julius II, the “warrior pope,” were two such titans. The artist’s

326
temperament and the pope’s temper led to many uality and secularism of the Renaissance and failed to rec-
lengthy and often loud quarrels between the two. ognize the depths of its religious sentiment. Nevertheless,
Among other commissions, the pope had hired he established the framework for all modern interpreta-
Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel tions of the Renaissance. Although contemporary schol-
in Rome, a difficult task for a man long accustomed to ars do not believe that the Renaissance represents a
sudden or dramatic cultural break with the Middle Ages
being a sculptor. Michelangelo undertook the project
(as Burckhardt argued)—there was after all much conti-
but refused for a long time to allow anyone, including
nuity in economic, political, and social life between the
the pope, to see his work. Julius grew anxious, pester- two periods—the Renaissance can still be viewed as a dis-
ing Michelangelo on a regular basis about when the tinct period of European history that manifested itself first
ceiling would be finished. Exasperated by the pope’s in Italy and then spread to the rest of Europe. What, then,
requests, Michelangelo once replied, according to Gior- are the characteristics of the Italian Renaissance?
gio Vasari, his contemporary biographer, that the ceil- Renaissance Italy was largely an urban society. As a
ing would be completed “when it satisfies me as an result of its commercial preeminence and political evolu-
artist.” The pope responded, “and we want you to sat- tion, northern Italy by the mid-fourteenth century was
isfy us and finish it soon,” and then threatened that if mostly a land of independent cities that dominated the
Michelangelo did not “finish the ceiling quickly he country districts around them. These city-states became
would have him thrown down from the scaffolding.” the centers of Italian political, economic, and social life.
Within this new urban society, a secular spirit emerged as
Fearing the pope’s anger, Michelangelo “lost no time in
increasing wealth created new possibilities for the enjoy-
doing all that was wanted” and quickly completed the
ment of worldly things.
ceiling, one of the great masterpieces in the history of Above all, the Renaissance was an age of recovery
Western art. from the “calamitous fourteenth century.” Italy and Europe
The humanists’ view of their age as a rebirth of began a slow process of recuperation from the effects of the
the classical civilization of the Greeks and Romans Black Death, political disorder, and economic recession.
ultimately led historians to use the word Renaissance By the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth
to identify this age. Although recent historians centuries, Italians were using the words recovery and
have emphasized the many elements of continuity revival and were actively involved in a rebuilding process.
between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the Recovery was accompanied by rebirth, specifically,
latter age was also distinguished by its own unique a rebirth of the culture of classical antiquity. Increasingly
characteristics. aware of their own historical past, Italian intellectuals
became intensely interested in the Greco-Roman culture
of the ancient Mediterranean world. This new revival of
classical antiquity (the Middle Ages, after all, had pre-
served much of ancient Latin culture) affected activities as
diverse as politics and art and led to new attempts to rec-
◆ Meaning and Characteristics of oncile the pagan philosophy of the Greco-Roman world
the Italian Renaissance with Christian thought, as well as new ways of viewing
human beings.
The word Renaissance means “rebirth.” A number of peo- Though not entirely new, a revived emphasis on indi-
ple who lived in Italy between c. 1350 and c. 1550 vidual ability became characteristic of the Italian Renais-
believed that they had witnessed a rebirth of antiquity or sance. As the fifteenth-century Florentine architect Leon
Greco-Roman civilization, which marked a new age. To Battista Alberti expressed it: “Men can do all things if they
them, the approximately 1,000 years between the end of will.”1 A high regard for human dignity and worth and a
the Roman Empire and their own era was a middle period realization of individual potentiality created a new social
(hence the “Middle Ages”), characterized by darkness ideal of the well-rounded personality or universal person
because of its lack of classical culture. Historians of the (l’uomo universale) who was capable of achievements in
nineteenth century later used similar terminology to many areas of life.
describe this period in Italy. The Swiss historian and art These general features of the Italian Renaissance
critic Jacob Burckhardt created the modern concept of the were not characteristic of all Italians, but were primarily
Renaissance in his celebrated work, Civilization of the the preserve of the wealthy upper classes who constituted
Renaissance in Italy, published in 1860. He portrayed Italy a small percentage of the total population. The achieve-
in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as the birthplace ments of the Italian Renaissance were the product of an
of the modern world (the Italians were “the firstborn elite, rather than a mass, movement. Nevertheless, indi-
among the sons of modern Europe”) and saw the revival rectly it did have some impact on ordinary people, espe-
of antiquity, the “perfecting of the individual,” and secu- cially in the cities where so many of the intellectual and
larism (“worldliness of the Italians”) as its distinguishing artistic accomplishments of the period were most appar-
features. No doubt, Burckhardt exaggerated the individ- ent and visible.

Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance 327

◆ The Making of Renaissance Ottoman Turks (see The Ottoman Turks and the End of
Byzantium later in this chapter), continued to maintain a
Society wealthy commercial empire. Not until the sixteenth century,
when the overseas discoveries gave new importance to the
The cultural flowering that we associate with the Italian states facing the Atlantic, did the petty Italian city-states
Renaissance actually began in an era of severe economic begin to suffer from the competitive advantages of the ever-
difficulties. The commercial revolution of the twelfth, thir- growing and more powerful national territorial states.
teenth, and early fourteenth centuries had produced great The economic depression of the fourteenth century
wealth and given rise to a money economy and the devel- also affected patterns of manufacturing. The woolen indus-
opment of a capitalist system. Under this system, the cap- tries of Flanders and the northern Italian cities had been
ital or liquid wealth accumulated by private entrepreneurs particularly devastated. By the beginning of the fifteenth
was used to make further profits in trade, industry, and century, however, the Florentine woolen industry was
banking. After three centuries of economic expansion, in experiencing a recovery. At the same time, the Italian cities
the second half of the fourteenth century, Europeans expe- began to develop and expand luxury industries, especially
rienced severe economic reversals and social upheavals silk, glassware, and handworked items in metal and pre-
(see Chapter 11). By the middle of the fifteenth century, cious stones. Unfortunately, these luxury industries
a gradual economic recovery had begun with an increase employed fewer people than the woolen industry and con-
in the volume of manufacturing and trade. Economic tributed less to overall prosperity.
growth varied from area to area, however, and despite Other new industries, especially printing, mining,
the recovery Europe did not experience the economic and metallurgy, began to rival the textile industry in impor-
boom of the High Middle Ages. tance in the fifteenth century. New machinery and tech-
niques for digging deeper mines and for separating metals
l Economic Recovery from ore and purifying them were put into operation.
By the fourteenth century, Italian merchants were carry- When rulers began to transfer their rights to underground
ing on a flourishing commerce throughout the Mediter- minerals to financiers as collateral for loans, these en-
ranean and had also expanded their lines of trade north trepreneurs quickly developed large mining operations
along the Atlantic seaboard. The great galleys of the Vene- to produce copper, iron, and silver. Especially valuable
tian Flanders Fleet maintained a direct sea route from were the rich mineral deposits in central Europe, Hungary,
Venice to England and the Netherlands, where Italian mer- the Tyrol, Bohemia, and Saxony. Expanding iron produc-
chants came into contact with the increasingly powerful tion and new skills in metalworking, in turn, contributed
Hanseatic League of merchants. Hard hit by the plague, to the development of firearms that were more effective
the Italians lost their commercial preeminence while the than the crude weapons of the fourteenth century.
Hanseatic League continued to prosper. The city of Florence regained its preeminence in
The Hanseatic League or Hansa had been formed as banking in the fifteenth century, primarily due to the
early as the thirteenth century, when some north German Medici family (see the box on p. 329). The Medici had
coastal towns, such as Lübeck, Hamburg, and Bremen, expanded from cloth production into commerce, real
began to cooperate to gain favorable trading rights in Flem- estate, and banking. In its best days (in the fifteenth cen-
ish cities. To protect themselves from pirates and compe- tury), the House of Medici was the greatest banking house
tition from Scandinavian merchants, these and other in Europe, with branches in Venice, Milan, Rome, Avi-
northern towns formed a commercial and military league. gnon, Bruges, London, and Lyons. Moreover, the family
By 1500, more than eighty cities belonged to the league, had controlling interests in industrial enterprises for wool,
which had established settlements and commercial bases silk, and the mining of alum, used in the dyeing of textiles.
in many cities in England and northern Europe, including Except for a brief interruption, the Medici were also the
the chief towns of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. For principal bankers for the papacy, a position that produced
almost 200 years, the Hansa had a monopoly on northern big profits and influence at the papal court. Despite its
European trade in timber, fish, grain, metals, honey, and great success in the early and middle part of the fifteenth
wines. Its southern outlet in Flanders, the city of Bruges, century, the Medici bank suffered a rather sudden decline
became the economic crossroads of Europe in the four- at the end of the century due to poor leadership and a
teenth century since it served as the meeting place series of bad loans, especially uncollectible loans to rulers.
between Hanseatic merchants and the Flanders Fleet of In 1494, when the French expelled the Medici from Flor-
Venice. In the fifteenth century, however, Bruges slowly ence and confiscated their property, the Medicean finan-
began to decline. So, too, did the Hanseatic League as it cial edifice collapsed.
proved increasingly unable to compete with the develop-
ing larger territorial states. l Social Changes in the Renaissance
Overall, trade recovered dramatically from the eco- The Renaissance inherited a tripartite division of society
nomic contraction of the fourteenth century. The Italians from the Middle Ages. Society was fundamentally divided
and especially the Venetians, despite new restrictive pres- into three estates: the clergy, whose preeminence was
sures on their eastern Mediterranean trade from the grounded in the belief that people should be guided to spir-

328 CHAPTER 12
 L
Florence: “Queen City of the Renaissance”
Florence has long been regarded by many historians as Turkey. It contains also eighty-three rich and splendid
the “queen city of the Renaissance.” It was the intellectual warehouses of the silk merchants’ guild, and furnishes
and cultural center of Italy in the fifteenth century. In a gold and silver stuffs, velvet, brocade, damask, taffeta,
letter written to a Venetian in 1472, Benedetto Dei, a Flor- and satin to Rome, Naples, Catalonia, and the whole of
entine merchant, gave a proud and boastful description Spain, especially Seville, and to Turkey and Barbary.
of Florence’s economy under the guidance of Lorenzo de’ The principal fairs to which these wares go are those of
Medici. Genoa, the Marches, Ferrara, Mantua, and the whole of
Italy; Lyons, Avignon, Montpellier, Antwerp, and Lon-
don. The number of banks amount to thirty-three; the
l Benedetto Dei, Florence
shops of the cabinetmakers, whose business is carving
Florence is more beautiful and five hundred years older and inlaid work, to eighty-four; and the workshops of
than your Venice. We spring from triply noble blood. We the stonecutters and marble workers in the city and its
are one-third Roman, one-third Frankish, and one-third immediate neighborhood, to fifty-four. There are forty-
Fiesolan [an ancient Etruscan town three miles north- four goldsmiths’ and jewelers’ shops, thirty gold-beaters,
east of Florence]. . . . We have round about us thirty silver wire-drawers, and a wax-figure maker [wax images
thousand estates, owned by noblemen and merchants, were used in all churches]. . . . Go through all the cities
citizens and craftsmen, yielding us yearly bread and of the world, nowhere will you ever be able to find artists
meat, wine and oil, vegetables and cheese, hay and in wax equal to those we now have in Florence. . . .
wood, to the value of nine hundred thousand ducats in Another flourishing industry is the making of light and
cash, as you Venetians, Genoese, Chians, and Rhoadi- elegant gold and silver wreaths and garlands, which are
ans who come to buy them know well enough. We have worn by young maidens of high degree, and which have
two trades greater than any four of yours in Venice put given their names to the artist family of Ghirlandaio.
together—the trades of wool and silk. . . . Sixty-six is the number of the apothecaries’ and grocer
Our beautiful Florence contains within the city in this shops; seventy that of the butchers, besides eight large
present year two hundred seventy shops belonging to shops in which are sold fowls of all kinds, as well as
the wool merchants’ guild, from whence their wares are game and also the native wine called Trebbiano, from
sent to Rome and the Marches, Naples and Sicily, Con- San Giovanni in the upper Arno Valley; it would awaken
stantinople and Pera, Adrianople, . . . and the whole of the dead in its praise.

itual ends; the nobility, whose privileges were based on the the Low Countries, in a letter outlining how his son should
principle that the nobles provided security and justice for be formally educated, stated that, due to his own lack of
society; and the third estate, which consisted of the peas- learning, he dared not express his opinions in the king’s
ants and inhabitants of the towns and cities. This social council and often “felt deep shame and humiliation” at his
order experienced certain adaptations in the Renaissance, ignorance.
which we can see by examining the second and third In northern Europe, the fifteenth century also saw
estates (the clergy will be examined in Chapter 13). the final flourishing of chivalry. Nobles played at being
great warriors, but their tournaments were now charac-
/ THE SOCIAL CLASSES: THE NOBILITY terized less by bloodshed than by flamboyance and a dis-
Throughout much of Europe, the landholding nobles were play of brilliant costumes that showed off an individual’s
faced with declining real incomes during the greater part social status.
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, while the expense
of maintaining noble status was rising. Nevertheless, mem- / THE DEVELOPMENT OF A
bers of the old nobility survived and new blood infused its COURTLY SOCIETY IN ITALY
ranks. A reconstruction of the aristocracy was well under One of the more interesting social developments during
way by 1500. the Renaissance was the change that occurred in Italian
As a result of this reconstruction, the nobles, old and society. In the Early Renaissance, old noble families had
new, who constituted between 2 and 3 percent of the pop- moved into the cities and generally merged with the mer-
ulation in most countries, managed to dominate society chant middle classes to form the upper classes in these
as they had done in the Middle Ages, serving as military new urban societies. Consequently, Italy seemed to lose
officers and holding important political posts as well as the notion of nobility or aristocracy. In the fifteenth cen-
advising the king. Increasingly in the sixteenth century, tury, this began to change as the tenor of Italian upper-
members of the aristocracy pursued education as the class urban society became more aristocratic. Although
means to maintain their role in government. One noble in this was especially evident in the princely states, such as

Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance 329

 L
A Renaissance Banquet
As in Greek and Roman society, the Renaissance banquet held to celebrate public and religious festivals, official
was an occasion for good food, interesting conversation, visits, anniversaries, and weddings. The following menu
music, and dancing. In Renaissance society, it was also a lists the foods served at a grand banquet given by Pope
symbol of status and an opportunity to impress people Pius V in the sixteenth century.
with the power and wealth of one’s family. Banquets were

A Sixteenth-Century Banquet

First Course: Third Course:

l l
Cold Delicacies from the Sideboard l Hot Foods from the Kitchen, l
Boiled Meats and Stews
Pieces of marzipan and marzipan balls
Neapolitan spice cakes Stuffed fat geese, boiled Lombard style and covered with
Malaga wine and Pisan biscuits sliced almonds
Fresh grapes Stuffed breast of veal, boiled, garnished with flowers
Prosciutto cooked in wine, served with capers Very young calf, boiled, garnished with parsley
and grape pulp Almonds in garlic sauce
Salted pork tongues cooked in wine, sliced Turkish-style rice with milk, sprinkled with cinnamon
Spit-roasted songbirds, cold, with their Stewed pigeons with mortadella sausage and
tongues sliced over them whole onions
Sweet mustard Cabbage soup with sausages
Poultry pie, two chickens to each pie
Second Course: Fricasseed breast of goat dressed with fried onions
l l
Hot Foods from the Kitchen, Roasts Pies filled with custard cream
Boiled calves’ feet with cheese and egg
Fried veal sweetbreads and liver
Spit-roasted skylarks with lemon sauce
Fourth Course:
Spit-roasted quails with sliced eggplants l l
Delicacies from the Sideboard
Stuffed spit-roasted pigeons with capers
sprinkled over them Bean tarts
Spit-roasted rabbits, with sauce and crushed pine nuts Quince pastries
Partridges larded and spit-roasted, served with lemon Pear tarts, the pears wrapped in marzipan
Heavily seasoned poultry with lemon slices Parmesan cheese and Riviera cheese
Slices of veal, spit-roasted, with a sauce made Fresh almonds on vine leaves
from the juices Chestnuts roasted over the coals and served
Leg of goat, spit-roasted with a sauce made with salt and pepper
from the juices Milk curds
Soup of almond paste, with the flesh of three Ring-shaped cakes
pigeons to each serving Wafers made from ground grain

the duchy of Milan where a courtly society emerged perfect courtier must also cultivate certain achievements.
around the duke, even in the Italian republics the behav- Primarily, he should participate in military and bodily exer-
ior of the upper class took on an aristocratic appearance cises since the principal profession of a courtier was arms.
(see the box above). But unlike the medieval knight who had only been
By 1500, certain ideals came to be expected of the required to have military skill, the Renaissance courtier
noble or aristocrat. These were best expressed in The Book was also expected to have a classical education and to
of the Courtier by the Italian Baldassare Castiglione adorn his life with the arts by playing a musical instru-
(1478–1529). First published in 1528, Castiglione’s work ment, drawing, and painting. In Castiglione’s hands, the
soon was popular throughout Europe and became a fun- Renaissance ideal of the well-developed personality
damental handbook for European aristocrats. became a social ideal of the aristocracy. Finally, the aris-
In The Book of the Courtier, Castiglione described the tocrat was expected to follow a certain standard of con-
three basic attributes of the perfect courtier. First, nobles duct. Nobles were expected to make good impressions;
should possess fundamental native endowments, such as while being modest, they should not hide their accom-
impeccable character, grace, talents, and noble birth. The plishments, but show them with grace.

330 CHAPTER 12
 But what was the purpose of these courtly stan- try, and banking enabled them to dominate their urban
dards? Castiglione said: communities economically, socially, and politically. Below
them were the petty burghers, the shopkeepers, artisans,
Therefore, I think that the aim of the perfect Courtier, which
guildmasters, and guild members who were largely con-
we have not spoken of up to now, is so to win for himself,
by means of the accomplishments ascribed to him by these
cerned with providing goods and services for local con-
gentlemen, the favor and mind of the prince whom he sumption. Below these two groups were the propertyless
serves that he may be able to tell him, and always will tell workers earning pitiful wages and the unemployed, liv-
him, the truth about everything he needs to know, without ing squalid and miserable lives. These people constituted
fear or risk of displeasing him; and that when he sees the as much as 30 or 40 percent of the urban population. In
mind of his prince inclined to a wrong action, he may dare many places in Europe in the late fourteenth and fifteenth
to oppose him . . . so as to dissuade him of every evil intent
centuries, urban poverty had increased dramatically. One
and bring him to the path of virtue.2
rich merchant of Florence wrote:
This ideal of service to the prince reflected the secular ethic Those that are lazy and indolent in a way that does harm to
of the active life espoused by the earlier civic humanists the city, and who can offer no just reason for their condi-
(see Italian Renaissance Humanism later in this chapter). tion, should either be forced to work or expelled from the
Castiglione put the new moral values of the Renaissance Commune. The city would thus rid itself of that most harm-
into a courtly, aristocratic form that was now acceptable ful part of the poorest class. . . . If the lowest order of soci-
to the nobility throughout Europe. Nobles would adhere to ety earn enough food to keep them going from day to day,
then they have enough.3
his principles for hundreds of years as they continued
to dominate European life socially and politically. But even this large group was not at the bottom of the
social scale; beneath them were the slaves, especially in
the Italian cities.
/ THE SOCIAL CLASSES: THE THIRD ESTATE
OF PEASANTS AND TOWNSPEOPLE
Traditionally, peasants made up the overwhelming mass of / SLAVERY IN THE RENAISSANCE
the third estate and indeed continued to constitute as much Agricultural slavery had continued to exist in the Early
as 85 to 90 percent of the total European population, except Middle Ages, but had declined for economic reasons and
in the highly urbanized areas of northern Italy and Flan- been replaced by serfdom by the ninth century. Although
ders. The most noticeable trend produced by the economic some domestic slaves remained, slavery in European soci-
crisis of the fourteenth century was the decline of the mano- ety had largely disappeared by the eleventh century. It
rial system and the continuing elimination of serfdom. This reappeared first in Spain, where both Christians and Mus-
process had already begun in the twelfth century when the lims used captured prisoners as slaves during the lengthy
introduction of a money economy made possible the con- reconquista. In the second half of the fourteenth century,
version of servile labor dues into rents paid in money, the shortage of workers after the Black Death led Italians
although they also continued to be paid in kind or labor. to introduce slavery on a fairly large scale. In 1363, for
The contraction of the peasantry after the Black Death sim- example, the government of Florence authorized the
ply accelerated this process since lords found it convenient unlimited importation of foreign slaves.
to deal with the peasants by granting freedom and accept- In the Italian cities, slaves were used as skilled work-
ing rents. The lord’s lands were then tilled by hired work- ers, making handcrafted goods for their masters, or as
ers or rented out. By the end of the fifteenth century, household workers. Girls served as nursemaids and boys
serfdom was declining, and more and more peasants were as playmates. Fiammetta Adimari wrote to her husband in
becoming legally free, although in many places lords were 1469: “I must remind you that when Alfonso is weaned we
able to retain many of the fees they charged their peasants. ought to get a little slave-girl to look after him, or else one
Lords, then, became rentiers, and the old manorial system of the black boys to keep him company.”4 In Florence,
was replaced by a new arrangement based on cash. It is wealthy merchants might possess two or three slaves.
interesting to note that while serfdom was declining in west- Often, men of the household took slaves as concubines,
ern Europe, eastern Europe experienced a reverse trend. which sometimes led to the birth of illegitimate children.
The weakness of eastern rulers enabled nobles to tie their In 1392, the wealthy merchant Francesco Datini fathered
peasants to the land and use servile labor in the large-scale an illegitimate daughter by Lucia, his twenty-year-old
production of grain for an ever-growing export market. slave. His wife Margherita, who was unable to bear any
The remainder of the third estate centered around children, reluctantly agreed to raise the girl as their own
the inhabitants of towns and cities, originally the mer- daughter. Many illegitimate children were not as fortunate.
chants and artisans who formed the burghers. The Ren- Slaves for the Italian market were obtained primarily
aissance town or city of the fifteenth century actually from the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea region
possessed a multitude of townspeople widely separated and included Tartars, Russians, Albanians, and Dalma-
socially and economically. tians. There were also slaves from Africa, either Moors or
At the top of urban society were the patricians, Ethiopians, and Muslims from Spain. Because of the lucra-
whose wealth from capitalistic enterprises in trade, indus- tive nature of the slave trade, Italian merchants became

Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance 331

 WEDDING BANQUET. Parents arranged mar-
riages in Renaissance Italy to strengthen busi-
ness or family ties. A legally binding marriage
contract was considered a necessary part of
the marital arrangements. So, too, was a wed-
ding feast. This painting by Botticelli shows
the wedding banquet in Florence that cele-
brated the marriage of Nastagio degli Onesti
and the daughter of Paulo Traversaro.

involved in the transportation of slaves. Between 1414 and ation by the offended family would be a bloody affair
1423, 10,000 slaves were sold on the Venetian market. involving large numbers of people.
Most slaves were females, many of them young girls. To maintain the family, careful attention was given
By the end of the fifteenth century, slavery had to marriages, which were arranged by parents, often to
declined dramatically in the Italian cities. Many slaves had strengthen business or family ties. Details were worked
been freed by their owners for humanitarian reasons, and out well in advance, sometimes when children were only
the major source of slaves dried up as the Black Sea slave two or three, and reinforced by a legally binding marriage
markets were closed to Italian traders after the Turks con- contract (see the box on p. 333). The important aspect
quered the Byzantine Empire. Although some other of the contract was the size of the dowry, a sum of money
sources remained, prices rose dramatically, further cutting presented by the wife’s family to the husband upon mar-
demand. Moreover, a general feeling had arisen that riage. The dowry could involve large sums of money and
slaves—the “domestic enemy” as they were called—were was expected of all families. The size of the dowry was an
dangerous and not worth the effort. By the sixteenth cen- indication of whether the bride was moving upward or
tury, slaves were in evidence only at princely courts where downward in society. With a large dowry, a daughter
they were kept as curiosities; this was especially true of could marry a man of higher social status, thereby
black slaves. enabling her family to move up in society; if the daughter
In the fifteenth century, the Portuguese had imported married a man of lower social status, however, then her
increasing numbers of African slaves for southern Euro- dowry would be smaller since the reputation of her fam-
pean markets. It has been estimated that between 1444 ily would raise the status of the husband’s family. Since
and 1505, 140,000 slaves were shipped from Africa. The poor families often had difficulty providing a dowry,
presence of blacks in European society was not entirely wealthy families established societies to provide dowries
new. Saint Maurice, a Christian martyr of the fourth cen- for poor girls.
tury, was portrayed by medieval artists as a black knight The father-husband was the center of the Italian
and became the center of a popular cult in the twelfth and family. He gave it his name, was responsible for it in
thirteenth centuries. The number of blacks in Europe was all legal matters, managed all finances (his wife had
small, however, until their importation as slaves. no share in his wealth), and made the crucial decisions
that determined his children’s lives. A father’s authority
/ THE FAMILY IN RENAISSANCE ITALY over his children was absolute until he died or formally
The family played an important role in Renaissance Italy. freed his children. In Renaissance Italy, children did not
Family meant, first of all, the extended household of par- become adults on reaching a certain age; instead adult-
ents, children, and servants (if the family was wealthy) hood came only when the father went before a judge and
and could also include grandparents, widowed moth- formally emancipated them. The age of emancipation var-
ers, and even unmarried sisters. Families that were ied from early teens to late twenties.
related and bore the same surname often lived near each The wife managed the household, a position that
other and might dominate an entire urban district. Old gave women a certain degree of autonomy in their daily
family names, such as the Strozzi, Rucellai, and Medici, lives. Most wives, however, also knew that their primary
conferred great status and prestige. The family bond was function was to bear children. Upper-class wives were
a source of great security in a dangerous and violent frequently pregnant; Alessandra Strozzi of Florence, for
world, and its importance helps explain the vendetta in example, who had been married at the age of sixteen, bore
the Italian Renaissance. A crime committed by one fam- eight children in ten years. Poor women did not conceive
ily member fell on the entire family, ensuring that retali- at the same rate because they nursed their own babies.

332 CHAPTER 12
 L
Marriage Negotiations
Marriages were so important in maintaining families in girl and . . . that when we had made up our minds, she
Renaissance Italy that much energy was put into arrang- will come to us willingly. [He said that] you were a wor-
ing them. Parents made the choices for their children, thy man, and that his family had always made good
most often for considerations that had little to do with the marriages, but that he had only a small dowry to give
modern notion of love. This selection is taken from the her, and so he would prefer to send her out of Florence
letters of a Florentine matron of the illustrious Strozzi to someone of worth, rather than to give her to someone
family to her son Filippo in Naples. The family’s consider- here, from among those who were available, with little
ations were complicated by the fact that the son was in money. . . . We have information that she is affable and
exile. competent. She is responsible for a large family (there
are twelve children, six boys and six girls), and the
mother is always pregnant and isn’t very competent. . . .
l Alessandra Strozzi to Her Son
[August 31, 1465] . . . I have recently received some
Filippo in Naples
very favorable information [about the Tanagli girl] from
[April 20, 1464] . . . Concerning the matter of a wife [for two individuals. . . . They are in agreement that whoever
Filippo}, it appears to me that if Francesco di Messer gets her will be content. . . . Concerning her beauty, they
Tanagli wishes to give his daughter, that it would be a told me what I had already seen, that she is attractive
fine marriage. . . . Now I will speak with Marco [Parenti, and well-proportioned. Her face is long, but I couldn’t
Alessandra’s son-in-law], to see if there are other look directly into her face, since she appeared to be
prospects that would be better, and if there are none, aware that I was examining her . . . and so she turned
then we will learn if he wishes to give her [in marriage]. away from me like the wind. . . . She reads quite well . . .
. . . Francesco Tanagli has a good reputation, and he and she can dance and sing. . . .
has held office, not the highest, but still he has been in So yesterday I sent for Marco and told him what I
office. You may ask: “Why should he give her to some- had learned. And we talked about the matter for a while,
one in exile?” There are three reasons. First, there aren’t and decided that he should say something to the father
many young men of good family who have both virtue and give him a little hope, but not so much that we
and property. Secondly, she has only a small dowry, couldn’t withdraw, and find out from him the amount of
1,000 florins, which is the dowry of an artisan [although the dowry. . . . May God help us to choose what will
not a small sum, either—senior officials in the govern- contribute to our tranquility and to the consolation of
ment bureaucracy earned 300 florins a year]. . . . Third, us all.
I believe that he will give her away, because he has a [September 13, 1465] . . . Marco came to me and said
large family and he will need help to settle them. . . . that he had met with Francesco Tanagli, who had spo-
[July 26, 1465] . . . Francesco is a good friend of ken very coldly, so that I understand that he had
Marco and he trusts him. On S. Jacopo’s day, he spoke changed his mind. . . .
to him discreetly and persuasively, saying that for sev- [Filippo Strozzi eventually married Fiametta di
eral months he had heard that we were interested in the Donato Adimari in 1466.]

Wealthy women gave their infants out to wet nurses, possible to ensure that there would be a surviving male
which enabled them to become pregnant more quickly heir to the family fortune. This concern is evident in the
after the birth of a child. Florentine humanist Leon Battista Alberti’s treatise On the
For women in the Renaissance, childbirth was a Family, where one of the characters remarks, “How many
fearful occasion. Not only was it painful, but it could be families do we see today in decadence and ruin! . . . Of all
deadly; as many as 10 percent of mothers died in child- these families not only the magnificence and greatness but
birth. In his memoirs, the Florentine merchant Gregorio the very men, not only the men but the very names are
Dati recalled that three of his four wives had died in shrunk away and gone. Their memory . . . is wiped out and
childbirth. His third wife, after bearing eleven children in obliterated.”6
fifteen years, “died in childbirth after lengthy suffering, Considering that marriages had been arranged, mar-
which she bore with remarkable strength and patience.”5 ital relationships ran the gamut from deep emotional
Nor did the tragedies end with childbirth. Surviving attachments to purely formal ties. The lack of emotional
mothers often faced the death of their children as well. attachment from arranged marriages did encourage extra-
In Florence in the fifteenth century, for example, almost marital relationships, especially for those groups whose
50 percent of the children born to merchant families died lifestyle offered special temptations. Although sexual
before the age of twenty. Given these mortality rates, many license for males was the norm for princes and their courts,
upper-class families sought to have as many children as women were supposed to follow different guidelines. The

Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance 333

 LLLLLLLLLLLLLL
first wife of Duke Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan had an
affair with the court musician and was executed for it. C H R O N O L O G Y
The great age difference between husbands and
wives that was noticeable in Italian Renaissance marriage The Italian States in the Renaissance
patterns also heightened the need for sexual outlets out- Duchy of Milan
side marriage. In Florence in 1427–1428, the average Viscontis 1311–1447
difference was thirteen years. Though females married Sforzas 1450–1494
between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, factors of envi- Florence
ronment, wealth, and demographic trends favored rela- Cosimo de’ Medici 1434–1464
tively late ages for the first marriages of males, who were Lorenzo de’ Medici 1469–1492
usually in their thirties or even early forties. The existence Peace of Lodi 1454
of large numbers of young, unmarried males encouraged Beginning of Italian wars—French
extramarital sex as well as prostitution. Prostitution was invasion of Italy 1494
viewed as a necessary vice; since it could not be elimi- Sack of Rome 1527
nated, it should be regulated. In Florence in 1415, the city
fathers established communal brothels:
Desiring to eliminate a worse evil by means of a lesser one,
the lord priors . . . have decreed that the priors . . . may
authorize the establishment of two public brothels in the ence was governed by a small merchant oligarchy that
city of Florence, in addition to the one which already exists. manipulated the apparently republican government. In
. . . [They are to be located] in suitable places or in places 1434, Cosimo de’ Medici took control of this oligarchy.
where the exercise of such scandalous activity can best be Although the wealthy Medici family maintained republi-
concealed, for the honor of the city and of those who live in can forms of government for appearance’ sake, it ran the
the neighborhood in which these prostitutes must stay to
government from behind the scenes. Through their lav-
hire their bodies for lucre.7
ish patronage and careful courting of political allies,
A prostitute in Florence was required to wear a traditional Cosimo (1434–1464), and later his grandson Lorenzo the
garb of “gloves on her hands and a bell on her head.” Magnificent (1469–1492), were successful in dominating
the city at a time when Florence was the center of the
cultural Renaissance.
The Papal States lay in central Italy. Nominally under
◆ The Italian States in the the political control of the popes, papal residence in Avi-
Renaissance gnon and the Great Schism had enabled individual cities
and territories, such as Urbino, Bologna, and Ferrara, to
By the fifteenth century, five major powers dominated the become independent of papal authority. The Renaissance
Italian peninsula—the duchy of Milan, Venice, Florence, popes of the fifteenth century directed much of their energy
the Papal States, and the kingdom of Naples. Northern toward reestablishing their control over the Papal States
Italy was divided between the duchy of Milan and Venice. (see The Renaissance Papacy later in this chapter).
After the death of the last Visconti ruler of Milan in 1447, The kingdom of Naples, which encompassed most
Francesco Sforza, one of the leading condottieri (see Chap- of southern Italy and usually the island of Sicily, was
ter 11) of the time, turned on his Milanese employers, fought over by the French and the Aragonese until the lat-
conquered the city, and became its new duke. Both the Vis- ter established their domination in the mid-fifteenth cen-
conti and the Sforza rulers worked to create a highly cen- tury. Throughout the Renaissance, the kingdom of Naples
tralized territorial state. They were especially successful in remained a largely feudal monarchy with a population
devising systems of taxation that generated enormous rev- consisting largely of poverty-stricken peasants dominated
enues for the government. The maritime republic of Venice by unruly barons. It shared little in the cultural glories of
remained an extremely stable political entity governed by the Renaissance.
a small oligarchy of merchant-aristocrats. Its commercial Besides the five major states, there were a number
empire brought in enormous revenues and gave it the of independent city-states under the control of powerful
status of an international power. At the end of the four- ruling families that became brilliant centers of Renaissance
teenth century, Venice embarked upon the conquest of a culture in the fifteenth century. These included Mantua
territorial state in northern Italy to protect its food supply under the enlightened rule of the Gonzaga lords, Ferrara
and its overland trade routes. Although expansion on the governed by the flamboyant d’Este family, and perhaps the
mainland made sense to the Venetians, it frightened Milan most famous, Urbino, ruled by the Montefeltro dynasty.
and Florence, which worked to curb what they perceived Federigo da Montefeltro, who ruled Urbino from
as the expansionary designs of the Venetians. 1444 to 1482, received a classical education typical of the
The republic of Florence dominated the region of famous humanist school in Mantua run by Vittorino da
Tuscany. By the beginning of the fifteenth century, Flor- Feltre. He had also learned the skills of fighting, since the

334 CHAPTER 12
 DUCHY

Trent
DUCHY OF REPUBLIC OF VENICE
P Milan
DUCHY
Po Venice P
OF Mantua DUCHY OF
R. OF
MODENA FERRARA
MILAN
Ferrara P
SAVOY Genoa REPUBLIC
OF Bologna
LUCCA
Lucca

Ad
REPUBLIC

ri
Pisa

at
Florence

ic
OF FLORENCE Urbino
n Sea
Liguria
Tib
Siena
PAPAL
er
REPUBLIC

Se
OF SIENA Perugia

a
STATES
P Printing press
R.

Library
Rome
School of art
KINGDOM
Rome Location of important
Renaissance building
OF
NAPLES
0 100 200 Kilometers Naples
0 100 Miles
MAP 12.1 Renaissance Italy.

Montefeltro family compensated for the poverty of Urbino duke of Ferrara, who married Francesco Gonzaga, mar-
by hiring themselves out as condottiere. Federigo was not quis of Mantua. Their court was another important center
only a good ruler, but a rather unusual condottiere by of art and learning in the Renaissance. Educated at the
fifteenth-century standards. Although not a brilliant gen- brilliant court of Ferrara, Isabella was known for her intel-
eral, he was reliable and honest. He did not break his ligence and political wisdom. Called the “first lady of the
promises, even when urged to do so by a papal legate. His world,” she attracted artists and intellectuals to the Man-
employers included two kings of Naples, three popes, and tuan court and was responsible for amassing one of the
two dukes of Milan. At the same time, Duke Federigo was finest libraries in all of Italy. Her numerous letters to
one of the greatest patrons of Renaissance culture. Under friends, family, princes, and artists all over Europe disclose
his direction, Urbino became a well-known cultural and her political acumen as well as a good sense of humor (see
intellectual center. Though a despot, he was also benev- the box on p. 337). Both before and after the death of her
olent. It was said of him that he could walk safely through husband Francesco, she effectively ruled Mantua and won
the streets of Urbino unaccompanied by a bodyguard, a a reputation as a clever negotiator.
feat few Renaissance rulers dared to emulate. The frenzied world of the Italian territorial states gave
A noticeable feature of these smaller Renaissance rise to a political practice that was later used on a larger
courts was the important role played by women. Battista scale by competing European states. This was the concept
Sforza, niece of the ruler of Milan, was the wife of Federigo of a balance of power, designed to prevent the aggran-
da Montefeltro. The duke called his wife “the delight of dizement of any one state at the expense of the others. This
both my public and my private hours.” An intelligent system was especially evident after 1454 when the Italian
woman, she was well versed in both Greek and Latin and states signed the Peace of Lodi, which ended almost a half-
did much to foster art and letters in Urbino. As a promi- century of war and inaugurated a relatively peaceful era in
nent condottiere, Federigo was frequently absent, and like Italy until 1494. An alliance system (Milan, Florence, and
earlier feudal wives, Battista Sforza was respected for gov- Naples versus Venice and the papacy) was then created
erning the state “with firmness and good sense.” that led to a workable balance of power within Italy. It
Perhaps the most famous of the Renaissance ruling failed, however, to establish lasting cooperation among the
women was Isabella d’Este (1474–1539), daughter of the major powers or a common foreign policy.

Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance 335

 PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA,
DUKE AND DUCHESS OF URBINO.
Federigo da Montefeltro and his
wife, Battista Sforza, ruled the
small central Italian principality
of Urbino. These profile portraits
by Piero della Francesca gave a
realistic rendering of the two fig-
ures. Visible in the background
are the hills and valleys of
Urbino.

The growth of powerful monarchical states (see The l The Birth of Modern Diplomacy
“New Monarchies” later in this chapter) led to trouble
for the Italians. Italy soon became a battlefield for the great The modern diplomatic system was a product of the Ital-
power struggle between the French and Spanish monar- ian Renaissance. There were ambassadors in the Middle
chies. Italian wealth and splendor would probably have Ages, but they were used only on a temporary basis. More-
been inviting to its northern neighbors under any circum- over, an ambassador, regardless of whose subject he was,
stances, but it was actually the breakdown of the Italian regarded himself as the servant of all Christendom, not just
balance of power that encouraged the invasions and began of his particular employer. As a treatise on diplomacy
the Italian wars. Feeling isolated, Ludovico Sforza, the stated: “An ambassador is sacred because he acts for the
duke of Milan, foolishly invited the French to intervene in general welfare.” Since he was the servant of all Chris-
Italian politics. The French king Charles VIII (1483–1498) tendom, “the business of an ambassador is peace.”8
was eager to do so and in 1494, with an army of 30,000 This concept of an ambassador changed during the
men, advanced through Italy and occupied the kingdom Italian Renaissance because of the political situation in
of Naples. Other Italian states turned to the Spanish for Italy. A large number of states existed, many so small that
help, and Ferdinand of Aragon indicated his willingness their security was easily threatened by their neighbors. To
to intervene. For the next fifteen years, the French and survive, the Italian states began to send resident diplo-
Spanish competed to dominate Italy. Beginning in the matic agents to each other to ferret out useful information.
decade of the 1510s, the war was continued by a new gen- During the Italian wars, the practice of resident diplomats
eration of rulers, Francis I of France and Charles I of Spain spread to the rest of Europe, and in the course of the six-
(see Chapter 13). This war was part of a long struggle for teenth and seventeenth centuries, Europeans developed
power throughout Europe between the Valois and Habs- the diplomatic machinery still in use today, such as the
burg dynasties. Italy was only a pawn for the two great rights of ambassadors in host countries and the proper
powers, a convenient arena for fighting battles. The terri- procedures for conducting diplomatic business.
ble sack of Rome in 1527 by the armies of the Spanish king With the use of permanent resident agents or
Charles I brought a temporary end to the Italian wars. ambassadors, the conception of the purpose of the
Hereafter, the Spaniards dominated Italy. ambassador also changed. A Venetian diplomat at-
Although some Italians had developed a sense of tempted to define the function of an ambassador in a trea-
national consciousness and differentiated between Ital- tise written at the end of the fifteenth century. He wrote:
ians and “barbarians” (all foreigners), few Italians con- “The first duty of an ambassador is exactly the same as
ceived of creating an alliance or confederation of states that of any other servant of a government, that is, to do,
that could repel foreign invaders. Italians remained fiercely say, advise, and think whatever may best serve the preser-
loyal to their own petty states, making invasion a fact of vation and aggrandizement of his own state.”9 An ambas-
life in Italian history for all too long. Italy would not sador was now simply an agent of the territorial state that
achieve unification and nationhood until 1870. sent him, not the larger body of Christendom. He could

336 CHAPTER 12
 L
The Letters of Isabella d’Este
Many Italian and European rulers at the beginning of the l Letter of Isabella d’Este to her Husband [who
sixteenth century regarded Isabella d’Este as an important had ordered her to send the boy to Venice]
political figure. These excerpts from her letters reveal
Isabella’s political skills and her fierce determination. After If in this matter Your Excellency were to despise me
her husband was taken prisoner by the Venetians in 1509, and deprive me of your love and grace, I would rather
she refused to accept the condition for his release— endure such harsh treatment, I would rather lose our
namely, that her son Federico be kept as a hostage by the State, than deprive us of our children. I am hoping that
Venetians or the Holy Roman Emperor. She wrote to both in time your own prudence and kindness will make you
the emperor and her husband, refusing to do as they understand that I have acted more lovingly toward you
asked. than you have to yourself.
Have patience! You can be sure that I think continu-
ously of your liberation and when the time comes I will
l Letter of Isabella d’Este to the Imperial Envoy not fail you, as I have not relaxed my efforts. As witness
As to the demand for our dearest first-born son Federico, I cite the Pope, the Emperor, the King of France, and all
besides being a cruel and almost inhuman thing for any the other reigning heads and potentates of Christendom.
one who knows the meaning of a mother’s love, there Yes, and the infidels as well [she had written to the Turk-
are many reasons which render it difficult and impossi- ish sultan for help]. If it were really the only means of
ble. Although we are quite sure that his person would be setting you free, I would not only send Federico but all
well cared for and protected by His Majesty [the Holy the other children as well. I will do everything imagin-
Roman Emperor], how could we wish him to run the risk able. Some day I hope I can make you understand. . . .
of this long and difficult journey, considering the child’s Pardon me if this letter is badly written and worse
tender and delicate age? And you must know what com- composed, but I do not know if I am dead or alive.
fort and solace, in his father’s present unhappy condi- Isabella, who desires the
tion, we find in the presence of this dear son, the hope best for Your Excellency,
and joy of all our people and subjects. To deprive us of written with her own hand
him, would be to deprive us of life itself, and of all we [Isabella’s husband was not pleased with her
count good and precious. If you take Federico away you response and exclaimed angrily: “That whore of my wife
might as well take away our life and state. . . . Once for is the cause of it all. Send me into battle alone, do what
all, we will suffer any loss rather than part from our you like with me. I have lost in one blow my state, my
son, and this you may take to be our deliberate and honor and my freedom. If she does not obey, I’ll cut her
unchanging resolution. vocal cords.”]

use any methods that were beneficial to the political tics, the great love of his life, Machiavelli now reflected on
interests of his own state. We are at the beginning of mod- political power and wrote books, including The Prince
ern politics when the interests of the state supersede all (1513), one of the most famous treatises on political power
other considerations. in the Western world.
Machiavelli’s ideas on politics stemmed from two
major sources, his preoccupation with Italy’s political
l Machiavelli and the New Statecraft problems and his knowledge of ancient Rome. His major
concerns in The Prince were the acquisition and expan-
No one gave better expression to the Renaissance preoc-
sion of political power as the means to restore and main-
cupation with political power than Niccolò Machiavelli
tain order in his time. Machiavelli was aware that his own
(1469–1527). He entered the service of the Florentine
approach to political power was different from previous
republic in 1498, four years after the Medici family had
political theorists. Late medieval political theorists believed
been expelled from the city. As a secretary to the Floren-
that a ruler was justified in exercising political power only
tine Council of Ten, he made numerous diplomatic mis-
if it contributed to the common good of the people he
sions, including trips to France and Germany, and saw the
served. The ethical side of a prince’s activity—how a ruler
workings of statecraft firsthand. Since Italy had been
ought to behave based on Christian moral principles—was
invaded in 1494, Machiavelli was active during a period
the focus of many late medieval treatises on politics.
of Italian tribulation and devastation. In 1512, French
Machiavelli bluntly contradicted this approach:
defeat and Spanish victory led to the reestablishment of
Medici power in Florence. Staunch republicans, including But my hope is to write a book that will be useful, at least to
Machiavelli, were sent into exile. Forced to give up poli- those who read it intelligently, and so I thought it sensible

Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance 337

 Machiavelli found a good example of the new Italian ruler
in Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI, who used
ruthless measures to achieve his goal of carving out a new
state in central Italy. As Machiavelli said: “So anyone who
decides that the policy to follow when one has newly
acquired power is to destroy one’s enemies, to secure some
allies, to win wars, whether by force or by fraud, to make
oneself both loved and feared by one’s subjects, . . . can-
not hope to find, in the recent past, a better model to imi-
tate than Cesare Borgia.” Machiavelli was among the first
to abandon morality as the basis for the analysis of polit-
ical activity (see the box on p. 339).
Because of the ideas in The Prince, Machiavelli is
often considered the founder of modern, secular power
politics, but we should note that Machiavelli himself was
primarily concerned with Italy’s tragic political condition.
If it hoped to free itself from the “barbarous cruelties and
outrages” perpetrated by the monarchical territorial states
to the north, Italy needed “someone who could bind her
wounds and . . . heal her sores which long ago became
infected.” If any person undertook the task, “What Italian
would refuse to pledge him allegiance?”12 If he followed
the principles enunciated in The Prince, he would succeed.
Machiavelli’s own sympathies for a republican form of gov-
ernment were clearly evident in The Discourses, a political
MACHIAVELLI. In The Prince, Machiavelli gave concrete
expression to the Renaissance preoccupation with politi- treatise written a few years after The Prince. In this work,
cal power. This slender volume remains one of the most Machiavelli reflected on the many lessons people of his
famous Western treatises on politics. Machiavelli is seen age could learn from examining the institutions of the
here in a portrait by Santi di Tito. Roman Republic. And yet, Machiavelli doubted whether
it was possible, in the turbulent politics of his age, to estab-
lish a republic. He said in The Discourses: “If any one
wanted to establish a republic at the present time, he
to go straight to a discussion of how things are in real life would find it much easier with the simple mountaineers,
and not waste time with a discussion of an imaginary world. who are almost without any civilization, than with such as
. . . for the gap between how people actually behave and
are accustomed to live in cities, where civilization is
how they ought to behave is so great that anyone who
ignores everyday reality in order to live up to an ideal will already corrupt.”13
soon discover he had been taught how to destroy himself,
not how to preserve himself.10

Machiavelli considered his approach far more realistic

than that of his medieval forebears.
◆ The Intellectual Renaissance
From Machiavelli’s point of view, a prince’s attitude in Italy
toward power must be based on an understanding
of human nature, which he perceived as basically self- The emergence and growth of individualism and secular-
centered: “For of men one can, in general, say this: They ism as characteristics of the Italian Renaissance are most
are ungrateful, fickle, deceptive and deceiving, avoiders of noticeable in the intellectual and artistic realms. Italian
danger, eager to gain.” Political activity, therefore, could culture had matured by the fourteenth century. For the
not be restricted by moral considerations. The prince acts next two centuries, Italy was the cultural leader of Europe.
on behalf of the state and for the sake of the state must be This new Italian culture was primarily the product of a rel-
willing to let his conscience sleep. As Machiavelli put it: atively wealthy, urban lay society. The most important
literary movement we associate with the Renaissance is
You need to understand this: A ruler, and particularly a
ruler who is new to power, cannot conform to all those rules
humanism.
that men who are thought good are expected to respect, for
he is often obliged, in order to hold on to power, to break
his word, to be uncharitable, inhumane, and irreligious. So l Italian Renaissance Humanism
he must be mentally prepared to act as circumstances and
changes in fortune require. As I have said, he should do Renaissance humanism was a form of education and cul-
what is right if he can; but he must be prepared to do wrong ture based on the study of the classics. Humanism was not
if necessary.11 so much a philosophy of life as an educational program

338 CHAPTER 12
 L
Machiavelli: “Is it Better to be Loved than Feared?”
In 1513, Niccolò Machiavelli wrote a short treatise on are less nervous of offending someone who makes him-
political power that, justly or unjustly, has given him a self lovable, than someone who makes himself frighten-
reputation as a political opportunist. In this passage from ing. For love attaches men by ties of obligation, which,
Chapter 17 of The Prince, Machiavelli analyzes whether it since men are wicked, they break whenever their inter-
is better for a ruler to be loved than feared. ests are at stake. But fear restrains men because they
are afraid of punishment, and this fear never leaves
them. Still, a ruler should make himself feared in such a
l Machiavelli, The Prince
way that, if he does not inspire love, at least he does not
This leads us to a question that is in dispute: Is it better provoke hatred. For it is perfectly possible to be feared
to be loved than feared, or vice versa? My reply is one and not hated. You will only be hated if you seize the
ought to be both loved and feared; but, since it is diffi- property or the women of your subjects and citizens.
cult to accomplish both at the same time, I maintain it Whenever you have to kill someone, make sure that
is much safer to be feared than loved, if you have to do you have a suitable excuse and an obvious reason; but,
without one of the two. For of men one can, in general, above all else, keep your hands off other people’s prop-
say this: They are ungrateful, fickle, deceptive and erty; for men are quicker to forget the death of their
deceiving, avoiders of danger, eager to gain. As long as father than the loss of their inheritance. Moreover, there
you serve their interests, they are devoted to you. They are always reasons why you might want to seize people’s
promise you their blood, their possessions, their lives, property; and he who begins to live by plundering others
and their children, as I said before, so long as you seem will always find an excuse for seizing other people’s
to have no need of them. But as soon as you need help, possessions; but there are fewer reasons for killing peo-
they turn against you. Any ruler who relies simply on ple, and one killing need not lead to another.
their promises and makes no other preparations, will be When a ruler is at the head of his army and has a
destroyed. For you will find that those whose support vast number of soldiers under his command, then it is
you buy, who do not rally to you because they admire absolutely essential to be prepared to be thought cruel;
your strength of character and nobility of soul, these are for it is impossible to keep an army united and ready for
people you pay for, but they are never yours, and in the action without acquiring a reputation for cruelty.
end you cannot get the benefit of your investment. Men

that revolved around a clearly defined group of intellec- his usual lack of modesty, Petrarch once exclaimed, “Some
tual disciplines or “liberal arts”—grammar, rhetoric, poetry, of the greatest kings of our time have loved me and culti-
moral philosophy or ethics, and history—all based on an vated my friendship. . . . When I was their guest it was
examination of classical authors. more as if they were mine.”14
The central importance of literary preoccupations in Petrarch did more than any other individual in the
Renaissance humanism is evident in the professional sta- fourteenth century to foster the development of Renais-
tus or occupations of the humanists. Some of them were sance humanism. He was the first intellectual to charac-
teachers of the humanities in secondary schools and uni- terize the Middle Ages as a period of darkness, promoting
versities, where they either gave occasional lectures or held the mistaken belief that medieval culture was ignorant of
permanent positions, often as professors of rhetoric. Oth- classical antiquity. Petrarch condemned the scholastic phi-
ers served as secretaries in the chancelleries of Italian city- losophy of the Middle Ages for its “barbarous” Latin and
states or at the courts of princes or popes. All of these use of logic, rather than rhetoric, to harmonize faith and
occupations were largely secular, and most humanists reason. Philosophy, he argued, should be the “art of vir-
were laymen rather than members of the clergy. tuous living,” not a science of logic chopping. Petrarch’s
interest in the classics led him on a quest for forgotten Latin
/ THE EMERGENCE OF HUMANISM manuscripts and set in motion a ransacking of monastic
Petrarch (1304–1374) has often been called the father libraries throughout Europe. In his preoccupation with the
of Italian Renaissance humanism (see Chapter 11 on classics and their secular content, Petrarch worried at times
Petrarch’s use of the Italian vernacular). Petrarch had whether he was sufficiently attentive to spiritual ideals (see
rejected his father’s desire that he become a lawyer and the box on p. 340). His qualms, however, did not prevent
took up a literary career instead. Although he lived in Avi- him from inaugurating the humanist emphasis on the use
gnon for a time, most of his last decades were spent in Italy of pure classical Latin, making it fashionable for human-
as the guest of various princes and city governments. With ists to use Cicero as a model for prose and Virgil for poetry.

Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance 339

 L
Petrarch: Mountain Climbing and the Search for Spiritual Contentment
Petrarch has long been regarded as the father of Italian distinctly the mountains of the province of Lyons to the
Renaissance humanism. One of his literary masterpieces right and, to the left, the sea near Marseilles as well as
was The Ascent of Mt. Ventoux. Its colorful description of the waves that break against Aigues Mortes. . . . The
an attempt to climb a mountain in Provence in southern Rhône River was directly under our eyes.
France and survey the world from its top has unwisely led I admired every detail, now relishing earthly enjoy-
some to see it as a vivid example of the humanists’ redis- ment, now lifting up my mind to higher spheres after the
covery of nature after the medieval period’s concentration example of my body, and I thought it fit to look in the
on the afterlife. Of course, medieval people had been volume of Augustine’s Confessions which I owe to your
aware of the natural world. Moreover, Petrarch’s primary loving kindness and preserve carefully, keeping it always
interest is in presenting an allegory of his own soul’s in my hands, in remembrance of the author as well as
struggle to achieve a higher spiritual state. The work is the donor. It is a little book of smallest size but full of
addressed to a professor of theology in Paris who had infinite sweetness. I opened it with the intention of read-
initially led Petrarch to read Augustine. The latter had ing whatever might occur to me first: nothing, indeed,
experienced a vivid conversion to Christianity almost but pious and devout sentences could come to hand. I
1,000 years earlier. happened to hit upon the tenth book of the work. . . .
Where I fixed my eyes first, it was written: “And men go
to admire the high mountains, the vast floods of the sea,
l Petrarch, The Ascent of Mt. Ventoux
the huge streams of the rivers, the circumference of the
Today I ascended the highest mountain in this region, ocean, and the revolutions of the stars—and desert
which, not without cause, they call the Windy Peak. themselves.” I was stunned, I confess. I bade my
Nothing but the desire to see its conspicuous height was brother [who had accompanied him], who wanted to
the reason for this undertaking. For many years I have hear more, not to molest me, and closed the book, angry
been intending to make this expedition. You know that with myself that I still admired earthly things. Long since
since my early childhood, as fate tossed around human I ought to have learned, even from pagan philosophers,
affairs, I have been tossed around in these parts, and that “nothing is admirable besides the soul; compared to
this mountain, visible far and wide from everywhere, its greatness nothing is great.”
is always in your view. So I was at last seized by the I was completely satisfied with what I had seen of the
impulse to accomplish what I had always wanted mountain and turned my inner eye toward myself. From
to do. . . . this hour nobody heard me say a word until we arrived
[After some false starts, Petrarch finally achieves his at the bottom. These words occupied me sufficiently. I
goal and arrives at the top of Mt. Ventoux.] could not imagine that this had happened to me by
I was glad of the progress I had made, but I wept over chance: I was convinced that whatever I had read there
my imperfection and was grieved by the fickleness of all was said to me and to nobody else. I remembered that
that men do. In this manner I seemed to have somehow Augustine once suspected the same regarding himself,
forgotten the place I had come to and why, until I was when, while he was reading the Apostolic Epistles, the
warned to throw off such sorrows, for which another first passage that occurred to him was, as he himself
place would be more appropriate. I had better look relates: “Not in banqueting and drunkenness, not in
around and see what I had intended to see in coming chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying;
here. The time to leave was approaching, they said. . . . but put you on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no pro-
Like a man aroused from sleep, I turned back and vision for the flesh to fulfill your lusts.”
looked toward the west. . . . one could see most

As Petrarch said, “Christ is my God; Cicero is the prince of tude. They rejected family and a life of action in the com-
the language.” munity. In the busy civic world of Florence, however,
intellectuals began to take a new view of their role as intel-
/ HUMANISM IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY ITALY lectuals. The classical Roman Cicero, who was both a
In Florence, the humanist movement took a new direc- statesman and an intellectual, became their model.
tion at the beginning of the fifteenth century when it Leonardo Bruni (1370–1444), a humanist, Florentine
became closely tied to Florentine civic spirit and pride, patriot, and chancellor of the city, wrote a biography of
giving rise to what one modern scholar has labeled “civic Cicero entitled the New Cicero, in which he waxed enthu-
humanism.” Fourteenth-century humanists such as siastically about the fusion of political action and literary
Petrarch had described the intellectual life as one of soli- creation in Cicero’s life. From Bruni’s time on, Cicero

340 CHAPTER 12
 L
A Humanist’s Enthusiasm for Greek
One of the first humanists to have a thorough knowledge my mind, feeling that it was a shame to desert the Law
of both Latin and Greek was the Florentine chancellor and no less wrong to let slip such an occasion for learn-
Leonardo Bruni. Bruni was fortunate to be instructed ing Greek. And often with youthful impulsiveness I
by the Greek scholar Manuel Chrysoloras, who was addressed myself thus: “When you are privileged to
persuaded by the Florentines to come to Florence to teach gaze upon and have converse with Homer, Plato, and
Greek. As this selection illustrates, Bruni seized the oppor- Demosthenes as well as the other poets, philosophers,
tunity to pursue his passion for Greek letters. and orators of whom such wonderful things are
reported, and when you might saturate yourself with
their admirable teachings, will you turn your back and
l Leonardo Bruni, History of His Own Times
flee? Will you permit this opportunity, divinely offered
in Italy
you, to slip by? For 700 years now no one in Italy has
Then first came the knowledge of Greek letters, which been in possession of Greek and yet we agree that all
for 700 years had been lost among us. It was the Byzan- knowledge comes from that source. What great
tine, Chrysoloras, a nobleman in his own country and advancement of knowledge, enlargement of fame, and
most skilled in literature, who brought Greek learning increase of pleasure will come to you from an acquain-
back to us. Because his country was invaded by the tance with this tongue! There are everywhere quantities
Turks, he came by sea to Venice; but as soon as his of doctors of the Civil Law and the opportunity of com-
fame went abroad, he was cordially invited and eagerly pleting your study in this field will not fail you. However,
besought to come to Florence on a public salary to should the one and only doctor of Greek letters disap-
spread his abundant riches before the youth of the city pear, there will be no one from whom to acquire them.”
[1396]. At that time I was studying Civil Law. But my Overcome at last by these arguments, I gave myself
nature was afire with the love of learning and I had to Chrysoloras and developed such ardor that whatever
already given no little time to dialectic and rhetoric. I learned by day, I revolved with myself in the night
Therefore at the coming of Chrysoloras I was divided in while asleep.

served as the inspiration for the Renaissance ideal that tually, during the pontificate of Nicholas V (1447–1455),
it was the duty of an intellectual to live an active life for he achieved his chief ambition of becoming a papal sec-
one’s state. An individual only “grows to maturity—both retary. It was Valla, above all others, who turned his atten-
intellectually and morally—through participation” in the tion to the literary criticism of ancient texts. His most
life of the state. Civic humanism reflected the values of famous work was his demonstration that the Donation
the urban society of the Italian Renaissance. Humanists of Constantine, a document used by the popes, especially
came to believe that their study of the humanities should in the ninth and tenth centuries (see Chapter 8), to claim
be put to the service of the state. It is no accident that temporal sovereignty over all the west, was a forgery writ-
humanists served the state as chancellors, councillors, ten in the eighth century. Valla’s other major work, The Ele-
and advisers. gances of the Latin Language, was an effort to purify
Also evident in the humanism of the first half of the medieval Latin and restore Latin to its proper position over
fifteenth century was a growing interest in Greek. One of the the vernacular. The treatise examined the proper use of
first Italian humanists to gain a thorough knowledge of classical Latin and created a new literary standard. Early
Greek was Leonardo Bruni, who became an enthusiastic humanists had tended to take as classical models any
pupil of the Byzantine scholar Manuel Chrysoloras, who author (including Christians) who had written before the
taught in Florence from 1396 to 1400 (see the box above). seventh century A.D. Valla identified different stages in the
Humanists eagerly perused the works of Plato as well as growth of the Latin language and accepted only the Latin
Greek poets, dramatists, historians, and orators, such of the last century of the Roman Republic and the first cen-
as Thucydides, Euripides, and Sophocles, all of whom tury of the empire.
had been ignored by the scholastics of the High Middle Another significant humanist of this period was
Ages as irrelevant to the theological questions they were Poggio Bracciolini (1380–1459), who reflected the cult of
examining. humanism at its best. Born and educated in Florence, he
By the fifteenth century, a consciousness of being went on to serve as a papal secretary for fifty years, a posi-
humanists had emerged. This was especially evident in the tion that enabled him to become an avid collector of clas-
career of Lorenzo Valla (1407–1457). Valla was brought sical manuscripts. He was responsible for finding all of the
up in Rome and educated in both Latin and Greek. Even- writings of fifteen different authors. Poggio’s best-known

Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance 341

literary work was the Facetiae, a lighthearted collection of the sixteenth-century Hermeticists stated: “God as a whole
jokes, which included a rather cynical criticism of the clergy: is in all things.”16 For Renaissance intellectuals, the Her-
metic revival offered a new view of humankind. They
A friar of Tivoli, who was not very considerate of the people, believed that human beings had been created as divine
was once thundering away with many words about the beings endowed with divine creative power, but had freely
detestability of adultery. Among other things, he declared
chosen to enter the material world (nature). Humans could
that this sin was so grave that he would prefer to lie with
ten virgins than with one married woman. And many of recover their divinity, however, through a regenerative
those present shared his opinion.15 experience or purification of the soul. Thus regenerated,
they became true sages or magi, as the Renaissance called
Poggio and other Italian humanists were very critical of them, who had knowledge of God and of truth. In regain-
the Catholic church at times, but fundamentally they ing their original divinity, they reacquired an intimate
accepted the church and above all wished only to restore knowledge of nature and the ability to employ the pow-
a simpler, purer, and more ethical Christianity. To the ers of nature for beneficial purposes.
humanists, the study of the classics was perfectly com- In Italy, the most prominent magi in the late fifteenth
patible with Christianity. century were Ficino and his friend and pupil, Giovanni
Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494). Pico produced one of
/ HUMANISM AND PHILOSOPHY the most famous writings of the Renaissance, the Ora-
In the second half of the fifteenth century, a dramatic tion on the Dignity of Man, a preface to his 900 Conclu-
upsurge of interest in the works of Plato occurred, espe- sions, which were meant to be a summation of all learning
cially evident among the members of the Florentine Pla- and were offered as theses for a public debate. Pico
tonic Academy. This academy was not a formal school, combed diligently through the writings of many philoso-
but rather an informal discussion group. Cosimo de’ phers of different backgrounds for the common “nuggets
Medici, the de facto ruler of Florence, became its patron of universal truth” that he believed were all part of God’s
and commissioned a translation of Plato’s dialogues by revelation to humanity. In the Oration (see the box on
Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), one of the academy’s lead- p. 343), Pico offered a ringing statement of unlimited
ers. Ficino dedicated his life to the translation of Plato human potential: “To him it is granted to have whatever
and the exposition of the Platonic philosophy known as he chooses, to be whatever he wills.”17 Like Ficino, Pico
Neoplatonism. took an avid interest in Hermetic philosophy, accepting
In two major works, Ficino undertook the synthe- it as the “science of the Divine,” which “embraces the
sis of Christianity and Platonism into a single system. deepest contemplation of the most secret things, and at
His Neoplatonism was based upon two primary ideas, the last the knowledge of all nature.”18
Neoplatonic hierarchy of substances and a theory of spir-
itual love. Drawing upon the Neoplatonists of the ancient
l Education in the Renaissance
world, Ficino restated the idea of a hierarchy of sub-
stances, or great chain of being, from the lowest form of The humanist movement had a profound effect on edu-
physical matter (plants) to the purest spirit (God), in which cation. Renaissance humanists believed that human
humans occupied a central or middle position. They were beings could be dramatically changed by education. They
the link between the material world (through the body) wrote books on education and developed secondary
and the spiritual world (through the soul), and their high- schools based on their ideas. Most famous was the one
est duty was to ascend toward that union with God that founded in 1423 by Vittorino da Feltre (1378–1446) at
was the true end of human existence. Ficino’s theory of Mantua, where the ruler of that small Italian state, Gian
spiritual or Platonic love maintained that just as all peo- Francesco I Gonzaga, wished to provide a humanist
ple are bound together in their common humanity by love, school for his children. Vittorino based much of his edu-
so too are all parts of the universe held together by bonds cational system on the ideas of classical authors, partic-
of sympathetic love. ularly Cicero and Quintilian.
Renaissance Hermeticism was another product of At the core of the academic training Vittorino offered
the Florentine intellectual environment of the late fifteenth were the “liberal studies.” The Renaissance view of the
century. Upon the request of Cosimo de’ Medici, Ficino value of the liberal arts was most strongly influenced by
translated into Latin a Greek work entitled the Corpus Her- a treatise on education called Concerning Character by
meticum. The Hermetic manuscripts contained two kinds Pietro Paolo Vergerio (1370–1444). This work stressed the
of writings. One type stressed the occult sciences with importance of the liberal arts as the key to true freedom,
emphasis on astrology, alchemy, and magic. The other enabling individuals to reach their full potential. Accord-
focused on theological and philosophical beliefs and spec- ing to Vergerio, “we call those studies liberal which are
ulations. Some parts of the Hermetic writings were dis- worthy of a free man; those studies by which we attain and
tinctly pantheistic, seeing divinity embodied in all aspects practice virtue and wisdom; that education which calls
of nature, in the heavenly bodies as well as in earthly forth, trains, and develops those highest gifts of body and
objects. As Giordano Bruno, one of the most prominent of mind which ennoble men, and which are rightly judged to

342 CHAPTER 12
 L
Pico della Mirandola and the Dignity of Man
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola was one of the foremost will, in whose hand We have placed you, shall ordain
intellects of the Italian Renaissance. Pico boasted that he for yourself the limits of your nature. We have set you at
had studied all schools of philosophy, whch he tried to the world’s center that you may from there more easily
demonstrate by drawing up 900 theses for public disputa- observe whatever is in the world. We have made you
tion at the age of twenty-four. As a preface to his theses, neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor
he wrote his famous oration, On the Dignity of Man, in immortal, so that with freedom of choice and with
which he proclaimed the unlimited potentiality of human honor, as though the maker and molder of yourself, you
beings. may fashion yourself in whatever shape you shall prefer.
You shall have the power to degenerate into the lower
forms of life, which are brutish. You shalt have the
l Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the
power, out of your soul’s judgment, to be reborn into the
Dignity of Man
higher forms, which are divine.”
At last the best of artisans [God] ordained that that O supreme generosity of God the Father, O highest
creature to whom He had been able to give nothing and most marvelous felicity of man! To him it is granted
proper to himself should have joint possession of what- to have whatever he chooses, to be whatever he wills.
ever had been peculiar to each of the different kinds of Beasts as soon as they are born bring with them from
being. He therefore took man as a creature of indetermi- their mother’s womb all they will ever possess. Spiritual
nate nature, and assigning him a place in the middle of beings, either from the beginning or soon thereafter,
the world, addressed him thus: “Neither a fixed abode become what they are to be for ever and ever. On man
nor a form that is yours alone nor any function peculiar when he came into life the Father conferred the seeds of
to yourself have we given you, Adam, to the end that all kinds and the germs of every way of life. Whatever
according to your longing and according to your judg- seeds each man cultivates will grow to maturity and
ment you may have and possess what abode, what bear in him their own fruit. If they be vegetative, he will
form, and what functions you yourself desire. The be like a plant. If sensitive, he will become brutish. If
nature of all other beings is limited and constrained rational, he will grow into a heavenly being. If intellec-
within the bounds of laws prescribed by Us. You, con- tual, he will be an angel and the son of God.
strained by no limits, in accordance with your own free

rank next in dignity to virtue only.”19 What, then, are the produce individuals who followed a path of virtue and
“liberal studies”? wisdom and possessed the rhetorical skills to persuade
others to take it.
Amongst these I accord the first place to History, on Following the Greek precept of a sound mind in a
grounds both of its attractiveness and of its utility, qualities
sound body, Vittorino’s school at Mantua stressed the
which appeal equally to the scholar and to the statesman.
Next in importance ranks Moral Philosophy, which indeed
need for physical education. Pupils were taught the arts of
is, in a peculiar sense, a “Liberal Art,” in that its purpose javelin throwing, archery, and dancing and encouraged to
is to teach men the secret of true freedom. History, then, run, wrestle, hunt, and swim frequently. Nor was Chris-
gives us the concrete examples of the precepts inculcated tianity excluded from Vittorino’s school. His students were
by Philosophy. The one shows what men should do, the taught the Scriptures and the works of the church fathers,
other what men have said and done in the past, and what especially Augustine. A devout Christian, Vittorino re-
practical lessons we may draw therefrom for the present
quired his pupils to attend mass daily and be reverent in
day. I would indicate as the third main branch of study,
Eloquence. . . . By philosophy we learn the essential truth
word and deed.
of things, which by eloquence we so exhibit in orderly Although a small number of children from the lower
adornment as to bring conviction to differing minds.20 classes were provided free educations, humanist schools
such as Vittorino’s were primarily geared for the education
The remaining liberal studies included letters (grammar of an elite, the ruling classes of their communities. Also
and logic), poetry, mathematics, astronomy, and music largely absent from such schools were females. Vittorino’s
(“as to Music,” said Vergerio, “the Greeks refused the title only female pupils were the two daughters of the Gonzaga
of ‘Educated’ to anyone who could not sing or play”). Cru- ruler of Mantua. Though these few female students stud-
cial to all liberal studies was the mastery of Greek and ied the classics and were encouraged to know some his-
Latin since it enabled students to read the great classi- tory and to ride, dance, sing, play the lute, and appreciate
cal authors who were the foundation stones of the liberal poetry, they were discouraged from learning mathemat-
arts. In short, the purpose of a liberal education was to ics and rhetoric. In the educational treatises of the time,

Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance 343

religion and morals were thought to “hold the first place in human affairs. Humanists deemphasized divine interven-
the education of a Christian lady.” tion in favor of human motives, stressing political forces or
Nevertheless, some women in Italy who were edu- the role of individuals in history.
cated in the humanist fashion went on to establish their The high point of Renaissance historiography was
own literary careers. Isotta Nogarola, born to a noble fam- achieved at the beginning of the sixteenth century in the
ily in Verona, mastered Latin and wrote numerous letters works of Francesco Guicciardini (1483–1540). He has
and treatises that brought her praise from male Italian intel- been called by some Renaissance scholars the greatest his-
lectuals. Cassandra Fedele of Venice, who learned both torian between Tacitus in the first century A.D. (see Chap-
Latin and Greek from humanist tutors hired by her fam- ter 6) and Voltaire and Gibbon in the eighteenth century
ily, became prominent in Venice for her public recitations (see Chapter 17). His History of Italy and History of Flor-
of orations. In one of her writings, Cassandra defended the ence represent the beginning of “modern analytical histo-
unusual practice of women studying the liberal arts. riography.” To Guicciardini, the purpose of writing history
The humanist schools of the Renaissance aimed to was to teach lessons, but he was so impressed by the com-
develop the human personality to the fullest extent and plexity of historical events that he felt those lessons were
underscored the new social ideal of the Renaissance, the not always obvious. From his extensive background in
creation of the universal being known to us as the “Renais- government and diplomatic affairs, he developed the polit-
sance man.” We should also note that Vittorino and other ical skills that enabled him to analyze political situations
humanist educators considered a humanist education to precisely and critically. Emphasizing political and military
be a practical preparation for life. The aim of humanist history, his works relied heavily on personal examples and
education was not to create great scholars but rather to documentary sources.
produce complete citizens who could participate in the
civic life of their communities. As Vittorino said: “Not
everyone is obliged to excel in philosophy, medicine, or l The Impact of Printing
the law, nor are all equally favored by nature; but all are
destined to live in society and to practice virtue.”21 The period of the Renaissance witnessed the invention
Humanist schools, combining the classics and Christian- of printing, one of the most important technological inno-
ity, provided the model for the basic education of the Euro- vations of Western civilization. The art of printing made
pean ruling classes until the twentieth century. an immediate impact on European intellectual life and
thought.
Printing from hand-carved wooden blocks had been
l Humanism and History present in the west since the twelfth century. What was
new in the fifteenth century was multiple printing with
Humanism had a strong impact on the writing of history. movable metal type. The development of printing from
Influenced by Roman and Greek historians, the human- movable type was a gradual process that culminated some
ists approached the writing of history differently from the time between 1445 and 1450; Johannes Gutenberg of
chroniclers of the Middle Ages. The humanists’ belief that Mainz played an important role in bringing the process
classical civilization had been followed by an age of bar- to completion. Gutenberg’s Bible, completed in 1455 or
barism (the Middle Ages), which, in turn, had been suc- 1456, was the first real book produced from movable type.
ceeded by their own age with its rebirth of the study of the The new printing spread rapidly throughout Europe
classics, enabled them to think in terms of the passage in the last half of the fifteenth century. Printing presses
of time, of the past as past. Their division of the past into were established throughout the Holy Roman Empire in
ancient world, dark ages, and their own age provided a the 1460s and within ten years had spread to Italy, En-
new sense of chronology or periodization in history. gland, France, the Low Countries, Spain, and eastern
The humanists were also responsible for secularizing Europe. Especially well known as a printing center was
the writing of history. Humanist historians reduced or elim- Venice, home by 1500 to almost 100 printers who had pro-
inated the role of miracles in historical interpretation, not duced almost two million volumes.
because they were anti-Christian, but because they took By 1500, there were more than 1,000 printers in
a new approach to sources. They wanted to use documents Europe who had published almost 40,000 titles (between
and exercised their newly developed critical skills in exam- 8 and 10 million copies). Probably 50 percent of these
ining them. Greater attention was paid to the political books were religious in character—Bibles and biblical
events and forces that affected their city-states or larger ter- commentaries, books of devotion, and sermons. Next in
ritorial units. Thus, Leonardo Bruni wrote a History of the importance were the Latin and Greek classics, medieval
Florentine People; the German scholar Jacob Wimpheling grammars, legal handbooks, works on philosophy, and an
penned On the Excellence and Magnificence of the Germans. ever-growing number of popular romances.
The new emphasis on secularization was also evident in Printing became one of the largest industries in
the humanists’ conception of causation in history. In much Europe, and its effects were soon felt in many areas of
medieval historical literature, historical events were often European life. Although some humanists condemned
portrayed as being caused by God’s active involvement in printing because they believed that it vulgarized learn-

344 CHAPTER 12
MASACCIO, TRIBUTE MONEY. With the frescoes of Masac- Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. In illus-
cio, regarded by many as the first great works of Early trating a story from the Bible, Masaccio used a rational
Renaissance art, a new realistic style of painting was system of perspective to create a realistic relationship
born. The Tribute Money was one of a series of frescoes between the figures and their background.
that Masaccio painted in the Brancacci Chapel in the

ing, the printing of books actually encouraged the devel- representation of the laws of perspective, a new realistic
opment of scholarly research and the desire to attain style of painting was born. Onlookers become aware of a
knowledge. Moreover, printing facilitated cooperation world of reality that appears to be a continuation of their
among scholars and helped produce standardized and own world. Masaccio’s massive, three-dimensional human
definitive texts. Printing also stimulated the development figures provided a model for later generations of Floren-
of an ever-expanding lay reading public, a development tine artists.
that had an enormous impact on European society. This new or Renaissance style was absorbed and
Indeed, without the printing press, the new religious ideas modified by other Florentine painters in the fifteenth cen-
of the Reformation would never have spread as rapidly as tury. Especially important was the development of an exper-
they did in the sixteenth century. imental trend that took two directions. One emphasized the
mathematical side of painting, the working out of the laws
of perspective and the organization of outdoor space and
◆ The Artistic Renaissance light by geometry and perspective. In the work of Paolo
Uccello (1397–1475), figures became mere stage props to
Leonardo da Vinci, one of the great Italian Renaissance show off his mastery of the laws of perspective. The other
artists, once explained: “Hence the painter will produce aspect of the experimental trend involved the investiga-
pictures of small merit if he takes for his standard the pic- tion of movement and anatomical structure. The Martyrdom
tures of others, but if he will study from natural objects he of St. Sebastian by Antonio Pollaiuolo (c. 1432–1498) rev-
will bear good fruit . . . those who take for their standard els in classical motifs and attempts to portray the human
any one but nature . . . weary themselves in vain.”22 body under stress. Indeed, the realistic portrayal of the
Renaissance artists considered the imitation of nature to human nude became one of the foremost preoccupations
be their primary goal. Their search for naturalism became of Italian Renaissance art. The fifteenth century, then, was
an end in itself: to persuade onlookers of the reality of the a period of experimentation and technical mastery.
object or event they were portraying. At the same time, the During the last decades of the fifteenth century, a
new artistic standards reflected a new attitude of mind new sense of invention emerged in Florence, especially in
as well, one in which human beings became the focus of the circle of artists and scholars who formed part of the
attention, the “center and measure of all things,” as one court of the city’s leading citizen, Lorenzo the Magnificent.
artist proclaimed. One of this group’s prominent members was Sandro Bot-
Leonardo and other Italians maintained that it was ticelli (1445–1510), whose interest in Greek and Roman
Giotto in the fourteenth century (see Chapter 11) who mythology was well reflected in one of his most famous
began the imitation of nature. But what Giotto had begun works, Primavera or Spring. The painting is set in the gar-
was not taken up again until the work of Masaccio den of Venus, a garden of eternal spring. Though Botti-
(1401–1428) in Florence. Masaccio’s cycle of frescoes in celli’s figures are well defined, they also possess an
the Brancacci Chapel has long been regarded as the first otherworldly quality that is far removed from the realism
masterpiece of Early Renaissance art. With his use of mon- that characterized the painting of the Early Renaissance.
umental figures, demonstration of a more realistic rela- The revolutionary achievements of Florentine
tionship between figures and landscape, and visual painters in the fifteenth century were matched by equally

Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance 345

BOTTICELLI, PRIMAVERA. This work reflects Botticelli’s of the picture is Mercury, the messenger of the gods. Later
strong interest in classical antiquity. At the center of the in his life, Botticelli experienced a profound religious
painting is Venus, the goddess of love. At the right stands crisis, leading him to reject his earlier preoccupation with
Flora, a Roman goddess of flowers and fertility, while the pagan gods and goddesses. He burned many of his early
Three Graces dance playfully at the left. Cupid, the son of paintings and then produced only religious works.
Venus, aims his arrow at the Three Graces. At the far left

stunning advances in sculpture and architecture. Donato FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI, INTERIOR OF SAN LORENZO.
di Donatello (1386–1466) spent time in Rome, studying Cosimo de’ Medici contributed massive amounts of
money to the rebuilding of the Church of San Lorenzo.
and copying the statues of antiquity. His subsequent work As seen in this view of the nave and choir of the church,
in Florence reveals how well he had mastered the essence Brunelleschi’s architectural designs were based on the
of what he saw. Among his numerous works was a statue basilica plan borrowed by early Christians from pagan
of David, which is the first known “lifesize freestanding Rome. San Lorenzo’s simplicity, evident in its rows of
bronze nude in European art since antiquity.” With the slender Corinthian columns, created a human-centered
space.
severed head of the giant Goliath beneath David’s feet,
Donatello’s statue celebrated Florentine heroism in the tri-
umph of the Florentines over the Milanese in 1428. Like
Donatello’s other statues, David also radiated a simplicity
and strength that reflected the dignity of humanity.
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446) was a friend of
Donatello and accompanied him to Rome. Brunelleschi
drew much inspiration from the architectural monuments
of Roman antiquity, and when he returned to Florence, he
poured his new insights into the creation of a new archi-
tecture. When the Medici commissioned him to design the
Church of San Lorenzo, Brunelleschi, inspired by Roman
models, created a church interior very different from that
of the great medieval cathedrals. San Lorenzo’s classical
columns, rounded arches, and coffered ceiling created
an environment that did not overwhelm the worshiper

346 CHAPTER 12
DONATELLO, DAVID. Donatello’s David first ronment. Many artists had mastered the new tech-
stood in the courtyard of the Medici Palace. On niques for a scientific observation of the world around
its base was an inscription praising Florentine
them and were now ready to move into individu-
heroism and virtue, leading art historians to
assume that the statue was meant to commemo- alistic forms of creative expression. This final
rate the victory of Florence over Milan in stage of Renaissance art, which flourished
1428. between 1480 and 1520, is called the High
Renaissance. The shift to the High Renais-
sance was marked by the increasing
importance of Rome as a new cultural cen-
materially and psychologically as Gothic ter of the Italian Renaissance.
cathedrals did, but comforted as a space The High Renaissance was dominated by
created to fit human, not divine, measure- the work of three artistic giants, Leonardo da
ments. Like painters and sculptors, Renais- Vinci (1452–1519), Raphael (1483–1520), and
sance architects sought to reflect a human- Michelangelo (1475–1564). Leonardo represents a
centered world. transitional figure in the shift to High Renaissance
The new assertion of human individuality, principles. He carried on the fifteenth-century
evident in Early Renaissance art, was also experimental tradition by studying everything
reflected in the new emphasis on portraiture. and even dissecting human bodies to better see
Patrons appeared in the corners of sacred pictures, how nature worked. But Leonardo stressed the
and monumental tombs and portrait statues hon- need to advance beyond such realism and
ored many of Florence’s prominent citizens. By the initiated the High Renaissance’s preoccu-
mid-fifteenth century, artists were giving an pation with the idealization of nature, or
accurate rendering of their subjects’ facial fea- the attempt to generalize from realistic
tures while revealing the inner qualities of their portrayal to an ideal form. Leonardo’s
personalities. The portraits of the duke and Last Supper, painted in Milan, is a bril-
duchess of Urbino by Piero della Francesca liant summary of fifteenth-century
(c. 1410–1492) provide accurate representations trends in its organization of space and
as well as a sense of both the power and the wealth of use of perspective to depict subjects three-
the rulers of Urbino. dimensionally in a two-dimensional medium. But it is also
By the end of the fifteenth century, Italian painters, more. The figure of Philip is idealized, and there are pro-
sculptors, and architects had created a new artistic envi- found psychological dimensions to the work. The words of

LEONARDO DA VINCI, THE LAST SUPPER. Leonardo da person’s character and inner nature by the use of gesture
Vinci was the impetus behind the High Renaissance con- and movement. Unfortunately, Leonardo used an experi-
cern for the idealization of nature, moving from a realistic mental technique in this fresco, which soon led to its
portrayal of the human figure to an idealized form. Evi- physical deterioration.
dent in Leonardo’s Last Supper is his effort to depict a

Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance 347

RAPHAEL, SCHOOL OF ATHENS. Raphael arrived in Rome Raphael created an imaginary gathering of ancient philoso-
in 1508 and began to paint a series of frescoes commis- phers. In the center stand Plato and Aristotle. At the left is
sioned by Pope Julius II for the papal apartments at the Pythagoras, showing his system of proportions on a slate.
Vatican. In the School of Athens, painted about 1510–1511, At the right is Ptolemy, holding a celestial globe.

Jesus that “one of you shall betray me” are experienced divine beauty; the more beautiful the body, the more God-
directly as each of the apostles reveals his personality and like the figure.
his relationship to Jesus. Through gestures and movement, Another manifestation of Michelangelo’s search for
Leonardo hoped to reveal a person’s inner life. ideal beauty was his David, a colossal marble statue com-
Raphael blossomed as a painter at an early age; at missioned by the Florentine government in 1501 and com-
twenty-five, he was already regarded as one of Italy’s best pleted in 1504. Michelangelo maintained that the form
painters. Raphael was acclaimed for his numerous madon- of a statue already resided in the uncarved piece of stone:
nas, in which he attempted to achieve an ideal of beauty far “I only take away the surplus, the statue is already
surpassing human standards. He is well known for his fres- there.”23 Out of a piece of marble that had remained
coes in the Vatican Palace; his School of Athens reveals a unused for fifty years, Michelangelo created a fourteen-
world of balance, harmony, and order—the underlying prin- foot-high figure, the largest piece of sculpture in Italy since
ciples of the art of the classical world of Greece and Rome. the time of Rome. An awe-inspiring hero, Michelangelo’s
Michelangelo, an accomplished painter, sculptor, David proudly proclaims the beauty of the human body
and architect, was another giant of the High Renaissance. and the glory of human beings.
Fiercely driven by his desire to create, he worked with great A High Renaissance in architecture was also evident,
passion and energy on a remarkable number of projects. especially in the work of Donato Bramante (1444–1514).
Michelangelo was influenced by Neoplatonism, especially He came from Urbino but took up residence in Rome,
evident in his figures on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel where he designed a small temple on the supposed site of
in Rome. These muscular figures reveal an ideal type of Saint Peter’s martyrdom. The Tempietto—or little temple—
human being with perfect proportions. In good Neopla- with its Doric columns surrounding a sanctuary enclosed
tonic fashion, their beauty is meant to be a reflection of by a dome, summarized the architectural ideals of the

348 CHAPTER 12
MICHELANGELO, CREATION OF ADAM. In 1508, Pope Man by depicting nine scenes from the biblical Book of
Julius II recalled Michelangelo to Rome and commis- Genesis. In this scene, the well-proportioned figure of
sioned him to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Adam, meant by Michelangelo to be a reflection of divine
This colossal project was not completed until 1512. beauty, awaits the divine spark.
Michelangelo attempted to tell the story of the Fall of

High Renaissance. Columns, dome, and sanc- for their projects, patrons played an important role in
tuary form a monumental and harmonious the art of the Early Renaissance. The wealthy upper
whole. Inspired by antiquity, Bramante had classes determined both the content and purpose of the
recaptured the grandeur of ancient Rome. His paintings and pieces of sculpture they commissioned.
achievement led Pope Julius II to com- By the end of the fifteenth century, a trans-
mission him to design a new basilica for formation in the position of the artist had
Rome, which eventually became the occurred. Especially talented individuals, such
great St. Peter’s. as Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo, were
no longer seen as artisans, but as artistic
l The Artist and Social geniuses with creative energies akin to the
Status divine (see the box on p. 350). Artists were
heroes, individuals who were praised more for their
Early Renaissance artists began their creativity than for their competence as craftspeople.
careers as apprentices to masters in craft Michelangelo, for example, was frequently addressed
guilds. Apprentices with unusual talent as “II Divino”—the Divine One. As society excused
might eventually become masters and run their eccentricities and valued their creative genius,
their own workshops. As in the Middle the artists of the High Renaissance became the first
Ages, artists were still largely viewed as to embody the modern concept of the artist.
artisans. Since guilds depended on commissions As respect for artists grew, so too did their
ability to profit economically from their work and
to rise on the social scale. Now welcomed
MICHELANGELO, DAVID. This statue of
as equals into the circles of the upper classes,
David, cut from an eighteen-foot-high piece they mingled with the political and intellec-
of marble, exalts the beauty of the human tual elite of their society and became more
body and is a fitting symbol of the Italian aware of new intellectual theories, which they
Renaissance’s affirmation of human power. then embodied in their art. The Platonic
Completed in 1504, the David was moved
by Florentine authorities to a special loca-
Academy and Renaissance Neoplatonism
tion in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, the had an especially important impact on
seat of the Florentine government. Florentine painters.

Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance 349

 L
The Genius of Leonardo da Vinci
During the Renaissance, artists came to be viewed as time but his reputation endured and became even
creative geniuses with almost divine qualities. One indi- greater after his death. . . .
vidual who helped to create this image of the Renaissance He was marvelously gifted, and he proved himself to
artist was himself a painter. Giorgio Vasari was an avid be a first-class geometrician in his work as a sculptor
admirer of Italy’s great artists and wrote a series of brief and architect. In his youth Leonardo made in clay sev-
biographies of them. This excerpt is taken from his eral heads of women, with smiling faces, of which plas-
account of Leonardo da Vinci. ter casts are still being made, as well as some children’s
heads executed as if by a mature artist. He also did
many architectural drawings both of ground plans and
l Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists
of other elevations, and, while still young, he was the
In the normal course of events many men and women first to propose reducing the Arno River to a navigable
are born with various remarkable qualities and talents; canal between Pisa and Florence. He made designs for
but occasionally, in a way that transcends nature, a mills, fulling machines, and engines that could be driven
single person is marvelously endowed by heaven with by waterpower; and as he intended to be a painter by
beauty, grace, and talent in such abundance that he profession he carefully studied drawing from life. . . .
leaves other men far behind, all his actions seem Altogether, his genius was so wonderfully inspired by the
inspired, and indeed everything he does clearly comes grace of God, his powers of expression were so power-
from God rather than from human art. fully fed by a willing memory and intellect, and his writ-
Everyone acknowledged that this was true of Leo- ing conveyed his ideas so precisely, that his arguments
nardo da Vinci, an artist of outstanding physical beauty and reasonings confounded the most formidable critics.
who displayed infinite grace in everything he did and In addition, he used to make models and plans showing
who cultivated his genius so brilliantly that all problems how to excavate and tunnel through mountains without
he studied he solved with ease. He possessed great difficulty, so as to pass from one level to another; and he
strength and dexterity; he was a man of regal spirit and demonstrated how to lift and draw great weights by
tremendous breadth of mind; and his name became so means of levers and hoists and ways of cleaning harbors
famous that not only was he esteemed during his life- and using pumps to suck up water from great depths.

l The Northern Artistic Renaissance

In trying to provide an exact portrayal of their world, the
artists of the north (especially the Low Countries) and Italy
took different approaches. In Italy, the human form
became the primary vehicle of expression as Italian artists
sought to master the technical skills that allowed them
to portray humans in realistic settings. The large wall
spaces of Italian churches had given rise to the art of fresco
painting, but in the north, the prevalence of Gothic cathe-
drals with their stained glass windows resulted in more
emphasis on illuminated manuscripts and wooden panel
painting for altarpieces. The space available in these works
was limited, and great care was required to depict each
object, leading northern painters to become masters at ren-
dering details.

BRAMANTE, TEMPIETTO. Ferdinand and Isabella of

Spain commissioned Donato Bramante to design a small
building in Rome that would commemorate the place
where Saint Peter supposedly was crucified. Completed
in 1502, the temple reflected Bramante’s increasing
understanding of ancient Roman remains.

350 CHAPTER 12
 ALBRECHT DÜRER, ADORATION OF THE MAGI. By the end
of the fifteenth century, northern artists had begun to study
in Italy and to adopt many of the techniques used by Ital-
ian painters. As is evident in this painting, which was the
central panel for an altarpiece done for Frederick the Wise
in 1504, Albrecht Dürer masterfully incorporated the laws
of perspective and the ideals of proportion into his works.
At the same time, he did not abandon the preoccupation
with detail typical of northern artists.
JAN VAN EYCK, GIOVANNI ARNOLFINI AND HIS BRIDE.
Northern painters took great care in depicting each object
and became masters at rendering details. This emphasis
on a realistic portrayal is clearly evident in this oil paint-
ing, supposedly a portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini, an
Italian merchant who had settled in Bruges, and his
wife, Giovanna Cenami.

The most influential northern school of art in the fif- rized the difference between northern and Italian Renais-
teenth century was centered in Flanders. Jan van Eyck sance painting in these words:
(1390?–1441) was among the first to use oil paint, a
In Flanders, they paint, before all things, to render exactly
medium that enabled the artist to use a varied range of col-
and deceptively the outward appearance of things. The
ors and make changes to create fine details. In the famous painters choose, by preference, subjects provoking transports
Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride, van Eyck’s attention to of piety, like the figures of saints or of prophets. But most of
detail is staggering: precise portraits, a glittering chande- the time they paint what are called landscapes with plenty of
lier, and a mirror reflecting the objects in the room. figures. Though the eye is agreeably impressed, these pictures
Although each detail was rendered as observed, it is evi- have neither choice of values nor grandeur. In short, this art
dent that van Eyck’s comprehension of perspective was is without power and without distinction; it aims at rendering
minutely many things at the same time, of which a single one
still uncertain. His work is truly indicative of northern
would have sufficed to call forth a man’s whole application.24
Renaissance painters, who, in their effort to imitate nature,
did so not by mastery of the laws of perspective and pro- By the end of the fifteenth century, however, artists from
portion, but by empirical observation of visual reality and the north began to study in Italy and were visually influ-
the accurate portrayal of details. Moreover, northern enced by what artists were doing there.
painters placed great emphasis on the emotional intensity One northern artist of this later period who was
of religious feeling and created great works of devotional greatly affected by the Italians was Albrecht Dürer
art, especially in their altarpieces. Michelangelo summa- (1471–1528) from Nuremberg. Dürer made two trips to

Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance 351

 NORWAY
SWEDEN
Stockholm
Novgorod
Riga
PRINCIPALITY
SCOTLAND OF MOSCOW
Edinburgh North DENMARK TEUTONIC
Moscow
Sea ORDER
Smolensk
IRELAND Lübeck Danzig
ENGLAND Hamburg
Brandenburg
Dublin
WALES HOLY LITHUANIA
Oxford Rh
London ROMAN POLAND

ine
Cologne
Calais HABSBURG . EMPIRE Kiev

R
Prague
LANDS Mainz Cracow Dn
BOHEMIA iepe
Paris Nuremberg Dan r R
u b e Vienna C a r p a t h .
FRANCE Augsburg R. ian
s. CRIMEA Don
R

.
Orléans M t HABSBURG Buda Pest
MOLDAVIA
Atlantic BURGUNDY p s Milan LANDS
HUNGARY Azov

Mts
Lyons l
Venice
A
Ocean Poitiers
Genoa
Po R. Belgrade

.
Florence A BULGARIA
Pyrene dr
es M PAPAL a ti SERBIA Black Sea
NAVARRE

i
ts. c
Ebr Corsica STATES Se MONTENEGRO
o ARAGON a
Rome RUMELIA Constantinople
CASTILE R. Barcelona Naples
PORTUGAL Toledo Sardinia
s
nd

a
Isl OTTOMAN EMPIRE
Lisbon ri c
Córdoba Balea
Granada Sicily Athens
T a u ru s M t s .
Tunis Euphr
at

es
Crete

R
Cyprus

.
0 300 600 900 Kilometers
Mediterranean Sea
Jerusalem
0 300 600 Miles
Alexandria

MAMLUK SULTANATE
MAP 12.2 Europe in the Renaissance.

Italy and absorbed most of what the Italians could teach, of Dufay’s greatest contributions was a change in the com-
as is evident in his mastery of the laws of perspective and position of the mass. He was the first to use secular tunes
Renaissance theories of proportion. He wrote detailed to replace Gregorian chants as the fixed melody that
treatises on both subjects. At the same time, as in his served as the basis for the mass. Dufay also composed a
famous Adoration of the Magi, Dürer did not reject the number of secular songs, an important reminder that dur-
use of minute details characteristic of northern artists. He ing the Renaissance music ceased to be used chiefly in the
did try, however, to integrate those details more harmo- service of God and moved into the secular world of courts
niously into his works and, like the Italian artists of the and cities. In Italy and France, the chief form of secular
High Renaissance, tried to achieve a standard of ideal music was the madrigal.
beauty by a careful examination of the human form. The Renaissance madrigal was a poem set to music,
and its origins were in the fourteenth-century Italian
courts. The texts were usually twelve-line poems written
l Music in the Renaissance
in the vernacular, and their theme was emotional or erotic
For much of the fifteenth century, an extraordinary cultural love. By the mid-sixteenth century, most madrigals were
environment was fostered in the domains of the dukes of written for five or six voices and employed a technique
Burgundy in northern Europe. The court of the dukes called text painting, in which the music tried to portray the
attracted some of the best artists and musicians of the literal meaning of the text. Thus, the melody would rise for
time. Among them was Guillaume Dufay (c. 1400–1474), the word “heaven” or use a wavelike motion to represent
perhaps the most important composer of his time. Born in the word “water.” By the mid-sixteenth century, the
northern France, Dufay lived for a few years in Italy and madrigal had also spread to England, where the most pop-
was thus well suited to combine the late medieval style ular form was characterized by the fa-la-la refrain like that
of France with the early Renaissance style of Italy. One found in the English carol “Deck the Halls.”

352 CHAPTER 12
 LLLLLLLLLLLLLL
◆ The European State in C h r o n o l o g y
the Renaissance
The “New Monarchies”
The High Middle Ages had witnessed the emergence of France
territorial states that began to develop the administra- Charles VII 1422–1461
tive machinery of centralized government. Professional Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges 1438
bureaucracies, royal courts, and parliamentary assemblies Louis XI the Spider 1461–1483
were all products of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Charles VIII 1483–1498
Strong monarchy had provided the organizing power for Louis XII 1498–1515
the development of these states, but in the fourteenth cen- England
tury, the internal stability of European governments had War of the Roses 1450s–1485
been threatened by financial and dynastic problems as Richard III 1483–1485
well as challenges from their nobilities. By the fifteenth Henry VII 1485–1509
century, rulers began to rebuild their states by checking Spain
the violent activities of their nobles and maintaining inter-
Isabella of Castile 1474–1504
nal order. Some territorial units, such as the Holy Roman
Ferdinand of Aragon 1479–1516
Empire and Italy, failed to develop strong national monar-
Marriage of Ferdinand
chies, but even in these areas, strong princes and city and Isabella 1469
councils managed to centralize their authority within their Introduction of Inquisition 1478
smaller territorial states. In Italy, Milan, Venice, and Flor- Expulsion of the Jews 1492
ence managed to become fairly well centralized territorial
Expulsion of the Muslims 1502
states. Some historians believe that the Italian Renais-
Holy Roman Empire
sance states, with their preoccupation with political
Frederick III 1440–1493
power, were the first true examples of the modern secular
Maximilian I 1493–1519
state.
Eastern Europe
Creation of Lithuanian-Polish state 1386
Hungary: Matthias Corvinus 1458–1490
l The “New Monarchies” Russia: Ivan III 1462–1505
In the first half of the fifteenth century, European states Fall of Constantinople and
Byzantine Empire 1453
continued the disintegrative patterns of the previous cen-
tury. In the second half of the fifteenth century, however,
recovery set in, and attempts were made to reestablish the
centralized power of monarchical governments. To char-
acterize the results, some historians have used the label
“Renaissance states”; others have spoken of the “new / THE GROWTH OF THE FRENCH MONARCHY
monarchies,” especially those of France, England, and The Hundred Years’ War had left France prostrate.
Spain at the end of the fifteenth century. Although appro- Depopulation, desolate farmlands, ruined commerce, and
priate, the term “new monarch” can also be misleading. independent and unruly nobles had made it difficult for
These Renaissance monarchs were new in their concen- the kings to assert their authority. But the war had also
tration of royal authority, their attempts to suppress the developed a strong degree of French national feeling
nobility, their efforts to control the church in their lands, toward a common enemy that the kings could use to
and their insistence upon having the loyalty of people reestablish monarchical power. The need to prosecute the
living within definite territorial boundaries. Like the rulers war provided an excuse to strengthen the authority of the
of fifteenth-century Italian states, the “new monarchs” king, already evident in the policies of Charles VII
were often crafty men obsessed with the acquisition and (1422–1461) after he was crowned king at Reims. With
expansion of political power. Of course, none of these the consent of the Estates-General, Charles established a
characteristics was entirely new in that a number of royal army composed of cavalry and archers. He received
medieval monarchs, especially in the thirteenth century, from the Estates-General the right to levy the taille, an
had also exhibited them. Nevertheless, the Renaissance annual direct tax usually on land or property, without any
period does mark the further extension of centralized royal need for further approval from the Estates-General. Los-
authority. Of course, the degree to which monarchs were ing control of the purse meant less power for this parlia-
successful in extending their political authority varied from mentary body. Charles VII also secured the Pragmatic
area to area. In central and eastern Europe, decentral- Sanction of Bourges (1438), an agreement with the
ization rather than centralization of political authority papacy that strengthened the liberties of the French
remained a fact of life. church administratively at the expense of the papacy and

Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance 353

enabled the king to begin to assume control over the for a specific campaign, after which the troops were dis-
church in France. banded. Henry also controlled the irresponsible activity of
The process of developing a French territorial state the nobles by establishing the Court of Star Chamber,
was greatly advanced by King Louis XI (1461–1483), which did not use juries and allowed torture to be used
known as the Spider because of his wily and devious ways. to extract confessions.
Some historians have called this “new monarch” the Henry VII was particularly successful in extracting
founder of the French national state. By retaining the taille income from the traditional financial resources of the
as a permanent tax imposed by royal authority, Louis English monarch, such as the crown lands, judicial fees
secured a sound, regular source of income. Louis was not, and fines, and customs duties. By using diplomacy to
however, completely successful in repressing the French avoid wars, which are always expensive, the king avoided
nobility whose independence posed a threat to his own having to call Parliament on any regular basis to grant him
state building. A major problem was his supposed vas- funds. By not overburdening the landed gentry and mid-
sal, Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy (1467–1477). dle class with taxes, Henry won their favor, and they pro-
Charles attempted to create a middle kingdom between vided much support for his monarchy.
France and Germany, stretching from the Low Countries Henry also encouraged commercial activity. By
in the north to Switzerland. Louis opposed his action, and increasing wool exports, royal export taxes on wool rose.
when Charles was killed in 1477 fighting the Swiss, Louis Henry’s thriftiness as well as his domestic and foreign poli-
added part of Charles’s possessions, the duchy of Bur- cies enabled him to leave England with a stable and pros-
gundy, to his own lands. Three years later, the provinces perous government and an enhanced status for the
of Anjou, Maine, Bar, and Provence were brought under monarchy itself.
royal control. Louis the Spider also encouraged the growth
of industry and commerce in an attempt to bolster the / THE UNIFICATION OF SPAIN
French economy. For example, he introduced new indus- During the Middle Ages, several independent Christian
tries, such as the silk industry to Lyons. kingdoms had emerged in the course of the long recon-
Many historians believe that Louis created a base for quest of the Iberian peninsula from the Muslims. Aragon
the later development of a strong French monarchy. In any and Castile were the strongest Spanish kingdoms; in the
case, the monarchy was at least well enough established west was the independent monarchy of Portugal; in the
to weather the policies of the next two monarchs, Charles north, the small kingdom of Navarre, oriented toward
VIII (1483–1498) and Louis XII (1498–1515), whose France; and in the south, the Muslim kingdom of Granada.
attempts to subdue parts of Italy initiated a series of Ital- Few people at the beginning of the fifteenth century could
ian wars. Internally, France survived these wars without have predicted the unification of the Iberian kingdoms.
too much difficulty. A major step in that direction was taken with the
marriage of Isabella of Castile (1474–1504) and Ferdinand
/ ENGLAND: CIVIL WAR AND A NEW MONARCHY of Aragon (1479–1516) in 1469. This marriage was a
The Hundred Years’ War had also strongly affected the dynastic union of two rulers, not a political union. Both
other protagonist in that conflict. The cost of the war in its kingdoms maintained their own parliaments (Cortes),
final years and the losses in manpower strained the courts, laws, coinage, speech, customs, and political
English economy. Moreover, the end of the war brought organs. Nevertheless, the two rulers worked to strengthen
even greater domestic turmoil to England when the War royal control of government, especially in Castile. The
of the Roses broke out in the 1450s. This civil war pitted royal council, which was supposed to supervise local
the ducal house of Lancaster, whose symbol was a red administration and oversee the implementation of gov-
rose, against the ducal house of York, whose symbol was ernment policies, was stripped of aristocrats and filled pri-
a white rose. Many aristocratic families of England were marily with middle-class lawyers. Trained in the principles
drawn into the conflict. Finally, in 1485, Henry Tudor, of Roman law, these officials operated on the belief that
duke of Richmond, defeated the last Yorkist king, Richard the monarchy embodied the power of the state.
III (1483–1485), at Bosworth Field and established the The towns were also enlisted in the policy of state
new Tudor dynasty. building. Medieval town organizations known as herman-
As the first Tudor king, Henry VII (1485–1509) dades (“brotherhoods”), which had been organized to
worked to reduce internal dissension and establish a maintain law and order, were revived. Ferdinand and
strong monarchical government. The English aristocracy Isabella transformed them into a kind of national militia
had been much weakened by the War of the Roses whose primary goal was to stop the wealthy landed aris-
because many nobles had been killed. Henry eliminated tocrats from disturbing the peace, a goal also favored by
the private wars of the nobility by abolishing “livery and the middle class. The hermandades were disbanded by
maintenance,” the practice by which wealthy aristocrats 1498 when the royal administration became strong enough
maintained private armies of followers dedicated to the to deal with lawlessness. The appointment of corregidores
service of their lord. Since England, unlike France and by the crown to replace corrupt municipal officials enabled
Spain, did not possess a standing army, the king relied the monarchs to extend the central authority of royal gov-
on special commissions to trusted nobles to raise troops ernment into the towns.

354 CHAPTER 12
 FRANCE
Py
NAVARRE re n
ee s
Duero R. Valladolid Mt
s.
PORTUGAL

Eb
ARAGON

ro
Tagus R. CASTILE
Madrid R Barcelona
Corsica

.
Lisbon
Guadiana Toledo
R. Mediterranean Sea
Valencia

Sardinia
dalqu iver R.
ua Balearic Islands

G
Seville
Cádiz GRANADA
Aragon Castile
Tangier
Gains of Ferdinand
0 100 200 300 Kilometers
and Isabella
0 100 200 Miles
MAP 12.3 The Iberian Peninsula.

Seeking to replace the undisciplined feudal levies Ferdinand and Isabella took the drastic step of expelling
they had inherited with a more professional royal army, all professed Jews from Spain. It is estimated that 150,000
Ferdinand and Isabella reorganized the military forces of out of possibly 200,000 Jews fled.
Spain. The development of a strong infantry force as the Muslims, too, were “encouraged” to convert to Chris-
heart of the new Spanish army made it the best in Europe tianity after the conquest of Granada. In 1502, Isabella
by the sixteenth century. issued a decree expelling all professed Muslims from her
Ferdinand and Isabella recognized the importance kingdom. To a very large degree, the “Most Catholic”
of controlling the Catholic church with its vast power and monarchs had achieved their goal of absolute religious
wealth. They secured from the pope the right to select the orthodoxy as a basic ingredient of the Spanish state. To be
most important church officials in Spain, virtually guar- Spanish was to be Catholic, a policy of uniformity enforced
anteeing the foundation of a Spanish Catholic church in by the Inquisition.
which the clergy became an instrument for the extension During the reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella, Spain
of royal power. The monarchs, who were sincere Catholics, (or the union of Castile and Aragon) began to emerge as
also used their authority over the church to institute an important power in European affairs. Both Granada
reform. Isabella’s chief minister, the able and astute Car- and Navarre had been conquered and incorporated into
dinal Ximenes, restored discipline and eliminated the royal realms. Nevertheless, Spain remained divided in
immorality among the monks and secular clergy. many ways. Only the royal dynasty provided the central-
The religious zeal exhibited in Cardinal Ximenes’s izing force, and when a single individual, the grandson
reform program was also evident in the policy of strict reli- of Ferdinand and Isabella, succeeded both rulers as
gious uniformity pursued by Ferdinand and Isabella. Of Charles I in 1516, he inherited lands that made him the
course, it served a political purpose as well: to create unity most powerful monarch of his age.
and further bolster royal power. Spain possessed two large
religious minorities, the Jews and Muslims, both of whom
/ THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE: THE SUCCESS OF
had been largely tolerated in medieval Spain. In some
THE HABSBURGS
areas of Spain, Jews exercised much influence in economic
and intellectual affairs. Increased persecution in the four- Unlike France, England, and Spain, the Holy Roman
teenth century, however, led the majority of Spanish Jews Empire failed to develop a strong monarchical authority.
to convert to Christianity. Although many of these con- After 1438, the position of Holy Roman Emperor remained
versos came to play important roles in Spanish society, in the hands of the Habsburg dynasty. Having gradually
complaints that they were secretly reverting to Judaism acquired a number of possessions along the Danube,
prompted Ferdinand and Isabella to ask the pope to intro- known collectively as Austria, the house of Habsburg had
duce the Inquisition into Spain in 1478. Under royal con- become one of the wealthiest landholders in the empire
trol, the Inquisition worked with cruel efficiency to and by the mid-fifteenth century began to play an impor-
guarantee the orthodoxy of the conversos, but had no tant role in European affairs.
authority over practicing Jews. Consequently, in 1492, Much of the Habsburg success in the fifteenth cen-
flush with the success of the conquest of Muslim Granada, tury was due not to military success, but to a well-executed

Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance 355

 who, through a series of unexpected deaths, became
heir to all three lines, the Habsburg, Burgundian, and
Spanish, making him the leading monarch of his age (see
Chapter 13).
Although the Holy Roman Empire did not develop
along the lines of a centralized monarchical state, within
the empire the power of the independent princes and elec-
tors increased steadily. In numerous German states, such
as Bavaria, Hesse, Brandenburg, and the Palatinate,
princes built up bureaucracies, developed standing armies,
created fiscal systems, and introduced Roman law, just like
the national monarchs of France, England, and Spain.
They posed a real threat to the church, the emperor, and
other smaller independent bodies in the Holy Roman
Empire, especially the free imperial cities.

/ THE STRUGGLE FOR STRONG MONARCHY IN

EASTERN EUROPE
In eastern Europe, rulers struggled to achieve the cen-
tralization of their territorial states but faced serious obsta-
cles. Although the population was mostly Slavic, there
were islands of other ethnic groups that caused untold dif-
ficulties. Religious differences also troubled the area, as
Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox Christians, and pagans
EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN I. Although the Holy Roman
confronted each other.
Emperor possessed little power in Germany, the Habs- Much of Polish history revolved around the bitter
burg dynasty, which held the position of emperor after struggle between the crown and the landed nobility. The
1438, steadily increased its wealth and landholdings dynastic union of Jagiello, grand prince of Lithuania, with
through dynastic marriages. This portrait of Emperor the Polish queen Jadwiga resulted in a large Lithuanian-
Maximilian I reflects well the description by a Venetian
ambassador: “He is not very fair of face, but well propor-
Polish state in 1386. Jagiello and his immediate succes-
tioned, exceedingly robust, of sanguine and choleric sors were able to control the landed magnates, but by the
complexion and very healthy for his age.” end of the fifteenth century, the preoccupation of Poland’s
rulers with problems in Bohemia and Hungary as well as
war with the Russians and Turks enabled the aristocrats
policy of dynastic marriages. As the old Habsburg motto to reestablish their power. Through their control of the
said: “Leave the waging of wars to others! But you, happy Sejm or national diet, the magnates reduced the peasantry
Austria, marry; for the realms which Mars [god of war] to serfdom by 1511 and established the right to elect their
awards to others, Venus [goddess of love] transfers to kings. The Polish kings proved unable to establish a strong
you.” Although Frederick III (1440–1493) lost the tradi- royal authority.
tional Habsburg possessions of Bohemia and Hungary, he Bohemia, Poland’s neighbor, was part of the Holy
gained Franche-Comté in east-central France, Luxem- Roman Empire, but distrust of the Germans and close eth-
bourg, and a large part of the Low Countries by marrying nic ties to the Poles and Slovaks encouraged the Czechs
his son Maximilian to Mary, the daughter of Duke Charles to associate with their northeastern Slavic neighbors. The
the Bold of Burgundy. The addition of these territories Hussite wars (see The Problems of Heresy and Reform
made the Habsburg dynasty an international power and later in this chapter) led to further dissension and civil war.
brought them the undying opposition of the French monar- Because of a weak monarchy, the Bohemian nobles
chy because the rulers of France feared they would be sur- increased their authority and wealth at the expense of both
rounded by the Habsburgs. crown and church.
Much was expected of the flamboyant Maximil- The history of Hungary had been closely tied to that
ian I (1493–1519) when he became emperor. Through the of central and western Europe by its conversion to Roman
Reichstag, the imperial diet or parliament, Maximilian Catholicism by German missionaries. The church became
attempted to centralize the administration by creating new a large and prosperous institution. Wealthy bishops, along
institutions common to the entire empire. Opposition from with the great territorial lords, became powerful, inde-
the German princes doomed these efforts, however. Max- pendent political figures. For a brief while, Hungary devel-
imilian’s only real success lay in his marriage alliances. oped into an important European state, the dominant
Philip of Burgundy, the son of Maximilian’s marriage to power in eastern Europe. King Matthias Corvinus
Mary, was married to Joanna, the daughter of Ferdinand (1458–1490) broke the power of the wealthy lords and cre-
and Isabella. Philip and Joanna produced a son, Charles, ated a well-organized bureaucracy. Like a typical Renais-

356 CHAPTER 12
 C arp Dn
. at h .

R
ies
Byzantine Empire (1403)

ia

t er

er
p

nM
ie
Ottoman Empire (1403) Dn Sea of

ts .
.

R
Azov
Battle site HUNGARY
Extent of Byzantine Cau
Empire (1180) cas
us
WALLACHIA Mo
u n ta
ins
BOSNIA
D a n u be R.
Nicopolis
Black Sea
SERBIA Varna
(1396)
Kossovo
Ragusa (1389) Trnovo
Ad KINGDOM OF
ria TREBIZOND
ti c Trebizond
Se BULGARIA
Constantinople
a

EPIRUS Thessalonika
Ankara

Aegean up

E
h r a t es

Smyrna
Sea Konya
Athens

Ri
KINGDOM OF

ve
ARMENIA

r
Ta u r s Mts. Antioch
u
M e d i t e rra nean
0 100 200 300 Kilometers
Sea
Cyprus
Crete
0 100 200 Miles

MAP 12.4 Southeastern Europe.

sance prince, he patronized the new humanist culture, gus dynasty (1260–1453) had tried to reestablish Byzan-
brought Italian scholars and artists to his capital at Buda, tine power in the Balkans after the overthrow of the Latin
and made his court one of the most brilliant outside Italy. Empire, the threat from the Turks finally doomed the long-
After his death, Hungary returned to weak rule, and the lasting empire.
work of Corvinus was largely undone. Beginning in northeastern Asia Minor in the thir-
Since the thirteenth century, Russia had been under teenth century, the Ottoman Turks spread rapidly, seizing
the domination of the Mongols. Gradually, the princes of the lands of the Seljuk Turks and the Byzantine Empire. In
Moscow rose to prominence by using their close relation- 1345, they bypassed Constantinople and moved into the
ship to the Mongol khans to increase their wealth and Balkans, which they conquered by the end of the century.
expand their possessions. In the reign of the great prince Finally, in 1453, the great city of Constantinople fell to
Ivan III (1462–1505), a new Russian state was born. Ivan the Turks after a siege of several months. After consoli-
III annexed other Russian principalities and took advan- dating their power, the Turks prepared to exert renewed
tage of dissension among the Mongols to throw off their pressure on the west, both in the Mediterranean and up the
yoke by 1480. He invaded the lands of the Lithuanian- Danube valley toward Vienna. By the end of the fifteenth
Polish dynasty and added the territories around Kiev, century, they were threatening Hungary, Austria, Bohemia,
Smolensk, and Chernigov to his new Muscovite state. and Poland. The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, became
their bitter enemy in the sixteenth century.
/ THE OTTOMAN TURKS AND Our survey of European political developments makes it
THE END OF BYZANTIUM clear that, although individual German or especially Italian
Eastern Europe was increasingly threatened by the princes had developed culturally brilliant states, the future
steadily advancing Ottoman Turks. The Byzantine Empire belonged to territorial states organized by national monarchies.
had, of course, served as a buffer between the Muslim They possessed superior resources and were developing institu-
Middle East and the Latin West for centuries. It was tions that represented the interests of much of the population.
severely weakened by the sack of Constantinople in 1204 Nevertheless, the Renaissance states were still only dynastic
and its occupation by the west. Although the Palaeolo- states, not nation-states. The interests of a state were the interests

Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance 357

 LLLLLLLLLLLLLL
of its ruling dynasty. Loyalty was owed to the ruler, not the state.
Residents of France considered themselves subjects of the French C h r o n o l o g y
king, not citizens of France. Moreover, although Renaissance
monarchs were strong rulers centralizing their authority, they were The Church in the Renaissance
by no means absolute monarchs. Some chance of representative Council of Constance 1414–1418
government still remained in the form of Parliament, Estates-Gen- Burning of John Hus 1415
eral, Cortes, or Reichstag. Monarchs were strongest in the west End of the Great Schism 1417
and, with the exception of the Russian rulers, weakest in the east. Pius II issues the papal bull 1460
Execrabilis
The Renaissance papacy
◆ The Church in the Renaissance Sixtus IV 1471–1484
Alexander VI 1492–1503
As a result of the efforts of the Council of Constance, the Julius II 1503–1513
Great Schism had finally been brought to an end in 1417 Leo X 1513–1521
(see Chapter 11). The council had had three major objec-
tives: to end the schism, to eradicate heresy, and to reform
the church in “head and members.” The ending of the
schism proved to be the council’s easiest task; it was
much less successful in dealing with the problems of and attacked the excessive power of the papacy within the
heresy and reform. Catholic church. Hus’s objections fell on receptive ears,
since the Catholic church as one of the largest landown-
ers in Bohemia was already widely criticized. Moreover,
l The Problems of Heresy and Reform
many clergymen were German, and the native Czechs’
Heresy was, of course, not a new problem, and in the thir- strong resentment of the Germans who dominated
teenth century, the church had developed inquisitorial Bohemia also contributed to Hus’s movement.
machinery to deal with it. But two widespread movements The Council of Constance attempted to deal with the
in the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries—Lollardy growing problem of heresy by summoning John Hus to the
and Hussitism—posed new threats to the church. council. Granted a safe conduct by Emperor Sigismund,
English Lollardy was a product of the Oxford the- Hus went in the hope of a free hearing of his ideas. Instead
ologian John Wyclif (c. 1328–1384), whose disgust with he was arrested, condemned as a heretic (by a narrow
clerical corruption led him to a far-ranging attack on papal vote), and burned at the stake in 1415. This action turned
authority and medieval Christian beliefs and practices. the unrest in Bohemia into revolutionary upheaval. The
Wyclif alleged that there was no basis in Scripture for resulting Hussite wars combined religious, social, and
papal claims of temporal authority and advocated that the national issues and wracked the Holy Roman Empire until
popes be stripped of both their authority and property. a truce was arranged in 1436.
At one point, he even denounced the pope as the The reform of the church in “head and members”
Antichrist. Believing that the Bible should be a Christian’s was even less successful than the attempt to eradicate
sole authority, Wyclif urged that it be made available in heresy. Two reform decrees were passed by the Council of
the vernacular languages so that every Christian could Constance. Sacrosancta stated that a general council of the
read it. Rejecting all practices not mentioned in Scrip- church received its authority from God; hence, every
ture, Wyclif condemned pilgrimages, the veneration of Christian, including the pope, was subject to its authority.
saints, and a whole series of rituals and rites that had The decree Frequens provided for the regular holding of
developed in the medieval church. general councils to ensure that church reform would con-
Wyclif has sometimes been viewed as a forerunner tinue. Taken together, Sacrosancta and Frequens provided
of the Reformation of the sixteenth century because his for an ecclesiastical legislative system within the church
arguments attacked the foundations of the medieval superior to the popes.
Catholic church’s organization and practices. His attacks Decrees alone, however, proved insufficient to
on church property were especially popular, and he reform the church. Councils could issue decrees, but popes
attracted a number of followers who came to be known as had to execute them and popes would not cooperate with
Lollards. Persecution by royal and church authorities who councils that diminished their authority. Beginning as early
feared the socioeconomic consequences of Wyclif’s ideas as Martin V in 1417, successive popes worked steadfastly
forced the Lollards to go underground after 1400. for the next thirty years to defeat the conciliar movement.
A marriage between the royal families of England The victory of the popes and the final blow to the concil-
and Bohemia enabled Lollard ideas to spread to Bohemia, iar movement came in 1460, when Pope Pius II issued the
where they reinforced the ideas of a group of Czech reform- papal bull Execrabilis, condemning appeals to a council
ers led by the chancellor of the university at Prague, John over the head of a pope as heretical.
Hus (1374–1415). In his call for reform, Hus urged the By the mid-fifteenth century, the popes had re-
elimination of the worldliness and corruption of the clergy asserted their supremacy over the Catholic church. No

358 CHAPTER 12
longer, however, did they have any possibility of asserting
supremacy over temporal governments as the medieval
papacy had. Although the papal monarchy had been
maintained, it had lost much moral prestige. In the fif-
teenth century, the Renaissance papacy contributed to an
even further decline in the moral leadership of the popes.

l The Renaissance Papacy

Historians use the phrase “Renaissance papacy” to refer to
the line of popes from the end of the Great Schism (1417)
to the beginnings of the Reformation in the early sixteenth
century. The primary concern of the papacy is governing
the Catholic church as its spiritual leader. But as heads of
the church, popes had temporal preoccupations as well,
and the story of the Renaissance papacy is really an
account of how the latter came to overshadow the popes’
spiritual functions. In the process, the Renaissance papacy
and the Catholic church became noticeably secularized.
The preoccupation of the popes with the territory
of the Papal States and Italian politics was not new
to the Renaissance. Popes had been temporal as well as
spiritual rulers for centuries. The manner in which Ren-
aissance popes pursued their temporal interests, how- A RENAISSANCE POPE: SIXTUS IV. The Renaissance popes
ever, especially their use of intrigue, deceit, and open allowed secular concerns to overshadow their spiritual
duties. They became concerned with territorial expansion,
bloodshed, was shocking. Of all the Renaissance popes,
finances, and Renaissance culture. Pope Sixtus IV built
Julius II (1503–1513) was most involved in war and poli- the Sistine Chapel and later had it decorated by some of
tics. The fiery “warrior-pope” personally led armies against the leading artists of his day. This fresco by Melozzo da
his enemies, much to the disgust of pious Christians who Forlì shows the pope on his throne receiving the humanist
viewed the pope as a spiritual leader. The great human- Platina (kneeling), who was keeper of the Vatican Library.
ist Erasmus (see Chapter 13) witnessed the triumphant
entry of Julius II into Bologna at the head of his troops and
later wrote scathing indictments of the papal proclivity for ritorial state in central Italy out of the territories of the
warfare. With Julius II in mind, he proclaimed in The Com- Papal States.
plaint of Peace: “How, O bishop standing in the room of The Renaissance popes were great patrons of
the Apostles, dare you teach the people the things that per- Renaissance culture, and their efforts made Rome the
tain to war?” focal point of the High Renaissance at the beginning of
To further their territorial aims in the Papal States, the sixteenth century. For the warrior-pope Julius II, the
the popes needed financial resources and loyal servants. patronage of Renaissance culture was mostly a matter of
Preoccupation with finances was not new, but its gross- policy as he endeavored to add to the splendor of his
ness received considerable comment: “Whenever I pontificate by tearing down the Basilica of Saint Peter,
entered the chambers of the ecclesiastics of the Papal which had been built by the emperor Constantine, and
court, I found brokers and clergy engaged and reckon- beginning construction of the greatest building in Chris-
ing money which lay in heaps before them.”25 Since they tendom, the present Saint Peter’s Basilica. Julius’s suc-
were not hereditary monarchs, popes could not build cessor, Leo X (1513–1521), was also a patron of
dynasties over several generations and came to rely on Renaissance culture, not as a matter of policy, but as a
the practice of nepotism to promote their families’ inter- deeply involved participant. Such might be expected of
ests. Pope Sixtus IV (1471–1484), for example, made five the son of Lorenzo de’ Medici. Made an archbishop at
of his nephews cardinals and gave them an abundance of the age of eight and a cardinal at thirteen, he acquired
church offices to build up their finances (the word nepo- a refined taste in art, manners, and social life among
tism is, in fact, derived from nepos, meaning nephew). the Florentine Renaissance elite. He became pope at
Alexander VI (1492–1503), a member of the Borgia fam- the age of thirty-seven, supposedly remarking to the
ily who was known for his debauchery and sensuality, Venetian ambassador, “Let us enjoy the papacy, since
raised one son, one nephew, and the brother of one mis- God has given it to us.” Humanists were made papal
tress to the cardinalate. A Venetian envoy stated that secretaries, Raphael was commissioned to do paintings,
Alexander, “joyous by nature, thought of nothing but the and the construction of Saint Peter’s was accelerated
aggrandizement of his children.” Alexander scandalized as Rome became the literary and artistic center of the
the church by encouraging his son Cesare to carve a ter- Renaissance.

Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance 359

1400 1426 1452 1478 1504 1530
Rule of Cosimo de’ Medici in Florence Marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella

Fall of Constantinople War of the Roses Sack of Rome

Civic humanism in Florence Machiavelli’s The Prince

Invention of Printing Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier

Masaccio’s frescoes in Florence Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper

Botticelli’s Primavera Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling

Conclusion L L L L L L L L L L L L 2. Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, trans.

Charles S. Singleton (Garden City, N.Y., 1959), pp.
Whether the Renaissance represents the end of the 288–289.
Middle Ages or the beginning of a new era, a frequently 3. Quoted in De Lamar Jensen, Renaissance Europe (Lexing-
ton, Mass., 1981), p. 94.
debated topic among medieval and Renaissance histo-
4. Quoted in Iris Origo, “The Domestic Enemy: The Eastern
rians, is perhaps an irrelevant question. The Renais- Slaves in Tuscany in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Cen-
sance was a period of transition that witnessed a turies,” Speculum 30 (1955): 333.
continuation of the economic, political, and social 5. Gene Brucker, ed., Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence
trends that had begun in the High Middle Ages. It was (New York, 1967), p. 132.
also a movement in which intellectuals and artists pro- 6. Quoted in Margaret L. King, Women of the Renaissance
(Chicago, 1991), p. 3.
claimed a new vision of humankind and raised funda-
7. Gene Brucker, ed., The Society of Renaissance Florence
mental questions about the value and importance of (New York, 1971), p. 190.
the individual. Of course, intellectuals and artists wrote 8. Quoted in Garrett Mattingly, Renaissance Diplomacy
and painted for the upper classes, and the brilliant (Baltimore, 1964), p. 42.
intellectual, cultural, and artistic accomplishments of 9. Ibid., p. 95.
10. Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, trans. David Wootton
the Renaissance were products of and for the elite. The
(Indianapolis, 1995), p. 48.
ideas of the Renaissance did not have a broad base 11. Ibid., p. 55.
among the masses of the people. As Lorenzo the Mag- 12. Ibid., pp. 27, 77, 80.
nificent, ruler of Florence, once commented: “Only men 13. Niccolò Machiavelli, The Discourses, trans. Christian
of noble birth can obtain perfection. The poor, who Detmold (New York, 1950), p. 148.
work with their hands and have no time to cultivate 14. Petrarch, “Epistle to Posterity,” Letters from Petrarch,
trans. Morris Bishop (Bloomington, Ind., 1966), pp. 6–7.
their minds, are incapable of it.”
15. Bernhardt J. Hurwood, trans., The Facetiae of Giovanni
The Renaissance did, however, raise new ques- Francesco Poggio Bracciolini (New York, 1968), p. 57.
tions about medieval traditions. In advocating a return 16. Quoted in Frances Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic
to the early sources of Christianity and criticizing cur- Tradition (Chicago, 1964), p. 211.
rent religious practices, the humanists raised funda- 17. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of
Man, in E. Cassirer, P. O. Kristeller, J. H. Randall, Jr., eds.,
mental issues about the Catholic church, which was
The Renaissance Philosophy of Man (Chicago, 1948), p. 225.
still an important institution. In the sixteenth century, 18. Ibid., pp. 247–249.
the intellectual revolution of the fifteenth century gave 19. W. H. Woodward, Vittorino da Feltre and Other Humanist
way to a religious renaissance that touched the lives of Educators (Cambridge, 1897), p. 102.
people, including the masses, in new and profound 20. Ibid., pp. 106–107.
ways. After the Reformation, Europe would never again 21. Quoted in Iris Origo, “The Education of Renaissance
Man,” The Light of the Past (New York, 1959), p. 136.
be the unified Christian commonwealth it once believed
22. Quoted in Elizabeth G. Holt, ed., A Documentary History
it was. of Art (Garden City, N.Y., 1957), 1:286.
23. Quoted in Rosa M. Letts, The Cambridge Introduction to

NOTES L L L L L L L L L L L L L L L 24.
Art: The Renaissance (Cambridge, 1981), p. 86.
Quoted in Johan Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle
1. Quoted in Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Ages (Garden City, N.Y., 1956), p. 265.
Renaissance in Italy, trans. S. G. C. Middlemore (Lon- 25. Quoted in Alexander C. Flick, The Decline of the Medieval
don, 1960), p. 81. Church (London, 1930), 1:180.

360 CHAPTER 12
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING L L L L fifteenth-century civic humanism is H. Baron, The Crisis of the
Early Italian Renaissance, 2d ed. (Princeton, N.J., 1966). The
The classic study of the Italian Renaissance is J. Burckhardt, classic work on humanist education is W. H. Woodward, Vit-
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, trans. S. G. C. Mid- torino da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators (New York,
dlemore (London, 1960), first published in 1860. General 1963), first published in 1897. A basic work on the writing of
works on the Renaissance in Europe include D. L. Jensen, history in the Italian Renaissance is E. Cochrane, Historians
Renaissance Europe (Lexington, Mass., 1981); P. Burke, The and Historiography in the Italian Renaissance (Chicago, 1981).
European Renaissance: Centres and Peripheries (Oxford, 1998); The impact of printing is exhaustively examined in E. Eisen-
E. Breisach, Renaissance Europe, 1300–1517 (New York, 1973); stein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, 2 vols. (New
J. Hale, The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance (New York, 1978).
York, 1994); and the classic work by M. P. Gilmore, The World For brief introductions to Renaissance art, see R. M.
of Humanism, 1453–1517 (New York, 1962). Although many of Letts, The Cambridge Introduction to Art: The Renaissance
its interpretations are outdated, W. Ferguson’s Europe in Tran- (Cambridge, 1981); and B. Cole and A. Gealt, Art of the West-
sition, 1300–1520 (Boston, 1962), contains a wealth of infor- ern World (New York, 1989), Chapters 6–8. Good surveys of
mation. The brief study by P. Burke, The Renaissance, 2d ed. Renaissance art include F. Hartt, History of Italian Renaissance
(New York, 1997), is a good summary of recent literature on Art, 4th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1994); S. Elliott, Italian
the Renaissance. For beautifully illustrated introductions to the Renaissance Painting, 2d ed. (London, 1993); R. Turner,
Renaissance, see G. Holmes, Renaissance (New York, 1996); Renaissance Florence: The Invention of a New Art (New York,
and M. Aston, ed., The Panorama of the Renaissance (New 1997); and L. Murray, The High Renaissance (New York, 1967).
York, 1996). For studies of individual artists, see J. H. Beck, Raphael (New
Brief, but basic works on Renaissance economic matters York, 1994); M. Kemp, Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous
are H. A. Miskimin, The Economy of Early Renaissance Europe, Works of Nature and of Man (London, 1981); and A. Hughes,
1300–1460 (New York, 1975) and The Economy of Later Michelangelo (London, 1997). On music, see the specialized
Renaissance Europe, 1460–1600 (New York, 1978). For a new work by H. M. Brown, Music in the Renaissance, 2d ed.
interpretation of economic matters, see L. Jardine, Worldly (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1999).
Goods (New York, 1996). Numerous facets of social life in the For a general work on the political development of
Renaissance are examined in J. R. Hale, Renaissance Europe: Europe in the Renaissance, see J. H. Shennan, The Origins of
The Individual and Society (London, 1971); B. Pullan, Rich and the Modern European State, 1450–1725 (London, 1974). On
Poor in Renaissance Venice (Cambridge, Mass., 1971); J. H. France, see D. Potter, A History of France, 1460–1560 (London,
Langbein, Prosecuting Crime in the Renaissance (Cambridge, 1995). Early Renaissance England is examined in J. R. Lander,
Mass., 1974); and G. Ruggiero, The Boundaries of Eros: Sex Crown and Nobility, 1450–1509 (London, 1976). On the first
Crime and Sexuality in Renaissance Venice (Oxford, 1985). On Tudor king, see S. B. Chrimes, Henry VII (Berkeley, 1972).
family and marriage, see D. Herlihy, The Family in Renaissance Good coverage of Renaissance Spain can be found in J. N.
Italy (St. Louis, 1974); C. Klapisch-Zuber, Women, Family, and Hillgarth, The Spanish Kingdoms, 1250–1516, vol. 2, Castilian
Ritual in Renaissance Italy (Chicago, 1985); and the well-told Hegemony, 1410–1516 (New York, 1978). Some good works
story by G. Brucker, Giovanni and Lusanna: Love and Marriage on eastern Europe include P. W. Knoll, The Rise of the Polish
in Renaissance Florence (Berkeley, 1986). On women, see M. L. Monarchy (Chicago, 1972); and C. A. Macartney, Hungary: A
King, Women of the Renaissance (Chicago, 1991); and N. Z. Short History (Edinburgh, 1962). On the Ottomans and their
Davis and A. Farge, eds., A History of Women: Renaissance and expansion, see H. Inalcik, The Ottoman Empire: The Classical
Enlightenment Paradoxes (Cambridge, Mass., 1993). Age, 1300–1600 (London, 1973); and the classic work by S.
The best overall study of the Italian city-states is L. Mar- Runciman, The Fall of Constantinople, 1453 (Cambridge, 1965).
tines, Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy On problems of heresy and reform, see C. Crowder,
(New York, 1979), although D. Hay and J. Law, Italy in the Age Unity, Heresy and Reform, 1378–1460 (London, 1977). Aspects
of the Renaissance (London, 1989), is also a good survey. There of the Renaissance papacy can be examined in E. Lee, Sixtus IV
is an enormous literature on Renaissance Florence. The best and Men of Letters (Rome, 1978); and M. Mallett, The Borgias
introduction is G. A. Brucker, Renaissance Florence, rev. ed. (New York, 1969). On Rome, see especially P. Partner, Renais-
(Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1983). A popular biography of sance Rome, 1500–1559: A Portrait of a Society (Berkeley, 1976).
Isabella d’Este is G. Marek, The Bed and the Throne (New
York, 1976). On the condottieri, see M. Mallett, Mercenaries
and Their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy (Totowa, 1974).
The work by G. Mattingly, Renaissance Diplomacy (Boston,
1955) remains the basic one on the subject. Machiavelli’s life For additional reading, go to InfoTrac
can be examined in Q. Skinner, Machiavelli (Oxford, 1981). College Edition, your online research
Brief introductions to Renaissance humanism can be library at http://web1.infotrac-college.com
found in D. R. Kelley, Renaissance Humanism (Boston, 1991);
Enter the search term Renaissance using the Subject Guide.
C. G. Nauert, Jr., Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance
Europe (Cambridge, 1995); and F. B. Artz, Renaissance Human- Enter the search term Machiavelli using Key Terms.
ism, 1300–1550 (Oberlin, Ohio, 1966). For a good collection of
Enter the search term humanism using Subject Guide.
essays, see J. Kraye, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Renais-
sance Humanism (Cambridge, 1996). The fundamental work on Enter the search terms Leonardo da Vinci using Key Terms.

Recovery and Rebirth: The Age of the Renaissance 361