Renaissance

The Renaissance (UK: /rɪˈneɪsəns/ rin-AY-sənss, US: /ˈrɛnəsɑːns/ ⓘ REN-ə-sahnss)[1][2][a] is a period

of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the
transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and
surpass the ideas and achievements of classical antiquity. Associated with great social change in
most fields and disciplines, including art, architecture, politics, literature, exploration and science,
the Renaissance was first centered in the Republic of Florence, then spread to the rest of Italy and
later throughout Europe. The term rinascita ("rebirth") first appeared in Lives of the Artists (c. 1550)
by Giorgio Vasari, while the corresponding French word renaissance was adopted into English as the
term for this period during the 1830s.[4][b]

The Renaissance's intellectual basis was founded in its version of humanism, derived from the
concept of Roman humanitas and the rediscovery of classical Greek philosophy, such as that of
Protagoras, who said that "man is the measure of all things". Although the invention of metal
movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century, the changes of the
Renaissance were not uniform across Europe: the first traces appear in Italy as early as the late 13th
century, in particular with the writings of Dante and the paintings of Giotto.

As a cultural movement, the Renaissance encompassed innovative flowering of literary Latin and an
explosion of vernacular literatures, beginning with the 14th-century resurgence of learning based on
classical sources, which contemporaries credited to Petrarch; the development of linear perspective
and other techniques of rendering a more natural reality in painting; and gradual but widespread
educational reform. It saw myriad artistic developments and contributions from such polymaths as
Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, who inspired the term "Renaissance man".[5][6] In politics, the
Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, and in
science to an increased reliance on observation and inductive reasoning. The period also saw
revolutions in other intellectual and social scientific pursuits, as well as the introduction of modern
banking and the field of accounting.[7]

Period

The Renaissance period started during the crisis of the Late Middle Ages and conventionally ends
with the waning of humanism, and the advents of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, and in
art, the Baroque period. It had a different period and characteristics in different regions, such as the
Italian Renaissance, the Northern Renaissance, the Spanish Renaissance, etc.
In addition to the standard periodization, proponents of a "long Renaissance" may put its beginning
in the 14th century and its end in the 17th century.[c]

The traditional view focuses more on the Renaissance's early modern aspects and argues that it
was a break from the past, but many historians today focus more on its medieval aspects and argue
that it was an extension of the Middle Ages.[11][12]

Italian Renaissance

The beginnings of the period—the early Renaissance of the 15th century and the Italian Proto-
Renaissance from around 1250 or 1300—overlap considerably with the Late Middle Ages,
conventionally dated to c. 1350–1500, and the Middle Ages themselves were a long period filled
with gradual changes, like the modern age; as a transitional period between both, the Renaissance
has close similarities to both, especially the late and early sub-periods of either.

The Renaissance began in Florence, one of the many states of Italy.[13] The Italian Renaissance
concluded in 1527 when Holy Roman Emperor Charles V launched an assault on Rome during the
war of the League of Cognac. Nevertheless, its impact endured in the art of renowned Italian
painters like Tintoretto, Sofonisba Anguissola, and Paolo Veronese, who continued their work during
the mid-to-late 16th century.[14]

Various theories have been proposed to account for its origins and characteristics, focusing on a
variety of factors, including Florence's social and civic peculiarities at the time: its political structure,
the patronage of its dominant family, the Medici,[15] and the migration of Greek scholars and their
texts to Italy following the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire.[16][17][18] Other major
centers were Venice, Genoa, Milan, Rome during the Renaissance Papacy, and Naples. From Italy,
the Renaissance spread throughout Europe and also to American, African and Asian territories ruled
by the European colonial powers of the time or where Christian missionaries were active.

The Renaissance has a long and complex historiography, and in line with general skepticism of
discrete periodizations, there has been much debate among historians reacting to the 19th-century
glorification of the "Renaissance" and individual cultural heroes as "Renaissance men", questioning
the usefulness of Renaissance as a term and as a historical delineation.[19]

Some observers have questioned whether the Renaissance was a cultural "advance" from the
Middle Ages, instead seeing it as a period of pessimism and nostalgia for classical antiquity,[20]
while social and economic historians, especially of the longue durée, have instead focused on the
continuity between the two eras,[21] which are linked, as Panofsky observed, "by a thousand
ties".[22][d]

The word has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the
Carolingian Renaissance (8th and 9th centuries), Ottonian Renaissance (10th and 11th century), and
the Renaissance of the 12th century.[24]

Overview

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the
early modern period. Beginning in Italy, and spreading to the rest of Europe by the 16th century, its
influence was felt in art, architecture, philosophy, literature, music, science, technology, politics,
religion, and other aspects of intellectual inquiry. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist
method in study, and searched for realism and human emotion in art.[25]

Renaissance humanists such as Poggio Bracciolini sought out in Europe's monastic libraries the
Latin literary, historical, and oratorical texts of antiquity, while the fall of Constantinople (1453)
generated a wave of émigré Greek scholars bringing precious manuscripts in ancient Greek, many
of which had fallen into obscurity in the West. It was in their new focus on literary and historical
texts that Renaissance scholars differed so markedly from the medieval scholars of the
Renaissance of the 12th century, who had focused on studying Greek and Arabic works of natural
sciences, philosophy, and mathematics, rather than on such cultural texts.

Portrait of a Young Woman

(c. 1480–85) (Simonetta
Vespucci) by Sandro Botticelli
In the revival of neoplatonism, Renaissance humanists did not reject Christianity; on the contrary,
many of the Renaissance's greatest works were devoted to it, and the Church patronized many
works of Renaissance art. But a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached
religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life.[26] In addition, many Greek Christian
works, including the Greek New Testament, were brought back from Byzantium to Western Europe
and engaged Western scholars for the first time since late antiquity. This new engagement with
Greek Christian works, and particularly the return to the original Greek of the New Testament
promoted by humanists Lorenzo Valla and Erasmus, helped pave the way for the Reformation.

Well after the first artistic return to classicism had been exemplified in the sculpture of Nicola
Pisano, Florentine painters led by Masaccio strove to portray the human form realistically,
developing techniques to render perspective and light more naturally. Political philosophers, most
famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe political life as it really was, that is to understand
it rationally. A critical contribution to Italian Renaissance humanism, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
wrote De hominis dignitate (Oration on the Dignity of Man, 1486), a series of theses on philosophy,
natural thought, faith, and magic defended against any opponent on the grounds of reason. In
addition to studying classical Latin and Greek, Renaissance authors also began increasingly to use
vernacular languages; combined with the introduction of the printing press, this allowed many more
people access to books, especially the Bible.[27]

In all, the Renaissance can be viewed as an attempt by intellectuals to study and improve the
secular and worldly, both through the revival of ideas from antiquity and through novel approaches
to thought. Political philosopher Hans Kohn describes it as an age where "Men looked for new
foundations"; some like Erasmus and Thomas More envisioned new reformed spiritual foundations,
others. in the words of Machiavelli, una lunga sperienza delle cose moderne ed una continua lezione
delle antiche (a long experience with modern life and a continuous learning from antiquity).[28]

Sociologist Rodney Stark plays down the Renaissance in favor of the earlier innovations of the
Italian city-states in the High Middle Ages, which married responsive government, Christianity and
the birth of capitalism.[29] This analysis argues that, whereas the great European states (France and
Spain) were absolute monarchies, and others were under direct Church control, the independent
city-republics of Italy took over the principles of capitalism invented on monastic estates and set off
a vast unprecedented Commercial Revolution that preceded and financed the Renaissance.

Historian Leon Poliakov offers a critical view in his seminal study of European racist thought: The
Aryan Myth. According to Poliakov, the use of ethnic origin myths are first used by Renaissance
humanists "in the service of a new born chauvinism".[30][31]
Origins

View of Florence, birthplace of the

Renaissance

Many argue that the ideas characterizing the Renaissance had their origin in Florence at the turn of
the 13th and 14th centuries, in particular with the writings of Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) and
Petrarch (1304–1374), as well as the paintings of Giotto di Bondone (1267–1337). Some writers
date the Renaissance quite precisely; one proposed starting point is 1401, when the rival geniuses
Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi competed for the contract to build the bronze doors for
the Baptistery of the Florence Cathedral (Ghiberti won).[32] Others see more general competition
between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic
commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance.

Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, and why it began when it did.
Accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. Peter Rietbergen posits
that various influential Proto-Renaissance movements started from roughly 1300 onwards across
many regions of Europe.[33]
Latin and Greek phases of Renaissance humanism

Coluccio Salutati

In stark contrast to the High Middle Ages, when Latin scholars focused almost entirely on studying
Greek and Arabic works of natural science, philosophy and mathematics,[e] Renaissance scholars
were most interested in recovering and studying Latin and Greek literary, historical, and oratorical
texts. Broadly speaking, this began in the 14th century with a Latin phase, when Renaissance
scholars such as Petrarch, Coluccio Salutati (1331–1406), Niccolò de' Niccoli (1364–1437), and
Poggio Bracciolini (1380–1459) scoured the libraries of Europe in search of works by such Latin
authors as Cicero, Lucretius, Livy, and Seneca.[34] By the early 15th century, the bulk of the surviving
such Latin literature had been recovered; the Greek phase of Renaissance humanism was under
way, as Western European scholars turned to recovering ancient Greek literary, historical, oratorical
and theological texts.[35]

Unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity,
the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. Ancient Greek works
on science, mathematics, and philosophy had been studied since the High Middle Ages in Western
Europe and in the Islamic Golden Age (normally in translation), but Greek literary, oratorical and
historical works (such as Homer, the Greek dramatists, Demosthenes and Thucydides) were not
studied in either the Latin or medieval Islamic worlds; in the Middle Ages these sorts of texts were
only studied by Byzantine scholars. Some argue that the Timurid Renaissance in Samarkand and
Herat, whose magnificence toned with Florence as the center of a cultural rebirth,[36][37] were linked
to the Ottoman Empire, whose conquests led to the migration of Greek scholars to Italian
cities.[38][39][16][40] One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire
class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity.
Muslim logicians, most notably Avicenna and Averroes, had inherited Greek ideas after they had
invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas
worked their way through the Arab West into Iberia and Sicily, which became important centers for
this transmission of ideas. Between the 11th and 13th centuries, many schools dedicated to the
translation of philosophical and scientific works from Classical Arabic to Medieval Latin were
established in Iberia, most notably the Toledo School of Translators. This work of translation from
Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest
transmissions of ideas in history.[41]

The movement to reintegrate the regular study of Greek literary, historical, oratorical, and theological
texts back into the Western European curriculum is usually dated to the 1396 invitation from
Coluccio Salutati to the Byzantine diplomat and scholar Manuel Chrysoloras (c. 1355–1415) to
teach Greek in Florence.[42] This legacy was continued by a number of expatriate Greek scholars,
from Basilios Bessarion to Leo Allatius.

Social and political structures in Italy

A political map of the Italian Peninsula c.

1494

The unique political structures of Italy during the Late Middle Ages have led some to theorize that
its unusual social climate allowed the emergence of a rare cultural efflorescence. Italy did not exist
as a political entity in the early modern period. Instead, it was divided into smaller city-states and
territories: the Neapolitans controlled the south, the Florentines and the Romans at the center, the
Milanese and the Genoese to the north and west respectively, and the Venetians to the north east.
15th-century Italy was one of the most urbanized areas in Europe.[43] Many of its cities stood among
the ruins of ancient Roman buildings; it seems likely that the classical nature of the Renaissance
was linked to its origin in the Roman Empire's heartland.[44]

Historian and political philosopher Quentin Skinner points out that Otto of Freising (c. 1114–1158),
a German bishop visiting north Italy during the 12th century, noticed a widespread new form of
political and social organization, observing that Italy appeared to have exited from feudalism so that
its society was based on merchants and commerce. Linked to this was anti-monarchical thinking,
represented in the famous early Renaissance fresco cycle The Allegory of Good and Bad Government
by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (painted 1338–1340), whose strong message is about the virtues of
fairness, justice, republicanism and good administration. Holding both Church and Empire at bay,
these city republics were devoted to notions of liberty. Skinner reports that there were many
defences of liberty such as the Matteo Palmieri (1406–1475) celebration of Florentine genius not
only in art, sculpture and architecture, but "the remarkable efflorescence of moral, social and
political philosophy that occurred in Florence at the same time".[45]

Even cities and states beyond central Italy, such as the Republic of Florence at this time, were also
notable for their merchant republics, especially the Republic of Venice. Although in practice these
were oligarchical, and bore little resemblance to a modern democracy, they did have democratic
features and were responsive states, with forms of participation in governance and belief in
liberty.[45][46][47] The relative political freedom they afforded was conducive to academic and artistic
advancement.[48] Likewise, the position of Italian cities such as Venice as great trading centres
made them intellectual crossroads. Merchants brought with them ideas from far corners of the
globe, particularly the Levant. Venice was Europe's gateway to trade with the East, and a producer of
fine glass, while Florence was a capital of textiles. The wealth such business brought to Italy meant
large public and private artistic projects could be commissioned and individuals had more leisure
time for study.[48]
Black Death

Pieter Bruegel's The Triumph of Death

(c. 1562) reflects the social upheaval and
terror that followed the plague that
devastated medieval Europe.

One theory that has been advanced is that the devastation in Florence caused by the Black Death,
which hit Europe between 1348 and 1350, resulted in a shift in the world view of people in 14th
century Italy. Italy was particularly badly hit by the plague, and it has been speculated that the
resulting familiarity with death caused thinkers to dwell more on their lives on Earth, rather than on
spirituality and the afterlife.[49] It has also been argued that the Black Death prompted a new wave of
piety, manifested in the sponsorship of religious works of art.[50] However, this does not fully explain
why the Renaissance occurred specifically in Italy in the 14th century. The Black Death was a
pandemic that affected all of Europe in the ways described, not only Italy. The Renaissance's
emergence in Italy was most likely the result of the complex interaction of the above factors.[19]

The plague was carried by fleas on sailing vessels returning from the ports of Asia, spreading
quickly due to lack of proper sanitation: the population of England, then about 4.2 million, lost 1.4
million people to the bubonic plague. Florence's population was nearly halved in the year 1348. As a
result of the decimation in the populace the value of the working class increased, and commoners
came to enjoy more freedom. To answer the increased need for labor, workers traveled in search of
the most favorable position economically.[51]

The demographic decline due to the plague had economic consequences: the prices of food
dropped and land values declined by 30–40% in most parts of Europe between 1350 and 1400.[52]
Landholders faced a great loss, but for ordinary men and women it was a windfall. The survivors of
the plague found not only that the prices of food were cheaper but also that lands were more
abundant, and many of them inherited property from their dead relatives.

The spread of disease was significantly more rampant in areas of poverty. Epidemics ravaged cities,
particularly children. Plagues were easily spread by lice, unsanitary drinking water, armies, or by
poor sanitation. Children were hit the hardest because many diseases, such as typhus and
congenital syphilis, target the immune system, leaving young children without a fighting chance.
Children in city dwellings were more affected by the spread of disease than the children of the
wealthy.[53]

The Black Death caused greater upheaval to Florence's social and political structure than later
epidemics. Despite a significant number of deaths among members of the ruling classes, the
government of Florence continued to function during this period. Formal meetings of elected
representatives were suspended during the height of the epidemic due to the chaotic conditions in
the city, but a small group of officials was appointed to conduct the affairs of the city, which ensured
continuity of government.[54]

Cultural conditions in Florence

Lorenzo de' Medici, ruler of

Florence and patron of arts
(portrait by Vasari)

It has long been a matter of debate why the Renaissance began in Florence, and not elsewhere in
Italy. Scholars have noted several features unique to Florentine cultural life that may have caused
such a cultural movement. Many have emphasized the role played by the Medici, a banking family
and later ducal ruling house, in patronizing and stimulating the arts. Some historians have
postulated that Florence was the birthplace of the Renaissance as a result of luck, i.e., because
"Great Men" were born there by chance:[55] Leonardo, Botticelli and Michelangelo were all born in
Tuscany. Arguing that such chance seems improbable, other historians have contended that these
"Great Men" were only able to rise to prominence because of the prevailing cultural conditions at the
time.[56]
Lorenzo de' Medici (1449–1492) was the catalyst for an enormous amount of arts patronage,
encouraging his countrymen to commission works from the leading artists of Florence, including
Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Michelangelo Buonarroti.[15] Works by Neri di Bicci,
Botticelli, Leonardo, and Filippino Lippi had been commissioned additionally by the Convent of San
Donato in Scopeto in Florence.[57]

The Renaissance was certainly underway before Lorenzo de' Medici came to power – indeed, before
the Medici family itself achieved hegemony in Florentine society.

Characteristics

Humanism

In some ways, Renaissance humanism was not a philosophy but a method of learning. In contrast
to the medieval scholastic mode, which focused on resolving contradictions between authors,
Renaissance humanists would study ancient texts in their original languages and appraise them
through a combination of reasoning and empirical evidence. Humanist education was based on the
programme of Studia Humanitatis, the study of five humanities: poetry, grammar, history, moral
philosophy, and rhetoric. Although historians have sometimes struggled to define humanism
precisely, most have settled on "a middle of the road definition... the movement to recover, interpret,
and assimilate the language, literature, learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome".[58] Above
all, humanists asserted "the genius of man ... the unique and extraordinary ability of the human
mind".[59]

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola,

writer of the famous Oration on
the Dignity of Man, which has
been called the "Manifesto of the
Renaissance"[60]
Humanist scholars shaped the intellectual landscape throughout the early modern period. Political
philosophers such as Niccolò Machiavelli and Thomas More revived the ideas of Greek and Roman
thinkers and applied them in critiques of contemporary government, following the Islamic steps of
Ibn Khaldun.[61][62] Pico della Mirandola wrote the "manifesto" of the Renaissance, the Oration on the
Dignity of Man, a vibrant defence of thinking. Matteo Palmieri (1406–1475), another humanist, is
most known for his work Della vita civile ("On Civic Life"; printed 1528), which advocated civic
humanism, and for his influence in refining the Tuscan vernacular to the same level as Latin.
Palmieri drew on Roman philosophers and theorists, especially Cicero, who, like Palmieri, lived an
active public life as a citizen and official, as well as a theorist and philosopher and also Quintilian.
Perhaps the most succinct expression of his perspective on humanism is in a 1465 poetic work La
città di vita, but an earlier work, Della vita civile, is more wide-ranging. Composed as a series of
dialogues set in a country house in the Mugello countryside outside Florence during the plague of
1430, Palmieri expounds on the qualities of the ideal citizen. The dialogues include ideas about how
children develop mentally and physically, how citizens can conduct themselves morally, how citizens
and states can ensure probity in public life, and an important debate on the difference between that
which is pragmatically useful and that which is honest.

The humanists believed that it is important to transcend to the afterlife with a perfect mind and
body, which could be attained with education. The purpose of humanism was to create a universal
man whose person combined intellectual and physical excellence and who was capable of
functioning honorably in virtually any situation.[63] This ideology was referred to as the uomo
universale, an ancient Greco-Roman ideal. Education during the Renaissance was mainly composed
of ancient literature and history as it was thought that the classics provided moral instruction and
an intensive understanding of human behavior.

Humanism and libraries

A unique characteristic of some Renaissance libraries is that they were open to the public. These
libraries were places where ideas were exchanged and where scholarship and reading were
considered both pleasurable and beneficial to the mind and soul. As freethinking was a hallmark of
the age, many libraries contained a wide range of writers. Classical texts could be found alongside
humanist writings. These informal associations of intellectuals profoundly influenced Renaissance
culture. An essential tool of Renaissance librarianship was the catalog that listed, described, and
classified a library's books.[64] Some of the richest "bibliophiles" built libraries as temples to books
and knowledge. A number of libraries appeared as manifestations of immense wealth joined with a
love of books. In some cases, cultivated library builders were also committed to offering others the
opportunity to use their collections. Prominent aristocrats and princes of the Church created great
libraries for the use of their courts, called "court libraries", and were housed in lavishly designed
monumental buildings decorated with ornate woodwork, and the walls adorned with frescoes
(Murray, Stuart A.P.).

Art

Renaissance art marks a cultural rebirth at the close of the Middle Ages and rise of the Modern
world. One of the distinguishing features of Renaissance art was its development of highly realistic
linear perspective. Giotto di Bondone (1267–1337) is credited with first treating a painting as a
window into space, but it was not until the demonstrations of architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–
1446) and the subsequent writings of Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) that perspective was
formalized as an artistic technique.[65]

Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man (c. 1490)

demonstrates the effect writers of
Antiquity had on Renaissance thinkers.
Based on the specifications in Vitruvius' De
architectura (1st century BC), Leonardo
tried to draw the perfectly proportioned
man. (Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice)

The development of perspective was part of a wider trend toward realism in the arts.[66] Painters
developed other techniques, studying light, shadow, and, famously in the case of Leonardo da Vinci,
human anatomy. Underlying these changes in artistic method was a renewed desire to depict the
beauty of nature and to unravel the axioms of aesthetics, with the works of Leonardo, Michelangelo
and Raphael representing artistic pinnacles that were much imitated by other artists.[67] Other
notable artists include Sandro Botticelli, working for the Medici in Florence, Donatello, another
Florentine, and Titian in Venice, among others.

In the Low Countries, a particularly vibrant artistic culture developed. The work of Hugo van der
Goes and Jan van Eyck was particularly influential on the development of painting in Italy, both
technically with the introduction of oil paint and canvas, and stylistically in terms of naturalism in
representation. Later, the work of Pieter Brueghel the Elder would inspire artists to depict themes of
everyday life.[68]

In architecture, Filippo Brunelleschi was foremost in studying the remains of ancient classical
buildings. With rediscovered knowledge from the 1st-century writer Vitruvius and the flourishing
discipline of mathematics, Brunelleschi formulated the Renaissance style that emulated and
improved on classical forms. His major feat of engineering was building the dome of Florence
Cathedral.[69] Another building demonstrating this style is the Basilica of Sant'Andrea, Mantua, built
by Alberti. The outstanding architectural work of the High Renaissance was the rebuilding of St.
Peter's Basilica, combining the skills of Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael, Sangallo and Maderno.

During the Renaissance, architects aimed to use columns, pilasters, and entablatures as an
integrated system. The Roman orders types of columns are used: Tuscan and Composite. These
can either be structural, supporting an arcade or architrave, or purely decorative, set against a wall in
the form of pilasters. One of the first buildings to use pilasters as an integrated system was in the
Old Sacristy (1421–1440) by Brunelleschi.[70] Arches, semi-circular or (in the Mannerist style)
segmental, are often used in arcades, supported on piers or columns with capitals. There may be a
section of entablature between the capital and the springing of the arch. Alberti was one of the first
to use the arch on a monumental. Renaissance vaults do not have ribs; they are semi-circular or
segmental and on a square plan, unlike the Gothic vault, which is frequently rectangular.

Renaissance artists were not pagans, although they admired antiquity and kept some ideas and
symbols of the medieval past. Nicola Pisano (c. 1220 – c. 1278) imitated classical forms by
portraying scenes from the Bible. His Annunciation, from the Pisa Baptistry, demonstrates that
classical models influenced Italian art before the Renaissance took root as a literary movement.[71]
Science

Anonymous portrait of Nicolaus

Copernicus (c. 1580)

Portrait of Luca Pacioli, father of

accounting, painted by Jacopo de'
Barbari,[f] 1495 (Museo di Capodimonte)

Applied innovation extended to commerce. At the end of the 15th century, Luca Pacioli published
the first work on bookkeeping, making him the founder of accounting.[7]

The rediscovery of ancient texts and the invention of the printing press in about 1440 democratized
learning and allowed a faster propagation of more widely distributed ideas. In the first period of the
Italian Renaissance, humanists favored the study of humanities over natural philosophy or applied
mathematics, and their reverence for classical sources further enshrined the Aristotelian and
Ptolemaic views of the universe. Writing around 1450, Nicholas of Cusa anticipated the heliocentric
worldview of Copernicus, but in a philosophical fashion.

Science and art were intermingled in the early Renaissance, with polymath artists such as Leonardo
da Vinci making observational drawings of anatomy and nature. Leonardo set up controlled
experiments in water flow, medical dissection, and systematic study of movement and
aerodynamics, and he devised principles of research method that led Fritjof Capra to classify him as
the "father of modern science".[g] Other examples of Da Vinci's contribution during this period
include machines designed to saw marbles and lift monoliths, and new discoveries in acoustics,
botany, geology, anatomy, and mechanics.[74]

A suitable environment had developed to question classical scientific doctrine. The discovery in
1492 of the New World by Christopher Columbus challenged the classical worldview. The works of
Ptolemy (in geography) and Galen (in medicine) were found to not always match everyday
observations. As the Reformation and Counter-Reformation clashed, the Northern Renaissance
showed a decisive shift in focus from Aristotelean natural philosophy to chemistry and the
biological sciences (botany, anatomy, and medicine).[75] The willingness to question previously held
truths and search for new answers resulted in a period of major scientific advancements.

Some view this as a "scientific revolution", heralding the beginning of the modern age,[76] others as
an acceleration of a continuous process stretching from the ancient world to the present day.[77]
Significant scientific advances were made during this time by Galileo Galilei, Tycho Brahe, and
Johannes Kepler.[78] Copernicus, in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the
Heavenly Spheres), posited that the Earth moved around the Sun. De humani corporis fabrica (On the
Workings of the Human Body) by Andreas Vesalius, gave a new confidence to the role of dissection,
observation, and the mechanistic view of anatomy.[79]

Another important development was in the process for discovery, the scientific method,[79] focusing
on empirical evidence and the importance of mathematics, while discarding much of Aristotelian
science. Early and influential proponents of these ideas included Copernicus, Galileo, and Francis
Bacon.[80][81] The new scientific method led to great contributions in the fields of astronomy,
physics, biology, and anatomy.[h][82]

Navigation and geography

The Cantino planisphere (1502), the

earliest world map detailing Portuguese
maritime exploration
During the Renaissance, extending from 1450 to 1650,[83] every continent was visited and mostly
mapped by Europeans, except the south polar continent now known as Antarctica. This
development is depicted in the large world map Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula made by the
Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu in 1648 to commemorate the Peace of Westphalia.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain seeking a direct route to
India of the Delhi Sultanate. He accidentally stumbled upon the Americas, but believed he had
reached the East Indies.

In 1606, the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon sailed from the East Indies in the Dutch East India
Company ship Duyfken and landed in Australia. He charted about 300 km of the west coast of Cape
York Peninsula in Queensland. More than thirty Dutch expeditions followed, mapping sections of the
north, west, and south coasts. In 1642–1643, Abel Tasman circumnavigated the continent, proving
that it was not joined to the imagined south polar continent.

By 1650, Dutch cartographers had mapped most of the coastline of the continent, which they
named New Holland, except the east coast which was charted in 1770 by James Cook.

The long-imagined south polar continent was eventually sighted in 1820. Throughout the
Renaissance it had been known as Terra Australis, or 'Australia' for short. However, after that name
was transferred to New Holland in the nineteenth century, the new name of 'Antarctica' was
bestowed on the south polar continent.[84]

Music

From this changing society emerged a common, unifying musical language, in particular the
polyphonic style of the Franco-Flemish school. The development of printing made distribution of
music possible on a wide scale. Demand for music as entertainment and as an activity for educated
amateurs increased with the emergence of a bourgeois class. Dissemination of chansons, motets,
and masses throughout Europe coincided with the unification of polyphonic practice into the fluid
style that culminated in the second half of the sixteenth century in the work of composers such as
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Orlande de Lassus, Tomás Luis de Victoria, and William Byrd.
Religion

Alexander VI, a Borgia Pope

infamous for his corruption

The new ideals of humanism, although more secular in some aspects, developed against a Christian
backdrop, especially in the Northern Renaissance. Much, if not most, of the new art was
commissioned by or in dedication to the Roman Catholic Church.[26] However, the Renaissance had
a profound effect on contemporary theology, particularly in the way people perceived the
relationship between man and God.[26] Many of the period's foremost theologians were followers of
the humanist method, including Erasmus, Huldrych Zwingli, Thomas More, Martin Luther, and John
Calvin.

Adoration of the Magi and Solomon adored

by the Queen of Sheba from the Farnese
Hours (1546) by Giulio Clovio marks the
end of the Italian Renaissance of
illuminated manuscript together with the
Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

The Renaissance began in times of religious turmoil. The Late Middle Ages was a period of political
intrigue surrounding the Papacy, culminating in the Western Schism, in which three men
simultaneously claimed to be true Bishop of Rome.[85] While the schism was resolved by the Council
of Constance (1414), a resulting reform movement known as Conciliarism sought to limit the power
of the pope. Although the papacy eventually emerged supreme in ecclesiastical matters by the Fifth
Council of the Lateran (1511), it was dogged by continued accusations of corruption, most
famously in the person of Pope Alexander VI, who was accused variously of simony, nepotism, and
fathering children (most of whom were married off, presumably for the consolidation of power)
while a cardinal.[86]

Churchmen such as Erasmus and Luther proposed reform to the Church, often based on humanist
textual criticism of the New Testament.[26] In October 1517, Luther published the Ninety-five Theses,
challenging papal authority and criticizing its perceived corruption, particularly with regard to
instances of sold indulgences.[i] The 95 Theses led to the Reformation, a break with the Roman
Catholic Church that previously claimed hegemony in Western Europe. Humanism and the
Renaissance therefore played a direct role in sparking the Reformation, as well as in many other
contemporaneous religious debates and conflicts.

Pope Paul III came to the papal throne (1534–1549) after the sack of Rome in 1527, with
uncertainties prevalent in the Catholic Church following the Reformation. Nicolaus Copernicus
dedicated De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) to Paul
III, who became the grandfather of Alessandro Farnese, who had paintings by Titian, Michelangelo,
and Raphael, as well as an important collection of drawings, and who commissioned the
masterpiece of Giulio Clovio, arguably the last major illuminated manuscript, the Farnese Hours.

Self-awareness

Leonardo Bruni

By the 15th century, writers, artists, and architects in Italy were well aware of the transformations
that were taking place and were using phrases such as modi antichi (in the antique manner) or alle
romana et alla antica (in the manner of the Romans and the ancients) to describe their work. In the
1330s Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua (ancient) and to the Christian period as
nova (new).[87] From Petrarch's Italian perspective, this new period (which included his own time)
was an age of national eclipse.[87] Leonardo Bruni was the first to use tripartite periodization in his
History of the Florentine People (1442).[88] Bruni's first two periods were based on those of Petrarch,
but he added a third period because he believed that Italy was no longer in a state of decline. Flavio
Biondo used a similar framework in Decades of History from the Deterioration of the Roman Empire
(1439–1453).

Humanist historians argued that contemporary scholarship restored direct links to the classical
period, thus bypassing the Medieval period, which they then named for the first time the "Middle
Ages". The term first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas (middle times).[89] The term
rinascita (rebirth) first appeared, however, in its broad sense in Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists,
1550, revised 1568.[90][91] Vasari divides the age into three phases: the first phase contains
Cimabue, Giotto, and Arnolfo di Cambio; the second phase contains Masaccio, Brunelleschi, and
Donatello; the third centers on Leonardo da Vinci and culminates with Michelangelo. It was not just
the growing awareness of classical antiquity that drove this development, according to Vasari, but
also the growing desire to study and imitate nature.[92]

Spread

In the 15th century, the Renaissance spread rapidly from its birthplace in Florence to the rest of Italy
and soon to the rest of Europe. The invention of the printing press by German printer Johannes
Gutenberg allowed the rapid transmission of these new ideas. As it spread, its ideas diversified and
changed, being adapted to local culture. In the 20th century, scholars began to break the
Renaissance into regional and national movements.
England

"What a piece of work is a man,

how noble in reason, how infinite
in faculties, in form and moving
how express and admirable, in
action how like an angel, in
apprehension how like a god!" –
from William Shakespeare's
Hamlet

The Elizabethan era in the second half of the 16th century is usually regarded as the height of the
English Renaissance. Many scholars see its beginnings in the early 16th century during the reign of
Henry VIII.[93]

The English Renaissance is different from the Italian Renaissance in several ways. The dominant art
forms of the English Renaissance were literature and music, which had a rich flowering.[94] Visual
arts in the English Renaissance were much less significant than in the Italian Renaissance. The
English Renaissance period in art began far later than the Italian, which had moved into Mannerism
by the 1530s.[95]

In literature the later part of the 16th century saw the flowering of Elizabethan literature, with poetry
heavily influenced by Italian Renaissance literature but Elizabethan theatre a distinctive native style.
Writers include William Shakespeare (1564–1616), Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), Edmund
Spenser (1552–1599), Sir Thomas More (1478–1535), and Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586). English
Renaissance music competed with that in Europe with composers such as Thomas Tallis (1505–
1585), John Taverner (1490–1545), and William Byrd (1540–1623). Elizabethan architecture
produced the large prodigy houses of courtiers, and in the next century Inigo Jones (1573–1652),
who introduced Palladian architecture to England.[96]
Elsewhere, Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626) was the pioneer of modern scientific thought, and is
commonly regarded as one of the founders of the Scientific Revolution.[97][98]

France

Château de Chambord (1519–1547), one

of the most famous examples of
Renaissance architecture

The word "Renaissance" is borrowed from the French language, where it means "re-birth". It was first
used in the eighteenth century and was later popularized by French historian Jules Michelet (1798–
1874) in his 1855 work, Histoire de France (History of France).[99][100]

In 1495 the Italian Renaissance arrived in France, imported by King Charles VIII after his invasion of
Italy. A factor that promoted the spread of secularism was the inability of the Church to offer
assistance against the Black Death. Francis I imported Italian art and artists, including Leonardo da
Vinci, Primaticcio, Rosso Fiorentino, Niccolò dell'Abbate and Benvenuto Cellini and built ornate
palaces at great expense, like the Palace of Fontainebleau and the castle of Chambord. Writers such
as François Rabelais, Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay, and Michel de Montaigne, painters such
as Jean Clouet and François Clouet, and musicians such as Jean Mouton also borrowed from the
spirit of the Renaissance. French Renaissance sculptors include Michel Colombe, Jean Goujon,
Pierre Bontemps, Ligier Richier and Germain Pilon while important architects of the time were Pierre
Lescot, who built the Henri II aisle of the Louvre, Philibert Delorme and Jacques I Androuet du
Cerceau.

In 1533, a fourteen-year-old Catherine de' Medici (1519–1589), born in Florence to Lorenzo de'
Medici, Duke of Urbino and Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne, married Henry II of France, second
son of King Francis I and Queen Claude. Though she became famous and infamous for her role in
the French Wars of Religion, she made a direct contribution in bringing arts, sciences, and music
(including the origins of ballet) to the French court from her native Florence.
Germany

Portrait of Emperor Maximilian I,

by Albrecht Dürer, 1519

In the second half of the 15th century, the Renaissance spirit spread to Germany and the Low
Countries, where the development of the printing press (ca. 1450) and Renaissance artists such as
Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) predated the influence from Italy. In the early Protestant areas of the
country humanism became closely linked to the turmoil of the Reformation, and the art and writing
of the German Renaissance frequently reflected this dispute.[101] However, the Gothic style and
medieval scholastic philosophy remained exclusively until the turn of the 16th century. Emperor
Maximilian I of Habsburg (ruling 1493–1519) was the first truly Renaissance monarch of the Holy
Roman Empire.

Hungarian trecento and quattrocento

After Italy, Hungary was the first European country where the Renaissance appeared.[102] The
Renaissance style came directly from Italy during the Quattrocento (1400s) to Hungary first in the
Central European region, thanks to the development of early Hungarian-Italian relationships — not
only in dynastic connections, but also in cultural, humanistic and commercial relations – growing in
strength from the 14th century. The relationship between Hungarian and Italian Gothic styles was a
second reason – exaggerated breakthrough of walls is avoided, preferring clean and light
structures. Large-scale building schemes provided ample and long term work for the artists, for
example, the building of the Friss (New) Castle in Buda, the castles of Visegrád, Tata, and Várpalota.
In Sigismund's court there were patrons such as Pippo Spano, a descendant of the Scolari family of
Florence, who invited Manetto Ammanatini and Masolino da Pannicale to Hungary.[103]
The new Italian trend combined with existing national traditions to create a particular local
Renaissance art. Acceptance of Renaissance art was furthered by the continuous arrival of
humanist thought in the country. Many young Hungarians studying at Italian universities came
closer to the Florentine humanist center, so a direct connection with Florence evolved. The growing
number of Italian traders moving to Hungary, specially to Buda, helped this process. New thoughts
were carried by the humanist prelates, among them Vitéz János, archbishop of Esztergom, one of
the founders of Hungarian humanism.[104] During the long reign of Emperor Sigismund of
Luxemburg the Royal Castle of Buda became probably the largest Gothic palace of the late Middle
Ages. King Matthias Corvinus (r. 1458–1490) rebuilt the palace in early Renaissance style and
further expanded it.[105][106]

After the marriage in 1476 of King Matthias to Beatrice of Naples, Buda became one of the most
important artistic centers of the Renaissance north of the Alps.[107] The most important humanists
living in Matthias' court were Antonio Bonfini and the famous Hungarian poet Janus Pannonius.[107]
András Hess set up a printing press in Buda in 1472. Matthias Corvinus's library, the Bibliotheca
Corviniana, was Europe's greatest collections of secular books: historical chronicles, philosophic
and scientific works in the 15th century. His library was second only in size to the Vatican Library.
(However, the Vatican Library mainly contained Bibles and religious materials.)[108] In 1489,
Bartolomeo della Fonte of Florence wrote that Lorenzo de' Medici founded his own Greek-Latin
library encouraged by the example of the Hungarian king. Corvinus's library is part of UNESCO World
Heritage.[109]

Matthias started at least two major building projects.[110] The works in Buda and Visegrád began in
about 1479.[111] Two new wings and a hanging garden were built at the royal castle of Buda, and the
palace at Visegrád was rebuilt in Renaissance style.[111][112] Matthias appointed the Italian Chimenti
Camicia and the Dalmatian Giovanni Dalmata to direct these projects.[111] Matthias commissioned
the leading Italian artists of his age to embellish his palaces: for instance, the sculptor Benedetto da
Majano and the painters Filippino Lippi and Andrea Mantegna worked for him.[113] A copy of
Mantegna's portrait of Matthias survived.[114] Matthias also hired the Italian military engineer
Aristotele Fioravanti to direct the rebuilding of the forts along the southern frontier.[115] He had new
monasteries built in Late Gothic style for the Franciscans in Kolozsvár, Szeged and Hunyad, and for
the Paulines in Fejéregyháza.[116][117] In the spring of 1485, Leonardo da Vinci travelled to Hungary
on behalf of Sforza to meet King Matthias Corvinus, and was commissioned by him to paint a
Madonna.[118]

Matthias enjoyed the company of Humanists and had lively discussions on various topics with
them.[119] The fame of his magnanimity encouraged many scholars—mostly Italian—to settle in
Buda.[120] Antonio Bonfini, Pietro Ranzano, Bartolomeo Fonzio, and Francesco Bandini spent many
years in Matthias's court.[121][119] This circle of educated men introduced the ideas of Neoplatonism
to Hungary.[122][123] Like all intellectuals of his age, Matthias was convinced that the movements and
combinations of the stars and planets exercised influence on individuals' life and on the history of
nations.[124] Martius Galeotti described him as "king and astrologer", and Antonio Bonfini said
Matthias "never did anything without consulting the stars".[125] Upon his request, the famous
astronomers of the age, Johannes Regiomontanus and Marcin Bylica, set up an observatory in Buda
and installed it with astrolabes and celestial globes.[126] Regiomontanus dedicated his book on
navigation that was used by Christopher Columbus to Matthias.[120]

Other important figures of Hungarian Renaissance include Bálint Balassi (poet), Sebestyén Tinódi
Lantos (poet), Bálint Bakfark (composer and lutenist), and Master MS (fresco painter).

Renaissance in the Low Countries

Erasmus of Rotterdam in 1523,

as depicted by Hans Holbein the
Younger

Culture in the Netherlands at the end of the 15th century was influenced by the Italian Renaissance
through trade via Bruges, which made Flanders wealthy. Its nobles commissioned artists who
became known across Europe.[127] In science, the anatomist Andreas Vesalius led the way; in
cartography, Gerardus Mercator's map assisted explorers and navigators. In art, Dutch and Flemish
Renaissance painting ranged from the strange work of Hieronymus Bosch[128] to the everyday life
depictions of Pieter Brueghel the Elder.[127]

Erasmus was arguably the Netherlands' best known humanist and Catholic intellectual during the
Renaissance.[33]
Northern Europe

The Renaissance in Northern Europe has been termed the "Northern Renaissance". While
Renaissance ideas were moving north from Italy, there was a simultaneous southward spread of
some areas of innovation, particularly in music.[129] The music of the 15th-century Burgundian
School defined the beginning of the Renaissance in music, and the polyphony of the Netherlanders,
as it moved with the musicians themselves into Italy, formed the core of the first true international
style in music since the standardization of Gregorian Chant in the 9th century.[129] The culmination
of the Netherlandish school was in the music of the Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi da
Palestrina. At the end of the 16th century Italy again became a center of musical innovation, with
the development of the polychoral style of the Venetian School, which spread northward into
Germany around 1600. In Denmark, the Renaissance sparked the translation of the works of Saxo
Grammaticus into Danish as well as Frederick II and Christian IV ordering the redecoration or
construction of several important works of architecture, i.e. Kronborg, Rosenborg and Børsen.[130]
Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe greatly contributed to turn astronomy into the first modern science
and also helped launch the Scientific Revolution.[131][132]

The paintings of the Italian Renaissance differed from those of the Northern Renaissance. Italian
Renaissance artists were among the first to paint secular scenes, breaking away from the purely
religious art of medieval painters. Northern Renaissance artists initially remained focused on
religious subjects, such as the contemporary religious upheaval portrayed by Albrecht Dürer. Later,
the works of Pieter Bruegel the Elder influenced artists to paint scenes of daily life rather than
religious or classical themes. It was also during the Northern Renaissance that Flemish brothers
Hubert and Jan van Eyck perfected the oil painting technique, which enabled artists to produce
strong colors on a hard surface that could survive for centuries.[133] A feature of the Northern
Renaissance was its use of the vernacular in place of Latin or Greek, which allowed greater freedom
of expression. This movement had started in Italy with the decisive influence of Dante Alighieri on
the development of vernacular languages; in fact the focus on writing in Italian has neglected a
major source of Florentine ideas expressed in Latin.[134] The spread of the printing press technology
boosted the Renaissance in Northern Europe as elsewhere, with Venice becoming a world center of
printing.

Poland
 A 16th-century Renaissance tombstone of Polish
kings within the Sigismund Chapel in Kraków,
Poland. The golden-domed chapel was designed
by Bartolommeo Berrecci.

The Polish Renaissance lasted from the late 15th to the late 16th century and was the Golden Age
of Polish culture. Ruled by the Jagiellonian dynasty, the Kingdom of Poland (from 1569 known as
the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) actively participated in the broad European Renaissance. An
early Italian humanist who came to Poland in the mid-15th century was Filippo Buonaccorsi, who
was employed as royal advisor and councillor. The tomb of John I Albert, completed in 1505 by
Francesco Fiorentino, is the first example of a Renaissance composition in the country.[135][136]
Many Italian artists subsequently came to Poland with Bona Sforza of Milan, when she married King
Sigismund I in 1518.[137] This was supported by temporarily strengthened monarchies in both areas,
as well as by newly established universities.[138]

The Renaissance was a period when the multi-national Polish state experienced a substantial period
of cultural growth thanks in part to a century without major wars, aside from conflicts in the
sparsely populated eastern and southern borderlands. Architecture became more refined and
decorative. Mannerism played an important part in shaping what is now considered to be the truly
Polish architectural style – high attics above the cornice with pinnacles and pilasters.[139] It was
also the time when the first major works of Polish literature were published, particularly those of
Mikołaj Rey and Jan Kochanowski, and the Polish language became the lingua franca of East-
Central Europe.[140] The Jagiellonian University transformed into a major institution of higher
education for the region and hosted many notable scholars, chiefly Nicolaus Copernicus and Conrad
Celtes. Three more academies were founded at Königsberg (1544), Vilnius (1579), and Zamość
(1594). The Reformation spread peacefully throughout the country, giving rise to the Nontrinitarian
Polish Brethren.[141] Living conditions improved, cities grew, and exports of agricultural products
enriched the population, especially the nobility (szlachta) and magnates. The nobles gained
dominance in the new political system of Golden Liberty, a counterweight to monarchical
absolutism.[142]
Portugal

Luís de Camões, and his seminal

work Os Lusíadas, are
considered the greatest poet of
the Portuguese language and
the pinnacle of Portuguese
literature, respectively.

Although Italian Renaissance had a modest impact in Portuguese arts, Portugal was influential in
broadening the European worldview,[143] stimulating humanist inquiry. Renaissance arrived through
the influence of wealthy Italian and Flemish merchants who invested in the profitable commerce
overseas. As the pioneer headquarters of European exploration, Lisbon flourished in the late 15th
century, attracting experts who made several breakthroughs in mathematics, astronomy and naval
technology, including Pedro Nunes, João de Castro, Abraham Zacuto, and Martin Behaim.
Cartographers Pedro Reinel, Lopo Homem, Estêvão Gomes, and Diogo Ribeiro made crucial
advances in mapping the world. Apothecary Tomé Pires and physicians Garcia de Orta and
Cristóvão da Costa collected and published works on plants and medicines, soon translated by
Flemish pioneer botanist Carolus Clusius.

In architecture, the huge profits of the spice trade financed a sumptuous composite style in the first
decades of the 16th century, the Manueline, incorporating maritime elements.[144] The primary
painters were Nuno Gonçalves, Gregório Lopes, and Vasco Fernandes. In music, Pedro de Escobar
and Duarte Lobo produced four songbooks, including the Cancioneiro de Elvas.
 The renaissance cloister at the Convent of
Christ in Tomar

In literature, Luís de Camões inscribed the Portuguese feats overseas in the epic poem Os Lusíadas.
Sá de Miranda introduced Italian forms of verse and Bernardim Ribeiro developed pastoral romance,
while plays by Gil Vicente fused it with popular culture, reporting the changing times. Travel
literature especially flourished: João de Barros, Fernão Lopes de Castanheda, António Galvão,
Gaspar Correia, Duarte Barbosa, and Fernão Mendes Pinto, among others, described new lands and
were translated and spread with the new printing press.[143] After joining the Portuguese exploration
of Brazil in 1500, Amerigo Vespucci coined the term New World,[145] in his letters to Lorenzo di
Pierfrancesco de' Medici.

The intense international exchange produced several cosmopolitan humanist scholars, including
Francisco de Holanda, André de Resende, and Damião de Góis, a friend of Erasmus who wrote with
rare independence on the reign of King Manuel I. Diogo de Gouveia and André de Gouveia made
relevant teaching reforms via France. Foreign news and products in the Portuguese factory in
Antwerp attracted the interest of Thomas More[146] and Albrecht Dürer to the wider world.[147] There,
profits and know-how helped nurture the Dutch Renaissance and Golden Age, especially after the
arrival of the wealthy cultured Jewish community expelled from Portugal.

Spain

The Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo del

Escorial, by Juan de Herrera and Juan
Bautista de Toledo
The Renaissance arrived in the Iberian peninsula through the Mediterranean possessions of the
Crown of Aragon and the city of Valencia. Many early Spanish Renaissance writers come from the
Crown of Aragon, including Ausiàs March and Joanot Martorell. In the Crown of Castile, the early
Renaissance was heavily influenced by the Italian humanism, starting with writers and poets such
as Íñigo López de Mendoza, marqués de Santillana, who introduced the new Italian poetry to Spain
in the early 15th century. Other writers, such as Jorge Manrique, Fernando de Rojas, Juan del
Encina, Juan Boscán Almogáver, and Garcilaso de la Vega, kept a close resemblance to the Italian
canon. Miguel de Cervantes's masterpiece Don Quixote is credited as the first Western novel.
Renaissance humanism flourished in the early 16th century, with influential writers such as
philosopher Juan Luis Vives, grammarian Antonio de Nebrija and natural historian Pedro de Mexía.
The poet and philosopher Luisa de Medrano, celebrated among her Renaissance contemporaries as
one of the puellae doctae ("learned girls"), was the first female professor in Europe at the University
of Salamanca.

Later Spanish Renaissance tended toward religious themes and mysticism, with poets such as Luis
de León, Teresa of Ávila, and John of the Cross, and treated issues related to the exploration of the
New World, with chroniclers and writers such as Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and Bartolomé de las
Casas, giving rise to a body of work, now known as Spanish Renaissance literature. The late
Renaissance in Spain produced political and religious authors such as Tomás Fernández de
Medrano and artists such as El Greco and composers such as Tomás Luis de Victoria and Antonio
de Cabezón.

Further countries

Renaissance in Croatia

Renaissance in Scotland
Historiography

Conception

A cover of the Lives of the Artists by Giorgio

Vasari

The Italian artist and critic Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) first used the term rinascita in his book The
Lives of the Artists (published 1550). In the book Vasari attempted to define what he described as a
break with the barbarities of Gothic art: the arts (he held) had fallen into decay with the collapse of
the Roman Empire and only the Tuscan artists, beginning with Cimabue (1240–1301) and Giotto
(1267–1337) began to reverse this decline in the arts. Vasari saw ancient art as central to the
rebirth of Italian art.[148]

However, only in the 19th century did the French word renaissance achieve popularity in describing
the self-conscious cultural movement based on revival of Roman models that began in the late 13th
century. French historian Jules Michelet (1798–1874) defined "The Renaissance" in his 1855 work
Histoire de France as an entire historical period, whereas previously it had been used in a more
limited sense.[24] For Michelet, the Renaissance was more a development in science than in art and
culture. He asserted that it spanned the period from Columbus to Copernicus to Galileo; that is,
from the end of the 15th century to the middle of the 17th century.[99] Moreover, Michelet
distinguished between what he called, "the bizarre and monstrous" quality of the Middle Ages and
the democratic values that he, as a vocal Republican, chose to see in its character.[19] A French
nationalist, Michelet also sought to claim the Renaissance as a French movement.[19]
The Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt (1818–1897) in his The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy
(1860), by contrast, defined the Renaissance as the period between Giotto and Michelangelo in Italy,
that is, the 14th to mid-16th centuries. He saw in the Renaissance the emergence of the modern
spirit of individuality, which the Middle Ages had stifled.[149] His book was widely read and became
influential in the development of the modern interpretation of the Italian Renaissance.[150]

More recently, some historians have been much less keen to define the Renaissance as a historical
age, or even as a coherent cultural movement. The historian Randolph Starn, of the University of
California Berkeley, stated in 1998:

Rather than a period with definitive beginnings and endings and consistent content
in between, the Renaissance can be (and occasionally has been) seen as a movement
of practices and ideas to which specific groups and identifiable persons variously
responded in different times and places. It would be in this sense a network of
diverse, sometimes converging, sometimes conflicting cultures, not a single, time-
bound culture.[21]

Debates about progress

There is debate about the extent to which the Renaissance improved on the culture of the Middle
Ages. Both Michelet and Burckhardt were keen to describe the progress made in the Renaissance
toward the modern age. Burckhardt likened the change to a veil being removed from man's eyes,
allowing him to see clearly.[55]

In the Middle Ages both sides of human consciousness – that which was turned
within as that which was turned without – lay dreaming or half awake beneath a
common veil. The veil was woven of faith, illusion, and childish prepossession,
through which the world and history were seen clad in strange hues.[151]

— Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy

 Painting of the St. Bartholomew's Day
Massacre, an event in the French Wars of
Religion, by François Dubois

On the other hand, many historians now point out that most of the negative social factors popularly
associated with the medieval period – poverty, warfare, religious and political persecution, for
example – seem to have worsened in this era, which saw the rise of Machiavellian politics, the Wars
of Religion, the corrupt Borgia Popes, and the intensified witch-hunts of the 16th century. Many
people who lived during the Renaissance did not view it as the "golden age" imagined by certain
19th-century authors, but were concerned by these social maladies.[152] Significantly, though, the
artists, writers, and patrons involved in the cultural movements in question believed they were living
in a new era that was a clean break from the Middle Ages.[90] Some Marxist historians prefer to
describe the Renaissance in material terms, holding the view that the changes in art, literature, and
philosophy were part of a general economic trend from feudalism toward capitalism, resulting in a
bourgeois class with leisure time to devote to the arts.[153]

Johan Huizinga (1872–1945) acknowledged the existence of the Renaissance but questioned
whether it was a positive change. In his book The Autumn of the Middle Ages, he argued that the
Renaissance was a period of decline from the High Middle Ages, destroying much that was
important.[20] The Medieval Latin language, for instance, had evolved greatly from the classical
period and was still a living language used in the church and elsewhere. The Renaissance obsession
with classical purity halted its further evolution and saw Latin revert to its classical form. This view
is however somewhat contested by recent studies. Robert S. Lopez has contended that it was a
period of deep economic recession.[154] Meanwhile, George Sarton and Lynn Thorndike have both
argued that scientific progress was perhaps less original than has traditionally been supposed.[155]
Finally, Joan Kelly argued that the Renaissance led to greater gender dichotomy, lessening the
agency women had had during the Middle Ages.[156]

Some historians have begun to consider the word Renaissance to be unnecessarily loaded, implying
an unambiguously positive rebirth from the supposedly more primitive "Dark Ages", the Middle
Ages. Most political and economic historians now prefer to use the term "early modern" for this
period (and a considerable period afterwards), a designation intended to highlight the period as a
transitional one between the Middle Ages and the modern era.[157] Others such as Roger Osborne
have come to consider the Italian Renaissance as a repository of the myths and ideals of western
history in general, and instead of rebirth of ancient ideas as a period of great innovation.[158]

The art historian Erwin Panofsky observed of this resistance to the concept of "Renaissance":

It is perhaps no accident that the factuality of the Italian Renaissance has

been most vigorously questioned by those who are not obliged to take a
professional interest in the aesthetic aspects of civilization – historians of
economic and social developments, political and religious situations, and,
most particularly, natural science – but only exceptionally by students of
literature and hardly ever by historians of Art.[159]

Other Renaissances

The term Renaissance has also been used to define periods outside of the 15th and 16th centuries
in the earlier Medieval period. Charles H. Haskins (1870–1937), for example, made a case for a
Renaissance of the 12th century.[160] Other historians have argued for a Carolingian Renaissance in
the 8th and 9th centuries, Ottonian Renaissance in the 10th century and for the Timurid
Renaissance of the 14th century. The Islamic Golden Age has been also sometimes termed with the
Islamic Renaissance.[161] The Macedonian Renaissance is a term used for a period in the Roman
Empire in the 9th-11th centuries CE.

Other periods of cultural rebirth in Modern times have also been termed "renaissances", such as the
Bengal Renaissance, Tamil Renaissance, Nepal Bhasa renaissance, al-Nahda or the Harlem
Renaissance. The term can also be used in cinema. In animation, the Disney Renaissance is a
period that spanned the years from 1989 to 1999 which saw the studio return to the level of quality
not witnessed since their Golden Age of Animation. The San Francisco Renaissance was a vibrant
period of exploratory poetry and fiction writing in San Francisco in the mid-20th century.

See also

Index of Renaissance articles

Society portal
Outline of the Renaissance
Arts portal

List of Renaissance figures

List of Renaissance structures

 Roman Renaissance

Venetian Renaissance

References

Explanatory notes

a. French: [ʁənɛsɑ̃s] ⓘ, meaning 'rebirth', from renaître 'to be born again'; Italian: Rinascimento

[rinaʃʃiˈmento], from rinascere, with the same meanings.[3]

b. The Oxford English Dictionary cites W Dyce and C H Wilson's Letter to Lord Meadowbank (1837):
"A style possessing many points of rude resemblance with the more elegant and refined
character of the art of the renaissance in Italy." And the following year in Civil Engineer &
Architect's Journal: "Not that we consider the style of the Renaissance to be either pure or good
per se." See Oxford English Dictionary, "Renaissance"

c. "Historians of different kinds will often make some choice between a long Renaissance (say,
1300–1600), a short one (1453–1527), or somewhere in between (the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, as is commonly adopted in music histories)."[8] Or between Petrarch and Jonathan
Swift, an even longer period.[9] Another source dates it from 1350 to 1620.[10]

d. Some scholars have called for an end to the use of the term, which they see as a product of
presentism – the use of history to validate and glorify modern ideals.[23]

e. For information on this earlier, very different approach to a different set of ancient texts
(scientific texts rather than cultural texts) see Latin translations of the 12th century, and
Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe.

f. It is thought that Leonardo da Vinci may have painted the rhombicuboctahedron.[72]

g. Exhaustive 2007 study by Fritjof Capra shows that Leonardo was a much greater scientist than
previously thought, and not just an inventor. Leonardo was innovative in science theory and in
conducting actual science practice. In Capra's detailed assessment of many surviving
manuscripts, Leonardo's science in tune with holistic non-mechanistic and non-reductive
approaches to science, which are becoming popular today.[73]
 h. Joseph Ben-David wrote:

Rapid accumulation of knowledge, which has characterized the development of

science since the 17th century, had never occurred before that time. The new
kind of scientific activity emerged only in a few countries of Western Europe,
and it was restricted to that small area for about two hundred years. (Since the
19th century, scientific knowledge has been assimilated by the rest of the
world).

i. It is sometimes thought that the Church, as an institution, formally sold indulgences at the
time. This, however, was not the practice. Donations were often received, but only mandated by
individuals that were condemned.

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132. "Tycho Brahe, 1546-1601" (https://danmarkshistorien.dk/vis/materiale/tycho-brahe-1546-160

1) . danmarkshistorien.dk (in Danish). Retrieved 24 November 2023.

133. Painting in Oil in the Low Countries and Its Spread to Southern Europe (http://www.metmuseum.o
rg/toah/hd/optg/hd_optg.htm) , Metropolitan Museum of Art website. (Retrieved 5 April 2007)

134. Celenza, Christopher (2004), The Lost Italian Renaissance: Humanists, Historians, and Latin's
Legacy. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press

135. Rundle, David (2012). Humanism in fifteenth-century Europe. Oxford: The Society for the Study
of Medieval Languages and Literature. p. 143. ISBN 9780907570400.

136. Suchodolski, Bogdan (1973). Poland, the Land of Copernicus. Wrocław: Ossolineum, Polska
Akademia Nauk PAN. p. 150. OCLC 714705 (https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/714705) .

137. Bona Sforza (1494–1557) (http://en.poland.gov.pl/Bona,Sforza,%281494,%E2%80%93,1557%2

9,1958.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20140506203103/http://en.poland.gov.
pl/Bona,Sforza,(1494,%E2%80%93,1557),1958.html) 6 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
poland.gov.pl (Retrieved 4 April 2007)
138. For example, the re-establishment of Jagiellonian University in 1364. Waltos, Stanisław (31
October 2002). "The Past and the Present" (https://web.archive.org/web/20021120144715/htt
p://www.uj.edu.pl/dispatch.jsp?item=uniwersytet%2Fhistoria%2Fhistoriatxt.jsp&lang=en) .
Uniwersytet Jagielloński. Archived from the original (http://www.uj.edu.pl/dispatch.jsp?item=un
iwersytet/historia/historiatxt.jsp&lang=en#narodziny) on 20 November 2002.

139. "HISTORIA ARCHITEKTURY EUROPEJSKIEJ TYLKO DLA ORŁÓW - SKRÓT" (https://www.histori

asztuki.com.pl/strony/002-00-14-STYLE-RENESANS.html) . www.historiasztuki.com.pl.

140. Koyama, Satoshi (2007). "Chapter 8: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a Political

Space: Its Unity and Complexity" (http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/coe21/publish/no15_ses/08_k
oyama.pdf) (PDF). In Hayashi, Tadayuki; Fukuda, Hiroshi (eds.). Regions in Central and
Eastern Europe: Past and Present (http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/coe21/publish/no15_ses/cont
ents.html) . Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University. pp. 137–153. ISBN 978-4-938637-
43-9. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20200225015447/http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/
coe21/publish/no15_ses/contents.html) from the original on 25 February 2020. Retrieved
23 May 2019.

141. Phillip Hewett, Racovia: An Early Liberal Religious Community, Providence, Blackstone Editions,
2004, p.20-21.

142. Norman Davies, God's Playground: A History of Poland in Two Volumes, Oxford University
Press, 2005, ISBN 0-19-925339-0, p.262

143. "Portuguese Overseas Travels and European Readers" (https://web.archive.org/web/20111112

175553/http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/John_Carter_Brown_Library/Portugal/Overseas.htm
l) . Portugal and Renaissance Europe. The John Carter Brown Library Exhibitions, Brown
University. Archived from the original (http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/John_Carter_Brown_Lib
rary/Portugal/Overseas.html) on 12 November 2011. Retrieved 19 July 2011.

144. Bergin, Thomas G.; Speake, Jennifer, eds. (2004). Encyclopedia of the Renaissance and the
Reformation (https://books.google.com/books?id=VOb4hIp7EE8C&pg=PP1) . Infobase
Publishing. ISBN 978-0816054510.

145. Bergin, Thomas G.; Speake, Jennifer (2004). Encyclopedia of the Renaissance and the
Reformation (https://books.google.com/books?id=VOb4hIp7EE8C&pg=PP490) . Infobase
Publishing. p. 490. ISBN 978-0816054510.

146. Bietenholz, Peter G.; Deutscher, Thomas Brian (2003). Contemporaries of Erasmus: a
biographical register of the Renaissance and Reformation, Volumes 1–3 (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=hruQ386SfFcC&pg=RA1-PA22) . University of Toronto Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-
0802085771.
147. Lach, Donald Frederick (1994). Asia in the making of Europe: A century of wonder. The literary
arts. The scholarly disciplines (https://books.google.com/books?id=hhE3sPY78s0C&pg=PA
6) . University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226467337. Retrieved 15 July 2011.

148. "Defining the Renaissance, Open University" (https://web.archive.org/web/20081218135235/ht

tp://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/renaissance2/defining.htm) . Open.ac.uk. Archived from the
original (http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/renaissance2/defining.htm) on 18 December 2008.
Retrieved 31 July 2009.

149. Burckhardt, Jacob. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (http://www.boisestate.edu/course

s/hy309/docs/burckhardt/burckhardt.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2008092114
5058/http://www.boisestate.edu/courses/hy309/docs/burckhardt/burckhardt.html) 21
September 2008 at the Wayback Machine (trans. S.G.C. Middlemore, London, 1878)

150. Gay, Peter, Style in History, New York: Basic Books, 1974.

151. Burckhardt, Jacob. "The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy" (https://web.archive.org/web/2

0081003000844/http://www.boisestate.edu/courses/hy309/docs/burckhardt/2-1.html) .
Archived from the original (http://www.boisestate.edu/courses/hy309/docs/burckhardt/2-1.ht
ml) on October 3, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2008.

152. Girolamo Savonarola's popularity is a prime example of the manifestation of such concerns.
Other examples include Philip II of Spain's censorship of Florentine paintings, noted by Edward
L. Goldberg, "Spanish Values and Tuscan Painting", Renaissance Quarterly (1998) p. 914

153. Renaissance Forum (http://www.hull.ac.uk/renforum/v2no2/siar.htm) Archived (https://web.

archive.org/web/20120614012823/http://www.hull.ac.uk/renforum/v2no2/siar.htm) 14 June
2012 at the Wayback Machine at Hull University, Autumn 1997 (Retrieved 10 May 2007)

154. Lopez, Robert S. & Miskimin, Harry A. (1962). "The Economic Depression of the Renaissance".
Economic History Review. 14 (3): 408–426. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.1962.tb00059.x (https://d
oi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1468-0289.1962.tb00059.x) . JSTOR 2591885 (https://www.jstor.org/sta
ble/2591885) .

155. Thorndike, Lynn; Johnson, F.R.; Kristeller, P. O.; Lockwood, D.P.; Thorndike, L. (1943). "Some
Remarks on the Question of the Originality of the Renaissance". Journal of the History of Ideas.
4 (1): 49–74. doi:10.2307/2707236 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F2707236) . JSTOR 2707236
(https://www.jstor.org/stable/2707236) .

156. Kelly-Gadol, Joan. "Did Women Have a Renaissance?" Becoming Visible: Women in European
History. Edited by Renate Bridenthal and Claudia Koonz. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977.
157. Stephen Greenblatt Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare, University of
Chicago Press, 1980.

158. Osborne, Roger (2006). Civilization: a new history of the Western world (https://archive.org/detai
ls/00book2095698803) . Pegasus Books. pp. 180 (https://archive.org/details/00book209569
8803/page/180) –. ISBN 978-1933648194. Retrieved 10 December 2011.

159. Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art 1969:38; Panofsky's chapter
"'Renaissance – self-definition or self-deception?" succinctly introduces the historiographical
debate, with copious footnotes to the literature.

160. Haskins, Charles Homer, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1927 ISBN 0674760751.

161. Hubert, Jean, L'Empire carolingien (English: The Carolingian Renaissance, translated by James
Emmons, New York: G. Braziller, 1970).

General sources

Burckhardt, Jacob, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860), a famous classic; excerpt
and text search 2007 edition (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1426400934) ; also complete text
online (https://books.google.com/books?id=kLkNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1) .

Cartledge, Bryan (2011). The Will to Survive: A History of Hungary. C. Hurst & Co. ISBN 978-
1849041126.

E. Kovács, Péter (1990). Matthias Corvinus (in Hungarian). Officina Nova. ISBN 9637835490.

Engel, Pál (2001). The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895–1526. I.B. Tauris
Publishers. ISBN 1860640613.

Hendrix, Scott E. (2013). "Astrological forecasting and the Turkish menace in the Renaissance
Balkans" (http://www.anthroserbia.org/Content/PDF/Articles/9fedd563ae93475ebb3cb94cd9bdf
75e.pdf) (PDF). Anthropology. 13 (2). Universitatis Miskolciensis: 57–72. ISSN 1452-7243 (http
s://search.worldcat.org/issn/1452-7243) .

Klaniczay, Tibor (1992). "The age of Matthias Corvinus" (https://archive.org/details/renaissancein

nat0000unse/page/164) . In Porter, Roy; Teich, Mikuláš (eds.). The Renaissance in National
Context. Cambridge University Press. pp. 164–179 (https://archive.org/details/renaissanceinnat0
000unse/page/164) . ISBN 0521369703.

Kubinyi, András (2008). Matthias Rex. Balassi Kiadó. ISBN 978-9635067671.

 Reynolds, L. D.; Wilson, Nigel (1974). Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek
and Latin Literature. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0199686339. OL 26919731M (https://ope
nlibrary.org/books/OL26919731M) .

Tanner, Marcus (2009). The Raven King: Matthias Corvinus and the Fate of his Lost Library. Yale
University Press. ISBN 978-0300158281.

Further reading

Cronin, Vincent (1969), The Flowering of the Renaissance, ISBN 0712698841

Cronin, Vincent (1992), The Renaissance, ISBN 0002154110

Campbell, Gordon. The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance. (2003). 862 pp. online at OUP

Davis, Robert C. and Beth Lindsmith. Renaissance People: Lives that Shaped the Modern Age.
(2011). ISBN 978-1606060780

Ergang, Robert (1967), The Renaissance, ISBN 0442023197

Ferguson, Wallace K. (1962), [Europe in Transition, 1300–1500], ISBN 0049400088

Fisher, Celia. Flowers of the Renaissance. (2011). ISBN 978-1606060629

Fletcher, Stella. The Longman Companion to Renaissance Europe, 1390–1530. (2000). 347 pp.

Grendler, Paul F., ed. The Renaissance: An Encyclopedia for Students. (2003). 970 pp.

Hale, John. The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance. (1994). 648 pp.; a magistral survey,
heavily illustrated; excerpt and text search (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0684803526)

Hall, Bert S. Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe: Gunpowder, Technology, and Tactics
(2001); excerpt and text search (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0801869943)

Hattaway, Michael, ed. A Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture. (2000). 747 pp.

Jensen, De Lamar (1992), Renaissance Europe, ISBN 0395889472

Johnson, Paul. The Renaissance: A Short History. (2000). 197 pp. excerpt and text search (https://
www.amazon.com/dp/B0002NKDU2) ; also online free (https://archive.org/details/renaissance0
0paul)

Keene, Bryan C. Gardens of the Renaissance. (2013). ISBN 978-1606061435

King, Margaret L. Women of the Renaissance (1991) excerpt and text search (https://www.amazo
n.com/dp/0226436187)
 Kristeller, Paul Oskar, and Michael Mooney. Renaissance Thought and its Sources (1979); excerpt
and text search (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0231045131)

Nauert, Charles G. Historical Dictionary of the Renaissance. (2004). 541 pp.

Patrick, James A., ed. Renaissance and Reformation (5 vol 2007), 1584 pages; comprehensive
encyclopedia

Plumb, J.H. The Italian Renaissance (2001); excerpt and text search (https://www.amazon.com/d
p/0618127380)

Paoletti, John T. and Gary M. Radke. Art in Renaissance Italy (4th ed. 2011)

Potter, G.R. ed. The New Cambridge Modern History: Volume 1: The Renaissance, 1493–1520
(1957) online (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/the-new-cambridge-modern-history/1F3A
455FF6D62052CBCFF0DBFD109803) ; major essays by multiple scholars. Summarizes the
viewpoint of the 1950s.

Robin, Diana; Larsen, Anne R.; and Levin, Carole, eds. Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance:
Italy, France, and England (2007) 459 pp.

Rowse, A.L. The Elizabethan Renaissance: The Life of the Society (2000); excerpt and text search (h
ttps://www.amazon.com/dp/156663315X)

Ruggiero, Guido. The Renaissance in Italy: A Social and Cultural History of the Rinascimento
(Cambridge University Press, 2015). 648 pp. online review (https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showre
v.php?id=43204)

Rundle, David, ed. The Hutchinson Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. (1999). 434 pp.; numerous
brief articles online edition (https://www.questia.com/read/95888138?title=The%20Hutchinson%
20Encyclopedia%20of%20the%20Renaissance)

Turner, Richard N. Renaissance Florence (2005); excerpt and text search (https://www.amazon.co
m/dp/0131344013/)

Ward, A. The Cambridge Modern History. Vol 1: The Renaissance (1902) (http://www.uni-mannhei
m.de/mateo/camenaref/cmh/cmh.html) ; older essays by scholars; emphasis on politics

Historiography

Bouwsma, William J. "The Renaissance and the drama of Western history." American Historical
Review (1979): 1–15. in JSTOR (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1855657)

Caferro, William. Contesting the Renaissance (2010); excerpt and text search (https://www.amazo
n.com/Contesting-Renaissance-William-Caferro/dp/1405123702/)
 Ferguson, Wallace K. "The Interpretation of the Renaissance: Suggestions for a Synthesis."
Journal of the History of Ideas (1951): 483–495. online in JSTOR

Ferguson, Wallace K. "Recent trends in the economic historiography of the Renaissance." Studies
in the Renaissance (1960): 7–26.

Ferguson, Wallace Klippert. The Renaissance in historical thought (AMS Press, 1981)

Grendler, Paul F. "The Future of Sixteenth Century Studies: Renaissance and Reformation
Scholarship in the Next Forty Years", Sixteenth Century Journal Spring 2009, Vol. 40 Issue 1,
pp. 182+

Murray, Stuart A.P. The Library: An Illustrated History. American Library Association, Chicago,
2012.

Ruggiero, Guido, ed. A Companion to the Worlds of the Renaissance. (2002). 561 pp.

Starn, Randolph. "A Postmodern Renaissance?" Renaissance Quarterly 2007 60(1): 1–24 in Project
MUSE (http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/ren/summary/v060/60.1starn.html)

Summit, Jennifer. "Renaissance Humanism and the Future of the Humanities". Literature Compass
(2012) 9#10 pp: 665–678.

Trivellato, Francesca. "Renaissance Italy and the Muslim Mediterranean in Recent Historical
Work", Journal of Modern History (March 2010), 82#1 pp: 127–155.

Woolfson, Jonathan, ed. Palgrave advances in Renaissance historiography (Palgrave Macmillan,

2005)

Primary sources

Bartlett, Kenneth, ed. The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance: A Sourcebook (2nd ed., 2011)

Ross, James Bruce, and Mary M. McLaughlin, eds. The Portable Renaissance Reader (1977);
excerpt and text search (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140150617)

External links

"The Renaissance" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00546tq) episode of In Our Time, a

BBC Radio 4 discussion with Francis Ames-Lewis, Peter Burke and Evelyn Welch (8 June 2000).

Symonds, John Addington (1911). "Renaissance, The" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Ency

clop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Renaissance,_The) . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.).
pp. 83–93.
Renaissance Philosophy (https://iep.utm.edu/renaissa/) entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy

Official website (http://www.rensoc.org.uk/) of the Society for Renaissance Studies