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The Renaissance: Causes, Works, and Influences on Modern Culture

Imagine if the entire world was turned upside down. One out of every three people on the

continent has died (Walløe). People are losing faith in the church. What now? How does a town,

a country, a continent, recover? Through the turmoil and strife, the Renaissance rose out of the

ashes and gave the world an explosion of culture through art, science, and literature. However, to

understand why the Renaissance was able to take hold and change the trajectory of the world, it

is imperative to lay the groundwork. The causes that contributed to the Renaissance may well be

what made it so crucial to history in the West.

What Caused the Renaissance?

The old adage goes, “It is always darkest before the dawn,” and there were few darker

times than The Black Plague. The death toll was one of the most massive in modern history as it

killed off somewhere between 30-60% of the population, which amounted to somewhere

between 340-380 million deaths (Walløe). What was the cause? Why were all of their friends

and family dying? Today, we are taught in schools about the fleas carrying diseases on rats that

were brought to Europe. However, at the time, they had one explanation: they had angered God.

Throughout the country, and the rest of Europe, taxes were paid to the Church. People were told

that if they paid their taxes to the Church and lived the way they were supposed to, they would

see God’s blessing. To the people of the time, the Black Plague couldn’t have been a larger

indication that something wasn’t right. The Church didn’t know how to respond to the dying

Europe. They frequently flipped between blaming God and then blaming the citizens. This

angered the followers and caused them to become disenchanted. Most still clung to their religion,

but people had their doubts in the Church. This caused them to branch out and find new ways
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and research ideas or religious texts to have a better understanding of the best way to serve their

God.

The Black Death wasn’t the only event taking massive casualties in the area. The

Hundred Years War had been ravaging the entire continent, effectively splitting it in two,

between 1337 and 1453. Even the countries that didn’t have a dog in the fight were under

constant stress of either supplying, hiding, or even assisting the two combatants (Britain and

France). Once the dust settled and there was peace, there was an even more important

commodity: time. People didn’t have to worry, as much, about their safety or the fear of their

lands being ransacked. Additionally, people were fed up with the politics and war. They wanted

to be smarter than their elders, trying to find ways to better their country rather than letting it fall

into disrepair. With their efforts, they would try to create a lasting peace, along with a country

that could thrive on the back of a strong culture through advances in art, literature, and science.

Despite the darkness and depravity, there were positive influences that sparked the

Renaissance. As previously mentioned, the religious sector had been deeply divided after The

Black Plague. This sent people in search for answers. Answers about religion, the world,

philosophy, and our place in the universe. These ideas had been pondered for centuries, but it

was the perfect storm of events that led to the sudden thirst for knowledge. One of the cogs in

this machine came from the invention by Johannes Gutenberg: The printing press. For the first

time in history, people could mass produce literature. Before this time, any written text was

extremely expensive to own or even read, because copies had to be painstakingly reproduced

word-for-word. Religious texts, news, fictions, everything became open to the masses. Now,

ideas could spread and multiply. The world was becoming smaller. People had acquired a thirst

for knowledge that could only be satiated through an intense cultural explosion, the likes of
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which the planet had never seen. The stage was set, all that was needed, were the great thinkers

that would arise and stoke the embers.

Valuable Outputs of the Renaissance in Italy

The printing press led to an inspiration of writers all over the world. Numerous works of

literature began to sweep the continent and let ideas spread like wildfire. However, it is hard to

make an argument for a more influential piece of literature during the Renaissance in Italy and,

moreover, all of Europe when looking at Machiavelli’s “The Prince.” This groundbreaking work

changed the way people thought about politics. The book is an in-depth analysis of how to rise

through the political ranks, attain power, and how to wield that power. Interestingly enough, the

book served a second purpose: Machiavelli has intended for the book to show the conduct of

great men and how to properly govern the masses (Copenhaver). Now, some people think that

this was essentially an instruction manual for princes or new rulers. However, that would be an

extremely small market. This book had the staggering ramification of defining how people

should rule and how the common man should be treated. It caused a kind of benchmark for

people to hold their leaders accountable to, and this was the likely intent of the Italian

wordsmith. “The Prince” was cited for centuries after it was written as a model for governing in

a monarchy. Its influence is still felt today as it is required reading for several hundred thousand

high school students each year. With this impact, it is easy to see why Machiavelli is seen as one

of the most important figures of the Renaissance to rise out of Italy.

Walking into any art museum, or cracking any art history textbook, it will be littered with

Italian Renaissance characters. Nevertheless, there are two awe-inspiring artists that stand above

the rest as two of the most famous and influential creators in the history of western civilization;

Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. They both have countless works that have been highly
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regarded and referenced throughout history. Michelangelo was an artist of many types, but in

most known for his sculpting and painting. He is best known for both his sculpture of the biblical

‘David’ and his masterpiece that was painted onto the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. He

was considered to be so influential and important in his time, two biographies were

commissioned while he was still alive, which was extremely rare for the time (Bondeson).

Ironically, his biggest rival at the time was also making waves and fighting for the title of being

the prototypical ‘Renaissance man’ of the time. Trying to narrow down da Vinci’s works to

represent his mastery of art would be a near-impossible feat. He is most known for works such

as: The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, The Vitruvian Man, and St. John the Baptist. Most

museums have large sections dedicated specifically to the prolific painter. The two Italians set

the standard for art in their time, and their work has continued on to be storied successes and

inspirations to countless artists following in their footsteps.

Aside from art and literature, unbelievable strides were being made throughout several

field of science. Perhaps the most notable men that advanced this cause form Italy was Galileo

Galilei. His contributions to science included advancements in astronomy, mathematics, as well

as philosophy. Galileo is thought to be the one who discovered the moons of Jupiter, sunspots,

and the rings of Saturn (Renshaw). In the field of mathematics, he made significant progress in

understanding pendulums as well as speed and velocity along with the principle of free fall and

gravity (Renshaw). Aside from these astounding accomplishments, he is also heralded as the

champion of the scientific method. His work and research have become so well-known, we have

an entire database dedicated to finding information and sources named after the late-Italian

Renaissance man.
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Perhaps one of the most important developments through the Renaissance was the idea of

Humanism. This might have been the game-changer in terms of why the Renaissance ended up

being so successful. This was a complete change in the way people taught and learned. This has

persisted into modern day as the main study of ‘humanities’ that were determined to be:

grammar, rhetoric, poetry, philosophy, and history. Some of these were studied before and

sporadically, but this was a cutting-edge idea. This new idea of learning made it ‘popular’ to use

proper elegance in speech and gave way to more people trying to be intellectuals. Before this

evolution in teaching, scholars were a limited group that consisted of a tiny portion of the

population. After Humanism was developed, anyone could become a scholar, and the barrier to

entry was greatly reduced. Learning became ‘cool’ for the first time to the masses, which has

persisted to modern times.

The Renaissance Outside of Italy

Italy is known as the birthplace of the Renaissance. It was a wealthy country with ready

access to the water on almost all sides, its influence could spread quickly. However, the change

seen during this period wasn’t exclusive to the small skinny nation. Each country in Europe

experienced similar causes that sparked the Renaissance. Despite the world being a bit larger at

the time due to slower communication and more political tension, none of the countries were

immune to the aforementioned history-altering events. Two other major players in Europe;

France and Spain both had their own significant share of new thinkers.

One of the most influential Frenchmen to come out of the Renaissance was René

Descartes. The mathematician and philosopher, as well as a promising writer certainly made his

mark on western culture. In the field of philosophy, Descartes founded the theory of Dualism,

which attempted to bridge the gap between science and theology. He pressed that there was a
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soul which was nonmaterial, that would interact with the mind and physics to form the ultimate

being. This led to his assertion that humans should aim for a type of sovereign good, or seek a

type of spiritual pleasure (Lacewing). Descartes has several high-level mathematic

breakthroughs, but the most appreciated (or loathed) would be his first representation as

unknown variables in a mathematic equation being labeled as ‘x, y and z’(Lacewing).

While science and philosophy were important outputs of the Renaissance, advancements

in literature led to profound works. This was specifically seen in works of fiction. Spain was a

producer of one of the most prolific authors of the last millennium, Miguel de Cervantes. His

most notable work chronicled the adventures of Don Quixote de la Mancha and his dutiful

sidekick, Sancho Panza. Quixote was the ultimate satire of chivalry as it was known in the west.

One of the most recognizable scenes from his work was Quixote facing off against windmills,

believing them to be great dragons. Cervantes’ work is regarded as some of the most influential

works of fiction in Renaissance literature.

Influence on Modern Culture

To truly see the extent of the Renaissance’s influence on modern culture, one doesn’t

have to look far. Museums, textbooks, pop culture, and politics are littered with references and

allusions to the heroes of the Renaissance. The most astounding aspect of the period may have

been how the whole of Europe seemed to unite without extensive communication to cause an

intense period of self-discovery. It has become such an important pillar of our history, we

struggle to compare events such as The Harlem Renaissance in order to show the magnitude of

change that undergoes in a specific area. Our culture stands on the shoulders of giants such as da

Vinci, Descartes, Machiavelli and others who never could have guessed how their work would

influence the entire culture of the world, 500 years later.

Works Cited

“Walløe, Juhasz and the Sociology of Plague.” The Black Death and Later Plague Epidemics in

the Scandinavian Countries:2016, doi:10.1515/9788376560472-010.

Copenhaver, Brian P. . “Renaissance Philosophy.” Oxford University Press, 1992.

Bondeson, Lennart . “Michelangelo's Divine Goitre.” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,

2003.

Renshaw, Curtis E. “Galilieo-Newtonian Relativity.” Physics Procedia, vol. 38, 2012, pp. 186–

197., doi:10.1016/j.phpro.2012.08.022.