The Renaissance (1300-1650) - Motto “ad fontes” back to the sources

Historical Background - Recover Greek texts

- World of Countryside and Villages - Intellectual life of Western Europe directly influence
- 1350-1550 in Italy by Greek writers
- 1500-1650 in England - Concerned with more language or art
- Countryside and villages not cities - Imitation begins with the written style
- Had cities but during the middle of 14th century Humanist Myth
Status and Rank - Middle Ages – dark (Germanic Tribes attacked -
- Rank and status mattered Rome; Goths destroyed classic civilizations)
- Inferior took off hat while talking to superior - Rediscovery of classical learning
- Primary source of status = land (not money) - Dark times gave way to enlightenment
- Rich through trade and brought property Christian Humanism
- Marry his daughters to establish nobility - Enthusiasm for classics with Christian fervor
Time of Little Security - Desiderius Erasmus first translation of New
- Insecurity and uncertainty Testament
- Black Plague (1348) - Importance of active life as opposed to
- Periodic outbreaks for 300 years contemplative life
- Cities were breeding places - How a person acts is more important that what he
- Cities were a constant hazard knows
Increasing Power of the Kings The Reformation
- Power of the kings increased - Dissatisfaction with the Church (institution with
- Centralization of power (create bureaucracies to great secular power, with immense wealth,
consolidate their power and rule the realm) extensive territory
- Bureaucracies were composed of minor nobility or - 1517 – Martin Luther’s “ninety-five theses” states
even common people that the church has no power to cancel
- Cardinal Wolsey (Henry VIII’s most important punishments after death
minister) - Salvation was not affected by one’s work but rather
- Individual whose status resulted from own talents determined by one’s faith
- Great nobility was becoming less important (castles o Church dubbed it as heretical
threatened by gunpowder) - Movement called Reformation and new protestant
CULTURALL BACKGROUND dominations
Humanism Changing World and Universe
- Cultural movement (15th century Italy) - Face globe was changing with new voyage of
- Return to classical studies and ideals discovery
- Living by teaching or acting as diplomats - 1492 – Columbus sailed to West Indies
- Study language (Greek, Latin, Hebrew) - 1519 – Magellan began a voyage around the world)
- Copernicus – earth was not the center o Revised them to become different from
- Galileo – heavens were not perfect anything that had gone before
Changing View of Human Nature Niccolo Machiavelli - The Prince
- Tradition – world was created in a hierarchy (God Niccolo Machiavelli
on top and dead matter at the bottom)  A citizen of Florence, Italy
- Humans belong in a chain of being  Educated in Classics and was Proficient in Latin
- Pico deila Mirandola – human nature was not fixed  The Prince, Mandrake, A History of Florence, Art
o Person’s capacity was not to inherit a place but of War and Discourses on the First Ten Book of
to make a place for oneself Livy
LITERARY BACKGROUND  Italian Unity
- Literature as a Branch of Rhetoric  1498 – appointed secretary of the governing
- Related to art of speechmaking body of Florence
- Writers engaged in thought experiments  Pope Alexander, King Louis XII and Cesare
o Make a hypothesis then explore the Borgia – influencers of Machiavelli’s Political
consequences Thought
- Function of persuading readers to do good  Machiavelli thought of Cesare Borgia as the
Literary Vernacular most promising leader who would then unite
Vernacular Language Italy once again.
1. Italian  He helped raise and train Florentine civil militia-
2. French key to reduce Florence’s overdependence to
3. Spanish mercenaries
4. German  1512 – Medici Family gained power and was
5. Dutch then dismissed from office
6. English  Florentine ✈️ Sant’ Andrea – pursued writing
- Linguistic patriotism  June 21, 1527 – Death
- Dominant medium of art The Prince
Humanism and Literature  Composed of 26 chapters
- Independence in the emphasis on vernacular and  Exhibits Machiavelli’s different view on Political
relationship with classic authors Morality – amoral (The prince can do anything
- Led to revival of classical forms since he is not bound by anything.)
Originality through Imitation  How rulers do act > How rulers ought to act
- Look for ways in which past works have been (speaks of the present)
altered to give them new and more complex  Machiavelli concerns himself with one thing
meaning only: how the prince is to survive in a
- Shakespeare – of his 38 plays only two were original dangerous and uncertain world.
(tempest)  Lorenzo de’ Medici
  Purpose: To give useful advice to a leader who - 2. On Famous Men :
will unite Italy and drive out the foreigners who biographical accounts of
have victimized its people classical figures
 He stresses the qualities that will help a prince  Italian Unity
survive and conquer.  On the Solitary Life – stresses the importance
 Prince – the ruler of the state of independence and retirement from the
 Rulers should base their choice entirely on the activity of business and politics.
need to stay in power  During the final 20 years of his life, he
 His idea on WAR – distinct sya because of this ✈️Northern Italy: Milan, Padua and Venice. His
 Fortuna + Virtu = THE PRINCE writing at this time took on a more Christian
 REVOLUTIONARY – HE DOES NOT PROMOTE emphasis.
EVIL.  2 major Italian Works:
 The normal rules are suspended in times of 1. Triumphs – envision the ultimate triumph
extraordinary circumstances. of the soul in death.
 Religion – what determines good from bad 2. Canzoniere
 Historical figures = the way people react - 1374 – Death
 Ancient History to support his points - Petrarch’s works centers
 Metaphors on himself.
 Plainness – make the unpopular arguments  Collection of Italian Poems
seem truthful and self-evident  366 poems divided in two parts: his relation to
 Antithesis – opposing of one idea to another Laura and death
Francesco Petrarch - Sonnet form (317), though
 Greatest Italian Poet – 14 th
the sequence contains a
 Italian and Latin number of canzoni (29),
 Lyric Poetry – a comparatively short, non- sestine (9), madrigals (4),
narrative poem in which a single speaker and ballate (7).
presents a state of mind or an emotional state.  Also includes many sonnets on political and
Retains the elements of the song which is said religious matters not directly related to Laura.
to be its origin  Most a poems appear in a sequence of 14-line
 1304 – Arezzo sonnets.
 Flew to Avignon  Canzoni – lyrics with complex stanzas
 1320 – transferred to Bologna  Petrarchan Love: love is desired yet painful
 Flew to Rome – 1. Africa : ancient wars  Laura de Noyes – (1) force that will lead him
between Rome and Carthage toward the divine and (2) a dangerous impulse
 leaving him prey to the worst aspects of his own that like the
nature Laura will hunt to
LAURA THE WHITE DOE SPRING never an
love elusive
 Follows  Allegory  Allegory
Petrarch, deer.
“abba” – an  Theme:
he will  Laura is
rhyming extended Winter
always like a
scheme metapho turning to
love her. white
but r in Spring
doe,
variations which  Spring =
beautiful
exist in the Woman
yet
the end lover’s  The woman
unreacha
 Written experien has gone
ble.
to praise ce is away and
Laura as dramatiz all these
GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO
a song for ed by descriptions
 Boccaccio is an illegitimate child of a Florentine
her being of spring
merchant
 Allusion – describe are just
 His father tried to make him a businessman and
an in term empty
a lawyer – church law. However, he showed
expressio of words.
little interest among these things.
n used to somethin  Devastated
bring g else. by not  His early works include several narratives. One

somethin  Theme: having the of them is Filocolo – which demonstrates

g in mind; Forbidde one love. Boccaccio’s deep insights into human motives

Alliteratio n Love and behavior.

n;  White  Due to the financial problem that he and his

Metapho deer = family experienced (1340), he returned to

r woman Florence. He believes that his return to a petty,

 Theme:  The poet middle-class, money-grubbing environment was

Love is difficult.

 Petrarch comparin  However, the transition of environment

is blinded g the contributed to his experiences which led to the

by love. hunt for writing of Decameron – a book dealing with

Despite this different classes of people.

the fact woman is  from the Decameron

 o Boccaccio’s Decameron is a group of -time for progress and betterment in human affairs
one hundred short prose tales known -capable of signaling births of every children
as novella (singular: novella).
o It shows ten young people of good Late 17th and 18th centuries
families – seven women and three men -a time of concern for truth as revealed through reason
– leave Florence for the country to -philosophers in this time challenged traditions, folk
escape the plague. To pass the time, wisdom and other unscientific beliefs and attempted to
each of them tells a story a day for ten replace with laws from contemplation and natural
days. (The word Decameron = ten days) phenomena
o Ten is a perfect number in Medieval -Reason was accepted as greatest authority in matters
and Renaissance times. of art and intellect
o 100 stories recall Dante’s 100 cantos in
the Divine Comedy Galileo
o Dante’s work concerns the afterlife. -forerunner of rationalist movement
Boccaccio’s work concerns the people -said that Truth is written in great book of nature
in this world. When the subject is -by him, reason became connected with great depth of
religion, Boccaccio’s treatment is thought, maturity and scholarly training
usually satirical.
 Federigo’s Falcon Sir Thomas More and Desiderius Erasmus
o The story of Federigo degli Alberighl is -formed Oxford U and tenets of Humanism and
told on the ninth day of the rationalism by reviving interest in greek and roman lits
Decameron. It is a tale of an ideal love -humanists maintain that by virtue and restraint,
in which Federigo and his Lady (Monna educated people can purify nations
Giovanna) are each models of
courteous behaviors. Federigo showed Rationalist
his capacity and eagerness to sacrifice -urge for balance and control
everything for his love. His actions can
be interpreted as misguided and Rationalism
fanatical – his love can ruin himself. -systemized means of thought and way to regulate and
However, Boccaccio said that it is a improve daily existence
natural result of truly noble and -where literature profited
chivalrous character. -its ideas sparked revolutions in New World and in
o Theme: Nobility of the Spirit. Europe
AGE OF RATIONALISM
-it is the product of the parts of Candide (Voltaire’s Encyclopedia
book)
-symbol of tolerance and freedom of expression = key  School for girls in france
elements of intellectual enlightenment characteristic of  Isaac newton’s math proofs
Age of Rationalism  John Locke: two treatise
 France’ first address directory
Humanists  First daily newspaper
-urged liberalization of church  Witch executions
-revived study of greek lits and roman such as Plato and  Syringe and Thermometer invented
Cicero = bent to natural symmetry and unity  Defoe begins The Review
 Evening Post
Rise of Rationalism
 The Tatler
-coincide with renewed interest in nature
 First copyright act
-appreciate and accept rules of human behavior =
 Alexander Pope: The rape of lock
Human Nature
1725
-nature and reason; replaced enmity with harmony
 Peter the Great dies and succeeded by his wife,
Catherine
TIMELINE 1650-1800 History
 Treaty of Seville is established
1650-1675
 George Washington is born
 Louis XIV begins reign in France
 Coffee is planted
 Great Plague of London begins
 Jonathan swift: gulliver’s treats and modest
 Great fire of London takes place
proposal
 Italian astronomer introduce map of moon
1750-1775
 First fountain pens and stockings
 Seven yrs war begins
 Ice cream bcom popular
 Stamp act is passed
 Dutch develop primitive microscope
 Boston tea party
 Moliere Tartuffe and Misantrophe
 American revolution
 John Milton: Paradise lost
 Declaration of independence
 La Fontaine: fables
 Louis XVI reigns
 Pascal: Pensees
 Sign language in Portugal
1680-1700
 35 volume encyclopedia
 Peter the great becomes czar of Russia
 Montesquieu dies
 James II becomes king of England
 Voltaire: Candide
 Bill of Rights becomes law in Britain
1800
 Act of Settlement is passed
 Fall of bastille
 War of Spanish Succession begins
 French revolution
 Peter the Great begin building St. Petersburg
 Bill of rights in US
  Cotton gin  Intellect: holds the order of things intelligible the
 Vaccine against smallpox same rank as our body in the extent of nature
 True state of man: holds the mean between two
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) extremes
 Engineered the first calculator, la machine  One thing to be guided: Listen to God
arithmetique  If man was not corrupted, he would enjoy in his
 He was introduced to a Christian sect, Jansenism: innocence both truth and happiness with assurance
believes that holiness is humanity’s real goal, but  Principle of ethics: To think well
few are chosen to receive God’s grace and ultimate  Religion: the only one that can supply comfort and
salvation security from vanity and ignorance
 Established the harmony between mathematical JEAN DE LA FONTAINE
certainty and moral truths  Example of somewhat absentminded
 “things are always at their best in their beginning” professor
 2 kinds of knowledge:  Took law, priesthood, forest ranger,
1. Sciences of authority- truth is revealed to before settling into literary career
readers in sacred writings. E.g. theology  Failed to charm the single most
2. Sciences of reason- active exercise of person’s influential personality in Western
thought and experience to provide truths of a Europe, Louis XIV
different order  Works contain idiomatic statements of
 Philosophic texts- are meant to persuade the reader ethics and philosophy
of the rightness of the author’s position. E.g.  He employs retelling of succinct,
Pensees homespun animal stories to depict
 Paradox- idea or situation that appears to human idiosyncracies, such as
contradict itself, but that is nevertheless true. cowardice, curiosity, greed and laziness.
The stories contain common-sense reminders that
MAN AND THE UNIVERSE delight as they instruct. The fable:
 Man in the midst of infinite: show him another  Short lesson or principle of behaviour
prodigy equally astonishing, let him seek in what he through the antics of animals
knows things the most minute  Popular mainstay of literature
 Man in the midst of nature: a nothing in comparison  Mind over emotions
with the infinite, an all in comparison with  Instruct the reader in prudent living
nothingness: a mean between nothing and all  Remain a staple of children’s literature
 All things have spring from nothingness, and are The Boy and the Schoolmaster
carried onward to the infinite A boy was drowning in the river, he just got a
hold of branch of the tree. He saw the schoolmaster
standing at the riverbanks and the boy asked for help. proposes placing a bell around its neck, so that they are
The schoolmaster gave him a lecture and sermon first, warned of its approach. The plan is applauded by the
saying that he was a naughty boy, that he wasn’t others, until one mouse asks who will volunteer to place
listening to his parents, etc. after the mouthful, he the bell on the cat. All of them make excuses.
helped the boy get out of the water.  Opposition between consensus and
 furnishes verbal models that should be individualism
avoided  provides a moral lesson about the fundamental
 it is not true that reason has any merit difference between ideas and their feasibility,
in the absence of action and how this affects the value of a given plan.
 so easy to point out other people’s  Plans should not be judged solely on the end
mistakes results, but also on how likely that it will be be
 action is more important than words carried out.
 help first, gab last Fable of the Patch of Snow
The Wolf and the Lamb by Leonardo da Vinci
There was a lamb who was thirsty and a wolf FULL TEXT:
who was hungry. The wolf caught the lamb roiling his A small patch of snow finding itself clinging to the
drink and got really frustrated. The lam was scared and top of a rock which was lying on the topmost height
begged him not to act according to anger. The wolf said of a very high mountain and being left to its own
to the lamb that the latter slandered the former a year imaginings, it began to reflect in this way, saying to
ago. The lamb said it was not him. The wolf insisted that itself: "Now, shall not I be thought vain and proud
it was the lamb’s brother then. The lamb said she has for having placed myself--such a small patch of
no brother. The wolf even insisted that either way, it snow--in so lofty a spot, and for allowing that so
was of same name: sheep. He then judged, slew, and large a quantity of snow as I have seen here around
ate the lamb in his fury. me, should take a place lower than mine? Certainly
 Represent the injustices and class my small dimensions by no means merit this
oppression present in society elevation. How easily may I, in proof of my

 It is important to have evidences when insignificance, experience the same fate as that

accusing a person which the sun brought about yesterday to my

 Everything can be fixed through proper companions, who were all, in a few hours,

conversation destroyed by the sun. And this happened from their

 Do not always let anger overpower your having placed themselves higher than became

emotions them. I will flee from the wrath of the sun, and

The Council held by the Rats humble myself and find a place befitting my small

This is a story of a group of mice who debate plans importance."

to nullify the threat of a marauding cat. One of them

Thus, flinging itself down, it began to descend,
hurrying from its high home on to the other snow;
but the more it sought a low place the more its bulk
increased, so that when at last its course was ended
on a hill, it found itself no less in size than the hill
which supported it; and it was the last of the snow
which was destroyed that summer by the sun

This is said for those who, humbling themselves,

become exalted.