Renaissance

Topic: Renaissance, Reformation and the Scientific Revolution · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 3 "Changing Traditions"; Class 11, Ch 5 "Changing Cultural Traditions"

Meaning

Renaissance means "rebirth". It is the name historians gave, from the nineteenth century onwards, to the time in Europe from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century. In this period, towns such as Florence, Venice and Rome brought back the learning and art of ancient Greece and Rome. They also developed a 'humanist' culture, which held that each person could make their own choices and develop their own skills. The word matters for two reasons. It names a real cultural change. It is also a lesson in method: the label was fixed by one historian, Jacob Burckhardt, in 1860, and it is still debated.

Explanation

Background: towns, patrons and printing

• Towns grew, and a new 'urban culture' grew with them. Urban culture means the way of life, habits and ideas of people who live in towns.
• The big change happened in towns, not in villages.

• Town people began to see themselves as more 'civilised' than country people. This was a new pride based on where you lived.

• Patronage paid for art and learning. Patronage means that rich people give money and shelter to artists and writers.

• Bankers, merchants and rulers in Florence, Venice and Rome acted as patrons.

• So an artist no longer had to be a craftsman working only for the church.

• Printing spread ideas. Books were now made by machine instead of being copied by hand.

• Many more people could read the same book.
• Ideas travelled faster and further than before.

Main features: humanism and a new sense of history

• Revival of the classics. The art and learning of ancient Greece and Rome were studied again. The 'rebirth' in the word Renaissance refers to this.
• 'Humanist' culture. Its central belief was that man, as an individual, could make his own decisions and develop his own skills.
• A new sense of history. Educated Europeans began to place themselves on a timeline:
• they called themselves 'modern';
• they called the Greeks and Romans 'ancient';
• they saw the years in between as a darker middle stretch.
• This three-part split was created in this period. It is not a neutral fact.

How the idea was built: Ranke, Burckhardt and the 1860 book

• People of the time did not use the word. People living between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries never called their own age the Renaissance. The label came only in the nineteenth century.
• Ranke's way of writing history. Burckhardt studied under Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886). Ranke said history must rest on original source material, not on legend. [3]

• Ranke wrote history about states and politics, and he used government files as his evidence. [3]

• Why Burckhardt broke away from his teacher.

• Government files tell you about kings, wars and treaties.
• They tell you nothing about how town people thought, painted, prayed or built.

• Burckhardt wanted to write about culture, not only politics.

• The book. In 1860 Burckhardt published The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy (German: Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien, published at Basel). An English translation followed in 1878. [2]

• He used literature, architecture and painting as his sources, together with chronicles and tales written at the time. [2]
• His themes included the state as a work of art, the development of individuality and the discovery of the world and of man. [2]
• The book became a model for cultural history. His method passed on to later art historians, most famously his student Heinrich Wölfflin. [2]

Results: old beliefs that broke

• Burckhardt's main argument was a contrast between two kinds of person:
• Medieval man: controlled by the church. He got his identity from a group, such as the guild, the family or the church.

• Modern man: he got his identity from himself, through his own talent, his own choices and his own fame.

• Three old beliefs broke in this age:

• Religion became a personal choice. People saw belief as something each person decides, not only something the church hands down. This leads on to the Reformation.
• Astronomy overturned the earth-centric belief. The church taught that the earth sits at the centre. New study of the skies showed it does not. This leads on to the Scientific Revolution.
• Geography changed the map. New lands and sea routes became known. The idea that the Mediterranean was the centre of the world was dropped.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: from the fourteenth century to the end of the seventeenth century.
• Region: Europe. The movement started in the towns of Italy, and its main centres were Florence, Venice and Rome.
• Key people:
• Jacob Burckhardt (1818–97) of Basle (Basel), a Swiss historian of art and culture. [2]

• Leopold von Ranke, his teacher. Ranke taught at the University of Berlin for 37 years, started the historical seminar (a small class where students learn to handle documents themselves), and wrote History of the Popes (1834–36). [3]

• How we know about it: there are very many sources for this period, unlike for ancient history, where evidence is thin.

• The types of sources are documents, printed books, paintings, sculptures, buildings and textiles.
• They survive in archives, art galleries and museums in Europe and America.
• Because printing existed, written sources increase sharply from this period onwards.

Don't confuse with

• Leopold von Ranke vs Jacob Burckhardt. Ranke was the teacher and wrote political history from government files. [3] Burckhardt was the student and wrote cultural history from literature, architecture and painting. [2]
• Renaissance vs Reformation. The Renaissance was a cultural rebirth of classical learning and art. The Reformation was a movement in religion. It grew from the related idea that faith is a personal choice.
• Renaissance vs Scientific Revolution. The Renaissance is mainly about art, learning and humanism. The Scientific Revolution is about new study of nature, such as astronomy proving wrong the earth-centric belief.
• 'Renaissance' as a word people of the time used vs a later label. People of the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries never called their age the Renaissance. The label belongs to the nineteenth century.

Prelims Hooks

• 'Renaissance' means rebirth. The term was used only from the nineteenth century, not by people of the period itself.
• The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy (1860), written by Jacob Burckhardt, a Swiss historian from Basle; the English translation came out in 1878. [2]
• Burckhardt's teacher: Leopold von Ranke. His motto was "wie es eigentlich gewesen" (show how it actually was). [3]
• Trap: Burckhardt's sources were literature, architecture and painting, NOT government files. Government files were Ranke's sources. [2]
• The main centres of Renaissance art and learning were Florence, Venice and Rome.
• Correct order of birth years: Ranke (1795) → Burckhardt (1818). Correct order of books: Ranke's History of the Popes (1834–36) → Burckhardt's Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy (1860). [2] [3]

Mains Points

• The label is younger than the age it names. A nineteenth-century historian created the frame we now use to read the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries. The split into 'ancient / medieval / modern' was made by people. It is not a natural fact. This is a strong GS-I example of how historians build periods.
• The sources you choose decide the history you write. Ranke used government files and wrote the history of states. [3] Burckhardt used paintings, buildings and literature and wrote the history of a culture. [2] Burckhardt's sharp contrast between the 'modern individual' and the 'medieval man controlled by the church' is a thesis, not settled fact. Later historians have argued that:
• the church stayed very powerful;
• classical learning never fully disappeared in the middle period.

• Give the NCERT position first, then say it is debated.

• One idea, three results. Burckhardt's 'individual who decides for himself' links forward to three changes:

• religion as a personal choice (Reformation);
• astronomy against the earth-centric belief (Scientific Revolution);
• new geography that pushed the Mediterranean out of the centre.
• This makes a useful backbone for an answer on how early modern Europe changed.

Related concepts

• Jacob Burckhardt

Read more

• The idea of the 'Renaissance': Burckhardt and the sources