the medieval era

Introduction: The Middle Ages to Renaissance & Reformation

❖Renaissance (c. 1500 - 1600)

❖Reformation (c. 1600)

❖Scientific Revolution (c. 1600 - 1700)

❖Enlightenment (c. 1800)

❖Age of Revolution (c. 1800 - 1900)

❖A world without background noise: no factories, no engines, no traffic…nature in the countryside along with the church bells were the “noise makers.”

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❖A period from the early 1300’s to roughly 1600 when there was a renewed interest in history literature and art. ❖Renaissance = “Rebirth.” ❖Europe’s economic recovery. ❖Renewed study of ancient Greece and Rome.

❖The term is used to describe a MOBILIZATION OF IDEAS which is primarily: ❖ARTISTIC ❖LITERARY ❖CULTURAL ❖The Renaissance as an “INTELLECTUAL” reality, not as a “PHYSICAL” one.

❖“The essence of the Renaissance lay not in any sudden rediscovery of classical civilization but rather in the use which was made of classical models to test the authority underlying conventional taste and wisdom.”

- Europe, by Norman Davies

❖In 1500 antibiotics didn’t exist. ❖Surgery often killed patients. ❖Poor diet. ❖Few clothes that were rarely washed. ❖Crowded housing. ❖Dirty streets and rivers. ❖Abundant rats, fleas, and lice.

❖Diseases killed quickly: Typhus, smallpox, typhoid, etc., were deadly. ❖Most famous: the bubonic plague. ❖Plague is transmitted by fleas of rats and other rodents. ❖Produced egg-sized lumps (buboes) in groin and armpits.

The Course of the Black Death in Fourteenth-Century Europe

❖Began in Asia…spread with speed due to increasing trade and travel. ❖Social impact in many cases was panic, to wild debauchery as the end neared. ❖Church suffered from loss of their flock to death and disillusionment. ❖It is argued that 1 in 3 people died in Europe. ❖Blame ranged from God to Jews to lepers.

❖Read “Black Death” articles and respond to the 2 two (2) short answer questions in your notes.

❖Other ways to die: ❖Wounds that would fester and poison blood. ❖Diarrhea from bad water (summer). ❖Respiratory infections (winter).

❖Life expectancy was short. ❖Many women died in childbirth - 1/7. ❖Many children died by the age of one - 1/4. ❖Death was a fact of life!

❖Other dangers: ❖Famine ❖Natural disasters ❖Fire ❖War ❖Violence ❖Hell

❖C. 1250 - 1493The Holy Roman Empire could not control its own subjects, let alone exercise leadership over others. ❖World was ruled by feudalism and superstition.

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❖Europe 1500: religion pervaded everything! ❖Religion had 3 crucial tasks: ❖Providence ❖Salvation ❖Community.

❖Providence was God’s justice on Earth. ❖All bad things – storms, hunger, plague, war – came from God. ❖He made them or let them happen to punish sin.

❖Other agents of providence: Virgin Mary, other saints. ❖St. Roch for plague.

❖St. Lucy for sore eyes❖St. Anthony for skin ailments

❖St. Ives for lawyers❖St. Nicolas for sailors

❖Several ways to invite providence: be good, avoid sin, pray to God, to Mary, to the saints. ❖Individual and community prayer.

❖Self-punishment helped atone for sin: fasts, vigils, sexual abstinence, pilgrimages, alms, social service. ❖Renaissance art and architecture were bargaining for providence.

❖Original sin = serious! ❖Read Genesis Chapters 1 – 3. ❖Baptism washed off Adam’s sin, but evil lives on. ❖Without Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, all hope would have been in vain.

❖Theologians agreed that people lacked the power to save themselves. ❖Before the Reformation, Christians paid the clergy to pray for them.

❖People did not want their souls to stay in purgatory forever and so donated in exchange for prayers for the dead. ❖Many holidays provided a calendar for shared worship.

❖Religion marked the shape of time. ❖Holidays signalled celebration, rhythms of agriculture, commerce, politics, and the academic year.

❖With the sacraments, also solemnized the life cycle: birth (baptism), age of reason (confirmation), marriage, parenthood, and death (anointing of the sick).

❖Religion also defined a social ethic. ❖Model of Jesus, Christianity preached sacrifice: “put others first.” ❖Also praised self-denial: chastity, voluntary poverty, humility, forgiveness, love thy neighbour.

❖Europeans saw inequality as natural and good.

❖Land was central to governing. ❖Lords had many powers: to judge, tax, run market, wine press, mill, and tavern.

❖Other divisions: youth deferred to age, females to males, servants to masters, soldiers to officers, citizens to officials and clergy. ❖Bottom of society: beggars, widowed women, vagrants. ❖Renaissance had little impact outside the elite classes.

❖After the fall of the Roman Empire (ca. 500), Europe had a feudal structure. ❖Gradually independent city-states developed (Germany, Italy). ❖No single model ruled (like democracy today).

❖Many were kingdoms with monarchs who ruled. ❖Courts, like Hollywood today, were envied for their luxury and power. ❖Ambitious men and women flocked to court in hopes of receiving land, gifts, jobs, etc.

❖From 1500 to 1700, European monarchies grew stronger.

❖Middle Ages perfected 2 military devices: armoured knights on horseback and stone castles. ❖Defence had the upper hand. ❖Gunpowder changed all that. ❖Stone castles could be destroyed in 10 hits!

❖Renaissance military engineers created the star-shaped, bastioned fortress to defend against the cannon.

❖1500 – largely medieval. ❖Built on theology. ❖New ideas were quashed ❖i.e. Duns Scotus (‘Dunce”)

Plaque commemorating Duns Scotus – University Church, Oxford

He was known as "Doctor Subtilis" because of the subtle distinctions and nuances of his thinking. Later philosophers in the sixteenth century were less complimentary about his work, and accused him of sophistry. This led to his name, "dunce" (which developed from the name "Dunse" given to his followers in the 1500s) to become synonymous for "somebody who is incapable of scholarship".

❖William of Ockham ❖‘Okham’s Razor’ – “the principle that facts should be interpreted with a minimum of explanatory causes”…separates reason from faith…For Ockham, the only truly necessary entity is God. ❖Period of witchcraft.

1.Divine plan: world product of God’s intelligence. 2.Hierarchy or “Great Chain of Being.” 3.Dualism: Platonic idea which divided the world into two natures: spirit and matter.

4.Allegory: Greek literary device. Story with two meanings (literal and moral). 5.Providence: God controls the world. 6.Teleology: purpose/goal of all things.

❖Renaissance began as a linguistic campaign against Latin. ❖Humanists aimed to restore lost eloquence. ❖Began reading lost works of literature and refining language.

❖‘Independence of mind’ ❖A person who mastered all areas of arts and thought…becoming a “complete man.” ❖Humanity was mastering the world they lived in. ❖“Man’s fate could me controlled and improved.”

Portrait by Leonardo Da Vinci of Florence c. 1503 - 1519

❖Leonardo da Vinci ❖c. 1487 ❖Based on the correlations of ideal human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise De Architectura.

❖A page showing Leonardo's study of a foetus in the womb (c. 1510) Royal Library, Windsor Castle

Anatomical study of the arm

Portrait of The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci (1495–1498); Located in Milan, Italy.

❖The work that distinguishes the Baroque period is stylistically complex, even contradictory. In general, however, the desire to evoke emotional states by appealing to the senses, often in dramatic ways, underlies its manifestations. Some of the qualities most frequently associated with the Baroque are grandeur, sensuous richness, drama, vitality, movement, tension, emotional exuberance, and a tendency to blur distinctions between the various arts.

The Dead Christ (1500) by Mantegna

❖Salutati ❖Man is responsible for his good or bad deeds. ❖God does not control a man’s will or morality. ❖It is better to benefit others by living an active public life than to live as a monk, which does not benefit anyone other than the monk. -Rejected medieval view of humanity and focused on the goodness of mankind.

❖Bruni ❖Medieval values of piety, humility, and poverty not important. ❖Attitudes about wealth, credit finances, and usury modified. ❖Pagan elements introduced into Christian culture.

❖Emphasized the dignity and worth of the individual. ❖People are rational beings who possess within themselves the capacity for truth and goodness. ❖Emphasized the value of the Greek and Latin classics for their own sake, rather than for their relevance to Christianity.

❖Collection and translation of classical manuscripts. ❖Inspired by Plato (Aristotle inspired medieval scholarship). ❖Centred around education. ❖Attempted to develop the character and intelligence of pupils by a general literary study of the ancient classics.

❖Invented in 1440 By Johannes Gutenberg. ❖Led to a great demand for books in the mid 15th century. ❖Printers met the high demand by printing an over-abundance of books. ❖Prices plummeted (20% less than a manuscript).

❖Aided in political and religious revolution. ❖Humanist movement fuelled its success. ❖Canterbury Tales and Dante’s Divine Comedy were some of the first printed ❖Led to the rise of the vernacular (non-Latin) literary text.

Florence ❖Prosperous city dominated by bankers and wool merchants in 14th century.

❖Medici, merchant princes, dominated politics and the arts. ❖1494 the family fell along with Florentine Renaissance. ❖Popes used wealth and power to draw artists to Rome. ❖Julius II brought Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci.

❖He had Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel and the dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica.