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The Greedy Guide |
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A commonly accepted span of time for the middle ages is from the fifth to fifteenth centuries. When Rome fell in 476 A.D. the Dark Ages began (or so you have probably heard). The event that marks "the end of the middle ages" is anyone's guess. However, dates as well as generalizations are dangerous pitfalls for the historian. Medieval scholars will tell you that the darkest thing about the "Dark Ages" is our modern perspective of it; anyone with a true understanding of the Roman Empire knows that Rome, just as it was built, did not fall in a day.
Yet that span of time still rests comfortably in our order of history. The Ancient world, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Age of Enlightenment... But wait, the Renaissance encompasses another two hundred years! Good grief, Melissa, is not a thousand years enough?
Not a thousand years -- not even twelve hundred years is enough time to learn everything there is to know about the middle ages. And I'm greedy -- I want to learn everything I can (and then some) about what happened in those dark and distant days. But it isn't just my academic avarice that defines this site topic.
In the nineteenth century Jacob Burkhardt wrote an in-depth treatise in which he approached the Renaissance as a distinct historical period, and ever since then this concept has become entrenched in our view of the past. But the Renaissance was not so much a time period as it was a movement of art, science, and thought. That movement began in the middle ages, grew out of the middle ages, and eventually brought the middle ages to its close. If the medieval era could be imbued with a mind and personality, with the collective heart, consciousness and soul of the people who thrived during that age, the Renaissance movement would be its crowning achievement.
But no scholar should be dazzled by the artistic feats and lose sight of the reality of those days. Plague, war, political instability and constant change in daily life were the norm. The Catholic Church fell victim to corruption and lost its status as the universal Christian church through a turbulent reformation. While philosophers redefined ethics and morality from a secular standpoint, merchants and princes exploited people as well as situations to line their own coffers. Feudalism crumbled in the west as it grew in the east. The portion of the medieval era in which the Renaissance took place saw less peace and comfort for the individual than did the High Middle Ages, thanks to the Inquisition, witch-burning, the slave trade, and the Black Death.
In short, the Italian Renaissance took place during one of the most complex and contradictory eras in human history -- not unlike our own.
Contributing to the confusion is the word renaissance. The sixteenth-century Italian artist and art historian Giorgio Vasari used the word renascita, which means "rebirth," to describe the return to classical techniques in art that had begun in the early fourteenth century. Yet even in limiting the concept to art this term was misleading, for there was no sudden rebirth of ancient learning, but rather an increased awareness of artistic style and technique, with reference to the masters of an earlier day. It is true that the classical era was glorified and emulated, but as the movements progressed Renaissance artists and thinkers ceased confining themselves to ancient ideas and branched out into new avenues of creativity, very much aware that it was fine to study the ancient world but better to live in the present.
In the eighteenth century Voltaire applied the term (renaissance is French for renascita) to a period of history that he defined as an age of great cultural achievement, thus confusing the issue even further. By such a standard there were many renaissances in many parts of the world, and indeed modern scholars have used the term to describe such movements in other eras (including the "Carolingian" renaissance of Charlemagne's day).
To see "the Renaissance" as a spontaneous rebirth of learning and creativity would be a grave error. The acquisition and preservation of ancient knowledge was carried out by medieval scholars and even expanded upon before the renaissance of art began. Exploring the Renaissance therefore means exploring the middle ages to see and understand how it came about. In reality, the roots of the Renaissance movements do go as far back as antiquity.
But I'll leave Ancient and Classical History to our qualified Guide, N.S. Gill. I'm not that greedy.
Links of Interest
Defining
the Middle Ages
When did the Middle Ages start and end? This deceptively simple
question has no simple answer. Here is your Guide's introduction to
some of the ways the medieval era can be defined.
Renaissance
Studies
Links to resources for the study of the Renaissance movements, the
political and economic circumstances that allowed them to flourish,
and the events surrounding artistic growth, compiled by your
Guide.
Leonardo
da Vinci
A multi-page index of sites offering artwork, inventions, exhibits,
biographies, and other fascinating facts about the original
Renaissance man, as well as suggested reading and other
resources.
William
Shakespeare
A multi-page index of links providing biographical information,
online works, examinations of the authorship controversy and more
about the man whose work was the crowning achievement of the English
Renaissance of Letters.
Sources and Suggested Reading
The links below will take you to a site where you can compare prices at booksellers across the web. More in-depth info about each book may be found by clicking on to the book's page at one of the online merchants.
Renaissance and Reformation by John F.H. New
Humanists and Reformers: A History of the Renaissance and Reformation by Bard Thompson
Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance by Lisa Jardine
The Italian Renaissance by J.H. Plumb
The Greedy Guide is copyright © 1997-2005 Melissa Snell. Permission is granted to reproduce this article for personal or classroom use only, provided that the URL below is included. For reprint permission, please contact Melissa Snell.
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Keywords: Renaissance history, historical periods, dates, eras, Renaissance movements, art history, Middle Ages, medieval studies, Renaissance studies
