My Renaissance project.

[The White Lyre]

Playgrounders, I come to you with four of six questions that I've been tasked with answering for my Western Civilisation class as a term paper. I spent some time researching at a local library, and in talking to some of my friends afterwards I was introduced to some ideas that I hadn’t found in my research. So, I figure these types of questions are enjoyed here, and perhaps some of you have some facts that I haven’t heard yet. And, to be honest, I’m a terribly lazy person who’s time is often spent lurking the forums here rather than working on my homework. So, why not combine the two - and finally stop lurking around? :smalltongue:

So the questions are as follows:

1) Find and show eight examples of Renaissance art and explain the content, style and value of the artist’s creation. What do you see in the art? (i.e. perspective, colour, light, imagery, realism, idealism, etc.)
This can include architecture, music, etc. Anything artistic really, not simply sculpture and painting.

2) What were some of the major literary developments of the Renaissance period in Italy and the rest of Europe? Choose four of what you feel are the most significant literary contributions (from Italy, England, Spain, etc.) and explain why.
Obviously, Shakespeare, de Cervantes and other popular names would be included here but I've been looking for subjects that classmates won't be likely to choose en masse (Chaucer, Bocaccio, etc.). The Bible could also be an option, in regards to Henry VIII - but let's not discuss that here.

3) Renaissance technological developments were significant to the development of Western Civilisation. Trace the development of five major inventions and their impact on later Western Civilisation. Only three may be military technologies.
Guttenberg's press, for sure. The clock was another I was thinking of, but what are some others?

4) Renaissance education what significantly different than what had predated it in Europe. How did educational developments impact society and the “traditional” perspectives that existed? Be sure to touch on changes that impacted the role of women and the development of feminist thought.
I've heard mention of the Ratio Studorium, which I still need to take a look at. Also, the establishment of universities as learning centers, instead of the monasteries.

By the way, considering this is my first post outside of the PbP forums, I'd prefer for it to not get shut down. So please stay within the rules when discussing the questions.
(That's assuming anyone replies :smalleek:.)

Also, a question of my own: when did the Renaissance start and finish? Was the end in 1688, or even as late as 1789-99? I understand you can't necessarily define it, but maybe give a personal opinion? Remember, please keep the politics and religion discussion light and disengaged.

[13_CBS]

Also, a question of my own: when did the Renaissance start and finish? Was the end in 1688, or even as late as 1789-99? I understand you can't necessarily define it, but maybe give a personal opinion? Remember, please keep the politics and religion discussion light and disengaged.

It depends on who you talk to, but from what I learned in my own history class (and from a professor I highly, HIGHLY respect)...

Remember that the Renaissance started and ended differently in each country and area. IIRC, it started in Italy of course, somewhere around the mid-late 1300's. Also IIRC, it reached places like England around the late 1400's, early 1500's.

In my history class, we were basically told that the Renaissance ended in Italy at least with the...Spanish? (or was it French?) attack on Rome in the mid-late 1400's. After that was, essentially, the Early Modern Period, which arguably started with the colonization of the New World.


...it's been way too long since my AP European History class. :smalleek: Someone else ought to be able to tell you about the Renaissance in more detail.

[golentan]

For #3, you absolutely, positively must include the development of Square Rigged, Keeled vessels. They completely overturned the rules of naval engagement and trading, and allowed the europeans to have a leg up on reaching and exploiting new markets that directly resulted in the exploratory and Colonial ages, and gave complete access to new technologies from around the world that other groups had only piecemeal access to.

[Anuan]

You could include the Gramática published in 1492 by Antonio de Nebrija. First book about the Spanish language and its rules. Full name Gramática de la lengua castellana, also known as the Grammatica Nebrissensis. Grammatica dela Lingua Castellianna in the Spanish of the time, but I may have that confused with the first full-title, and this may be the modern form. Not knowing Spanish, I cannot tell.

You could also include John of the Cross, a Spanish Mystic Poet who wrote Dark Night of the Soul. The Spanish Mystics "inspired a religious quest for God based on desire rather than obligation and medieval legalism" to quote Wikipedia.

[bosssmiley]

2) What were some of the major literary developments of the Renaissance period in Italy and the rest of Europe? Choose four of what you feel are the most significant literary contributions (from Italy, England, Spain, etc.) and explain why.
Obviously, Shakespeare, de Cervantes and other popular names would be included here but I've been looking for subjects that classmates won't be likely to choose en masse (Chaucer, Bocaccio, etc.). The Bible could also be an option, in regards to Henry VIII - but let's not discuss that here.

Pre-Reformation vernacular Bibles as precursor of religious schism and national identity - Tyndale, Hus, etc.
The wider movement to vernacular literature (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernacular_literature)
The revival of classical scholarship and the return to the sources
Humanism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_humanism)

Shakespeare is probably a little late for the Renaissance, but he's the quintessence of humanism (man as worthy object of study and comment) in late 16th c. literature and theatre.


3) Renaissance technological developments were significant to the development of Western Civilisation. Trace the development of five major inventions and their impact on later Western Civilisation. Only three may be military technologies.
Guttenberg's press, for sure. The clock was another I was thinking of, but what are some others?

The clock was a medieval invention. The idea of the universe as clock (a rational, knowable system) first became popular during the Renaissance though.

The dawn of realistic technical drawing (thanks perspective!)
Double shell domes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filippo_Brunelleschi)
New mining technologies
New sailing technologies - ships and navigational
Corned gunpowder
The adaptation of bell-casting technologies to cannon-casting
The Venetian Arsenal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venetian_Arsenal) system (a proto-production line)
Advances in glassworking (better lenses for eyeglasses and telescopes, glass window panes, better (al)chemistry sets, etc.)
Movable type printing


4) Renaissance education what significantly different than what had predated it in Europe. How did educational developments impact society and the “traditional” perspectives that existed? Be sure to touch on changes that impacted the role of women and the development of feminist thought.
I've heard mention of the Ratio Studorium, which I still need to take a look at. Also, the establishment of universities as learning centers, instead of the monasteries.

The Renaissance was the result of people applying existing (and some rediscovered) knowledge in a new way. The 14th century had thrown all the certainties of the medieval world into doubt. The Renaissance started as an attempt to rationalise the divergences between the hegemonic (clerical) worldview and observed reality.

Universities had been autonomous since the 13th century.


Also, a question of my own: when did the Renaissance start and finish? Was the end in 1688, or even as late as 1789-99? I understand you can't necessarily define it, but maybe give a personal opinion? Remember, please keep the politics and religion discussion light and disengaged.

Start: 1400 or so (Boccaccio, Dante, etc.)
End: Debatable. I'd say start of the Reformation (c. 1520) marks an end point to The Renaissance. YMMV.