Topic: Northern Renaissance Unit: Renaissance

Essential Question: How was the Northern Renaissance different from the Italian Renaissance?

Printing Although travelers spread the ideas of the Renaissance, the greatest method of communication was printing. The invention of the printing press meant that books could be made faster than ever before. Johann Gutenberg, a German man living in the mid- 1400s, developed a printing press with movable type. The first printed book was a Bible. Books could be copied faster with the printing press than by handwriting them.

First Printed Book EVER! You can see a copy anytime at the Huntington Library!

Christian Humanism Northern scholars focused on the history of Christianity. The resulting combination of humanist and religious ideas is called Christian humanism. Many Northern scholars began to feel that the church was corrupt & no longer true to the spirit of Jesus. One such scholar was Desiderius Erasmus. He claimed clergy to be corrupt, wanted to get rid of meaningless rituals, he emphasized devotion & the teachings of Jesus.

Artists of the Northern Renaissance Northern artists painted in a realistic style and painted primarily scenes of daily life. Pieter Brueghel’s Return of the Hunters is a classic example. Albrecht Dürer was an artist from Germany who was most famous for his prints. A print is a work of art reproduced from an original. He carved an image into a metal sheet or wooden block, covered it in ink, and pressed a sheet of paper down on it to transfer the image to the paper. Hans Holbein and Jan van Eyck were famous for their painting of portraits. Van Eyck worked in oil paints, a new invention.

Return of the Hunters by Pieter Brueghel

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Albrecht Durer

Jan van Eyck Man in a Turban, 1433

Literature beyond Italy Writers in other countries besides Italy also included Renaissance ideas. However, these writers wrote in their own languages. Miguel de Cervantes was a Spanish writer who wrote Don Quixote in his own language. William Shakespeare also wrote in his own language, English. He wrote plays and poetry and is considered the greatest writer in the English language. The works of both men have been translated into many languages and read all over the world.

Italian Literature Dante’s major work was The Divine Comedy. Dante wrote it in Italian, which was the vernacular, the common language of the people. Described an imaginary journey through the afterlife Described many of the problems Dante saw in Italian society Machiavelli wrote The Prince. He was also a politician, and his book told leaders how to rule. Told politicians to focus on the “here and now,” not on theories