Renaissance Changes Literature Renaissance writers produced works that reflected the time period However, their works also used techniques still used today Some followed the example of medieval writer Dante He wrote in the vernacular (Italian) rather than classical Latin Vernacular = native language In addition, writers wrote either for self-expression Or to portray (show) the individuality of their subjects These trends are still used by modern writers today

Petrarch & Boccaccio Francesco Petrarch was one of the earliest and most influential humanists He was also a great poet Petrarch wrote both in Italian & Latin In Italian he wrote sonnets (14 line poems) They were about Laura, his ideal woman Little is known about her except she died in the plague The Italian writer Boccaccio is best known for the Decameron, It is a series of realistic, sometimes off-color stories It is told by a group of worldly young people waiting in a villa to avoid the plague sweeping through Florence The humor of the Decameron is cutting & presents the follies of humans with sarcasm

Machiavelli The Prince (1513), by Niccolo Machiavelli also examines the imperfect conduct of humans He does it in the form of a political guidebook named The Prince Machiavelli examines how a ruler can gain power But more importantly keep it in spite of his enemies He begins with the idea that most people are selfish, fickle, & corrupt To succeed in such a wicked world he said a prince must be strong as a lion & shrewd as a fox He might have to trick his enemies and even his own people for the good of the state

Northern Writers Just as Italian art influenced Northern painters, so did Renaissance ideas influence the writers & philosophers of Northern Europe Writers adopted the ideas of humanism but put more of a religious slant to it Because of this, some northern humanists were also called Christian humanist The best known of the Christian humanist were close friends, Desiderius Erasmus of Holland & Thomas More of England Erasmus’ famous work is The Praise of Folly The book poked fun at greedy merchants, heartsick lovers, quarrelsome scholars & pompous priests Erasmus believed in a Christianity of the heart, not of ceremonies & rules Bible study was more important to him

Thomas More’s Utopia Also concerned with society’s flaws, Thomas More tried to show a better model In 1516, he wrote the book Utopia about an imaginary land inhabited by peace-loving people In Greek, Utopia means “no place” However, in English it has come to mean an “ideal place” because of More’s book In Utopia, greed, corruption, war & crime had been weeded out Because the Utopians weren’t greedy, they had little use for money

Rabelais The French humanist Francois Rabelais provided a contrast to Erasmus & More in several ways They wrote in Latin, while Rabelais wrote in vernacular (French) Rabelais’ comic adventure Gargantua & Pantagruel was more secular than Erasmus & More’s work Rabelais believed that human beings were basically good They should lived by instincts rather than religious rules It is the story of two giants, a father (Gargantua) and his son (Pantagruel) and their adventures, written in an amusing, extravagant, satirical vein

Shakespeare William Shakespeare wrote in Renaissance England Regarded as the greatest playwright of all time His works display a deep understanding of human beings He reveals the souls of men & women through dramatic conflict His most famous plays include the tragedies Macbeth, King Lear, Hamlet, & Romeo & Juliet However he was also skillful at writing comedies like A Midsummer Night’s Dream Many of these plays examine human flaws However, he also expresses the Renaissance high view of human nature He also studied classical culture, as shown in his Julius Caesar, the story of the Roman leader’s assassination

Elizabethan Age The Renaissance in England is also called the Elizabethan Age for Queen Elizabeth I She reigned from 1508-1603 She was well educated, speaking French, Italian, Latin, & Greek In addition to running the kingdom, she also wrote poetry She was a patron for artists & writers

Block Type in China One thing that helped spread Renaissance ideas throughout Europe was a new invention adapted from Chinese technology The Chinese had invented block printing, in which a printer carved a work or letter on a wooden block and then pressed it to paper Around 1045, Bi Sheng invented moveable type, or a separate piece for each letter However, since the Chinese writing system contained thousands of different characters… Most Chinese found moveable type impractical In the 1400s, block items reached Europe However, it was too slow to satisfy Renaissance demand for knowledge & books

Gutenberg Printing Press Johann Gutenberg, a craftsman from Mainz, Germany reinvented moveable type around 1440 The method was more practical for Europeans because their languages have a very small number of letters Gutenberg then invented the printing press The printing press is a machine that presses paper against a tray full of inked moveable type Using this invention, Gutenberg printed a complete Bible, the “Gutenberg Bible” in 1455 It was the first full sized book printed with moveable type

Printing Press Creates Change The printing press has a revolutionary impact on European society It enabled a printer to produce hundreds of copies, all exactly alike, of a single work Books became cheap enough that many people could buy them Printing spread quickly, so that by 1500, presses in about 250 cities were producing 10 million books Thus, new ideas spread quicker Many people were illiterate, so it encouraged people to learn to read At first books were mostly religious, but it soon spread to other subjects

Legacy of the Renaissance In both Italy & northern Europe, the Renaissance had stirred a burst of creative activity Artists in both regions studied classical culture & praised individual achievement They also produced works using new techniques During the 1600s, new ideas & artistic styles appeared Nonetheless, Renaissance ideals continued to influence European thought For example, the Renaissance belief in the dignity of the individual played a key role in the rise of democratic ideas