Europe and The New World (Volume C)

Renaissance Values well-defined, restrictive social roles play or constraint? revolution in education, politics, science, and economics literacy in vulgar languages transience/ pleasure Renaissance men and women were born into societies that strictly regulated their actions and clothing—only actors had the right to vary their clothing above their social station. Some authors perceived the established social actions as allowing for playful behavior, while others express resentment over the constraints. More and Rabelais, for example, imagine new social orders in which the educated and aristocratic characters respond to social expectations with liberal and novel methods. With the advent of the printing press, ideas could be transmitted internationally and to larger groups of people in their native languages rather than Latin. Because less emphasis was placed on the afterlife, those who could afford it led a “life well-lived” to enjoy the pleasures of their transient life. As the caption to Lucas van Leyden’s Young Man Holding a Skull (1519) reads, “This young nobleman, a paragon of Renaissance fashion, points to a skull that he cradles in his left arm, reminding the viewer of the inevitable fate that even the best-dress courtier will face.”

Rabelais “Do What You Will” “Their lives were not ordered and governed by laws and statues and rules, but according to their own free will. —because free men and women, wellborn, well taught, finding themselves joined with other respectable people, are instinctively impelled to do virtuous things and avoid vice” (p. 147). In his works, Rabelais satirizes the Church by contrasting its antiquated learning with a humanist education. Rabelais’ subversive book coincided with heightened unrest by Protestants in Paris. What Renaissance values are represented in this short excerpt, which describes a utopian society at the Abbey of Thélème, in which educated and elite men and women live, separated from society?

Renaissance Scientific Discoveries COPERNICUS GALILEO Around 1532, Copernicus completed his theses on a heliocentric model of the universe, in which he disputes the then-current theory of geocentrism—that the earth is the center of the universe—and replaces it with a new model in which all spheres revolve around the sun; the Catholic Church was interested in this model but reacted strongly against it, given its displacement of earth as a microcosm and man as the center of God’s creation. Fifty years after the presentation of this system, only a dozen astronomers concurred with the theory. In 1633, Galileo was convicted of heresy and placed under permanent house arrest for ascribing to Copernican theory. Among other noteworthy developments, Galileo designed a military compass for gunners and surveyors’ accuracy, created a new thermometer, and made improvements to the telescope and microscope. Images: Copernicus’ heliocentric model; Galileo’s phases of the moon.

Three Important Inventions Gutenberg printing press, 1439 compass gun Despite censorship, the average person’s access to information increased dramatically due to both the printing press and publication of the Bible and other works in vulgar (non-Latin) languages. This created problems for the Catholic Church, especially leading into the Spanish Inquisition. The compass improved navigation and encouraged trade, while the use of guns changed military combat. Insert Gutenberg Printing Press http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gutenberg.press.jpg

Exploration and Change Old World centrality questioned exploiting the New World cultures converting inhabitants to Christianity destabilizing effect on European economy and social strata The tremendous influx of wealth from the New World led to persistent inflation and new possibilities of social mobility. Spain commanded the wealth yielded from the New World, leading to piracy and expeditions from other European nations to combat Spanish success.

Geographical Explorations Columbus, navigations tabula rasa Columbus considered the New World a tabula rasa—a clean slate ready to be imprinted with Christianity and European ways. Image: The Landing of Christopher Columbus. Caption reads: Columbus and others showing objects to Native American men and women on shore.

Indigenous Populations “I will simply say that the manner of living among the people is very similar to that of Spain, and considering that this is a barbarous nation shut off from a knowledge of the true God or communication of the enlightened nations, one may well marvel at the orderliness and good government which is everywhere maintained” (p. 555). Cortés, The Second Letter In spite of a sincere belief that indigenous peoples were barbaric and uncivilized, Western writers and travelers increasingly wrote about the simplicity and candor of these peoples, as well as what was perceived to be a better form of government and social hierarchy. The image depicts Hernan Cortés entering the city of Tabasco (17th-century painting).

Learning About Self from Other “So we may well call these people barbarians, in respect to the rules of reason, but not in respect to ourselves, who surpass them in every kind of barbarity. Their warfare is wholly noble and generous, and as excusable and beautiful as this human disease can be; its only basis among them is their chivalry in valor. They are not fighting for the conquest of new lands, for they still enjoy that natural abundance that provides them without toil and trouble with all necessary things” (p. 359). Montaigne, “Of Cannibals” Cortés and Pizarro encountered the great civilizations of the Aztecs and Incas in the 1520s and 1530s, paralleling a trend in European thinking to “ask larger questions about European society, whose peculiarities proved as unintelligible” to the indigenous tribes as their societies were to Europeans. Thomas More’s Utopia calls for social reform on a fantasy island, and Montaigne’s skepticism on European superiority is presented in his essay “Of Cannibals.”

Learning About Self from Other (cont.) “They define virtue as living according to nature; and God, they say, created us to that end. When an individual obeys the dictates of reason in choosing one thing and avoiding another, he is following nature. The first rule of reason is to love and venerate the Divine Majesty…the second rule is to lead a life free of anxiety and full of joy, and help all one’s fellow men toward that end” (p. 243). More, Utopia The second book of More’s Utopia is closely modeled on travel narratives of the New World, thereby contrasting the “certainties” of classic geography and society with the newly acquired knowledge from the New World. Based on the ideal commonwealth of Plato’s Republic, Utopia is ruled by simplified laws that treat everyone equally and attempt to quiet desires like greed and lust, which were realities More had observed in his work as Lord Chancellor of England under Henry VIII (who eventually executed More in 1535 because of More’s Catholic leanings and refusal to acknowledge Henry VIII’s supremacy over the Church).

Protestant / Catholic Conflict Protestant Reformation simony, abuses of the Catholic Church nationalizing religious authority monarchies claim power separate from Pope Many European monarchs took up the Protestant cause against the Catholic Church, though they often did so as much out of political interest as religious. For example, looking to throw off papal control of the distant Roman Catholic Church, Henry VIII of England declared himself head of the Church of England. Jean de Léry, in the History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil, connects the experience of the New World with the upheavals of the Reformation that he witnessed in the French-Portuguese wars over Brazil, their interaction with the Tupinamba Indians, and the violence he witnessed upon returning to France that made his own civilization appear more savage than the indigenous tribes he had observed in Brazil. The image shows an engraved page from Jean de Léry’s text, published in 1586, depicting an indigenous family.

Absolute Rule “Anyone who determines to act in all circumstances the part of a good man must come to ruin among so many who are not good. Hence, if a prince wishes to maintain himself, he must learn how to be not good, and to use that ability or not as is required” (p. 186). Machiavelli, The Prince. Henry VIII’s absolutism led to greater efforts on the part of his subjects to contest absolute monarchic control. England provides a good example again: Charles I was beheaded in 1649 and the monarchy was abolished temporarily during the Civil War of 1642–51.  Students might look in particular at Guaman Poma de Ayala’s The First New Chronicle and Good Government for suggestions to improve colonial administration in Peru, making it more aligned with Peruvian government and suggesting the election of an indigenous viceroy to rule for the king of Spain.

Humanism Renaissance (“re-birth”): a return classical texts inspire morality and politics “republic of letters” age of discovery life is transitory, so cultivate earthly interests “My ship laden with forgetfulness passes through a harsh sea, at / midnight, in winter, between Scylla and Charybdis, and at the / tiller sits my lord, rather my enemy…My two usual sweet stars are hidden; dead among the waves are / reason and skill; so that I begin to despair of the port” (from Petrarch, Sonnet 189) Petrarch’s Rime Sparse, a sequence of love poems, explore the theme of “renunciation” for a poet whose earthly desire as a poet-lover are inconsolable in spite of his religious endeavors. The work typifies Renaissance preoccupation with real life rather than a focus on life as mere preparation for the afterlife. Therefore, abstract absolutes like right/wrong, good/evil are replaced by concrete ideas of taste, harmony, and effort. “Virtue” is now based on one’s skill rather than an abstract morality. In this excerpt from Petrarch’s poem 189 (171), classical myth, transience, and the emphasis on skill represent humanist aesthetics. The footnote reads that “Scylla and Charybdis are twinned oceanic dangers through which Odysseus, in Homer’s Odyssey, and Aeneas, in Virgil’s Aeneid, must chart a middle course. Forgetfulness of oneself and of God is sinful in Augustinian terms. The ship, captained by Reason, is a traditional figure for the embodied soul.”

Arts Similar to the Renaissance individual’s aspiration toward earthly delight and self-competence, art was to make a lasting impression by virtue of its craft, not because it necessarily evoked or expressed raw emotion.  Aesthetics were based on harmony, skill, and drew on themes from antiquity and religion for inspiration (i.e., the Virgin Mary represents earthly beauty and inspires thoughts of the divine in Leonardo da Vinci’s painting; Michelangelo’s sculpture maintains characteristics of the classical male nude, in a contrapposto pose). Images show Michelangelo’s David (ca. 1504) and Leonardo da Vinci’s The Annunciation (ca. 1475).

Albrecht Dürer: Rhinoceros (1515) Albrecht Dürer based this sketch on a written description and provisional sketch of an Indian rhinoceros, which had arrived in Lisbon in 1515; though Dürer himself never saw the animal (it died in a shipwreck in Italy, 1516), this was the first rhinoceros seen in Europe since antiquity. The woodcut is important because, in spite of incredible inaccuracy (the animal is depicted with armor), it was considered a truthful replica of a real rhino until the 1800s. This also represents the importance of intercultural exchange and curiosity for the exotic, so prominent during the Renaissance when prints could be mass-produced and distributed internationally.

Melancholy futility skepticism response to “change” problems with absolute authority social contract, liberty education contemplation Melancholy describes not just the feeling of sadness that some Renaissance artists expressed, but rather it points more specifically to the sense of futility that derives from skepticism about the meaning of earthly effort and endeavor.  Problems of power, absolute authority, rights and liberties, and consideration of the social contract lead to advances but also, because of the necessity of change, promote a sense of melancholy and skepticism among great thinkers. Notes from Wikimedia Commons image: “Renaissance philosophers had suggested a new interpretation for melancholy, as the temperament of genius (in the modern sense). Melancholy was possessed by artists, in whom “Imagination” predominates; “Reason” dominates scholars; while the final stage of “Spirit’”was the preserve of theologians. If this interpretation is correct, Dürer has presented us with a portrait of his own temperament as an artist.”

Hapsburgs / Spanish Inquisition Lazarillo de Tormes Lazarillo de Tormes was published anonymously (and banned due to its anticlerical content) during the Spanish Inquisition, at the outset of trials against the Lutherans. Though not a direct attack on Christian principles and beliefs, because it mocked the Spanish crown and the practices of the Inquisition, the book was censored and included in the Index of Forbidden Books, and did not appear fully in print in Spain until the nineteenth century. The writer remarks upon the Spanish belief of that era: that social hierarchy was based upon God’s grace or condemnation (the wealthy and those of legitimate Christian birth being rewarded with wealth, while the Jewish and Moorish as well as corrupt or condemned members of society were rewarded with poverty). The caption reads: “Two old priests showing the application of torture under the supervision of the Inquisition.”

Renaissance Literary Characters introspection over impulsive or grandiose acts (contemplative rather than active life) characters enjoy greater autonomy examples: Hamlet, Don Quixote Though it is a drama about characters of superior station and the conflicts and problems associated with men and women of high degree, Hamlet reveals these problems in a particular family, but presents the domestic conflict within the larger world of politics. Shakespeare underscores the humanity and frailty of rulers; the vulnerability of Hamlet, the disproportion between the heroism demanded of him and the response he can muster, and his acute awareness of how he fails all make him a compelling figure. Don Quixote sees the world through the lens of medieval chivalry; Cervantes’s text examines the anachronism of individual heroics: new forms of warfare rendered knighthood futile, Quixote’s motives are applauded in a world lacking integrity, and the relationship between reason and madness, truth and illusion, becomes ambiguous, leading the reader to ask questions about social justice and to place value on the imagination. The image is Honore Daumier’s painting, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza (1866).

Major European Explorations by Sea In 1519 King Charles of Spain was crowned Holy Roman Emperor. He took for his motto the Latin phrase plus ultra . . . even further. The lines of major European sea exploration depicted on this map provide ample evidence of Europe extending its reach across the globe—going even further than it ever had before. Magellan, for example, circumnavigated the globe in 1520. And Columbus encountered the New World, arriving to North America in 1492. These extensive sea voyages opened up new territory and resources to European exploitation, though what European explorers discovered, in addition to raw materials and natural resources, were often well-developed civilizations that were completely different than their own. The cultural and material exchanges enabled by European sea exploration often had considerable effect back home as Europe began to reconsider the cultural and historical centrality that it had understood for so long to be its birthright.

Europe Europe of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was a continent threatened from without by the Ottoman Empire.* However, the most serious challenge to the unity of post–Reformation Europe arose from political and religious divisions within Europe itself. In many cases, entire countries were dominated by one religious orthodoxy, as was the case for Spain and Italy in which Roman Catholicism held sway. In just as many instances, however, religious beliefs varied within political borders, which led to considerable conflict as religions vied for dominance. Europe of the late sixteenth century was a continent of many major city powers, including Rome, London, Paris, Vienna, and Prague. Each of these urban centers represented political, religious, and cultural power in Europe.   * See the Vol. C map “The Ottoman Empire” for more about this powerful and expansive empire, which was a nexus point between the diverse cultures of West Asia, Europe, and North Africa.

Test Your Knowledge During the Renaissance, which of the following generally took precedence in the arts? a. the skill of the artist b. raw emotion c. religious devotion d. originality Answer: A Section: The Well-Lived Life Feedback: Of primary concern across many art forms, from painting to writing to architecture, was that the artistic product showcase the talents of the artist as craftsperson. The goal of any art was very often to delight the reader (or viewer, or listener) by displaying the virtuosity of the artist. It was not, as is true of other artistic time periods, to express raw emotions or to produce challenging, original work that defied tradition.

Test Your Knowledge “Melancholy,” as that term was understood during the Renaissance, can best be described as: a. a sense of futility b. a temporary sadness c. a kind of “blue” feeling d. a manic depressive state Answer: A Section: Skepticism and Melancholy Feedback: “Melancholy,” though an idea dating back to Classical Greek writers like Hippocrates and his theories about our personalities being determined by physical humors within the body, came to denote in the Renaissance a particular feeling of futility. Even as explorers and scientists made new discoveries about the physical world, some artists began to express—and to cultivate—a growing sense of skeptical doubt about the role and purpose of human endeavor in the world. This led to expressions of the fundamental futility of human action in what was becoming an increasingly wide and complicated world, especially given that everything ended in death regardless of how rich, important, or powerful you happened to be. Melancholy was not simply a temporary sadness, nor was it for most a debilitating depression due to which they could no longer function as writers or artists. Melancholy became for some artists, somewhat ironically, a motivating idea behind much of their work. John Donne’s many sonnets about death are good examples.

Test Your Knowledge The Renaissance was a time of great global exploration, and the discovery of new cultures on the other side of the world from the Europe influenced literature of the time. Which of the following was inspired by reports of newly discovered cultural traditions and social arrangements? a. Thomas More’s Utopia b. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet c. Nicolaus Copernicus’ On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres d. Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince Answer: A Section: Encountering the New World Feedback: Global exploration had a profound effect on Renaissance literature, as is reflected particularly in works like Thomas More’s Utopia (NAWOL, Vol C). In his Utopia More imagines a fictitious place that is in the New World. A traveller, Raphael Hythloday, tells of his encounter with the people and institutions of Utopia. And though the work is fiction and Utopia does not actually exist, More’s book was written to address real social problems in Europe.  

Test Your Knowledge The term Renaissance means “re-birth.” What literary traditions did European Renaissance writers and thinkers focus on as part of this re-birth? a. Ancient Chinese literature b. New World literature c. Greek and Roman literature d. Classical Spanish literature Answer: C Section: Humanism Feedback: Renaissance writers and thinkers returned to Classical Greek and Roman literature, including epic works by Homer (e.g. The Iliad and The Odyssey; NAWOL3 Vol A) and Virgil (e.g. The Aeneid; NAWOL3 Vol A). Equally important were dramatic works by authors such as Sophocles (NAWOL3 Vol A) and Euripides (NAWOL3 Vol A). And while grounded in Classical literature and philosophy, Renaissance writers endeavored to explore their contemporary world and its challenging variety.

This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for The Norton Anthology of World Literature