1. Northern Renaissance

2. The Renaissance Spreads North

3. Trading Goods and Ideas
As trading grew a merchant organization, the Hanseatic League, began controlling trade in Northern Europe.
Operating from the 1200s-1400s, the league protected its members from pirates and other hazards. The Hanseatic League built lighthouses and trained ship captains.
Through trade and the movement of people, ideas from Italy spread to other portions of Europe.

4. Trading Goods and Ideas
The warring cities-states and armies from France and Spain caused artists to flee Italy seeking refuge in other areas of Europe.
Artists brought with them humanism and new painting techniques.
Scholars from Northern Europe desired an education from Italy, and returned to their homelands with humanist ideas.

5. Trading Goods and Ideas
In the mid 1400s, Johannes Gutenberg perfected a machine developed in China and Korea.
The movable type printing press could quickly print on both sides of paper, resulting on processing books faster and cheaper.
This invention allowed the masses to be educated, now having access to books, leading to an explosion of the spread of Renaissance ideas.

6. Trading Goods and Ideas
printing press
invented in
Germany
press
technology
spreads
easier and
cheaper to
make books
more books
available
ideas spread
quickly
people want
to learn to
read

7. Philosophers and Writers
Outside of Italy many people combined humanism and the ideas of Christianity together to create Christian humanism.
The leading Christian humanist was Desiderius Erasmus, a priest in the Netherlands, wrote about a simple Christian life, stripped of the rituals and politics within the church.
He also emphasized the importance of education.
Erasmus’ works fanned the flames of the growing discontent of the Catholic Church leading to his works being censored in Paris, and him being condemned by the Church.

8. Philosophers and Writers
Sir Thomas More, a friend of Erasmus, spread the ideas of humanism in England.
His most famous work, Utopia, described a perfect, non-existent society based on reason. Utopia, also openly criticized English government and society.

9. Philosophers and Writers
William Shakespeare was an English playwright who drew inspiration from ancient and contemporary works of literature.
Humanist topics, a knowledge of science, and an understanding of human nature are expressed in his writings.
Shakespeare used drama which appealed to the human psyche. This differed greatly from the morality plays during the Middle Ages which focused on proper behavior.

10. Philosophers and Writers
Christine de Pisan was an Italian-born writer who worked for the French court of Charles V.
Her writing supported her and her three children after she was widowed.
Pisan’s most famous work, The City of Women, focuses on the role of women in society.
She often advocated the need for women to be educated as men were.

11. Albrecht Durer German artist who studied Italian painting techniques.
Used oil paints to indicate minute details inside of a painting.

12. Jan Van Eyck
Flemish(Netherlands) painter who focused on landscapes and domestic life.
He used oil paints and integrated symbolism into his art.

20. Wrap Up How did the Renaissance spread to northern Europe?
What contributions did writers and philosophers make to the northern Renaissance?  
How did the works of northern artist differ from those of the Italian Renaissance?