1. THE RENAISSANCE
Italy ( )

2. Northern Italian Economy
Cities developed international trade: Genoa, Venice, Milan.
popolo (middle class) took power in 13th century; republican gov’t short-lived
signori (despots) or oligarchies (rule of merchant aristocracies) by 1300
commenda: Contract between merchant and “merchant-adventurer” who agreed to take goods to distant locations and return with the proceeds (for 1/3 of profits)

3. Italian City States, 1454

4. Politics of Italian City-States
Republic of Florence (Included Republic of Genoa) – Medici family
Cosimo De’Medici ( ): allied with other powerful families of Florence and became unofficial ruler of the republic
Lorenzo the Magnificent ( ): lavish patron
of the arts

5. Politics of Italian City-States
Girolamo Savonarola ( ) – theocracy in Florence ; (predicted French invasion due to paganism and moral decay of Italian city-states); burned at the stake Charles VIII ( ), French invasions of Italy; Italy became battleground for international ambitions

6. Politics of Italian City-States
Duchy of Milan -- Sforza family (Caterina Sforza ( ), great art patron)
Rome, the Papal States – papacy (“Renaissance popes”)
Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies Venice, Venetian Republic
Isabella d’Este ( ): most famous Renaissance female ruler (ruled Mantua)
condottieri: leaders of private armies hired by cities for military purposes

7. Humanism
Humanism -- Revival of antiquity (Greece and Rome) in literature
Individualism/ secularism: “man is the measure of all things”
virtú: the quality of being a great man in whatever noble pursuit
Education: (emphasis on Latin and Greek)

8. Humanism
Petrarch—( ) “Dark Ages” metaphor; “father of humanism” and
1st modern writer, literature no longer subordinate to religion
Dante – Divine Comedy
Boccacio – Decameron: aimed to impart wisdom of human character and behavior.
Pico della Mirandola ( ) Oration on the Dignity of Man; Platonic academy
Baldassare Castiglione ( ) – The Book of the Courtier

9. Humanism
Leonardo Bruni ( ) – wrote history of Florence; division of historical periods; narrative form; civic humanist; first to use term “humanism”
Lorenzo Valla ( )—On the False Donation of
Constantine (1444); study of Latin
Niccolo Machiavelli
( ) -- The Prince
(1513) – Cesare Borgia