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Italian Renaissance

Overview

The Italian Renaissance (Italian: Rinascimento [rinaʃʃiˈmento]) is a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It is the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread from Italy to the rest of Europe (and also to extra-European territories ruled by colonial powers or where Christian missionaries and/or traders were active). The period marked the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern era. Proponents of a "long Renaissance" argue that it started around the year 1300 and lasted until about 1600. In some fields, a Proto-Renaissance, beginning around 1250, is also accepted. The French word renaissance (corresponding to rinascimento in Italian) means 'rebirth', and defines the period as one of cultural revival and renewed interest in classical antiquity after the centuries during what Renaissance humanists labelled as the "Dark Ages". The Italian Renaissance historian Giorgio Vasari used the term rinascita ('rebirth') in his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects in 1550, but the concept became widespread only in the 19th century, after the work of scholars such as Jules Michelet and Jacob Burckhardt.

The Renaissance began in Tuscany in Central Italy and centered in the city of Florence. The Florentine Republic, one of the several city-states of the peninsula, rose to economic and political prominence by providing credit to European monarchs and by laying the groundwork for developments in capitalism and banking. Renaissance culture later spread to Venice, the heart of a Mediterranean empire controlling trade routes with the east since its participation in the Crusades and following the journeys of Marco Polo between 1271 and 1295. Thus Italy renewed contact with the remains of ancient Greek culture, which provided humanist scholars with new texts. Finally the Renaissance had a significant effect on the Papal States and on Rome, largely rebuilt by humanist and Renaissance popes, such as Julius II and Leo X, who frequently became involved in Italian politics, in arbitrating disputes between competing colonial powers and in opposing the Protestant Reformation, which started c. 1517.

The Italian Renaissance has a reputation for its achievements in painting, architecture, sculpture, literature, music, philosophy, science, technology, and exploration. Italy became the recognized European leader in all these areas by the late 15th century, during the era of the Peace of Lodi (1454–1494) agreed between Italian states. The Italian Renaissance peaked in the mid-16th century as domestic disputes and foreign invasions plunged the region into the turmoil of the Italian Wars (1494–1559). However, the ideas and ideals of the Italian Renaissance spread into the rest of Europe, setting off the Northern Renaissance from the late 15th century. Italian explorers from the maritime republics served under the auspices of European monarchs, ushering in the Age of Discovery. The most famous voyage was that of Christopher Columbus (who sailed for Spain) and laid the foundation for European dominance of the Americas. Other explorers include Giovanni da Verrazzano (for France), Amerigo Vespucci (for Spain), and John Cabot (for England). Italian scientists such as Falloppio, Tartaglia, Galileo and Torricelli played key roles in the Scientific Revolution, and foreigners such as Copernicus and Vesalius worked in Italian universities. Historiographers have proposed various events and dates of the 17th century, such as the conclusion of the European wars of religion in 1648, as marking the end of the Renaissance.

Accounts of Proto-Renaissance literature usually begin with the three great Italian writers of the 14th century: Dante Alighieri (Divine Comedy), Petrarch (Canzoniere), and Boccaccio (Decameron). Famous vernacular poets of the Renaissance include the epic authors Luigi Pulci (Morgante), Matteo Maria Boiardo (Orlando Innamorato), Ludovico Ariosto (Orlando Furioso), and Torquato Tasso (Jerusalem Delivered). 15th-century writers such as the poet Poliziano and the Platonist philosopher Marsilio Ficino made extensive translations from both Latin and Greek. In the early 16th century, Baldassare Castiglione laid out his vision of the ideal gentleman and lady in The Book of the Courtier, while Niccolò Machiavelli rejected the ideal with an eye on la verità effettuale della cosa ('the effectual truth of things') in The Prince, composed, in humanistic style, chiefly of parallel ancient and modern examples of virtù. Historians of the period include Machiavelli himself, his friend and critic Francesco Guicciardini and Giovanni Botero (The Reason of State). The Aldine Press, founded in 1494 by the printer Aldo Manuzio, active in Venice, developed Italic type and pocket editions that one could carry in one's pocket; it became the first to publish printed editions of books in Ancient Greek. Venice also became the birthplace of the commedia dell'arte.

Italian Renaissance art exercised a dominant influence on subsequent European painting and sculpture for centuries afterwards, with artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello, Giotto, Masaccio, Fra Angelico, Piero della Francesca, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Botticelli, and Titian. Italian Renaissance architecture had a similar Europe-wide impact, as practised by Brunelleschi, Leon Battista Alberti, Andrea Palladio, and Bramante. Their works include the Florence Cathedral, St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and the Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini, as well as several private residences. The musical era of the Italian Renaissance featured composers such as Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, the Roman School and later the Venetian School, and the birth of opera through figures like Claudio Monteverdi in Florence. In philosophy, thinkers such as Galileo, Machiavelli, Giordano Bruno and Pico della Mirandola emphasized naturalism and humanism, thus rejecting dogma and scholasticism.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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1265. Dante, son of Alighieri degli Alighieri and Bella, is born at Florence. Of his own ancestry he speaks in the Paradise, Canto XV. and XVI. In the same year, Manfredi, king of Naples and Sicily, is defeated and slain by Charles of Anjou. Hell, C. XXVIII. 13. And Purgatory, C. III. 110. Guido Novello of Polenta obtains the sovereignty of Ravenna. H. C. XXVII. 38. 1266. Two of the Frati Godenti chosen arbitrators…
Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy, Cary's Translation, Complete
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The duties of the Government were as much municipal as political, and it would have surprised a Florentine to be told that the one kind of service was of less dignity than the other. The population grew apace, and, to provide the means for extending the city walls, every citizen, on pain of his testament being found invalid, was required to bequeath a part of his estate to the public. Already the banks of the Arno…
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri
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She is represented in a sitting posture, and the statue is remarkable for having no straps to the shoes. Various circumstances prove, that the art of making statues was commonly practised in Italy at an early period. The statue in the Cattle Market is said to have been consecrated to Hercules by Evander; it is called the triumphal Hercules, and, on the occasion of triumphal processions, is arrayed in triumphal…
the Elder Pliny, The Boys' and Girls' Pliny
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Italian Renaissance

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