AP Euro 4 Idiots

Here’s a look at the most important people and terms of the Renaissance.

The Medici Family was one of the primary forces that helped restore the city of Florence during the fifteenth century.  They helped repair the economy originally as cloth producers and eventually expanded to commerce, real estate, and banking.  During its height, the House of Medici was the greatest bank in Europe, spreading from Italy all the way to England and France.  The Medici Family was also the principal bankers for the papacy, which brought them huge profits and religious influence.  In 1494 the Medici financial structure fell apart, mostly due to a series of bad loans and poor leadership, and was expelled from Florence by French invaders. In 1512, the Medici reestablished their power in Florence after the French were defeated by the Spanish.

 

Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529) was an Italian author who wrote The Book of the Courtier.  Published in 1528, the work served as a handbook for European aristocracy for centuries.  In it, Castiglione described the three basic attributes of a successful courtier: impeccable character, recorded achievements, and military participation.  However, unlike the knights of the Middle Ages who were required only to have military skill, nobles were also expected to have classical educations and to fill their lives with art.  Overall, the aim of the perfect noble, according to Castiglione, was to serve his prince in an effective and honest way.

 

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) was a Florentine politician who wrote The Prince, one of the most influential and famous political treatises ever written.  As a secretary to the Florentine Council of Ten, Machiavelli made numerous diplomatic missions to such places as France and Germany and was able to see the working of numerous statecrafts. Machiavelli and other republicans were sent to exile after the reestablishment of Medici power in Florence in 1512.  During this time, Niccolò reflected on political power and wrote The Prince in 1513.  In his book, Machiavelli described how he believed a good ruler should rule and how political power can be used as a means to restore and maintain order.  He viewed all people as self-centered and believed rulers should not rely on moral values, but rather, strict and ruthless measures to rule (i.e. “I maintain it much safer to be feared than loved”).  Machiavelli was one of the first politicians to abandon morality as the basis for analysis of political activity. 

 

Petrarch (1304-1374) was a fourteenth century Italian humanist who did more than any other individual in the fourteenth century to foster the development of Renaissance humanism.  He characterized the Middle Ages as a “dark period” and argued the belief that medieval culture was ignorant to classical antiquity.  Petrarch’s interest in the classics led him on a quest to find forgotten Latin manuscripts.  He organized the ransacking of monastic libraries and brought back the works of Cicero and Virgil as sources of inspiration. He wrote numerous humanist works that addressed individualistic struggles of self-betterment and quests for perfection.

 

Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444) was a humanist, Florentine patriot, and chancellor of the city who wrote a biography of Cicero titled The New Cicero.  From Bruni’s time on, Cicero served as the inspiration for the Renaissance ideal that it was the duty of the individual to live an active life for one’s state.   This ideal led to the rise of civic humanism, which differed from original humanism in that public work was valued over work in solitude.  Bruni was also one of the first Italian humanists to gain a thorough knowledge of Greek classics.

 

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) was a foremost intellect in fifteenth century Florence who took pride in his having studied all schools of philosophy. His most famous work, titled Oration on the Dignity of Man, combined the works of numerous philosophers of different backgrounds in the search for pieces of universal truth that he believed were all part of God’s revelation to humanity. Pico took an intense interest in Hermeticism, which explored the divine qualities of all people.

 

Joahnnes Gutenberg was a major influence in the spreading of moveable type printing throughout Europe.  His Bible, completed in either 1455 or 1456, was the first true book in the West produced from moveable type.  The success of this method of printing led to its rapid integration into European society.  By 1500, there were more than one thousand printers in Europe.  Most of the works produced by these printers were religious, while legal documents, pamphlets, and Latin and Greek classics were also popular.  Printing became one of Europe’s largest industries and helped encourage the development of scholarly research and increased cooperation among intellectuals.

 

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was one of the most famous Italian Renaissance artists.  Da Vinci’s work represents a transitional shift to High Renaissance principles.  He experimented with tradition by studying everything, even dissecting corpses, in order to more clearly understand how nature works.  Leonardo’s famous fresco, The Last Supper, illustrates High Renaissance artistic ideals such as the use of perspective and idealization of nature.

 

Masaccio (1401-1428) was an Early Renaissance artist who is considered to have made the first masterpieces of Early Renaissance art (the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel).  He demonstrated a more realistic relationship between figures and landscape and visually represented the laws of perspective, creating a new realistic style.  Masaccio’s massive three-dimensional human figures provided a model for later generations of Florentine artists.

 

Donato di Donatello (1386-1466) was a Renaissance sculptor who was revered for his mastery in portraying realism in sculpting.  He spent time in Rome studying and copying the statues of antiquity.  In Florence, he was able to create work that revealed the essence of what he saw.  One of his famous statues, a free-standing bronze statue of David, illustrates the quest for realism in sculpture during the time and also radiates a simplicity and strength that reflects the Renaissance view of the dignity of humanity.

 

Michelangelo (1475-1564) was an accomplished painter, sculptor, and architect during the High Renaissance.  In 1508, Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which he finished in 1512.  In the painting, he attempted to tell the story of the Fall of Man.  The divine beauty portrayed in his figures, and the use of beauty as a distinction between God and man, was heavily influenced by Neoplatonism.  Michelangelo’s David also shows the artist’s quest for ideal beauty.  Completed in 1504, the statue proclaims the beauty and glory of human beings.

 

Jan van Eyck (c.1390-1441) was a northern European Renaissance artist.  He was one of the first to use oil paint, which allowed an artist to use a wide range of colors and create fine details.  In his Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride, van Eyck’s use of detail is amazing.  This painting is the perfect example of northern Renaissance art because it shows how observable details were favored over adherence to the laws of perspective in this region.

 

Henry VII of England (1485-1509) was the first Tudor king. He worked to reduce internal dissention and establish a strong monarchical government.  Henry ended the private wars between the nobility by taking away their privilege to maintain private armies, and he controlled the irresponsible activity of the nobles by establishing the Court of Star Chamber, which allowed the use of torture to extract confessions.  Henry VII was particularly successful in extracting income from the English monarchs.  By using diplomacy to avoid costly wars, Henry VII gained approval from the middle-class.

 

Isabella of Castile (1474-1504) and Ferdinand of Aragon (1479-1516) were two Spanish rulers who worked to restore order to the Iberian Peninsula.  Although he union of these rulers didn’t unite Castile and Aragon, it helped remove corruption in both government, especially that of Castile.  Ferdinand and Isabella reorganized the military of Spain, making it the best in Europe by the sixteenth century.  The couple also recognized the importance of controlling the Catholic Church.  They gave the pope the power to select religious officials in Spain and pursued a policy of strict religious uniformity. Jews and Muslims in Spain were “encouraged” to convert to Christianity. The Spanish Inquisition of 1478 worked to guarantee the orthodoxy of Jewish converts, but eventually led to the expulsion of approximately 200,000 Jews from Spain in 1492.  In 1502, after the Spanish conquest of Muslim Grenada, Isabella issued a decree expelling all professed Muslims from Spain.  During their rule, Isabella and Ferdinand made Catholicism an essential part of Spanish life.

 

The Great Schism (1378-1417) was an important religious event of pre-Renaissance Europe.  In the spring of 1378, after the death of Pope Gregory XI, the people of Rome rioted, threatening that if another Frenchman was elected Pope, the cardinals would not leave Rome alive.  To appease the mob, Italian-born Urban VI was elected Pope.  After leaving Rome, however, French cardinals announced the election as void, saying they were influenced by the mob.  They chose a new pope (Pope Clement VII) and centered him in Avignon.  This schism as it is called split Europe into two: those who supported Clement and those who supported Urban.  The event also caused a decrease in faith among Europeans because it undermined the basic teachings of Christianity. The Great Schism lasted nearly forty years until the Council of Constance ended it in 1417.

 

John Wyclif (c.1328-1384) was a fourteenth century heretic who questioned the authority of the pope.  He believed that there was no basis in Scripture for papal claims of temporary authority and that the pope should be stripped of his authority and property. All practices not mentioned in the Bible were condemned by him.  Wyclif also urged people to print the Bible in the vernacular languages so that everyone could read it.  His followers became known as Lollards. 

 

The Renaissance Papacy refers to the line of popes from the end of the Great Schism in 1417.    Popes practiced nepotism in order to secure their family’s interests.  Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484), for example, made his nephews cardinals and gave them church offices.  Alexander VI (1492-1503) also practiced nepotism. Of all the Renaissance popes, Julius II (1503-1513) was most involved in war and politics.  He led armies against Christian enemies, which upset many Christians.  They believed the pope was a spiritual leader, not a warrior, and that he should not preach violence.  Popes also contributed to the Renaissance culture by patronizing the arts.  Leo X (1513-1521), son of Lorenzo de’ Medici, commissioned such artists as Raphael to work on religious masterpieces.

 

The Habsburgs were wealthy landowning people who, in the mid-fifteenth century began to play an important role in European affairs.  Situated in Austria, part of the Holy Roman Empire, the house of Habsburg achieved power not through military force but through well-executed policies of dynastic marriages.  By marrying his son Maximilian to the daughter of Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy, Emperor Fredrick III (1440-1493) gained land in France, Luxembourg, and the Low Countries.  This gain made the Habsburg dynasty and international power and made the French fearful of a Habsburg invasion.  Maximilian I (1493-1519), successor to his father, attempted to centralize power in his empire, but German opposition thwarted his efforts.  The only success achieved by Maximilian I was in his marital alliances.  Through these marriages, Charles, the grandson of Maximilian, inherited the Habsburg, Burgundian, and Spanish Empires, making him the leading monarch of his age.

 

Charles VIII of France (1483-1498) occupied the Kingdom of Naples, Italy in 1494.  This event helped trigger French and Spanish competition over Italy.

 

Francesco Sforza was a leading condottieri during his time and was able to conquer Milan in 1447.  He helped centralize Milanese government and increase government revenue with a new system of taxation.

 

Cosimo de’ Medici (1434-1464) was the first member of the Medici family to come to power in Florence.  He was able to manipulate the ruling republican government in order to be elected.  Once elected, he created a small merchant oligarchy that claimed to be republican for appearance’s sake.  Through lavish patronage and careful courting of political allies, Cosimo and, later his grandson, Lorenzo were successful in dominating the city.

 

The Five Major Italian City States were Milan, Venice, Florence, the Papal States, and Naples.

 

The Peace of Lodi (1454) was a treaty signed by the five Italian city-states in order to stop fighting.  It was effective in creating a balance of power in Italy, but was largely unsuccessful in establishing lasting cooperation and creating a common foreign policy.

Cesare Borgia, the son of Alexander VI, used ruthless measures to achieve his goal of carving out a new state in central Italy.  He was a major subject of Machiavelli’s The Prince, being praised for his tactics.

 

Charles I was a Spanish king who attempted to take control of Italy.

 

Francis I was a French king who attempted to take control of Italy.

 

The Valois Dynasty was a period of French rule, succeeding the Capetian Dynasty.