Renaissance and Discovery (pg 317-349)

1) Jacob Burckhardt’s interpretation of the Renaissance in the 14th and 15th century, was that through the revival of ancient learning, new secular and scientific values began to supplant traditional religious beliefs. Some scholars believe that Burckhardt’s description was too modernizing and accused him of overlooking the continuity of the Renaissance and the Middle ages. His critics especially stress the still strongly Christian character of Renaissance humanism.

2) The term of Renaissance in fifteenth and sixteenth- century Italy meant “re-birth” or “revival”. In the 14th century many Italian scholars believed that the arts had been declining in quality for 1,000 years. They admired the art and writing of the Classical Age (400 B.C.-A.D. 400), the time of the Greek and Roman empires. To revive the glory and grandeur of the ancient past, these scholars eagerly studied classical literature, architecture, and sculpture.

3) Renaissance humanism is simply the focusing on the individual and learning. Before the Renaissance, people of Europe focused on the city-states and the knowledge they had attained before not worrying what new knowledge was out there. Then came the Renaissance and brought focus to those things.

4) The Renaissance was a break from the Middle Ages because it brought new ideas and new ways of thinking into society, but without the Middle Ages (medieval civilization), the Renaissance wouldn’t have been necessary. The Middle Ages had the same ways of thinking and the people didn’t question anything – which was completely changed by the Renaissance.

5) Some of the many famous literary and artistic figures of the Italian Renaissance include Thomas More, who wrote Utopia, Erasmus, Castiglione, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raphael and many more.

6) The ideas that the literary and