Scholars played numerous roles in the beginning of the italian renaissance but perhaps the most significant is that they spread the ideas of the books that made everything possible. In addition to the discussion with the Renaissance gave way to various cultural achievements such as: literary creations, works of art and great works of architecture. There was also a great ideological development that encompassed the philosophical and theological aspect. The city-states flourished. In the 15th century, Florence was ruled by the Medicis, a family of bankers.
Florence was a republic ruled by an oligarchy but the Medicis managed to control it. The greatest Medicis were Cosimo who ruled from to and Lorenzo the Magnificent who ruled from to Kings in pretense since Italy voted to abolish its monarchy on 2 June , after which Umberto II became king in pretense.
On his death in , he was succeeded by his son Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples. Italy abolished the monarchy in and banished the disgraced Savoys from their former kingdom. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search.
Press ESC to cancel. Ben Davis May 1, What are 3 reasons why the Renaissance began in Italy? What are five reasons why the Renaissance began in Italy? This was the birth of the period now known as the Renaissance. In fact, the Renaissance in Italy and in other parts of Europe was considerably more complicated than that: For one thing, in many ways the period we call the Renaissance was not so different from the era that preceded it.
However, many of the scientific, artistic and cultural achievements of the so-called Renaissance do share common themes, most notably the humanistic belief that man was the center of his own universe. Fifteenth-century Italy was unlike any other place in Europe. It was divided into independent city-states, each with a different form of government.
Florence, where the Italian Renaissance began, was an independent republic. It was also a banking and commercial capital and, after London and Constantinople , the third-largest city in Europe. Wealthy Florentines flaunted their money and power by becoming patrons, or supporters, of artists and intellectuals. In this way, the city became the cultural center of Europe and of the Renaissance. Thanks to the patronage of these wealthy elites, Renaissance-era writers and thinkers were able to spend their days doing just that.
Instead of devoting themselves to ordinary jobs or to the asceticism of the monastery, they could enjoy worldly pleasures. They traveled around Italy, studying ancient ruins and rediscovering Greek and Roman texts.
To Renaissance scholars and philosophers, these classical sources from Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome held great wisdom. Humanism encouraged people to be curious and to question received wisdom particularly that of the medieval Church. It also encouraged people to use experimentation and observation to solve earthly problems. As a result, many Renaissance intellectuals focused on trying to define and understand the laws of nature and the physical world.
He also created pioneering studies of human anatomy. Likewise, the scientist and mathematician Galileo Galilei investigated one natural law after another. By dropping different-sized cannonballs from the top of a building, for instance, he proved that all objects fall at the same rate of acceleration.
He also built a powerful telescope and used it to show that the Earth and other planets revolved around the sun and not, as religious authorities argued, the other way around. However, perhaps the most important technological development of the Renaissance happened not in Italy but in Germany, where Johannes Gutenberg invented the mechanical movable-type printing press in the middle of the 15th century.
For the first time, it was possible to make books—and, by extension, knowledge—widely available. Despite being at the heart of the old empire and retaining many of its physical works, many of its ingenious texts had been lost to time, leaving a hugely important aspect of the Renaissance unaccounted for. It would take the fall of another great empire for many of them to resurface in Italy.
The Fourth Crusade of the 13th century had weakened the Byzantine Empire substantially, and in Constantinople at last fell to the Ottomans. Over this turbulent period, a huge community of Byzantine scholars were forced to flee into the north of Italy, bringing with them a host of classical texts preserved in their libraries. Humanist scholars from Italy then began searching monastic libraries for similar lost works.
In the library of Monte Cassino near Rome, Boccaccio discovered influential work by the Roman historian Tacitus , while Poggio Bracciolini travelled monasteries in Switzerland, France and Germany looking for similar treasures. The rediscovery of these works prompted new study into human thought and action by writers such as Petrarch and Dante, and likely influenced infamous political tracts such as The Prince by Machiavelli.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, Italy was divided into a number of city-states each with a powerful ruling family at its head. The Medici family had a huge hand in the explosion of arts and culture that occurred in their city, leading Florence to be widely considered the home of the Renaissance itself.
As families such as the Medicis were patrician rather than noble, many viewed them as friends of the people. Other merchant families were too allowed significant power and influence, including on the management of laws concerning banking, shipping and trade. Much freer societies thus existed than in the cloistered monarchical and aristocratic systems of northern Europe, and ideas and cultures were more widely circulated. Not without some healthy competition, the magnificent city-states of Italy also competed for who could build the most beautiful cities and output the most breathtaking art, forcing a rapid explosion of fine works and culture to occur.
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