Humanism and the Renaissance

Objective: The following document based question (DBQ) is to test your ability to work with and understand historical documents by writing an essay that:
1. Has relevant compressive thesis that answers all parts of the question.
2. Supports that thesis with evidence from the documents.
3. Analyzes the documents by grouping them in as many appropriate ways as possible. Does not simply summarize the documents individually.
4. Shows cause effect relationships, compare and contrast, offers reasons why for relationships.
5. Provides a request for an additional document that would clarify a question or issue.
6. Uses ALL provided documents
6. Provides an effective conclusion
You may refer to relevant historical information not motioned in the documents.
BACKGROUND
Humanism became popular during the Renaissance. A humanist was a person who studied the classics, Greek and Roman works. They believed that by studying the classics they could better understand both the world and human nature.
During the renaissance, art became much more lifelike. The artists used perspective and realism in the paintings to give them depth. Artists glorified individualism rather than spiritual idealism. They depicted the human body in a more scientific manner.
Science remained a highly dangerous endeavor if the science clashed with religious dogma. Still science flourished during the renaissance becoming much more accepted. Many new inventions were created and many new discoveries based on observation occurred. The invention of movable type allowed for the spread of ideas creating an explosion of knowledge.
Humanists of the Renaissance questioned individual, political and religious values and institutions, while at the same time remaining devoutly religious.
GUIDING QUESTION: How did the ideas and values of Humanism contribute to the transformation of Europe during the Renaissance period?

Document #1 Source: Celestial Models of Heliocentric Theory, Nicholas Copernicus (1514)

"I find it much more easy to grant that than to unhinge the understanding by an almost infinite multitude of spheres ? as those who keep the earth at the centre of the world are forced to do. But we should rather follow the wisdom of nature, which, as it takes very great care not to have produced anything superfluous or useless, often prefers to endow one thing with many effects".

Document #2 Source: The Birth of Venus, Botticelli (1485 )

Document #3 Source:

THE ARNOLFINI MARRIAGE

Jan Van Eyck1395-1441

Document #4 Source: De Fabrica, Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564)
"Anatomy should be recalled from the dead, so that if it did not achieve with us a greater perfection that at any other place or time among the old teachers of anatomy, it might at least reach such a point that one could with confidence assert that our modern science of anatomy was equal to that of old, and that in this age anatomy was unique both in the level to which it had sunk and in the completeness of its subsequent restoration."

Document #5 Source: Self Portrait of a Universal Man, Alberti
"His genius was so versatile that you might almost judge all the fine arts to be his... He played ball, hurled the javelin, ran, leaped, wrestled, and above all delighted in the steep ascent of mountains... He learned music without teachers and his compositions were approved by learned musicians... When he had begun to mature in years, neglecting everything else, he devoted himself entirely to the study of letters, and spent some years of labor on canon and civil law... At the age of twenty-four he turned to physics and the mathematical arts... Thus showing by example that men can do anything with themselves if they will..."

Document #6 Source: The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli (1513)


"Is it better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but it is much safer to be feared than loved when one of the two much be chosen. . . .In general (men) are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowards, covetous. As long as you succeed, they are your entirely . . .Men have fewer scruples (principles) in offending (going against) one who is beloved than one who is feared, for love is preserved by the link of obligation which. . .is broken at every opportunity, but fear preserved you by a dread of punishment that never fails.

You must know there are two methods of fighting, the one by law, the other by force; the first method is of men, the second of beasts; but because the first is frequently not sufficient, one must have recourse to the second. Therefore it is necessary for a prince to understand how to use the methods of the beast and the man . . .
A prince . . . ought to choose the fox and the lion; because the lion cannot defend himself against traps and the fox cannot defend himself against wolves. Therefore, it is necessary to be a fox to discover the traps and a lion to terrify the wolves. Those who rely simply on the lion do not understand this."



Document #7 Source: Martin Luther. From Wittemberg, on the eve of All Saints, in the year 1517. INTRODUCTORY LETTER.

To the most Reverend Father in Christ and most illustrious Lord, Albert, Archbishop and Primate of the Churches of Magdeburg and Mentz, Marquis of Brandenburg, etc., his lord and pastor in Christ, most gracious and worthy of all fear and reverence—

Spare me, most reverend Father in Christ, most illustrious Prince, if I, the very dregs of humanity, have dared to think of addressing a letter to the eminence of your sublimity. The Lord Jesus is my witness that, in the consciousness of my own pettiness and baseness, I have long put off the doing of that which I have now hardened my forehead to perform, moved thereto most especially by the sense of that faithful duty which I feel that I owe to your most reverend Fatherhood in Christ. May your Highness then in the meanwhile deign to cast your eyes upon one grain of dust, and, in your pontifical clemency, to understand my prayer.

Papal indulgences are being carried about, under your most distinguished authority, for the building of St. Peter’s. In respect of these I do not so much accuse the extravagant sayings of the preachers, which I have not heard, but I grieve at the very false ideas which the people conceive from them, and which are spread abroad in common talk on every side—namely, that unhappy souls believe that, if they buy letters of indulgences, they are sure of their salvation; also, that, as soon as they have thrown their contribution into the chest, souls forthwith fly out of purgatory; and furthermore, that so great is the grace thus conferred, that there is no sin so great—even, as they say, if, by an impossibility, any one had violated the Mother of God—but that it may be pardoned; and again, that by these indulgences a man is freed from all punishment and guilt. Why then, by these false stories and promises of pardon, do the preachers of them make the people to feel secure and without fear? since indulgences confer absolutely no good on souls as regards salvation or holiness, but only take away the outward penalty which was wont of old to be canonically imposed.

Document #8 Source: The Gutenberg press with its wooden and later metal movable type circa 1450's

Document #9 Source: Image of The Gutenberg Bible (1452) British Library