CHY4U Ms. G’s Notes for Global Renaissance Gathering
CHY4U Ms. G’s Notes for Global Renaissance Gathering
Source 1
Brotton, Jerry. The Renaissance Bazaar: From the Silk Road to Michelangelo. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2002.
Page # / Heading / Details33 / Global Renaissance / - In Europe they related to east easily and regularly – we ignore this relationship often in history books
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37 / St. Mark Preaching in Alexandria (Egypt) / - By Bellini brothers (Giovanni and Gentile)
- 1504-7
- Many figures from Egypt, N Africa, Persia, Ethiopia
- Venetian and Byzantine influences
- St. Mark dressed as Roman but also in context of an eastern bazaar
- Eastern people in it not portrayed as inferior
- Venice and Egypt had long trading relationship
37 / Venice and the East / - Venetians knew eastern peoples had long traditions of science, tech, art and aspired to be like them
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40 / Effects of trade with east / - Food - recipes now with spices,
- art used new pigments - lapus lazuli
- Bazaar is a reflection of this change in life
- Architecture: Doge’s palace in Venice influenced
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43 / Accounting and Fibonacci / - Arab methods influenced Europe
- Goes back to 1202 math book by Fibonacci
- He learned his Arabic numerals (1,2,3, etc.) in Algeria
- Travelled to Egypt, Syria, etc.
- Combined Hindu, Arabic and Greek math methods
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48 / New methods good for business / - Replaced abacus and Roman numerals
- With decimal point
- Numerals 0-9
- +, - and X signs were not used before
- Paper money (bill of exchange) backed by large merchant families who charged interest
- E.g., Medicis – bankers, “God’s bankers” – for the Vatican
- They introduced more systematic ways of doing business
Source 1 con’t
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51 / 1453 and the Turks / - Ottomans finally took Constantinople
- Mehmed II interested in classical learning
- He wanted the city to be a great trading centre
- Made treaty with Venice and did cultural exchange right away
54-55
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59 / Consequences of Tax on trade / - Taxed overland trade with Europe going through Ott Emp
- Led to more exploration (e.g., interest in African gold)
- Martin Behaim created first globe in 1492
- Included trade routes on it
- He was a merchant who had been to West Africa
- saw the world as global (no New World on map yet)
56-57 / Portuguese in Africa / - Venetians traded horses for slaves, pepper, cloth
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112 / Humanism and the Printing Press / - Humanism valued classical education, especially as training for a career in bureaucracy, foreign service
- So printed books were super important for this training
- Printing developed first in Germany and spread from there (centre of Europe)
- Luther’s German Bible in 1534
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75 / Women and books / - Most men at the time viewed women as belonging in the home
- Women can run the home but not read books or do things public in nature
- Exception: Christine de Pizan
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149 / Architecture / - International classical style
- E.g., Mehmed’s Topkapi Saray palace
- Was imitated in Italy by Federico da Montefeltro of Urbino’s palace
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196 / Ptolemy’s Geography / - Ptolemy originally from 2nd century Alexandria and his works preserved there by Arabic scholars
- Ptolemy’s Geography printed in 1482
- Included world map
- New way of seeing world
- Mehmed very interested in Ptolemy
156
161 / New maps / - Portalan charts for navigation created in N. Africa in 1330
- Martellus’ world map influenced Columbus
Source 1
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198 / Science / - Classical Greek works came through Byzantium before 1453 via Toledo, Spain and Baghdad’s Academy of Science
- E.g., translation of Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine
- Later influenced Vesalius
- Copernicus influenced by circular motion theory of Nasir ad-Din at Tusi (1201-74) – Memoir on Astronomy
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190 / Math / - Luca Pacioli’s 1494 book, Everything About Arithmetic, Geometry and Proportion
- Practical applications of math
- Inspired by Arabic sources
- Led to double-entry book keeping (debit, credit)
204 / Leonardo da Vinci / - Was supposed to build a bridge spanning the Bosphorous for Sultan Bayezid II in 1540
- seen as too fanciful (350 m high for ships to go under)
- the Sultan ended the relationship
12
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177 / Magellan sails to the east / - in 1522 circumnavigated the world
- Europe now saw a bigger world
- From Portugal, went to Malacca in 1511
- Suspected there was a shorter way to get there
- Portuguese disliked idea of going west to get east so he brought his idea to Charles V in Spain
- Told him the Moluccas (spice islands) were definitely in Portuguese territory
- Proposed a trade voyage, not an exploration
- Left on voyage in 1519
- Found the Pacific Ocean larger than expected
- 1521 was killed in the Philippines
- His expedition continued to Moluccas and got spices
- Arrived back in 1522 and had lost most of the crew
- Charles V claimed the area for himself and used Ptolemy’s outdated geography to justify it
- Disputed Spanish/Portuguese possession until 1529 when cartographer Diogo Ribeiro said it belonged to Spain (fell into Spain’s part via the Treaty of Tordesillas)
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200 / Vesalius and anatomy / - 1543 On the Structure of the Human Body
- Anatomy based on observation and analysis
- Stole bodies for dissection
- Challenged religious conceptions
- Exposed to and translated classical texts (helped by new printing press)
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202 / Art based on science - Albrecht Durer / - Owned carvings from Sierra Leone/Nigeria called “Afro Portuguese ivories” – fusions of European and African art
- Lisbon (Portugal) a world market by 1500
- He bought carvings there and other foreign goods from China and India
- He was in sympathy to Protestantism (new religious sect that had split from the Roman Catholic Church)
- Made cheap woodcuts to spread the new religious message
- His art based on science and math (perspective and optics)
- 1525: A Course in the Art of Measurement with Compass and Ruler
- Made a drawing machine that superimposed a grid
- Influenced by Leonardo da Vinci whom he called the master of art and science
Source 2
David, Robert C. and Beth Lindsmith. Renaissance People: Lives that Shaped the Modern Age. Los
Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011.
Page # / Heading / Details16-18 / Manuel Chrysoloras / - c. 1350-1415
- from Constantinople (Greek Orthodox)
- read Greek (few Humanists could but wanted to)
- worked in Venice training students to read Greek
- then moved to Milan, Bologna, Padua
- then made ambassador to Italy
19-21 / Christine de Pizan / - c. 1364-c. 1430
- took up writing as a widow to pay the bills
- educated herself in Latin, literature, history, science
- critical of a famous book that was anti-female
- wrote a biography of Charles V and a volume that praised Joan of Arc
- wrote total of 30 books
87-89 / Mehmet II / - 1432-1481
- Known as terror of Europe (?)
- Conquered Constantinople at age 21
- Expanded Ottoman territory into the Balkans, Greece and close to Italy
- Rebuilt poor Constantinople
- Created dhimmi (protected people status) for Christians, Jews and Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
- Built learning centres, palaces, emphasized trade
- Liked Venetian art (Bellini visited and painted him)
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86 / Gentile Bellini / - 1429? -1507
- Venetian, son of famous painter
- Oil on canvas portraits (new style and technique)
- With his brother Giovani they decorated a room in the Doge’s Palace in civic and naval pride themes
- 1479: sent to Constantinople where Mehmet wanted portraits and loved the realism of what he got
- Only a temporary cease-fire between old trade enemies Venice and Constantinople
- St. Mark in Alexandria had “Oriental motifs”
Source 2
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187 / Leo Africanus / - c. 1490-c. 1554
- born in Spain
- Moor family took him back to Morocco after Christians gained back strength in Spain
- Traveled to Constantinople, Beirut, Baghdad, Songhai empire, Sudan, Egypt
- made Moroccan ambassador to Constantinople in 1517
- kidnapped by pirates and taken to Pope Leo X in Italy
- converted, freed, took the name of Giovani Leone de Medici, his patron
- wrote travel and geography book on Africa which sold very well (mostly N. Africa, included Timbuktu)
- generated lots of interest in Timbuktu’s riches
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79 / Federico da Montefeltro / - 1422-1482
- Mercenary – became duke of Urbino
- Humanist
- Built palace, church, library and filled his buildings with scholars, artists and a 500-person court
- Had lots of Greek and Hebrew books (unsure if he read them – may just have liked the trend of having them)
- Wanted people to take his claim to Urbino seriously
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247 / Charles V / - 1500-1558
- Holy Roman and Habsurg Emperor
- Sponsored Magellan to claim global territory
- Monarchies came to challenge his supra-national-border-crossing empire (France, England, the Pope, Ottomans)
- Had to deal with the challenge of Protestantism
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253 / St. Francis Xavier / - 1506-1552
- Basque origins
- Went to Paris to study philosophy under Loyala
- Together founded Jesuits in 1534
- To Goa (India) as missionary
- Not well received by Portuguese there
- To Ceylon – baptized 20 000 pearl fishers
- To Maluku Islands – more converts
- To Japan – praised them as reasoned, cultured, curious about western science and technology (not so interested in Christianity itself)
- Japanese converted more for political and economic reasons
- He wanted to move on to China but died on Macao before entering the mainland
Source 2
Con’t
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167 / Nicolas Copernicus / - 1473-1543
- Born in Catholic Poland, had a job within the Church but not a priest
- Tracked and recorded the movements of sun and planets
- 1514 pamphlet on heliocentrism shown only to friends (challenges earth-centred religious view of universe)
- 1531 he had a more solid model – hesitant to publish
- Georg Joachim Rheticus (famous mathematician) went to Poland to convince him to publish his theory/data
- 1543: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies
- An early preface (not written by him) suggested it was hypothetical only
- Not entirely accurate
- Soon on Catholic Church’s list of banned books
- * see Renaissance Bazaar for Islamic influences
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265 / Andreas Vesalius / - 1514-1564
- Son of Charles V’s doctor
- Born in Brussels
- Went to universities in Louvain, Paris, Padua
- Dissection specialist (worked on dead execution victims)
- Questioned Galen (who he thought had dissected apes, not humans)
- Accurate drawings
- Result: 1543 – On the Structure of the Human Body (De humani corporis fabrica)
- Heavily challenged him as a madman
- Returned to Habsburg court in Spain as a doctor
- Died while travelling
- * see Renaissance Bazaar for Islamic influences
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164 / Albrecht Durer / - 1471-1528
- Wanted to liberate Germany from medieval art
- Went to Italy in 1494
- Interested in nature
- Engraving became his business focus – easy to store it and made it realistic
- Good businessman – appealed lower through religion and higher through classical themes
- Influenced by Gentile Bellini
- Met Erasmus and Charles V in Netherlands on his travels
- * see Renaissance Bazaar for other influences
Source 2
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206 / Bartolome de Las Casas / - 1484-1566
- His family went from Spain to Hispaniola after Columbus’ voyages
- Became a member of a Catholic order but not a priest
- Noted how poorly the Spanish treated the Native people
- Accompanied Spanish conquest of Cuba
- Had an encomienda (land grant with labour of Natives included) of his own but freed his slaves
- Went back to Spain to argue for freedom for Native people
- Made “Protector of the Indians”
- Started up a more idealistic colony in the New World but it failed
- Became a Dominican friar and wrote about abuses of the Natives
- Did influence Church Policy: papal bull in 1537 said they could not be enslaved
- 1542: A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies
- Charles V read it and created New Laws banning enslavement and encomiendas
- 1550: debated Juan Gines de Sepulveda who argued that Natives were ‘natural slaves’
- New Laws not enforced in reality
- Became Bishop of Chiapas
- Suggested importing African slaves would solve the problem of Native labour
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40 / Cosimo de’ Medici / - 1389-1464
- Son of Giovanni de’ Medici who had founded a bank in Florence
- He expanded bank to Venice, other parts of Italy, Geneva, Belgium, France and London
- Became more powerful in Florence
- Could speak Latin and Arabic
- Banished to Venice but asked to return to Florence
- Paid for art in many churches, convents, his own homes and palaces
- E.g., Donatello’s David
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112 / Lorenzo de’ Medici / - 1449-1492
- Humanist education with study of Latin and Greek
- Not skilled as a manager of the family bank, leading to enemies gathering strength against him (assassination attempt)
- Became a more stern ruler of Florence after this
- Commissioned art and opened an Academy of Art
- Didn’t plan for effective succession, either politically or economically at the family bank
Source 3