the fourteenth century. black death beginning in 1347, killed one-third to one- half of european...

The Fourteenth Century

Black Death

• Beginning in 1347, killed one-third to one-half of European population within a century

• Carried to Europe on flea-bearing rats on commercial ships

Effects of Black Death: Psychological

• Religious atonement: flagellants

• Self-indulgence

• Religious doubt

• Anxiety and self-consciousness

Wolgemut, Dance of Death, 1493

Effects of Black Death: Economic

• Labor shortage

• Rise in peasants’ social and economic status

• Migration to cities

• Peasant revolts

Cimabue, Madonna Enthroned,c.1280-90

Giotto,Madonna

Enthroned,c.1310

chiaroscuro

North Transept, Chartres

Giotto, Lamentation, 1305-06

Lorenzetti,Madonna del Latte,c.1340

Cimabue, Madonna Enthroned,c.1280-90

Limbourg Bros.,February, c.1413-16

14th c. Literature

Social Realism and Feminism

Boccaccio, Decameron, 1351

• 10 people outside Florence, hiding from plague, tell stories

• Social realism: plague, gender relationships, etc.

• “Tale of Filippa”– Social criticism of legal system

Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, c. 1390

• Modeled on Decameron

• 29 pilgrims to shrine of St. Thomas a Becket, Canterbury

Christine de Pisan,Book of the City of Ladies, 1405• Environment and social conventions

explain why women are less accomplished than men

• History offers examples of accomplished women– Novella Andrea

Classical Humanism in the Renaissance

Renaissance

• “rebirth” of classical learning

• Began in 14th century Italy, spread north n 15th and 16th centuries

Scholasticism vs. Renaissance Humanism (1)

• Scholasticism: Classics used to explain Christian dogma

• Renaissance humanism: Classics used as “rational guide to the fulfillment of human potential” (373); however, Renaissance humanists were also devout Christians

Scholasticism vs. Renaissance Humanism (2)

• Scholasticism: primarily the concern of theologians

• Renaissance Humanism: involved many members of society, from civic leaders to artists to writers

Scholasticism vs. Renaissance Humanism (3)

• Scholasticism: based primarily on Latin writers and Latin translations of Aristotle; Greek literary masterpieces and most of Plato were unknown; few Medieval scholars could read Greek

Scholasticism vs. Renaissance Humanism (3)

• Renaissance humanism: balanced Greek and Latin culture; Greek literature and Plato rediscovered; many scholars study Greek

Scholasticism vs. Renaissance Humanism (4)

• Scholasticism: grammar, logic, metaphysics, theology

• Renaissance humanism: language, literature, history, ethics, that is, what we call “the humanities” today

Why Italy?

• Least feudalized and most urban part of Europe

• Commercial prosperity

• Contact with the East

• Wealthy families in urban centers served as patrons of arts and learning– Civic spirit

Lorenzetti, Effects of Good Government in the City, 1338-39

Effects of Bad Government in the City

Medici family

• The leading family in Florence during the Renaissance

• Originally a family of physicians, they made money in banking

• Commissioned works by Botticelli, Michelangelo, and others

Petrarch (1304-74)• Scholar and poet, the “father of humanism”

• Collected and copied classical Latin manuscripts

• Letter to Lapo da Castiglionchio: – “For just in proportion as the writing is slower

than the reading does the passage make a deep impression and cling to the mind”

– Cicero’s copying inspires Petrarch’s copying

Petrarch: Dual Identities

• Judeo-Christian identity vs. Classical identity– A big fan of both Cicero and Augustine

• Studied Latin manuscripts, but wrote love poems in Italian: Petrarchan sonnets

Pico della Mirandola (1463-94)

• Humanist, poet, theologian; could read Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic

• Lived only 31 years

• Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486)– Addressed to Catholic clergymen, an

introduction to his theological disputes with the Church

Oration on the Dignity of Man

• Revises Genesis, says that God created man in order to have someone to appreciate the Creation (380)

• Man is a creature of “indeterminate image” set “in the very center of the world” (381)

• Man has the free will to “trace for yourself the lineaments of your own nature” (381)

Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1474)

• Mathematician, architect, engineer, musician, playwright

• On the Family (1443): – Man should work hard, scorn idleness– God approves of people who are useful to

others– Man “is born to be happy” (382)

Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529)

• The Book of the Courtier (1518), a Renaissance bestseller

• Marks shift from medieval to modern values

• The courtier practices sprezzatura• The purpose of the courtier is to influence

the ruler, strengthen the state

Raphael, Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, c.1515

Which is NOT a courtier quality?• Able to use a variety of weapons

• Knows how to wrestle

• Tall in stature

• Plays tennis

• Able to swim

• Able to throw stones

• A good horseman

Which is NOT a courtier quality?• Able to use a variety of weapons

• Knows how to wrestle

• Tall in stature• Plays tennis

• Able to swim

• Able to throw stones

• A good horseman

Which is NOT a courtier quality?

• Speaks Latin, Greek, English

• Possesses clear, sonorous voice

• Writes well

• Knows how to dance

• Plays several musical instruments

• Knows how to paint

• Can tell a joke

Which is NOT a courtier quality?

• Speaks Latin, Greek, English• Possesses clear, sonorous voice

• Writes well

• Knows how to dance

• Plays several musical instruments

• Knows how to paint

• Can tell a joke

Lucretia Marinella (1571-1653)

• The Nobility and Excellence of Women and the Defects of Men (1600)– Studies the psychology of misogyny

– Misogyny caused by men’s anger, envy, self-love, insufficient intelligence

Machievelli, The Prince (1513)

• Realist analysis of what keeps a leader in power

• The Prince must learn how not to be good, because human nature is not perfectly good

• Virtue is a nice idea, but the main job of the prince is to stay in power; virtue makes no sense of the prince loses his authority

Machievelli, The Prince (1513)

• Better for prince to be feared than loved

• The prince must be able to simulatesimulate and dissemble

• The evils of a prince will be excused by the people if the prince maintains his authority