The Renaissance started to rise during the 1300s, the old order of Europe started to trade and the industry started to grow, while weakening the feudal system at the same time. A wealthy merchant in Scotland, could now drink French wine, buy clothing made out of silk imported from Asia, and flavor his food with weird, exotic African spices. Also textile factories in one Italian city hired 30,000 employees.
Italian shipping played a key role in the growth of trade. Traders bought and sold valuable goods using gold currency. These and many more changes weakened the self-sufficient manor system (The old feudal system began to weaken and break down). The force of labor for this “economic” expansion came from the migrants who moved from manors to other towns. People were drawn to different towns for the promise of paid work/labor. Nobles were also drawn to towns for “economic” reasons. The Nobles saw opportunities to make money by buying a share of land and holding public office.
The booming trade and thriving cities led to other changes.
For centuries, learning had been taught in the Catholic Church. Even after universities sprang up in European cities, theology, rather then secular objects, was still kept as the most important course of study. However, secular objects grew more popular as time passed. These subjects included law, medicine, philosophy, and science. The feudal order gave way to t he economic and cultural changes of the Renaissance.
Around 1300, these trends fused together in Italy to begin what scholars and other people now call The Renaissance. It was a great cultural revival that swept through Europe between the fourteenth through the sixteenth century. The word Renaissance in French means “rebirth.” This revival began with the increased activity in the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome. People began to re-discover the literature, art, and learning of these ancient civilizations. The people looked to the classical culture of ancient Greece and Rome for models of how to live.
In England, France and Spain, the feudal order defined the structure of life in most countries. In Italy, however, feudalism never took hold in the same way. This may be the reason why Italy is “supposably” the birthplace of the Renaissance.
As everyone knows, The Renaissance has no real set starting point or place. Some scholars believe it happened in different places at different times gradually over time. But there is a theory that the Renaissance began in wealthy Italian cities. Florence is believed to gave birth to the Renaissance. Florence was located inland and was not a major port. Knowledge of classical Greek and roman thought did not suddenly come to mind in the early Renaissance. However, interest in classical learning grew enormously over time. This new focus in education was called humanitas (or humanism).
Humanism refers to a general concern with human values. However, in the 1400s it had a more specific meaning. Humanism was a cultural movement of the Renaissance that was based on the study of classical works. Humanists valued learning not as a preparation for a religious life but as a means of improving themselves, or self-improvement. The medieval focus on the sinfulness of human beings gave away to a belief in our human potential to achieve excellence in most things if not all things…
The Renaissance marked a growing trend toward secularism (this was the view that religion need not be the center of human affairs).People then began to view life as an opportunity for enjoyment and pleasure (in other words, they enjoyed life rather than waste it). The growth of secularism was clear in writings that were intended to entertain or inform rather than to promote spiritually.
A good example would be The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, its was a collection of tales written in the mid 1300s, it reflected the worldly views of Florentine society. It was written in the vernacular, or an everyday spoken language of the people. The third idea next to humanism and secularism that defined Renaissance thought was individualism (this is the belief in the importance of the individual, as opposed to the larger community.
The concern for the individual was rooted in classical philosophy. Individualism encouraged artists and writers to seek recognition of their accomplishments. The artists created made most medieval art are unknown. Their names were unimportant because it was believed that art glorified God and not the artists. But the people of the Renaissance cared very much about the identity of the artist who created art & literature. They thought the artists should be recognized for their hard work.
Scholars all throughout Europe were drawn to the brilliance of the “new learning.” They traveled to Italy from all around the continent and “took” the ideas of the Renaissance back to their home countries.
