Renaissance & Reformation
Renaissance=“rebirth”Renaissance=“rebirth”
• Began in Italy in 1300 A.D.
• Reached its peak around 1500 A.D.
• Emphasized human experience and individual achievement rather than religion
Renaissance…• Intellectual movement
• Based on ‘humanism’
• Studied classical culture of Greece & Rome to broaden their understanding
• Emphasized the humanities: rhetoric, poetry, & history
Renaissance Art…
• Reflected Humanism• Painters pursued “realism” • Developed improved ways to
represent humans and landscapes
• Discovered “perspective”: ways to make art appear 3-dimensional
Famous Renaissance Painters…
• Leonardo de Vinci
Famous Renaissance Painters…
• Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Famous Renaissance Painters…
• Raphael
Famous Renaissance Writers…
• Niccolo Machiavelli
• “The Prince”: Guidebook for rulers on how to gain & maintain power
Other Renaissance Men…
• Erasmus: Dutch priests/humanists who called for translation of the Bible into more modern vernacular
• Thomas More: Called for social reform; utopian society.
William Shakespeare
• English poet/playwright. 37 plays; 1,700 new words to English language.
• “Romeo & Juliet”• “MacBeth”• “Hamlet”
Coming out of the Dark Ages…The Printing Press
• Johann Gutenburg
• 1455=printed the 1st complete edition of the Bible.
Printing Press
Cheaper Books
Easier to produce
More booksavailable
More peopleLearn to
read
New ideas & new places
Scientific RevolutionScientific Revolution mid-1500s
Nicholas Copernicus (1543)Proposed a heliocentric (sun-centered)
model of the solar system
Galileo
• Italy
• Assembled telescope & observed 4 moons of Jupiter orbiting the planet.
• Opposed by the Church
New approaches to New approaches to science… science…
Based on:• Observation • Experimentation• Logic• Reasoning ↓↓• Hypothesis→ → →Scientific
Method
Scientific Scientific RevolutionariesRevolutionaries
• René Descartes=Reasoning
• Francis Bacon=Experimentation & Observation
• Isaac Newton=Gravity & calculus
The Protestant The Protestant ReformationReformation
• Martin Luther
• Germany, 1517
• Challenged the Catholic Church
• Stated that all Christians have = access to God through faith & the Bible
• Christians can be saved only through faith.
John Calvin
• Switzerland
• Also challenged Catholic Church
• Believed in predestination (Only those God has picked who will go to Heaven)
• English Calvinists sail to America to escape religious persecution in the 1600s.