The RenaissanceMoving North

Why Later?

• In 1494, a French king invaded northern Italy so many artists and writers fled for a safer life in northern Europe.

Italian Ren. Vs. Northern Ren.

• Divided into city-states

• Secular (non-religious) themes were popular

• Unified under strong monarchs

• More interested in religious

ideas

Erasmus

• Christian humanist

• Wrote The Praise of Folly

• Thought to improve society, everyone should study the Bible

Sir Thomas Moore

• Christian Humanist• Wrote Utopia which means “no

place”• About an imaginary land

inhabited by a peace- loving people

Shakespeare

• English playwright

• Themes included dramatic conflict, human flaws, and human nature

• Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Machiavelli

• Wrote The Prince which discusses the imperfect behavior of human beings

• Believed that “the end justifies the means”, or that leaders may use any method to achieve what is best for the state

The Printing Revolution

• Johann Gutenberg reinvented movable type around 1440

• He then invented the printing press, a machine that presses paper

against a tray full of inked moveable type

• With this, he printed a complete Bible in 1455

Effects of the Printing Revolution• Enabled a printer to produce hundreds of

copies, all exactly alike, of a single work

• Books were cheap enough that many people could buy them

• New ideas spread more quickly than before

• Books encouraged people to learn to read

• People interpreted the Bible for themselves, were more critical of priests, led to demands for religious reform