Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement from the 14th to the 16th century. The word renaissance (rinascimento in Italian) literally means "rebirth", and the era is best known for the renewed interest in the culture of classical antiquity after the period that Renaissance humanists labelled the Dark Ages. These changes, while significant, were concentrated in the elite, and for the vast majority of the population life was little changed from the Middle Ages.

Development

International relations

Northern Italy was divided into a number of warring city-states, the most powerful being Milan, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Genoa, Ferrara, and Venice. Northern Italy was further divided by the long running battle for supremacy between the forces of the Papacy and of the Holy Roman Empire. Each city aligned itself with one faction or the other, yet was divided internally between the two warring parties. Warfare between the states was common, invasion from outside Italy less so. In an age when armies were primarily composed of mercenaries, these city-states could field considerable forces, despite their low populations. Eventually, the most powerful city-states annexed their smaller neighbours. Florence took Pisa in 1406, Venice captured Padua and Verona, while the Duchy of Milan annexed a number of nearby areas including Pavia and Parma.

Related Topics:
City-states - Milan - Florence - Pisa - Siena - Genoa - Ferrara - Venice - Holy Roman Empire - Mercenaries - 1406 - Padua - Verona - Duchy of Milan - Pavia - Parma

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The first part of the Renaissance saw almost constant war on land and sea as the city-states vied for pre-eminence. On land, these wars were fought primarily by armies of mercenaries known as Condottieri, bands of soldiers drawn from around Europe, but especially Germany and Switzerland. The mercenaries were not willing to risk their lives unduly , and war became one largely of sieges and manoeuvering with few pitched battles. It was also in the interest of mercenaries on both sides to prolong any conflict, as this would continue their employment. Mercenaries were also a constant threat to their employers; if not paid, they often turned on their patron. If it became obvious that a state was entirely dependent on mercenaries, the temptation was great for the mercenaries to take over the running of it themselves -- this occurred on a number of occasions.{{ref|war}}

Related Topics:
Condottieri - Germany - Switzerland

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At sea, Italian city-states sent many fleets out to do battle. The main contenders were Pisa, Genoa, and Venice, but after a long conflict the Genoese succeeded in reducing Pisa. Venice proved to be a more powerful adversary, and while at first relatively equal, the Genoese fleet was destroyed in a Venetian assault in 1380; from then on, Venice was pre-eminent.

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On land, decades of fighting saw Florence and Milan emerge as the dominant players, and these two powers finally set aside their differences and agreed to the Peace of Lodi in 1454, which saw relative calm brought to the region for the first time in centuries. This peace would hold for the next forty years, and Venice's unquestioned hegemony over the sea also led to unprecedented peace for much of the rest of the 15th century.

Related Topics:
Peace of Lodi - 1454

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In the beginning of the 15th century, adventurer and traders such as Niccolò Da Conti (1395?1469) travelled as far as Southeast Asia and back, bringing fresh knowledge on the state of the world, presaging further European voyages of exploration in the years to come.

Related Topics:
Niccolò Da Conti - 1395 - 1469 - Southeast Asia

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Florence under the Medici

From the late fourteenth century, Florence's leading family had been the Albizzi. Their main challengers were the Medicis, first under Giovanni de' Medici, then under his son Cosimo. The Medici controlled Europe's largest bank and a wide array of other enterprises in Florence and elsewhere. In 1433, the Albizzi managed to have Cosimo exiled. The next year, however, saw a-pro Medici Signoria elected and Cosimo returned. The Medici became the town's leading family, a position they would hold for the next three centuries. Florence remained a republic, but the instruments of government were firmly under the control of the Medici and their allies. Cosimo only rarely had an official post, but was the unquestioned leader of the town.

Related Topics:
Albizzi - Medici - Giovanni de' Medici - Cosimo - 1433 - Signoria

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Cosimo de' Medici was highly popular among the citizenry, mainly for bringing an era of stability and prosperity to the town. One of his most important accomplishments was negotiating the Peace of Lodi with Francesco Sforza ending the decades of war with Milan and bringing stability to much of Northern Italy. Cosimo was also an important patron of the arts, though some modern historians have argued the extent of his patronage has long been exaggerated.

Related Topics:
Peace of Lodi - Francesco Sforza

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Cosimo was succeeded by his sickly son Piero de' Medici, who died after five years in charge of the city. In 1469 the reins of power passed to Cosimo's twenty-one-year-old grandson Lorenzo, who would become known as "Lorenzo the Magnificent." Lorenzo was the first of the family to be educated from an early age in the humanist tradition and is best known as one of the Renaissance's most important patrons of the arts. Under Lorenzo, the Medici rule was formalized with the creation of a new Council of Seventy, which Lorenzo headed. The republican institutions continued, but they lost all power. Lorenzo was less successful than his illustrious forebears in business, and the Medici commercial empire was slowly eroded. Lorenzo continued the alliance with Milan, but relations with the papacy soured, and in 1478, Papal agents allied with the Pazzi family in an attempt to assassinate Lorenzo. Although the plot failed, Lorenzo's young brother, Giuliano, was killed, and the failed assassination led to a war with the Papacy and was used as justification to further centralize power in Lorenzo's hands.{{ref|Pazzi}}

Related Topics:
Piero de' Medici - 1469 - Lorenzo - Council of Seventy - Pazzi - Giuliano

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Spread of the Renaissance

The Renaissance ideals first spread from Florence to the neighbouring states of Tuscany such as Siena and Lucca. The Tuscan culture soon became the model for all the states of Northern Italy, and the Tuscan variety of Italian came to predominate throughout the region, especially in literature. In 1447 Francesco Sforza came to power in Milan and rapidly transformed that still medieval city into a major centre of art and learning. Venice, one of the wealthiest cities due to its control of the Mediterranean Sea, also became a centre for Renaissance culture, especially architecture.

Related Topics:
Tuscany - Siena - Lucca - 1447 - Francesco Sforza - Milan - Venice

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In 1378 the Papacy returned to Rome, but that once imperial city remained poor and largely in ruins through the first years of the Renaissance.{{ref|Rome}} The great transformation began under Pope Nicholas V who became pontiff in 1447. He launched a dramatic rebuilding effort that would see much of the city renewed. As the papacy fell under the control of the wealthy families from the north, such as the Medici and the Borgias the spirit of Renaissance art and philosophy came to dominate the Vatican. Pope Sixtus IV continued Nicholas' work, most famously ordering the construction of the Sistine Chapel. The popes also became increasingly secular rulers as the Papal States were forged into a centralized power by a series of warrior popes.

Related Topics:
1378 - Pope Nicholas V - 1447 - Medici - Borgia - Pope Sixtus IV - Sistine Chapel - Papal States

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The nature of the Renaissance also changed in the late fifteenth century. The Renaissance ideal was fully adopted by the ruling classes and the aristocracy. In the early Renaissance artists were seen as craftsmen with little prestige or recognition. By the later Renaissance the top figures wielded great influence and could charge great fees. A flourishing trade in Renaissance art developed. While in the early Renaissance many of the leading artists were of lower- or middle-class origins, increasingly they became aristocrats.{{ref|late}}

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Wider population

As a cultural movement, the Italian Renaissance affected only a small part of the population. Northern Italy was the most urbanized region of Europe, but three quarters of the people were still rural peasants.{{ref|peasants}} For this section of the population life was essentially unchanged from the Middle Ages.{{ref|nochange}} Classic feudalism had never been prominent in Northern Italy, with the peasants mostly working private farms or as sharecroppers. Some scholars see a trend towards refeudalization in the later Renaissance as the urban elites turned themselves into landed aristocrats. {{ref|refeudalization}}

Related Topics:
Feudalism - Sharecropper

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In the cities the situation was quite different. They were dominated by a commercial elite, which was just as exclusive as the aristocracy of any Medieval kingdom. It was this group that was the main patron of and audience for Renaissance culture. Below them there was a large class of artisans and guild members who lived comfortable lives and had significant power in the republican governments. This was in sharp contrast to the rest of Europe where artisans were firmly in the lower class. Literate and educated, this group did participate in the Renaissance culture.{{ref|artisans}} The largest section of the urban population was the urban poor of semi-skilled workers and the unemployed. Like the peasants the Renaissance had little effect on them. One debate among historians is on how easy it was to move between these groups during the Italian Renaissance. There are a number of examples of individuals who rose from humble beginnings to the elite, but Burke notes that there have been two major studies in this area and both have found that the data does not clearly demonstrate an increase in social mobility. Most historians feel that early in the Renaissance social mobility was quite high, but that it faded over the course of the fifteenth century.{{ref|social}} Inequality in society was very high. An upper class figure would earn hundreds of times more than a servant or labourer. Some historians feel that this unequal distribution of wealth was important to the Renaissance, as art patronage relies on the very wealthy.{{ref|patronage}}

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The Renaissance was not a period of great social or economic change, only of cultural and ideological development. It only touched a small fraction of the population, and in modern times this has led many historians, such as any that follow historical materialism, to reduce the importance of the Renaissance in human history.

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End of the Italian Renaissance

The end of the Renaissance is as imprecisely marked as its starting point. For many, the rise to power in Florence of Girolamo Savonarola in 1497 marks the end of the city's flourishing. This austere monk rode to power on a widespread backlash over the secularism and indulgence of the Renaissance – his brief rule saw many works of art destroyed in the "Bonfire of the Vanities" in the centre of Florence. While Savonarola's rule quickly collapsed and the Medici returned to power, the counter movement in the church continued. In 1542 the Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition was formed and a few years later the Index Librorum Prohibitorum banned a wide array of Renaissance works.

Related Topics:
Girolamo Savonarola - 1497 - Bonfire of the Vanities - 1542 - Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition - Index Librorum Prohibitorum

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Just as important was the end of stability with a series of foreign invasions of Italy known as the Italian Wars that would continue for several decades. These began with the 1494 invasion by France that wreaked widespread devastation on Northern Italy and ended the independence of many of the city-states. Most damaging was the May 6, 1527, Spanish and German troops sacking Rome that all but ended the role of the Papacy as the largest patron of Renaissance art and architecture.{{ref|Rome}}

Related Topics:
Italian Wars - 1494 - May 6 - 1527 - Spanish - German - Sacking Rome

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Due to the instability and the contact with foreign rulers a number of Italy's greatest artists chose to emigrate. The most notable example was Leonardo da Vinci who left for France in 1516. This spread north was also representative of a larger trend. No longer was the Mediterranean the most important trade route. In 1498 Vasco da Gama reached India and from that date the primary route of goods from the Orient was through the Atlantic ports of Iberia, France and England. These areas quickly far surpassed Italy in wealth and power. However, while the Italian Renaissance was fading, the Northern Renaissance in these other lands adopted many of its ideals and styles.

Related Topics:
Leonardo da Vinci - 1516 - 1498 - Vasco da Gama - Northern Renaissance

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