Class Notes

1. HUM 2232

2. Jules Michelet
French historian was first to
use the term Renaissance
in 1858

3. Jacob Burckhardt
His use of the term
in 1860 made it it a
permanent fixture

4. Giorgio Vassari
Lives of the Artists
Referred to the age
between Greco-
Roman and
Renaissance as the
“degenerate period”
and first to call it the
Middle Ages. It stuck!

5.  Signifies the rediscovery and utilization of ancient
virtues, skills, knowledge, and culture which had been
lost in the barbarous centuries follow the fall of Rome
in the West c. fifth century A.D. ~Paul Johnson
 Most generations, however, look back to some golden
age
 The 9th century under Charlemagne
 The 12th century under Hildebrand who formed what
later became universities
 Events like these may be called a proto-renaissanceand
from them universities like Notre Dame and Oxford
emerged

6.  But why didn’t the proto-renaissances spread and sustain
themselves
 Two Reasons:
 Money ~ “The root of all civilization is money” ~ Will Durant
 In late Middle Ages wealth was being produced in great quantity
 Occupations of large-scale commerce and banking florished
 With the accumulation of wealth came the patronage of the art,
architecture, literature, and music
 The Human Element
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3byt7xMSCA
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpydugTkt1U

7.  The Human Element
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsCG26886w8
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpydugTkt1U
 Money can buy art, but only if there are craftsmen to
produce it
 The late Middle Ages, and the transitional 14th century
had an abundance of both money and craftsmen

8.  Workshops of all kinds emerged specializing in
intermediate technology:
 Stone
 Leather
 Metal
 Wood
 Plaster
 Chemicals
 Fabrics
 Machinery
 Families of those who worked in these shops produced
the art

9. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsCkgX2epFw&featu
re=related

10. Important Figures Roles
Charles IV (France) King of France (Last Capetian king)
King Edward III (England) Nephew of Charles IV
King Phillip VI Believed himself to successor of Charles
IV
The Black Prince Son of Edward III (English General)
Henry V King of England (succeeded Edward III
& lead military)
Joan of Arc French leader (at age 13 heard the voice
of God & led the French to victory at
siege of Orleans)

11. Stages Dates Battles Victor
1st 1340-1356 Crecy & England
Poitiers
2nd 1364-1372 La Rochelle France
3rd 1415-1424 Agincourt England
4th 1428-1453 Siege of Orleans France

12.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBSH3IoFZsc
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpswyzn-LZA

13.  The Black Plague (1348)
 The Hundred Years War (1337-1453)
 The Great Schism (1309-1376)

14.  Dante the man
 Born in Florence
 Exiled for criticism of government and
church
 Dante the poet
 Classical influence
 Christian influence
 Italian influence
 Dante the pilgrim
 “Midway in the journey of our life I
found myself in a dark wood…how hard
to say what a harsh thing was that
wood savage and rough and hard”
 Divine Comedy
 Inferno - Hell
 Purgatorio - Purgatory
 Paradiso – Paradise
 Sacramental view of the world &
history – Beatrice and Virgil

15.  Inferno – Hell
 “Ye who enter, abandon all hope.”
 “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral
crisis, maintain their neutrality.”
 “The path to paradise begins in hell.”
 “Into the eternal darkness, into fire and into ice. ”
 “The devil is not as black as he is painted.”
 Purgatorio – Purgatory
 Paradiso– Paradise
 "My son, you've seen the temporary fire and the eternal fire; you have reached
the place past which my powers cannot see. I've brought you here through
intellect and art; from now on, let your pleasure be your guide; you're past the
steep and past the narrow paths. Look at the sun that shines upon your brow;
look at the grasses, flowers, and the shrubs born here, spontaneously, of the
earth. Among them, you can rest or walk until the coming of the glad and
lovely eyes-yourself." [Virgil's last words to Dante as he gives Dante the power to
guide himself. Canto XXVII, Purgatorio]

16.  Love
 The center of the center is love
 Love, then, is the very center of Divine Comedy
 Virgil - all sin is a distorted attempt at love
 Purgatory does is realign, purify and redirect our love
 It is love which gives rise to all our actions, and it is love "which moves
the sun and the other stars”
 Sin is a failureor misdirectionof love
 Ordinate
 Inordinate
 Love too little = slothful
 Love too much = lustful
 Sacramental view of the world & history – Beatrice and Virgil
 'O light and honor of all other poets, may my long study and the
intense love that made me search your volume serve me now. You are
my master and my author, you-the only one from whom my writing
drew the noble style for which I have been honored.'"

17.  Father of humanism
 Augustinian influence
 Influence of Cicero &
Virgil
 Latin Scholar –
discovered and copied
many ancient texts
 His love – Laura

18.  The Decameron
 The plague