Changing Cultural Traditions

Changing
Cultural Traditions
Introduction
• From 14th to 17th century, towns developed
• ‘urban culture’
• Townspeople more ‘civilised’ than rural people
• Florence, Venice, and Rome – centres of art and learning
• Artists and writers: patronised by rich and aristocratic
• invention of printing – availability of books
• Modern world vs Ancient world
• Religion: individual’s choice
• new geographical knowledge
Sources
• From 14th century, vast amount of material on European
history: documents, printed books, paintings, sculptures,
buildings, textiles.
• Preserved in archives, art galleries and museums.
Renaissance
• Rebirth or revival
• a fervent period of European cultural, artistic, political and
economic “rebirth” following the Middle Ages.
• Generally described as taking place from the 14th century
to the 17th century, the Renaissance promoted the
rediscovery of classical philosophy, literature and art.
Jacob Burckhardt – 1860
‘The Civilisation of the
Renaissance in Italy’
The Revival of Italian cities
• After fall • of
.
Western Roman empire, many
towns fell into ruin – As no unified government
– Pope not a strong political empire
• Western Europe – reshaped by feudal relations
& unified under the Latin Church.
• Eastern Europe – Byzantine empire and Islam –
creating a common civilisation in the West.
• These indirectly helped in the revival of the
Indian culture.
• Growth of •Italian
.
towns:
• Expansion of trade between Byzantine empire
and Islamic countries - revival of ports on the
Italian coast.
• Mongols opened up trade with China via Silk
route – trade with Western European countries
increased, Italian towns played a central role.
• No longer a part of a powerful empire, but as
independent states.
• Growth of Italian towns:
• Florence and Venice
• . – republics – court cities,
ruled by princes.
• Vibrant cities – Venice and Genoa: different
from others – clergy & feudal lords not powerful
• Rich merchants + bankers = governing the city =
idea of citizenship. Pride felt by townspeople
strong even during military rule.
• Who was Leopold von Ranke?
• In 1860, ____________wrote the book ‘The Civilisation of
the Renaissance in Italy’.
• Eastern Europe was under _________empire
• In Italy, which two city states were republics?
• What is the cause of revival of ports on the Italian coast?
Universities and Humanism
Universities:
• Earliest universities
• . – Italian towns
• Universities of Padua and Bologna – centres of

legal studies
• Increasing demand for lawyers and notaries
because commerce was the chief activity
- They wrote and interpreted laws without which
trade was not possible
• Law – popular subject of study – studied in the
context of earlier Roman culture
Universities:
• Francesco Petrarch
• .
• study of civilisation = through actual words of

ancient greeks and romans – importance of
close reading of ancient authors
• Educational programme – lot more to be learnt
– religious teaching not enough
• The historians in the 19 century labelled this
th
culture as ‘humanism’
Humanism:
• Early 15th century:
• . Humanist term used for masters
who taught grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and
moral philosophy
• Humanities was derived from latin word ‘humanitas’
• Cicero used to mean culture
• Humanities were subjects not connected or derived
from religion
• Skills developed by individuals through discussion and
debate.
Humanism:
• Revolutionary ideas – attracting attention in many universities
Florence: • .
• Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) (layman who wrote on religious
themes) and Giotto (1267-1337) (an artist who painted lifelike
portraits)
• From then – developed as most exciting intellectual city in Italy:
centre of artistic creativity
• ‘Renaissance Man’ used to describe person with many interests
and skills: scholar-diplomat-theologian-artist combined in one.
Humanist view of history
• Humanists believed ‘Dark age’ – after collapse of Roman Empire
• responsible for restoring true civilisation
• New age in Europe – from 14 • th
. century
• ‘Medieval period/ Middles ages’ – 1000 years after the fall of

Rome – complete control of church – destroyed all Greek and
roman learning
• Humanists used the word ‘modern’ for the period from the 15th
century onwards
• Unfair to label any period as ‘dark ages’

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Changing

• Universities of Padua and Bologna – centres of

• study of civilisation = through actual words of

• ‘Medieval period/ Middles ages’ – 1000 years after the fall of

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