knowt logo

The Italian Renaissance.

Renaissance: “rebirth”, or to be born again

  • 1500s to 1600s

  • Birthplace of the Renaissance is Italy

  • It focused on lots of arts, literature, and science.

  • Had brought back many greek and roman cultures that they had known of

Why Italy?

Italy is the birthplace of the Renaissance for several reasons: Geography, Invention of the printing press, economy, and freedom of speech

  • Geography:

    • Italy is in the ruins of parts of the fallen Roman Empire, so they were able to just explore their area and learn about how the people before had lived

    • Using this to their advantage, they learned many things about the way Romans lived, and they had added it to their own ideas

  • Invention of the Printing Press

    • with the church still in charge at this time, it was hard for information to pass through and spread to other places

    • the printing press would print out information and spread them way faster than verbal communication

    • besides faster speed, it’s also more accurate than verbal communication as it’s says the same thing but all written down on papers

  • Freedom of Expression

    • People were allowed to say what they wanted to, with the exception of the church trying to stop them

  • Rich Economy

    • Italy had a pretty big population at that time.

      • This was a good thing

      • More people could mean that there’s more geniuses amongst the crowd

      • It could also mean more people could come together and talk about ideas

    • Italy also has 2 popular trade cities: Venice and Florence

      • Since Italy is full of merchants that trade with people coming from everywhere, they have enough money to patronize the arts.

      • This meaning that they were able to buy from artists, financially supporting them


4 main thinkings that came out of the Renaissance:

  1. Secularism

    • Secular: meaning real, or “of the earth”

    • The people had shifted their focus on religion onto the real world

    • It doesn’t mean that they stopped being religious, just that religion wasn’t the only thing people were living for anymore

    • examples of this would be the increase of study in literature or science

  2. Humanism:

    • Humanism: of the humans

    • This was the thinking that humans weren’t meant to be God’s pawn

    • They have their own life to live for, and that was glorified

    • Mankind, anatomy, etc. was basically, was honored through arts

      • Example: pictures of nudity shows how important the human body was to them

  3. Individualism:

    • Almost like a subcategory for Humanism, Individualism focuses on each and every person and how important they might be for society

    • It basically says that every human being is unique, and society shouldn’t drag them down just because they are different

  4. Skepticism:

    • Skepticism sounds like skeptical, and that’s basically what it was

    • At the time being, the church had all the knowledge of the world. People were to just accept them without proof (no questions)

    • Now, they were questioning the information given to them, and this led to them finding answers to their questions themselves, leading to a scientific discovery period as well

Big People from the Renaissance:

  • Leonardo da Vinci:

    • Pretty popular artist

    • Mona Lisa

    • The Last Supper

  • Michelangelo

    • Another artist, but also a sculptor

    • “David” statue

    • Painted Sistine Church ceiling

  • Shakespeare

    • Literature writer

    • popular works of literature and plays

    • Romeo and Juliet

  • Dante

    • Philosopher

    • Poet

    • Wrote “The Devine Comedy”


Renaissance: “rebirth”, or to be born again

  • 1500s to 1600s

  • Birthplace of the Renaissance is Italy

  • It focused on lots of arts, literature, and science.

  • Had brought back many greek and roman cultures that they had known of

Why Italy?

Italy is the birthplace of the Renaissance for several reasons: Geography, Invention of the printing press, economy, and freedom of speech

  • Geography:

    • Italy is in the ruins of parts of the fallen Roman Empire, so they were able to just explore their area and learn about how the people before had lived

    • Using this to their advantage, they learned many things about the way Romans lived, and they had added it to their own ideas

  • Invention of the Printing Press

    • with the church still in charge at this time, it was hard for information to pass through and spread to other places

    • the printing press would print out information and spread them way faster than verbal communication

    • besides faster speed, it’s also more accurate than verbal communication as it’s says the same thing but all written down on papers

  • Freedom of Expression

    • People were allowed to say what they wanted to, with the exception of the church trying to stop them

  • Rich Economy

    • Italy had a pretty big population at that time.

      • This was a good thing

      • More people could mean that there’s more geniuses amongst the crowd

      • It could also mean more people could come together and talk about ideas

    • Italy also has 2 popular trade cities: Venice and Florence

      • Since Italy is full of merchants that trade with people coming from everywhere, they have enough money to patronize the arts.

      • This meaning that they were able to buy from artists, financially supporting them


4 main thinkings that came out of the Renaissance:

  1. Secularism

    • Secular: meaning real, or “of the earth”

    • The people had shifted their focus on religion onto the real world

    • It doesn’t mean that they stopped being religious, just that religion wasn’t the only thing people were living for anymore

    • examples of this would be the increase of study in literature or science

  2. Humanism:

    • Humanism: of the humans

    • This was the thinking that humans weren’t meant to be God’s pawn

    • They have their own life to live for, and that was glorified

    • Mankind, anatomy, etc. was basically, was honored through arts

      • Example: pictures of nudity shows how important the human body was to them

  3. Individualism:

    • Almost like a subcategory for Humanism, Individualism focuses on each and every person and how important they might be for society

    • It basically says that every human being is unique, and society shouldn’t drag them down just because they are different

  4. Skepticism:

    • Skepticism sounds like skeptical, and that’s basically what it was

    • At the time being, the church had all the knowledge of the world. People were to just accept them without proof (no questions)

    • Now, they were questioning the information given to them, and this led to them finding answers to their questions themselves, leading to a scientific discovery period as well

Big People from the Renaissance:

  • Leonardo da Vinci:

    • Pretty popular artist

    • Mona Lisa

    • The Last Supper

  • Michelangelo

    • Another artist, but also a sculptor

    • “David” statue

    • Painted Sistine Church ceiling

  • Shakespeare

    • Literature writer

    • popular works of literature and plays

    • Romeo and Juliet

  • Dante

    • Philosopher

    • Poet

    • Wrote “The Devine Comedy”