How Did Italy Fund Art in the Mid 1500s

Italian Trade Cities

Italian city-states trading during the late Center Ages set the stage for the Renaissance by moving resources, culture, and knowledge from the East.

Learning Objectives

Testify how Northern Italian republic and the wealthy city-states within it became such huge European powers

Key Takeaways

Cardinal Points

• While Northern Italy was non richer in resource than many other parts of Europe, the level of development, stimulated past trade, allowed it to prosper. In particular, Florence became 1 of the wealthiest cities in Northern Italian republic.
• Florence became the center of this financial industry, and the gold florin became the primary currency of international trade.
• Luxury goods bought in the Levant, such as spices, dyes, and silks, were imported to Italy then resold throughout Europe.
• The Italian merchandise routes that covered the Mediterranean and beyond were also major conduits of civilisation and cognition.

Central Terms

• Vitruvius: A Roman author, architect, and civil engineer (built-in c. 80–70 BC, died after c. 15 BCE), perchance best known for his multi-volume piece of work entitled De Architectura.
• Hanseatic League: A commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and their market towns that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe.
• Tacitus: A senator and a historian of the Roman Empire (c. 56–later 117 CE).
• Levant: The countries bordering the eastern Mediterranean Ocean.
• metropolis-state: A political miracle of small contained states generally in the key and northern Italian peninsula between the 9th and 15th centuries.

Prosperous Urban center-States

During the late Eye Ages, Northern and Key Italy became far more prosperous than the s of Italy, with the urban center-states, such as Venice and Genoa, amongst the wealthiest in Europe. The Crusades had built lasting merchandise links to the Levant, and the Quaternary Crusade had done much to destroy the Byzantine Roman Empire as a commercial rival to the Venetians and Genoese.

The main trade routes from the due east passed through the Byzantine Empire or the Arab lands and onwards to the ports of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice. Luxury appurtenances bought in the Levant, such as spices, dyes, and silks, were imported to Italian republic and and so resold throughout Europe. Moreover, the inland city-states profited from the rich agricultural land of the Po valley.

From France, Germany, and the Low Countries, through the medium of the Champagne fairs, country and river trade routes brought goods such every bit wool, wheat, and precious metals into the region. The all-encompassing trade that stretched from Egypt to the Baltic generated substantial surpluses that allowed significant investment in mining and agronomics.

Thus, while Northern Italy was non richer in resources than many other parts of Europe, the level of development, stimulated by trade, allowed it to prosper. In item, Florence became i of the wealthiest cities in Northern Italy, due mainly to its woolen material production, developed under the supervision of its dominant trade club, the Arte della Lana. Wool was imported from Northern Europe (and in the 16th century from Spain), and together with dyes from the east was used to make high quality textiles.

Revitalizing Merchandise Routes

In the 13th century, much of Europe experienced strong economic growth. The trade routes of the Italian states linked with those of established Mediterranean ports, and eventually the Hanseatic League of the Baltic and northern regions of Europe, to create a network economic system in Europe for the kickoff time since the 4th century. The city-states of Italia expanded greatly during this period, and grew in power to get de facto fully independent of the Holy Roman Empire; autonomously from the Kingdom of Naples, exterior powers kept their armies out of Italia. During this period, the modern commercial infrastructure developed, with double-entry bookkeeping, joint stock companies, an international banking system, a systematized strange exchange market, insurance, and government debt. Florence became the centre of this financial manufacture, and the gilt florin became the chief currency of international merchandise.

While Roman urban republican sensibilities persisted, there were many movements and changes afoot. Italian republic showtime felt the changes in Europe from the 11th to the 13th centuries. Typically there was:

• A ascension in population―the population doubled in this period (the demographic explosion)
• An emergence of huge cities (Venice, Florence, and Milan had over 100,000 inhabitants by the 13th century, and many others, such as Genoa, Bologna, and Verona, had over fifty,000)
• Rebuilding of the cracking cathedrals
• Substantial migration from land to city (in Italia the rate of urbanization reached twenty%, making it the about urbanized order in the world at that fourth dimension)
• An agrarian revolution
• Development of commerce

The reject of feudalism and the rise of cities influenced each other; for example, the demand for luxury appurtenances led to an increase in trade, which led to greater numbers of tradesmen becoming wealthy, who, in turn, demanded more luxury goods.

Palazzo della Signoria e Uffizzi, Florence: Florence was one of the well-nigh important urban center-states in Italy.

The Transfer of Culture and Knowledge

The Italian trade routes that covered the Mediterranean and beyond were also major conduits of culture and cognition. The recovery of lost Greek texts, which had been preserved past Arab scholars, following the Crusader conquest of the Byzantine heartlands revitalized medieval philosophy in the Renaissance of the 12th century. Additionally, Byzantine scholars migrated to Italian republic during and post-obit the Ottoman conquest of the Byzantines betwixt the twelfth and 15th centuries, and were important in sparking the new linguistic studies of the Renaissance, in newly created academies in Florence and Venice. Humanist scholars searched monastic libraries for ancient manuscripts and recovered Tacitus and other Latin authors. The rediscovery of Vitruvius meant that the architectural principles of Antiquity could be observed once again, and Renaissance artists were encouraged, in the atmosphere of humanist optimism, to excel the achievements of the Ancients, like Apelles, of whom they read.

Venice and the Ottoman Empire: Crash Class Globe History #xix: John Green discusses the strange and mutually beneficial human relationship between a republic, the city-state of Venice, and an Empire, the Ottomans—and how studying history can help you to be a better beau and/or girlfriend. Together, the Ottoman Empire and Venice grew wealthy past facilitating trade: The Venetians had ships and nautical expertise; the Ottomans had admission to many of the most valuable goods in the world, especially pepper and grain. Working together across cultural and religious divides, they both become very rich, and the Ottomans became one of the most powerful political entities in the globe.

Italian Politics

Italian politics during the time of the Renaissance was dominated by the rising merchant class, peculiarly 1 family, the House of Medici, whose ability in Florence was almost absolute.

Learning Objectives

Depict the intricacies of Italian politics during this time

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• Northern and Central Italian republic became prosperous in the late Eye Ages through the growth of international trade and the rise of the merchant form, who somewhen gained well-nigh complete command of the governments of the Italian city-states.
• A popular explanation for the Italian Renaissance is the thesis that the master impetus of the early Renaissance was the long-running series of wars between Florence and Milan, whereby the leading figures of Florence rallied the people past presenting the war equally one between the free commonwealth and a despotic monarchy.
• The House of Medici was an Italian banking family, political dynasty, and afterwards royal firm in Florence who were the major sponsors of art and compages in the early on and Loftier Renaissance.

Key Terms

• House of Medici: An Italian banking family, political dynasty, and after purple house in the Republic of Florence during the outset one-half of the 15th century that had a major impact on the rise of the Italian Renaissance.
• Hundred Years' War: A series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the Business firm of Valois, rulers of the Kingdom of France, for control of the Kingdom of France.

Italy in the Late Middle Ages

By the Late Middle Ages (circa 1300 onward), Latium, the former heartland of the Roman Empire, and southern Italy were generally poorer than the north. Rome was a city of ancient ruins, and the Papal States were loosely administered and vulnerable to external interference such as that of France, and later on Spain. The papacy was affronted when the Avignon Papacy was created in southern France as a issue of pressure level from King Philip the Fair of France. In the south, Sicily had for some time been under foreign domination, past the Arabs so the Normans. Sicily had prospered for 150 years during the Emirate of Sicily, and later for two centuries during the Norman Kingdom and the Hohenstaufen Kingdom, merely had declined by the late Middle Ages.

The Rising of the Merchant Class

In dissimilarity, Northern and Central Italy had get far more prosperous, and information technology has been calculated that the region was amongst the richest in Europe. The new mercantile governing class, who gained their position through financial skill, adjusted to their purposes the feudal aristocratic model that had dominated Europe in the Middle Ages. A feature of the High Heart Ages in Northern Italian republic was the rise of the urban communes, which had broken from the control of bishops and local counts. In much of the region, the landed nobility was poorer than the urban patriarchs in the high medieval money economy, whose inflationary rise left land-property aristocrats impoverished. The increase in trade during the early on Renaissance enhanced these characteristics.

This change likewise gave the merchants well-nigh complete control of the governments of the Italian urban center-states, once again enhancing merchandise. 1 of the almost important effects of this political control was security. Those that grew extremely wealthy in a feudal state ran constant adventure of running afoul of the monarchy and having their lands confiscated, every bit famously occurred to Jacques Coeur in French republic. The northern states likewise kept many medieval laws that severely hampered commerce, such equally those confronting usury and prohibitions on trading with non-Christians. In the metropolis-states of Italy, these laws were repealed or rewritten.

The 14th century saw a serial of catastrophes that caused the European economic system to become into recession, including the Hundred Years' War, the Black Death, and numerous famines. Information technology was during this period of instability that the Renaissance authors such every bit Dante and Petrarch lived, and the first stirrings of Renaissance art were to be seen, notably in the realism of Giotto. Paradoxically, some of these disasters would help establish the Renaissance. The Black Death wiped out a third of Europe's population. The resulting labor shortage increased wages, and the reduced population was therefore much wealthier and better fed, and, significantly, had more than surplus money to spend on luxury goods. As incidences of the plague began to decline in the early 15th century, Europe's devastated population once again began to grow. The new demand for products and services too helped create a growing class of bankers, merchants, and skilled artisans.

Warring Italians

Northern Italia and upper Central Italy were divided into a number of warring city-states, the nearly powerful being Milan, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Genoa, Ferrara, Mantua, Verona, and Venice. High medieval Northern Italia was further divided by the long-running boxing for supremacy between the forces of the papacy and of the Holy Roman Empire; each metropolis aligned itself with 1 faction or the other, yet was divided internally between the two warring parties, Guelfs and Ghibellines. Warfare between united states of america was common, but invasion from outside Italy was confined to intermittent sorties of Holy Roman emperors. Renaissance politics adult from this background. Since the 13th century, every bit armies became primarily equanimous of mercenaries, prosperous city-states could field considerable forces, despite their low populations. In the course of the 15th century, the most powerful city-states annexed their smaller neighbors. Florence took Pisa in 1406, Venice captured Padua and Verona, and the Duchy of Milan annexed a number of nearby areas, including Pavia and Parma.

A popular caption for the Italian Renaissance is the thesis, commencement advanced by historian Hans Businesswoman, that the primary impetus of the early Renaissance was the long-running serial of wars betwixt Florence and Milan. By the late 14th century, Milan had get a centralized monarchy under the control of the Visconti family. Giangaleazzo Visconti, who ruled the city from 1378 to 1402, was renowned both for his cruelty and for his abilities, and prepare about building an empire in Northern Italy. He launched a long series of wars, with Milan steadily acquisition neighboring states and defeating the various coalitions led by Florence that sought in vain to halt the advance. This culminated in the 1402 siege of Florence, when it looked as though the city was doomed to fall, before Giangaleazzo all of a sudden died and his empire complanate.

Baron'south thesis suggests that during these long wars, the leading figures of Florence rallied the people by presenting the war as one between the free commonwealth and a despotic monarchy, betwixt the ethics of the Greek and Roman Republics and those of the Roman Empire and medieval kingdoms. For Businesswoman, the virtually of import figure in crafting this ideology was Leonardo Bruni. This fourth dimension of crisis in Florence was the period when the near influential figures of the early Renaissance were coming of age, such as Ghiberti, Donatello, Masolino, and Brunelleschi. Inculcated with this republican credo, they afterwards went on to advocate republican ideas that were to have an enormous touch on on the Renaissance.

The Medici Family

The House of Medici was an Italian banking family, political dynasty, and later royal firm that start began to gather prominence nether Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the get-go one-half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until they were able to fund the Medici Bank. The bank was the largest in Europe during the 15th century, which helped the Medici gain political power in Florence—though officially they remained citizens rather than monarchs. The biggest accomplishments of the Medici were in the sponsorship of fine art and architecture, mainly early and High Renaissance art and architecture. The Medici were responsible for the majority of Florentine art during their reign.

Their wealth and influence initially derived from the material trade guided by the guild of the Arte della Lana. Like other signore families, they dominated their city's government, they were able to bring Florence under their family's power, and they created an surround where fine art and Humanism could flourish. They, along with other families of Italy, such as the Visconti and Sforza of Milan, the Este of Ferrara, and the Gonzaga of Mantua, fostered and inspired the nascence of the Italian Renaissance. The Medici family unit was connected to most other elite families of the time through marriages of convenience, partnerships, or employment, and then the family had a fundamental position in the social network. Several families had systematic access to the residuum of the aristocracy families only through the Medici, mayhap like to cyberbanking relationships.

The Medici Bank was one of the most prosperous and most respected institutions in Europe. There are some estimates that the Medici family were the wealthiest family in Europe for a fourth dimension. From this base, they acquired political power initially in Florence and later in wider Italian republic and Europe. A notable contribution to the profession of bookkeeping was the improvement of the full general ledger system through the development of the double-entry bookkeeping system for tracking credits and debits. The Medici family were among the primeval businesses to apply the system.

Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici was the first of the Medici political dynasty, and had tremendous political power in Florence. Despite his influence, his power was not absolute; Florence's legislative councils at times resisted his proposals, something that would not accept been tolerated by the Visconti of Milan, for case. Throughout his life he was always primus inter pares, or first among equals. His power over Florence stemmed from his wealth, which he used to command votes. Every bit Florence was proud of its "commonwealth," Medici pretended to accept little political appetite, and did not oftentimes concur public office. Aeneas Sylvius, Bishop of Siena and after Pope Pius II, said of him, "Political questions are settled in [Cosimo's] business firm. The human he chooses holds office… He information technology is who decides peace and war… He is king in all but name."

Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici: Portrait of Cosimo de' Medici, the found of the House of Medici, by Jacopo Pontormo; the laurel branch (il Broncone) was a symbol used besides by his heirs.

The Church During the Italian Renaissance

The new Humanist ideals of the Renaissance, although more than secular in many aspects, adult against a Christian properties, and the church patronized many works of Renaissance fine art.

Learning Objectives

Analyze the church's role in Italian republic at the time of the Renaissance

Fundamental Takeaways

Key Points

• The Renaissance began in times of religious turmoil, especially surrounding the papacy, which culminated in the Western Schism, in which iii men simultaneously claimed to be the truthful pope.
• The new date with Greek Christian works during the Renaissance, and particularly the return to the original Greek of the New Testament promoted by Humanists Lorenzo Valla and Erasmus, helped pave the way for the Protestant Reformation.
• In improver to existence the head of the church building, the pope became 1 of Italy's most of import secular rulers, and pontiffs such equally Julius II oft waged campaigns to protect and expand their temporal domains.
• The Counter-Reformation was a catamenia of Catholic resurgence initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation.

Key Terms

• neo-Platonism: A tradition of philosophy that arose in the tertiary century CE, based on the philosophy of Plato, which involved describing the derivation of the whole of reality from a single principle, "the One." Plotinus is traditionally identified as the founder of this schoolhouse.
• Western Schism: A separate within the Roman Catholic Church that lasted from 1378 to 1417, when three men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope.
• Counter-Reformation: A menses of Catholic resurgence initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation.

The Church in the Late Middle Ages

The Renaissance began in times of religious turmoil. The belatedly Middle Ages was a flow of political intrigue surrounding the papacy, culminating in the Western Schism, in which 3 men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope. While the schism was resolved past the Council of Constance (1414), a resulting reform movement known as Conciliarism sought to limit the ability of the pope. Although the papacy eventually emerged supreme in ecclesiastical matters past the Fifth Council of the Lateran (1511), it was indomitable by connected accusations of corruption, most famously in the person of Pope Alexander VI, who was accused variously of simony, nepotism, and fathering iv children.

Pope Alexander Vi: Alexander VI, a Borgia pope infamous for his corruption.

Churchmen such as Erasmus and Luther proposed reform to the church, often based on Humanist textual criticism of the New Testament. In Oct 1517 Luther published the Ninety-five Theses, challenging papal authority and criticizing its perceived corruption, particularly with regard to instances of sold indulgences. The Ninety-v Theses led to the Reformation, a break with the Roman Cosmic Church that previously claimed hegemony in Western Europe. Humanism and the Renaissance therefore played a direct role in sparking the Reformation, as well as in many other contemporaneous religious debates and conflicts.

Pope Paul 3 came to the papal throne (1534–1549) afterward the sack of Rome in 1527, with uncertainties prevalent in the Cosmic Church post-obit the Protestant Reformation. Nicolaus Copernicus dedicated De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) to Paul Iii, who became the grandpa of Alessandro Farnese (cardinal), who had paintings by Titian, Michelangelo, and Raphael, equally well as an important collection of drawings, and who commissioned the masterpiece of Giulio Clovio, arguably the terminal major illuminated manuscript, the Farnese Hours.

The Church and the Renaissance

The metropolis of Rome, the papacy, and the Papal States were all affected by the Renaissance. On the one mitt, it was a time of great artistic patronage and architectural magnificence, when the church building pardoned and even sponsored such artists every bit Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Bramante, Raphael, Fra Angelico, Donatello, and da Vinci. On the other manus, wealthy Italian families often secured episcopal offices, including the papacy, for their own members, some of whom were known for immorality.

In the revival of neo-Platonism and other ancient philosophies, Renaissance Humanists did not reject Christianity; quite to the contrary, many of the Renaissance's greatest works were devoted to it, and the church building patronized many works of Renaissance art. The new ideals of Humanism, although more than secular in some aspects, developed against a Christian backdrop, especially in the Northern Renaissance. In turn, the Renaissance had a profound outcome on contemporary theology, particularly in the way people perceived the relationship between human and God.

Michelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter'south Basilica, Vatican City: Michelangelo's Pietà exemplifies the grapheme of Renaissance art, combining the classical aesthetic of Greek art with religious imagery, in this case Female parent Mary belongings the trunk of Jesus later on the crucifixion.

In add-on to being the head of the church, the pope became 1 of Italian republic'due south about of import secular rulers, and pontiffs such as Julius II often waged campaigns to protect and aggrandize their temporal domains. Furthermore, the popes, in a spirit of refined competition with other Italian lords, spent lavishly both on private luxuries and public works, repairing or building churches, bridges, and a magnificent system of aqueducts in Rome that still function today.

From 1505 to 1626, St. Peter'southward Basilica, perhaps the about recognized Christian church, was built on the site of the old Constantinian basilica in Rome. This was a time of increased contact with Greek civilization, opening up new avenues of learning, especially in the fields of philosophy, poetry, classics, rhetoric, and political science, fostering a spirit of Humanism–all of which would influence the church building.

Counter-Reformation

The Counter-Reformation, also called the Catholic Reformation or the Catholic Revival, was the menstruum of Catholic resurgence initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation, beginning with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and catastrophe at the close of the Xxx Years' War (1648). The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive try composed of four major elements—ecclesiastical or structural reconfigurations, new religious orders (such equally the Jesuits), spiritual movements, and political reform.

Such reforms included the foundation of seminaries for the proper training of priests in the spiritual life and the theological traditions of the church, the reform of religious life by returning orders to their spiritual foundations, and new spiritual movements focusing on the devotional life and a personal relationship with Christ, including the Spanish mystics and the French schoolhouse of spirituality. It too involved political activities that included the Roman Inquisition. One chief emphasis of the Counter-Reformation was a mission to reach parts of the world that had been colonized as predominantly Cosmic, and also try to reconvert areas, such equally Sweden and England, that were at once Catholic but had been Protestantized during the Reformation.

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