The+Northern+Renaissance

The Northern Reniassance:


 * Bold:**

Utopia- M eans “no place.” In English it has come to mean an ideal place as depicted in More’s book. The book is about an imaginary land where greed, corruption, and war have been weeded out. In Utopia, because there was little greed, Utopians had little use for money.

William Shakespeare- The most famous writer of the Elizabethan Age. Many people regard him as the greatest playwright of all time. Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, a small town about 90 miles northwest of London. By 1592 he was living in London and writing poems and plays, and soon he would be performing at the Globe Theater.

Johann Gutenberg- A craftsman from Mainz, Germany, devel- oped a printing press that incorporated a number of technologies in a new way. The process made it possible to produce books quickly and cheaply. Using this improved process, Gutenberg printed a complete Bible, the Gutenberg Bible, in about 1455. It was the first full-sized book printed with movable type.


 * Key People:**

William Shakespeare- The most famous writer of the Elizabethan Age. Many people regard him as the greatest playwright of all time. Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, a small town about 90 miles northwest of London. By 1592 he was living in London and writing poems and plays, and soon he would be performing at the Globe Theater. Shakespeare’s most famous plays include the tragedies Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and King Lear, and the comedies A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Taming of the Shrew

Johann Gutenberg- A craftsman from Mainz, Germany, devel- oped a printing press that incorporated a number of technologies in a new way. The process made it possible to produce books quickly and cheaply. Using this improved process, Gutenberg printed a complete Bible, the Gutenberg Bible, in about 1455. It was the first full-sized book printed with movable type.

Albrecht Dürer- Probably the most famous German Painter. A German Artist. He traveled to Italy to study in 1494. After returning to Germany, Dürer produced woodcuts and engravings. Many of his prints portray religious subjects.

Hans Holbein the Younger- He specialized in painting portraits that are almost photographic in detail. He emigrated to England where he painted portraits of King Henry VIII and other members of the English royal family.

Jan van Eyck- The first great Flemish Renaissance painter. Van Eyck used recently developed oil-based paints to develop techniques that painters still use. By apply- ing layer upon layer of paint, van Eyck was able to create a variety of subtle colors in clothing and jewels.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder- A Flemish Painter, who was also interested in realistic details and individual people. He was very skillful in portraying large numbers of people. He captured scenes from everyday peasant life such as weddings, dances, and harvests.

Desiderius Erasmus of Holland- Wrote his most famous work, **//__The Praise of Folly__//**. This book poked fun at greedy merchants, heartsick lovers, quarrelsome scholars, and pompous priests. Erasmus believed in a Christianity of the heart, not one of cere- monies or rules. He thought that in order to improve society, all people should study the Bible.

Thomas More- Tried to show a better model of society. In 1516, he wrote the book **//__Utopia.__//** He wrote in Latin. As his work became popular, it was translated into a variety of languages including French, German, English, Spanish, and Italian.

Christine de Pizan- A highly educated for the time and was one of the first women to earn a living as a writer. Writing in French, she produced many books, including short stories, biographies, novels, and manuals on military techniques. She frequently wrote about the objections men had to educating women.

Queen Elizabeth I- Reigned from 1558 to 1603. She was well educated and spoke French, Italian, Latin, and Greek. She also wrote poetry and music. As queen she did much to support the development of English art and literature.

Bi Sheng- Invented movable type, or a separate piece of type for each character in the language for block printing. The Chinese writing system contains thousands of different charac- ters, so most Chinese printers found movable type impractical.


 * Ideas/Events:**

THE NORTHERN RENAISSANCE BEGINS:
 * By 1450 the population of northern Europe, which had declined due to bubonic plague, was beginning to grow again. When the destructive Hundred Years’ War between France and England ended in 1453, many cities grew rapidly.
 * Francis I of France invited Leonardo da Vinci to retire in France, and hired Italian artists and architects to rebuild and decorate his castle at Fontainebleau. The castle became a showcase for Renaissance art.
 * For example, the artists were especially interested in realism. The Renaissance ideal of human dignity inspired some northern humanists to develop plans for social reform based on Judeo-Christian values.

ARTISTIC IDEAS SPREAD:
 * The support of wealthy merchant families in Flanders helped to make Flanders the artistic center of northern Europe.
 * Flemish painting reached its peak after 1550 with the work of Pieter Bruegel.

NORTHERN WRITERS TRY TO REFORM SOCIETY:
 * The focus of Christian humanism was the reform of society. Of particular importance to humanists was education. The humanists promoted the education of women and founded schools attended by both boys and girls.
 * The best known of the Christian humanists were Desiderius Erasmus of Holland, and Thomas More of England. The two were close friends.
 * During this period the vast majority of Europeans were unable to read or write. Those families who could afford formal schooling usually sent only their sons.

THE ELIZABETHAN AGE:
 * Like many Renaissance writers, Shakespeare revered the classics and drew on them for inspiration and plots. His works display a masterful command of the English language and a deep understanding of human beings.
 * Many of these plays examine human flaws.

PRINTING SPREADS RENAISSANCE IDEAS:
 * The Chinese invented block printing, in which a printer carved words or letters on a wooden block, inked the block, and then used it to print on paper.
 * During the 13th century, block printed items reached Europe from China. European printers began to use block printing to create whole pages to bind into books. However, this process was too slow to satisfy the Renaissance demand for knowledge, information, and books.
 * The printing press enabled a printer to produce hundreds of copies of a single work. For the first time, books were cheap enough that many people could buy them. At first printers produced mainly religious works.