THE RENAISSANCE

Renaissance means “rebirth” of classical culture. It is a gradual process developed between the 14^th and the 17^th century, in which the Medieval world view changed. Italian scholars, and then North European scholars, tried to find something new in respect to the religious thought. Renaissance thinkers wanted to reach balance between spirit and matter, so they looked at Greek and Latin cultures, where body is not a sin. They developed a new world view, in which humans are at the centre of universe and temporal life is valued. The new thought was different from the Middle Ages, but some of its features were in continuity.

The main concept developed by the Middle Ages was the Great Chain of Being.  It asserted that world is organized according to a divinely hierarchical order, where humans are halfway between God and earthly elements. Every level reflected this organization, according to the “theory of correspondences”. On the other side, if something is disordered also the other levels were disordered. So for humans it is necessary to keep order.

This was also the policy of the Renaissance’s aim. Consequently,  there was the birth of strong and central governments, like the national monarchies in Northern Europe and territorial city-states in Italy.

Therefore, the renaissance’s most important virtue was balance. According to humanistic ideals, humans had to improve their knowledge and to participate actively to public life to reach personal and social balance. Proportion’s research influenced also the various arts of the Renaissance.

 To diffuse this ideals to everyone, scholars imitated classical literature. They translated classical author’s works and they learned from these works new genres, like comedy and tragedy, and new values. The “imitation” was a broke from the Middle Ages, where classical literature’s works had been adjusted according to religion.

Another broke from the Middle Ages was the Reformation. Martin Lutero rejected Church’s  authority for his corruption. Protestants supported a personal report with God, without any mediation. They also translated the Bible in different languages.

Finally, Renaissance scholars realized that God was not enough to reach balance, so the interest on active life growth, but religion remained an important feature.