THE RENAISSANCE

Renaissance means re birth because it refers to the rebirth of learning. In fact people wanted to know more things because they can’t find out the answers to their questions. The Renaissance develops in Italy in the fourteenth century and continues in the north Europe until the mid-seventeenth century. During this period there were new discoveries, for example in geography, science, and religion.
The Renaissance is focused into five issues: the Great Chain of Being, the protestant reformation, the imitation, the Humanism and Political Implications.
The Great Chain of Being is a divinely hierarchical order where all existing thing have their precise place in the chain. The place where the object is situated depends on the relation between spirit and matter. In fact at the bottom there are inanimate objects, then the vegetative class, animals, humans, angels and at the top was God. Moreover renaissance thinkers viewed a human being as a microcosm that reflected the structure of the world as a macrocosm; this is a doctrine called “correspondences”.
The Protestant Reformation was a movement that reject the medieval form of Christianity. Martin Luther reacted against Church corruption. He and his followers broken away from the Catholic Church in protest. This reform split Europe into Catholic and Protestant countries. Protestants didn’t recognize the institution of the Pope and believed that only a direct personal relationship with God could grant salvation.
The Imitation is a doctrine that means “following predecessors”. In fact the critics believed that the literary works expressing moral values had been written in classical past. Writers had to “imitate” great works adapting them to a Christian prospective. There is also an imitation of classical genres as epic, satire, comedy and tragedy.
The Humanism is a shift from the contemplative life to the active life. Humanists focused their attention on the dignity of man and the expansion of possibilities of human life in this world. The highest cultural values were associated with active involvement in public life. The concept of Renaissance Man refers to an individual who.
During the Renaissance there was a disorder philosophical and political. Civil rebellion caused the chain to be broken. It was a sin against God: civil disorders were often accompanied by meteoric disturbances. Moreover the feudalism ended and people needed the establishment of central government.