The Renaissance

The Renaissance covers the period that goes from the 14^th till the 17^th century and it literally means “rebirth”. It mainly refers to the revival of learning and of the renaissance man himself, who is tired of the old medieval schemes and visions of the world. It was no longer enough to live according to God. He was tired of the body being repressed, in fact he felt the need for something new. Therefore the Renaissance will give voice to this physical sufferance and valuate the body by creating nude statues, just like in Greek culture. So men rediscover the studies of classical literature and discover so many new things, not only from the intellectual point of view but also from the geographical one. The renaissance, wasn’t only confined to the interest to a rebirth of the study of the classic, but it was also made of research of new methods to replace the old non-productive ones, that would have been able to answer men’s questions and needs. They had to develop their own individuality.

This period is concentrated on five interrelated issues: the belief in the Great Chain of Being, significant political changes, the movement of Humanism, the literary doctrine of “imitation” and last but not least the religious movement known as the Reformation. The first issue is the belief in the Great Chain of Being. It’s major premise was that every existing thing was organized according to a divinely hierarchical order. Besides universe orderliness, there was also universe interdependence. This last was held within the theory of ‘correspondences’ that believed that order is reflected on various things. During the Renaissance the theme of disorder is much more evident than order, and human life was quite ambiguous, unlike the precise vision that the great chain of being would give. The second issue was the significant political changes. During this period there was a great need of a strong political rule, because most of the old medieval political organizations had been brought to an end, just like feudalism. So political aims and central government were established. The north of Europe was governed by monarchies, while Italy developed city-states. The third issue is the movement of Humanism, based upon the dignity of men and upon the chance of human life in this world. It was also a way of reviving classical culture. The forth issue was the use of “imitation” to recover languages, genres and models of classical culture. And the last and fifth issue was the Reformation, between protestants and church authority, caused by the corruption of the Church. The spokesman of this reform was Martin Luther. Also during the Renaissance there was another important religious event: the translation of the Bible in different languages.