Chapter 7, Section 2

• New Ideas and Literature

Renaissance Humanism

• Humanism-placed importance on the individual and human society.

• Humanists emphasized a balance between faith and reason

• Based largely on the values of the Ancient Greeks and Romans

Ancient Works Become Popular

• Europe was reintroduced to Roman and Greek works of literature after the crusades, because Arab scholars were familiar with Greek and Roman writings

• Francesco Petrarch, known simply as Petrarch, was a poet and scholar who studied Roman writers like Cicero

Petrarch

http://www.123rf.com/photo_8520500_francesco-petrarca-aka-petrarch-1304-1374-on-engraving-from-the-1800s-italian-scholar-poet-and-one-o.html

Cont.

• Petrarch encouraged Europeans to create libraries to house Latin manuscripts (books)

• Italian artist studied proportions of Ancient statues to learn why they looked so perfect

Humanism and Society

• Humanist scholars studied everything from plants and animals, to human anatomy, medicine, and astronomy

• Artists like Brunelleschi used Math to construct a dome in Florence

• Leonardo da Vinci- a great artist, scientist, inventor, and engineer. He filled notebook after notebook with his ideas

Cont.

• Leonardo da Vinci drew sketches of a glider, and helicopter, and a parachute, before the airplane existed

• Humanism also led to a better cartography, or the understanding of map making which helped to guide explorers (think New World)

Da Vinci Helicopterhttp://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/01492/MM_CASETEST4291/Inventors.htm

Da Vinci Parachutehttp://www.useyourwords.co.nz/

Changes in Literature

• Most educated people wrote in Latin• Petrarch preferred to write in Latin,

however he did write love poems in the vernacular

• Dante Alighieri was a poet from Florence. He wrote The Divine Comedy, which was a tale of a character’s journey from hell to heaven

Cont.

• Geoffrey Chaucer also used the vernacular, and wrote his famous book The Canterbury Tales in English

The Printing Press

• Johannes Gutenberg- In the early 1450’s, developed a printing press made it possible to print books more quickly

• Gutenberg’s Bible, was the first European book produced on the new press

• Approximately 40,000 books were published by 1500

William Shakespeare

• The rule of Elizabeth I is known as the Elizabethan era

• During this era, William Shakespeare emerged• He was an actor, poet, and playwright• He is best known for his plays such as:

– Romeo and Juliet

– Hamlet

– MacBeth

Cont.

• Shakespeare was so popular, that he changed the way the printing press was used

• Many of his works were published during his life

Cervantes

• Cervantes was a playwright and novelist from Spain

• He is best known for Don Quixote de la Mancha

• It was extremely popular throughout Europe