Renaissance and Reformation

Europe from 14th Century to 17th Century

The 1450’s. The pace of change quickens

• May 1453. The Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople.• July 1453. The Battle of Castillon. The last battle of the

Hundred Years War.• April 1454. The Peace of Lodi. Peace breaks out in

Florence, Milan and Naples.• 1454. Johann Gutenberg’s printing press opens for

commercial work.• 1455. In ‘Romanus pontifex’ Pope Nicholas V allows the

enslavement of Black Africans.• 1456. Advise Cadamosto discovers Cape Verde Islands.

Europe teems with new ideas

• These events were unrelated but pivotal.• One followed another with dizzying rapidity.• Travel became easier.• Disseminating information was easier.• Developments in Art, Architecture, Economics,

Science spread across national boundaries.• Europe was at peace and interest in new ideas

spread rapidly.

The fall of Constantinople 1453

• Not a shock but a psychological blow.• The siege lasted only eight weeks.• The Turks quickly rebuilt the city as Istanbul.• Europe lost its greatest foothold in the East.• The upside was that many of the Greeks who

fled brought out a treasure trove of learning.• The new love of Classical Greek was turned

into a grand intellectual movement.

England at peace with France

• Two distinct nations disentangled for the first time since 1066.

• The English turned in on themselves. The War of the Roses kept them away from the continent for a generation.

• The French found a new self-confidence and began to extend their influence by arms and by marriage.

The Peace of Lodi 1454

• ‘Italy’ was divided and quarrelsome.• The rulers of Florence, Milan and Naples feared the

implications of the new national self-confidence of the French and the Turks.

• The treaty recognised existing boundaries and the current balance of power.

• It set up the ’Italic League’ to resist predators.• Relative peace and prosperity ensued for half a

century, allowing creativity to flourish and be exported.

Johann Gutenberg and the first great information revolution

• A goldsmith from Mainz who had developed the concept of printing with movable type.

• His lasting fame was his finely crafted Bible of 1455. • However, it was the more mundane printing of

indulgence certificates in 1454 that revealed the possibilities of this new tool of mass communication.

• Printing costs fell, new ideas spread more quickly and literacy rates grew and languages began to be standardised.

Romanus pontifex

• In his papal bull of 1455 Nicholas V removed any lingering qualms that impeded the expansion of European influence in the world.

• He gave a green light to the slave trade.• In 1456 Cadamosto chanced upon the Cape

Verde Islands. This would prove a key stepping stone in Europe’s discovery of the New World.

William Caxton

• A London textile merchant who moved his business to Bruges in 1453.

• He translated hand-written books as a hobby and his work was very popular with friends.

• He became fascinated with the new printing press and set up a printing shop in Cologne.

• In 1473 he produced copies of the Historyes of Troye, translated by himself. Demand soared.

• It was the first book ever published in English.

Lorenzo de’ Medici 1449-1492

• Groomed from birth to rule Florence.• Skilled in politics and diplomacy and a patron of

the arts.• Escaped an attempt on his life by a rival family

and tightened his control as autocratic ruler of Florence and the balance of power in Italy.

• Full-time patron of learning and the arts.• He bankrolled the new Florentine Golden Age

and was known as ‘Il Magnifico’.

Next time

• Botticelli, Raphael and Bellini.• Machiavelli.• Colombus.• Luther and the religious ‘earthquake’... The

start of the Reformation.