Renaissance ItalyAlina Lewandowski, Ana Stevens, Nigel Itchon, Mike Rush, and Trevor Kupecky

Farming LifeIn the beginning of the Renaissance, four books were published in 1472. These books were the agronomy of ancient Romans and farming techniques that were now available to estate owners in Italy. The key elements in Italian agriculture were to forage or search for crops and expand irrigation to water crops. During the Renaissance, many nitrogen-fixing crops had been planted in fields that would make the soil fertile and plants grew abundantly. This was very important to Italy because nitrogen-fixing crops had been lost in Italian medieval times. An example of these crops would be alfalfa, a very cultivated crop in Italy in 1540 known as the “Spanish Grass”. Other plants that were grown abundantly during the Italian Renaissance Era were flax, many vegetables, and olives.

Once the Americas were discovered, new foods and agricultural ways were brought to Italy allowing farming to thrive will all the new resources. Sweet potatoes were introduced to Italy from the Americas and became a big export.

Peasants were a large portion of people in Italy during this era and they worked on the farmland with their families. Landlords owned most of the land that peasants worked on and the peasants rented the land to work on for food. Sometimes even livestock or tools would be traded for land rents. In most of Italy, people were either peasants renting land, or a small percentage was landlords owning countless fields.

Food

Peasants:Poultry and eggs

Almost never drank water (drank beer and wine)

Raised pigs to sell to nobles

Nobles:Prevented peasants from hunting certain animals

Ate feasts generally

Schools During Renaissance

During the Renaissance, it took a lot of effort for Italy to establish schools. Teachers were very abundant in both cities and villages of Italy, but they mostly taught on their own or in small groups. A teacher would have an average of 20 to 40 students. Near 1550, new religions influenced Italy to set up schools similar to the ones we have where on teacher teaches one grade and the students move up a grade when promoted.

The two main schools in Italy were Latin schools that taught governing and philosophy, and Italian schools that taught skills for commerce and trade. Latin schools studied the classical Rome, focusing on authors from previous times and they had to speak in Latin. Eventually these schools would lead into universities that taught primarily ancient Greek philosophies and no math. On the other hand, Italian schools taught students to read in their native tongue. Italian schools taught medieval and practical morality like reading, writing, and math. They taught a type of math called abbaco, which is the math of commerce like measuring and weights. These Italian schools led to trade because of their lack of Latin language. Most students never went beyond the lower stages of education, but some hard determined elite men, or women, would study very long to get a quality education in that period of time.

Medicine• Invention of microscope

– Helped scientists later discover micro-organisms

• Print and press helped spread knowledge about medicine through books– Produced medical books without problems in mass quantity

• Andreas Vesalius did dissections to help correct misconceptions – Helped people understand the inside of the human body – Made first book about the human body

• Stitching wounds idea created– Before sealing wounds with heat was the main practice which caused eventual infection or death– Used silk thread to seal the wound

• Girmolo Frascastoro found new treatments for infectious diseases such as syphilis • Good hospitals effectively quarantined leprosy and other diseases• Girmolo Frascastoro named syphilis after a man named Syphilus who was supposedly

stricken with it for offending the god Apollo• Few drugs existed

– Such as opium and quinine

• Folklore challenged the advance of medical science – Some believed stars or gods caused illnesses

• Medical colleges re-emerged• Idea of tying off blood vessels to stop bleeding instead of burning them with hot oil or

metal

Religion

Mostly Roman CatholicWhen the Roman Empire fell, the Church was the only bond in the area

Influence on ArtMost people couldn’t read

Artists painted stories of the Bible to help them understand

For example: The Last Supper

Religion (2)

CorruptionClergy were engulfed with money

Raided church coffers to pay for wants and to support their children

Clergy ignored vows to the churchGot married and had children

NepotismAppoint people to the church because they were either family or friends

Religion (3)

ReformationPeople got anger due to the clergy’s corruption

Felt that the church was being unproductive

Martin Luther spreads his ideals to change Catholicism

Spread Protestant

Counter-ReformationRevival of the Catholics

Government

Broken into 7 city-statesNaples: standard monarchy

Ruled by a king

Milan and Savoy: autonomous duchyRuled by dukes, but still separate from the rest of Italy

Rome and Romagna: papal statesRuled by the Catholic pope

Venice and Florence: RepublicsPyramid of power, divided into different branches

Crime and Punishment• Fines

– For low level crimes

• Jail sentencing’s – For high level crimes

• If in a powerful family punishment affects whole family– Certain legal rights were taken away and were not returned for a couple of generations

• Judged by rulers and princes • Violent criminals hung and killed • Only highest crimes such as murder, rape, or highway man (thief) activity• Judges were harsh on law violators• Police were present but weren’t what they are today

– Could be easily bribed– Were lazy and sometimes didn’t do their jobs

• Punishment included hanging, burning, torture, pillorying, and execution.• Executions drew crowds and were made public spectacles• Women couldn’t be tortured this way if they were pregnant or menstruating • Torture was used to get a confession • Innocent may confess to avoid torture

Guilty may tough out torture and get set free • Believed that body contained truth • Believed that skin could be peeled back to uncover the truth • Thoughts of witchcraft often got women tortured and killed

DangerThere were three major categories under the big topic of danger in the Italian Renaissance. They are super natural, natural, and human made.

Things that fall under super natural are thing that have to do with god and the aspect of going to hell.

People were living in fear of sin and they always thought that if they committed sin they would go to hell.

Thing that fall under the category of Natural would be stuff like natural disasters. These included, floods and earthquakes.

Also Omens fall under this category, things that have birth defects for example like a four-legged chicken or a two-headed child.

Hunger and famine also fall under this category but unlike earthquakes or floods famine was not considered an act of god.

 The last category is human made danger, like different types of violence.

There was personal violence and crime which included violence over personal quarrels over theft or over territory and other personal matters.

There was also state violence which took two forms, warfare and judicial.

Science

Leonardo da VinciHad contributions to art

The Last Supper

Had contributions to science

Had a journal with practical inventionsMusical Instruments

Hydraulic pumps

“Father of Modern Science”

Science (2)Alchemy

Start of chemistry

Focused on making certain metals into gold

AstronomyGeocentric

Belief that earth was the center

Church believed this

HeliocentricThe sun was the center of the universe

Galileo Galilee supported who had telescope to see Venus revolve around the sun

Mathematics and AccountingBased off of Hindu-Arabic numerals

ArtDuring the Italian renaissance as society became interested in classical ideas, artists began to work in classical forms.

Artists, and sculptors adopted classical subject matter as their own, depicting many figures from Greek and Roman mythology.

These forms of modern artistic expression most often represented self conscious statements of reform and general rejection of the political and social status quo

Some artists, sculptors and architects believed that their profession could provide the vision and the physical framework for constructing a new democratic society and a new moral order.

HumanismStressed individual

Wanted to create a society with men and women who could read or write and have a hand in their political system

Conflict with ChurchHumanists felt that humans are rational and should act that way

The ClassicsThis is the revival of old manuscripts from Rome and Greece

Important for the study of Humanism

Brought back old systems of thinking

SpreadStarts to spread after the invention of the printing press