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Introduction about italian renaissance
The rise of the Renaissance in Italy
Introduction about italian renaissance
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At the end of the thirteenth century and moving into the fourteenth, a cultural revolution was unfolding in Italy. This would sweep away the old medieval order and usher in a new age of creativity and enlightenment. This period, known as the Italian Renaissance, had started in the city of Florence and would soon spread to other regions of the Italian peninsula such as Venice and Rome. It was a rebirth of the Italian culture, brought on by a renewed interest in the classical cultures of ancient Rome and Greece. It brought many of the world's greatest artists to prominence, such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo. In addition to the surge of new and highly skilled visual art, there was also a good deal of literature being produced, such as The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli and, of course, The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.
Boccaccio lived during the early years of the Renaissance and was a student of one of the cultural movement's most influential members, Francesco Petrarch. Petrarch was a poet and scholar who advocated the philosophy of humanism, which was at the core of the Renaissance. Benefiting from the guidance Petrarch provided, Boccaccio became a prolific writer producing many works, most notably The Decameron, a collection of one hundred stories.
While this cultural phenomenon transformed Italy and began to spread to other parts of Europe, the insular nation of England lingered in the middle ages. The old social orders were still in place and the art was still focused primarily on religious matters, as opposed to the Renaissance's humanist art. One member of an aristocratic social order in England was Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer was the son of a successful business man, and his father used his connec...
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...olume A. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Miller's Tale". Reading Chaucer. Trans. Larry D. Benson. Ed. Alfred David, James Simpson. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Riverside Chaucer. Ed. Larry Benson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.
Brown, Peter, ed. A Companion to Chaucer. Oxford, UK. Blackwell Publishers, reprint edition 2002.
Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron. New York City, NY. Dell Publishing Co., Inc. fourth edition 1967.
Koff, Leonard Michael. Schildgen, Brenda Deen. Ed. The Decameron and the Canterbury Tales: New Essays on an Old Question. Cranbury, NJ. Associated University Presses, Inc. 2000.
Feinstein, Wiley. The Civilization of the Holocaust in Italy: Poets, Artists, Saints, Anti-Semites. Cranbury, NJ. Associated University Presses, Inc. 2003.
In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Chaucer the author and Chaucer the pilgrim are both quick to make distinctions between characters and point out shortcomings. Though Chaucer the pilgrim is meeting the group for the first time, his characterizations go beyond simple physical descriptions. Using just twenty-one lines in the General Prologue, the author presents the character of the Miller and offers descriptions that foreshadow the sardonic tone of his tale and the mischievous nature of his protagonist.
Cooper, Helen. "Deeper into the Reeve’s Tale, 1395-1670." Pp. 168-184. In Chaucer Traditions: Studies in Honour of Derek Brewer. Ruth Morse and Barry Windeatt, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1990.
Mandell, Jerome. Geoffrey Chaucer : building the fragments of the Canterbury tales. N.J. : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1992.
Toswell, M.J. "Chaucer's Pardoner, Chaucer's World, Chaucer's Style: Three Approaches to Medieval Literature." College Literature 28.3 (2001): 155. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.
In his Canterbury Tales, Chaucer fully explicates the cultural standard known as curteisye through satire. In the fourteenth century curteisye embodied sophistication and an education in French international culture. The legends of chilvalric knights, conversing in the language of courtly love, matured during this later medieval period. Chaucer himself matured in the King's Court, and he reveled in his cultural status, but he also retained an anecdotal humor about curteisye. One must only peruse his Tales to discern these sentiments. In the General Prologue, he meticulously describes the Prioress, satirically examining her impeccable table manners. In the Miller's Tale Chaucer juxtaposes courtly love with animalistic lust, and in various other instances he mentions curteisye, or at least alludes to it, with characteristic Chaucerian irony. These numerous references provide the reader with a remarkably rich image of the culture and class structure of late fourteenth century England.
Renaissance art history began as civic history; it was an expression of civic pride. The first such history was Filippo Villani's De origine civitatis Florentiae et eiusdem famosis civibus, written about 1381-82. Florentine artists revived an art that was almost dead, Villani asserts, just as Dante had restored poetry after its decline in the Middle Ages. The revival was begun by Cimabue and completed by Giotto, who equalled the ancient painters in fame and even surpassed them in skill and talent. After Giotto came his followers, Stefano, Taddeo Gaddi, and Maso, uomini illustri all, who, together with notable jurists, poets, musicians, theologians, physicians, orators, and others, made Florence the preeminent city of Italy.
Florio, Thomas A., ed. “Miller’s Tales.” The New Yorker. 70 (1994): 35-36. Martin, Robert A., ed., pp.
Mitchell, J. Allan. (2005). Chaucer's Clerk's Tale and the Question of Ethical Monstrosity. Studies in Philology. Chapel Hill: Winter 2005. Vol.102, Iss. 1; pg. 1, 26 pgs
Boccaccio, Giovanni. Decameron. Ed. Charles Singleton. Trans. John Payne. Berkeley: U of California P, 1982.
The renaissance is one of the most culturally, religiously, and artistically inventive periods in the history of mankind. From giant sculptures carved to perfection to literary works of art that induced deep thinking, the renaissance demonstrated that man’s view of itself was expeditiously becoming refined. Many of the most influential people in history, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Raphael, and Dante lived during the time of the great reinvention of Italian society. The renaissance altered the way education, art, and innovation were perceived and forever changed the thinking of the common man.
The relationship between the Miller and the Miller’s Tale is close, for the tale is a reflection of the teller. The Miller’s tale is a fabliau, a genre best described as a short story full of ribald and humor. The Miller’s tale consists of events of “cuckoldry” (Chaucer 1720), “foolishness” (1718), and “secrets” (1719). Telling such a story, the Miller can immediately be classified as a man of low social status with a vulgar sense of humor full of shrewdness. However, as the tale continues, it reveals the unexpected soft side of the Miller as he sympathizes with the distressed woman trapped in the norms of society. Thus, the Miller’s characteristics of obscenity, deception, and sympathy drive the plot of his tale.
England, in Chaucer's time, was a nation of social and economic growth. Medievalism was a dominant influence in the lives of Englishmen, but the Renaissance had assumed definite form, and the country stood on the threshold of the modern world. Medieval Europeans asserted that the ideals of spiritual community, social groups and national interests were greater than individualism. In Chaucer's time, there were many manifestations of rebellion against the old order of things, including an influx of mysticism and materialism. People demanded more voice in the affairs of their government and viewed the Catholic Church as corrupt. An emerging religious reformation, which placed emphasis on individualism and national patriotism, along with the upsurge of manufacturing and commerce, gave rise to the English middle class.
An interesting aspect of the famous literary work, "The Canterbury Tales," is the contrast of realistic and exaggerated qualities that Chaucer entitles to each of his characters. When viewed more closely, one can determine whether each of the characters is convincing or questionable based on their personalities. This essay will analyze the characteristics and personalities of the Knight, Squire, Monk, Plowman, Miller, and Parson of Chaucer's tale.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Project Gutenberg EBook of Troilus and Criseyde." 12 July 2008. Project Gutenberg. Web. 27 November 2013.
The Renaissance (1350-1600), named from the French word meaning “rebirth”, began in Florence Italy, spreading through Europe, and eventually encompassing the western world. Some historians believe that a small group of artists in Florence, Italy initiated the movement after reading author, Giovanni Boccaccio’s (1313-1375), book, “Decameron”, which depicted the relationships between houseguest during the onslaught of Black Plaque. Giovanni’s (1313-1375) characters portrayed in the stories, were natural, and true to real life demonstrating heartfelt human emotions, forming a connection with the readerartists to desire a more natural and alternative lifestyle for themselves. However, the Renaissance (1350-1600), also known as the time of “Enlightenment”, is also thought to be the result of a society that, after centuries of living in a repressed and controlling environment, fraught with war, famine, disease and inferior living conditions were hungry for a happier more fulfilling existence. (Osmond 1998)