The Italian Renaissance Movement

The Renaissance Revolution The Renaissance in Italy is the most important historical movement. Many of today’s inventions trace their paths back to the 14th century when man rediscovered himself. The Renaissance was a transition between the medieval and early modern worlds. During the middle ages, the ultimate goal of man was to find God and prove pre conceived ideas, but during the Renaissance, the ultimate goal was to find man and promote learning. This period also aided the development of the Humanist philosophy: pursuit of individualism and appreciation of art as a product of man. Historians consider Renaissance as the “rebirth of classical Rome and Greece.” This cultural emergence took place in the states of Florence, Rome, and

Although there were many classical texts in Italy at the start of the Renaissance, “many had been lost and existed only in the [eastern]” Islamic states and “Christian Constantinople” (Wilde). In addition, with the fall of Constantinople in 1453, many Greek scholars migrated to Italy. During the middle ages, many European states – including Italy – were in constant political unrest; however, the lessening of feudalism in Italy served as a stimulus for the Renaissance. There was now the need for display and administration; “the newly developing bureaucracies of Italy and the rest of Europe caused a demand for Humanists, because their education was both theoretical and, crucially, practical, equipping them to run the new governments and monarchies, funding their development” (Wilde). The development of the Humanist philosophy during the Middle Ages was one of the causes for the Italian Renaissance. It was a “new manner of thinking and approaching the world, based around a new form of curriculum for those learning” (Wilde). It was based on individualism: recognition that humans are creative, and appreciation of art as a product of man. The above mentioned factors were only partly responsible for the Renaissance; the main cause for this revolutionary

It not only changed the traditional nature of arts, but it also stimulated individuals to think; this thinking process led to the creation of countless possibilities in the spheres of art, architecture, engineering, sculpture, anatomy. Humanism spread to Northern Europe after its consequences on Italy, and subsequently led to the Christian reformation. It was during the “humanist era that the freedom of individual expression and opposition to authority was first brought to the surface and became an integral part of the western intellectual tradition” (“Renaissance Humanism”). Humanism provided the general emancipation of the individual for over three hundred years; it gave man a reason to think and