Lecture 1: Defining the Renaissance

   I.    A visual comparison

   II.  What is the Renaissance?

A.  Literal translation: “rebirth”

                   1.  Of what?

                   2.  A better term: “recovery”

i.   From something

ii.  Of something

                   3.  King’s ‘small’, ‘medium’, and ‘large’ Renaissance

i.   small: Humanism

ii.  medium: a broader cultural movement

iii. large: an era

B.  Temporal

                   1.   General impression: medieval vs. modern

i.   Implications

a. What is “medieval”?

b. What is “modern”?

                   2.   Two overlapping date-spans

i.   1348/50 – 1527

ii.  1475 – 1625

C.   Cultural

                     1.   A “worldview” and its “voicing”

                     2.  What characterized it?

i.    When in Rome: Italian, urban, cosmopolitan

ii.   Secular

  a.  Laicization of culture

  b.  Anticlericalism

iii.  Individualistic

  a.  Shift of focus

  b.  Main themes

iv.   Non-feudal

D.    Social

                      1.   Hierarchical

                      2.   Localized but international

                      3.   Decentralized

III.    Change within continuity

A.     Change

B.     Continuity