Ch. 12 Key Term

Question 1

Renaissance

Answer 1

A french word meaning rebirth, used to describe the rebirth of the culture of classical antiquity in Italy during the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries

Question 2

patronage

Answer 2

financial support of writers and artists by cities, groups, and individuals, often to produce specific works or works in specific styles

Question 3

communes

Answer 3

sworn associations of free men in Italian cities led by merchant guilds that sought political and economic independence from local nobles

Question 4

popolo

Answer 4

disenfranchised common people in Italian cities who resented their exclusion from power

Question 5

signori

Answer 5

government by one-man rule in Italian cities such as Milan; also refers to these rulers

Question 6

courts

Answer 6

magnificent households and palaces where signori and other rulers lived, conducted business, and supported the arts

Question 7

humanism

Answer 7

a program of study designed by Italians that emphasized the critical study of Latin and Greek literature with the goal of understanding human nature

Question 8

virtu

Answer 8

the quality of being able to shape the world according to one’s own will

Question 9

Christian humanists

Answer 9

Northern humanists who interpreted Italian ideas about and attitudes toward classical antiquity and humanism in terms of their own religious traditions

Question 10

debate about women

Answer 10

Debate among writers and thinkers in the Renaissance about women’s qualities and proper role in society

Question 11

New Christians

Answer 11

a term for Jews and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula who accepted Christianity; in many cases they included Christians whose families had converted centuries earlier