Renaissance Flashcards
Renaissance
The rebirth of classical culture that occurred in Italy between 1350 and 1550.
Civic Humanism
An intellectual movement of the Italian Renaissance that saw Cicero, who was both an intellectual and a statesman, as the ideal to and held that humanists should be involved in government and use their rhetorical training in the service of the state.
Secularism
The process of becoming more concerned with material, worldly, temporal things and less with spiritual and religious things; a characteristic of the Italian Renaissance.
Individualism
Emphasis on and interest in the unique traits of each person.
Naturalism
The belief that nothing exists beyond the natural world. Instead of using supernatural or spiritual explanations, naturalism focuses on explanations that come from the laws of nature.
Vernacular
Describes everyday language, including slang, that’s used by the people. The vernacular is different from literary or official language: it’s the way people really talk with each other, like how families talk at home.
Hanseatic League
A commercial and defensive confederation of free cities in northern Germany and surrounding areas; formed in 1241 and most influential in the 14th century when it included over 100 towns and functioned as an independent political power.
Lubeck
A city in northwestern Germany and an important Baltic port; a leading member of the Hanseatic League.
House of Medici
Aristocratic Italian family of powerful merchants and bankers who ruled Florence in the 15th century.
Petrarch
An Italian poet famous for love lyrics (1304-1374). He was obsessed with the classic Greek ideals. Known as the founding father of the Renaissance.
Neoplatonism
A revival of Platonic philosophy in the third century C.E., associated with Plotinus; a similar revival in the Italian Renaissance, associated with Marsalio Ficino, who attempted to synthesize Christianity and Platonism.
Hermeticism
An intellectual movement beginning in the fifteenth century that taught that divinity is embodied in all aspects of nature; included works on alchemy and magic as well as theology and philosophy. The tradition continued into the seventeenth century and influenced many of the leading figures of the Scientific Revolution.
Pantheism
A doctrine that equates God with the universe and all that is in it.
New Monarchies
The governments of France, England, and Spain at the end of the fifteenth century, whose rulers succeeded in reestablishing or extending centralized royal authority, suppressing the nobility, controlling the church, and insisting the loyalty of all peoples living in their territories.
Nepotism
The appointment of family members to important political positions; derived from the regular appointment of nephews by Renaissance popes.
