Chapter 26
THE RENAISSANCE [1]
209. MEANING OF THE RENAISSANCE
LATER PERIOD OF THE MIDDLE AGES
The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, covering the later period of the Middle Ages, are commonly known as those of the Renaissance. This French word means Rebirth or Revival. It is a convenient term for all the changes in society, law, and government, in science, philosophy, and religion, in literature and art which gradually transformed medieval civilization into that of modern times.
LIMITS OF THE RENAISSANCE
The Renaissance, just because of its transitional character, cannot be exactly dated. Some Renaissance movements started before 1300 A.D. For instance, the study of Roman law, as a substitute for Germanic customs, began toward the close of the eleventh century. The rise of European cities, with all that they meant for industry and commerce, belonged to about the same time. Other Renaissance movements, again, extended beyond 1500 A.D. Among these were the expansion of geographical knowledge, resulting from the discovery of the New World, and the revolt against the Papacy, known as the Protestant Reformation. The Middle Ages, in fact, came to an end at different times in different fields of human activity.
ORIGINAL HOME OF THE RENAISSANCE
The name Renaissance applied, at first, only to the rebirth or revival of men's interest in the literature and art of classical antiquity. Italy was the original home of this Renaissance. There it first appeared, there it found widest acceptance, and there it reached its highest development. From Italy the Renaissance gradually spread beyond the Alps, until it had made the round of western Europe.
ITALIAN CITIES OF THE RENAISSANCE
Italy, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, was a land particularly favorable to the growth of learning and the arts. In northern Italy the great cities of Milan, Pisa, Genoa, Florence, Venice, and many others had early succeeded in throwing off their feudal burdens and had become independent, self-governing communities. Democracy flourished in them, as in the old Greek city-states. Noble birth counted for little; a man of ability and ambition might rise to any place. The fierce party conflicts within their walls stimulated mental activity and helped to make life full, varied, and intense. Their widespread trade and thriving manufactures made them prosperous. Wealth brought leisure, bred a taste for luxury and the refinements of life, and gave means for the gratification of that taste. People wanted to have about them beautiful pictures, statuary, furniture, palaces, and churches; and they rewarded richly the artists who could produce such things. It is not without significance that the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance was democratic, industrial, and wealthy Florence. [2]
INFLUENCE OF THE CLASSIC TRADITION
Italy enjoyed another advantage over the other European countries in its nearness to Rome. Admiration for the ancient Roman civilization, as expressed in literature, art, and law, was felt by all Italians. Wherever they looked, they were reminded of the great past which once had been theirs. Nor was the inheritance of Greece wholly lost. Greek traders and the descendants of Greek colonists in Italy still used their ancient language; all through the medieval centuries there were Italians who studied Greek. The classic tradition thus survived in Italy and defied oblivion.
BYZANTINE, ARABIC, AND NORMAN INFLUENCE
In the Middle Ages Italy formed a meeting place of several civilizations. Byzantine influence was felt both in the north and in the south. The conquest of Sicily by the Arabs made the Italians familiar with the science, art, and poetry of this cultivated people. After the Normans had established themselves in southern Italy and Sicily, they in turn developed a brilliant civilization. [3] From all these sources flowed streams of cultural influence which united in the Renaissance.
210. REVIVAL OF LEARNING IN ITALY
THE CLASSICS IN THE MIDDLE AGES
The literature of Greece and Rome did not entirely disappear in western Europe after the Germanic invasions. The monastery and cathedral schools of the Middle Ages had nourished devoted students of ancient books. The Benedictine monks labored zealously in copying the works of pagan as well as Christian authors. The rise of universities made it possible for the student to pursue a fairly extended course in Latin literature at more than one institution of learning. Greek literature, however, was little known in the West. The poems of Homer were read only in a brief Latin summary, and even Aristotle's writings were studied in Latin translations.
DANTE ALIGHIERI 1265-1321 A.D.
Reverence for the classics finds constant expression in the writings of the Italian poet Dante. He was a native of Florence, but passed much of his life in exile. Dante's most famous work, the _Divine Comedy_, describes an imaginary visit to the other world. Vergil guides him through the realms of Hell and Purgatory until he meets his lady Beatrice, the personification of love and purity, who conducts him through Paradise. The _Divine Comedy_ gives in artistic verse an epitome of all that medieval men knew and hoped and felt: it is a mirror of the Middle Ages. At the same time it drew much of its inspiration from Graeco-Roman sources. Athens, for Dante, is the "hearth from which all knowledge glows"; Homer is the "loftiest of poets", and Aristotle is the "master of those who know." This feeling for classical antiquity entitles Dante to rank as a prophet of the Renaissance.
DANTE AND THE ITALIAN LEAGUE
Dante exerted a noteworthy influence on the Italian language. He wrote the _Divine Comedy_, not in Latin, but in the vernacular Italian as spoken in Florence. The popularity of this work helped to give currency to the Florentine dialect, and in time it became the literary language of Italy. Italian was the first of the Romance tongues to assume a national character.
PETRARCH, 1304-1374 A.D.
Petrarch, a younger contemporary of Dante, and like him a native of Florence, has been called the first modern scholar and man of letters. He devoted himself with tireless energy to classical studies. Writing to a friend, Petrarch declares that he has read Vergil, Horace, Livy, and Cicero, "not once, but a thousand times, not cursorily but studiously and intently, bringing to them the best powers of my mind. I tasted in the morning and digested at night. I quaffed as a boy, to ruminate as an old man. These works have become so familiar to me that they cling not to my memory merely, but to the very marrow of my bones."
PETRARCH AS A LATIN REVIVALIST
Petrarch himself composed many Latin works and did much to spread a knowledge of Latin authors. He traveled widely in Italy, France, and other countries, searching everywhere for ancient manuscripts. When he found in one place two lost orations of Cicero and in another place a collection of Cicero's letters, he was transported with delight. He kept copyists in his house, at times as many as four, busily making transcripts of the manuscripts that he had discovered or borrowed. Petrarch knew almost no Greek. His copy of Homer, it is said, he often kissed, though he could not read it.
BOCCACCIO, 1313-1375 A.D.
Petrarch's friend and disciple, Boccaccio, was the first to bring to Italy manuscripts of the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_. Having learned some Greek, he wrote out a translation of those epic poems. But Boccaccio's fame to- day rests on the _Decameron_. It is a collection of one hundred stories written in Italian. They are supposed to be told by a merry company of men and women, who, during a plague at Florence, have retired to a villa in the country. The _Decameron_ is the first important work in Italian prose. Many English writers, notably Chaucer in his _Canterbury Tales_ [4] have gone to it for ideas and plots. The modern short story may be said to date from Boccaccio.
STUDY OF GREEK IN ITALY
The renewed interest in Latin literature, due to Petrarch, Boccaccio, and others, was followed in the fifteenth century by the revival of Greek literature. In 1396 A.D. Chrysoloras, a scholar from Constantinople, began to lecture on Greek in the university of Florence. He afterwards taught in other Italian cities and further aided the growth of Hellenic studies by preparing a Greek grammar--the first book of its kind. From this time, and especially after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 A.D., many learned Greeks came to Italy, thus transplanting in the West the culture of the East. "Greece had not perished, but had emigrated to Italy."
HUMANISM
To the scholars of the fifteenth century the classics opened up a new world of thought and fancy. They were delighted by the fresh, original, and human ideas which they discovered in the pages of Homer, Plato, Cicero, Horace, and Tacitus. Their new enthusiasm for the classics came to be known as humanism, [5] or culture. The Greek and Latin languages and literatures were henceforth the "humanities," as distinguished from the old scholastic philosophy and theology.
SPREAD OF HUMANISM IN ITALY
From Florence, as from a second Athens, humanism spread throughout Italy. At Milan and Venice, at Rome and Naples, men fell to poring over the classics. A special feature of the age was the recovery of ancient manuscripts from monasteries and cathedrals, where they had often lain neglected and blackened with the dust of ages. Nearly all the Latin works now extant were brought to light by the middle of the fifteenth century. But it was not enough to recover the manuscripts: they had to be safely stored and made accessible to students. So libraries were established, professorships of the ancient languages were endowed, and scholars were given opportunities to pursue their researches. Even the popes shared in this zeal for humanism. One of them founded the Vatican Library at Rome, which has the most valuable collection of manuscripts in the world. At Florence the wealthy family of the Medici vied with the popes in the patronage of the new learning.
211. PAPER AND PRINTING
PRINTED BOOKS
The revival of learning was greatly hastened when printed books took the place of manuscripts laboriously copied by hand. Printing is a complicated process, and many centuries were required to bring it to perfection. Both paper and movable type had to be invented.
INTRODUCTION OF PAPER
The Chinese at a remote period made paper from some fibrous material. The Arabs seem to have been the first to make linen paper out of flax and rags. The manufacture of paper in Europe was first established by the Moors in Spain. The Arab occupation of Sicily introduced the art into Italy. Paper found a ready sale in Europe, because papyrus and parchment, which the ancients had used as writing materials, were both expensive and heavy. Men now had a material moderate in price, durable, and one that would easily receive the impression of movable type.
DEVELOPMENT OF MOVABLE TYPE
The first step in the development of printing was the use of engraved blocks. Single letters, separate words, and sometimes entire pages of text were cut in hard wood or copper. When inked and applied to writing material, they left a clear impression. The second step was to cast the letters in separate pieces of metal, all of the same height and thickness. These could then be arranged in any desired way for printing.
GUTENBERG
Movable type had been used for centuries by the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans in the East, and in Europe several printers have been credited with their invention. A German, Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, set up the first printing press with movable type about 1450 A.D., and from it issued the first printed book. This was a Latin translation of the Bible.
ALDUS AND CAXTON
The new art quickly spread throughout Christian Europe. It met an especially warm welcome in Italy, where people felt so keen a desire for reading and instruction. By the end of the fifteenth century Venice alone had more than two hundred printing presses. Here Aldus Manutius maintained a famous establishment for printing Greek and Latin classics. In 1476 A.D. the English printer, William Caxton, set up his wooden presses within the precincts of Westminster Abbey. To him we owe editions of Chaucer's poems, Sir Thomas Malory's _Morte d'Arthur_, [6] _Aesop's Fables_, and many other works.
INCUNABULA
The books printed in the fifteenth century go by the name of _incunabula_. [7] Of the seven or eight million volumes which appeared before 1500 A.D., about thirty thousand are believed to be still in existence. Many of these earliest books were printed in heavy, "black letter" type, an imitation of the characters used in monkish manuscripts. It is still retained for most books printed in Germany. The clearer and neater "Roman" characters, resembling the letters employed for ancient Roman inscriptions, came into use in southern Europe and England. The Aldine press at Venice also devised "italic" type, said to be modeled after Petrarch's handwriting, to enable the publisher to crowd more words on a page.
IMPORTANCE OF PRINTING
The invention of printing has been called the greatest event in history. The statement is hardly too strong. It is easy to see that printing immensely increased the supply of books. A hardworking copyist might produce, at the most, only a few volumes a year; a printing press could strike them off by the thousands. Not only more books, but also more accurate books, could be produced by printing. The old-time copyist, however skilful, was sure to make mistakes, sometimes of a serious character. No two copies of any manuscript were exactly alike. When, however, an entire edition was printed from the same type, mistakes in the different copies might be entirely eliminated. Furthermore, the invention of printing destroyed the monopoly of learning possessed by the universities and people of wealth. Books were now the possession of the many, not the luxury of the few. Anyone who could read had opened to him the gateway of knowledge; he became a citizen, henceforth, of the republic of letters. Printing, which made possible popular education, public libraries, and ultimately cheap newspapers, ranks with gunpowder [8] as an emancipating force.
212. REVIVAL OF ART IN ITALY
ARCHITECTURE
Gothic architecture, with its pointed arches, flying buttresses, and traceried windows, never struck deep roots in Italy. The architects of the Renaissance went back to Greek temples and Roman domed buildings for their models, just as the humanists went back to Greek and Latin literature. Long rows of Ionic or Corinthian columns, spanned by round arches, became again the prevailing architectural style. Perhaps the most important accomplishment of Renaissance builders was the adoption of the dome, instead of the vault, for the roofs of churches. The majestic cupola of St. Peter's at Rome, [9] which is modeled after the Pantheon, [10] has become the parent of many domed structures in the Old and New World. [11] Architects, however, did not limit themselves to churches. The magnificent palaces of Florence, as well as some of those in Venice, are among the monuments of the Renaissance era. Henceforth architecture became more and more a secular art.
SCULPTURE
The development of architecture naturally stimulated the other arts. Italian sculptors began to copy the ancient bas-reliefs and statues preserved in Rome and other cities. At this time glazed terra cotta came to be used by sculptors. Another Renaissance art was the casting of bronze doors, with panels which represented scenes from the Bible. The beautiful doors of the baptistery of Florence were described as "worthy of being placed at the entrance of Paradise."
MICHELANGELO, 1475-1564 A.D.
The greatest of Renaissance sculptors was Michelangelo. Though a Florentine by birth, he lived in Rome and made that city a center of Italian art. A colossal statue of David, who looks like a Greek athlete, and another of Moses, seated and holding the table of the law, are among his best-known works. Michelangelo also won fame in architecture and painting. The dome of St. Peter's was finished after his designs. Having been commissioned by one of the popes to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine chapel [12] in the Vatican, he painted a series of scenes which presented the Biblical story from the Creation to the Flood. These frescoes are unequaled for sublimity and power. On the end wall of the same chapel Michelangelo produced his fresco of the "Last Judgment," one of the most famous paintings in the world.
RISE OF ITALIAN PAINTING
The early Italian painters contented themselves, at first, with imitating Byzantine mosaics and enamels. [13] Their work exhibited little knowledge of human anatomy: faces might be lifelike, but bodies were too slender and out of proportion. The figures of men and women were posed in stiff and conventional attitudes. The perspective also was false: objects which the painter wished to represent in the background were as near as those which he wished to represent in the foreground. In the fourteenth century, however, Italian painting abandoned the Byzantine style; achieved beauty of form, design, and color to an extent hitherto unknown; and became at length the supreme art of the Renaissance.
CHARACTERISTICS OF ITALIAN PAINTING
Italian painting began in the service of the Church and always remained religious in character. Artists usually chose subjects from the Bible or the lives of the saints. They did not trouble themselves to secure correctness of costume, but represented ancient Jews, Greeks, and Romans in the garb of Italian gentlemen. Many of their pictures were frescoes, that is, the colors were mixed with water and applied to the plaster walls of churches and palaces. After the process of mixing oils with the colors was discovered, pictures on wood or canvas (easel paintings) became common. Renaissance painters excelled in portraiture. They were less successful with landscapes.
THE "OLD MASTERS"
Among the "old masters" of Italian painting four, besides Michelangelo, stand out with special prominence. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519 A.D.) was architect, sculptor, musician, and engineer, as well as painter. His finest work, the "Last Supper," a fresco painting at Milan, is much damaged, but fortunately good copies of it exist. Paris has the best of his easel pictures--the "Monna Lisa." Leonardo spent four years on it and then declared that he could not finish it to his satisfaction. Leonardo's contemporary, Raphael (1483-1520 A.D.), died before he was forty, but not before he had produced the "Sistine Madonna," now at Dresden, the "Transfiguration," in the Vatican Gallery at Rome, and many other famous compositions. In Raphael Italian painting reached its zenith. All his works are masterpieces. Another artist, the Venetian Titian (1477?-1576 A.D.), painted portraits unsurpassed for glowing color. His "Assumption of the Virgin" ranks among the greatest pictures in the world. Lastly must be noted the exquisite paintings of Correggio (1494-1534 A.D.), among them the "Holy Night" and the "Marriage of St. Catherine."
MUSIC
Another modern art, that of music, arose in Italy during the Renaissance. In the sixteenth century the three-stringed rebeck received a fourth string and became the violin, the most expressive of all musical instruments. A forerunner of the pianoforte also appeared in the harpsichord. A papal organist and choir-master, Palestrina (1526-1594 A.D.), was the first of the great composers. He gave music its fitting place in worship by composing melodious hymns and masses still sung in Roman Catholic churches. The oratorio, a religious drama set to music but without action, scenery, or costume, had its beginning at this time. The opera, however, was little developed until the eighteenth century.
213. REVIVAL OF LEARNING AND ART BEYOND ITALY
SPREAD OF HUMANISM IN EUROPE
About the middle of the fifteenth century fire from the Italian altar was carried across the Alps, and a revival of learning began in northern lands. Italy had led the way by recovering the long-buried treasures of the classics and by providing means for their study. Scholars in Germany, France, and England, who now had the aid of the printing press, continued the intellectual movement and gave it widespread currency.
DESIDERIUS ERASMUS 1466(?)-1536 A.D.
The foremost humanist of the age was Desiderius Erasmus. Though a native of Rotterdam in Holland, he lived for a time in Germany, France, England, and Italy, and died at Basel in Switzerland. His travels and extensive correspondence brought him in contact with most of the leading scholars of the day. Erasmus wrote in Latin many works which were read and enjoyed by educated men. He might be called the first really popular author in Europe. Like Petrarch, he did much to encourage the humanistic movement by his precepts and his example. "When I have money," said this devotee of the classics, "I will first buy Greek books and then clothes."
GREEK TESTAMENT OF ERASMUS
Erasmus performed his most important service as a Biblical critic. In 1516 A.D. he published the New Testament in the original Greek, with a Latin translation and a dedication to the pope. Up to this time the only accessible edition of the New Testament was the old Latin version known as the Vulgate, which St. Jerome had made near the close of the fourth century. By preparing a new and more accurate translation, Erasmus revealed the fact that the Vulgate contained many errors. By printing the Greek text, together with notes which helped to make the meaning clear, Erasmus enabled scholars to discover for themselves just what the New Testament writers had actually said. [14]
HUMANISM AND THE REFORMATION
Erasmus as a student of the New Testament carried humanism over into the religious field. His friends and associates, especially in Germany, continued his work. "We are all learning Greek now," said Luther, "in order to understand the Bible." Humanism, by becoming the handmaid of religion, thus passed insensibly into the Reformation.
THE ARTISTIC REVIVAL IN EUROPE
Italian architects found a cordial reception in France, Spain, the Netherlands, and other countries, where they introduced Renaissance styles of building and ornamentation. The celebrated palace of the Louvre in Paris, which is used to-day as an art gallery and museum, dates from the sixteenth century. At this time the French nobles began to replace their somber feudal dwellings by elegant country houses. Renaissance sculpture also spread beyond Italy throughout Europe. Painters in northern countries at first followed Italian models, but afterwards produced masterpieces of their own. [15]
214. THE RENAISSANCE IN LITERATURE
HUMANISM AND THE VERNACULAR
The renewed interest in classical studies for a time retarded the development of national languages and literatures in Europe. To the humanists only Latin and Greek seemed worthy of notice. Petrarch, for instance, composed in Italian beautiful sonnets which are still much admired, but he himself expected to gain literary immortality through his Latin works. Another Italian humanist went so far as to call Dante "a poet for bakers and cobblers," and the _Divine Comedy_ was indeed translated into Latin a few years after the author's death.
THE VERNACULAR REVIVAL
But a return to the vernacular was bound to come. The common people understood little Latin, and Greek not at all. Yet they had learned to read and they now had the printing press. Before long many books composed in Italian, Spanish, French, English, and other national languages made their appearance. This revival of the vernacular meant that henceforth European literature would be more creative and original than was possible when writers merely imitated or translated the classics. The models provided by Greece and Rome still continued, however, to furnish inspiration to men of letters.
MACHIAVELLI, 1469-1527 A.D.
The Florentine historian and diplomat, Machiavelli, by his book, _The Prince_, did much to found the modern science of politics. Machiavelli, as a patriotic Italian, felt infinite distress at the divided condition of Italy, where numerous petty states were constantly at war. In _The Prince_ he tried to show how a strong, despotic ruler might set up a national state in the peninsula. He thought that such a ruler ought not to be bound by the ordinary rules of morality. He must often act "against faith, against charity, against humanity, and against religion." The end would justify the means. Success was everything; morality, nothing. This dangerous doctrine has received the name of "Machiavellism"; it is not yet dead in European statecraft.
CERVANTES, 1547-1616 A.D.
Spain during the sixteenth century gave to the world in Cervantes the only Spanish writer who has achieved a great reputation outside his own country. Cervantes's masterpiece, _Don Quixote_, seems to have been intended as a burlesque upon the romances of chivalry once so popular in Europe. The hero, Don Quixote, attended by his shrewd and faithful squire, Sancho Panza, rides forth to perform deeds of knight-errantry, but meets, instead, the most absurd adventures. The work is a vivid picture of Spanish life. Nobles, priests, monks, traders, farmers, innkeepers, muleteers, barbers, beggars--all these pass before our eyes as in a panorama. _Don Quixote_ immediately became popular, and it is even more read to-day than it was three centuries ago.
FROISSART, 1397(?)-1410 A.D.
The Flemish writer, Froissart, deserves notice as a historian and as one of the founders of French prose. His _Chronicles_ present an account of the fourteenth century, when the age of feudalism was fast drawing to an end. He admired chivalry and painted it in glowing colors. He liked to describe tournaments, battles, sieges, and feats of arms. Kings and nobles, knights and squires, are the actors on his stage. Froissart traveled in many countries and got much of his information at first hand from those who had made history. Out of what he learned he composed a picturesque and romantic story, which still captivates the imagination.
MONTAIGNE, 1533-1593 A.D.
A very different sort of writer was the Frenchman, Montaigne. He lives to- day as the author of one hundred and seven essays, very delightful in style and full of wit and wisdom. Montaigne really invented the essay, a form of literature in which he has had many imitators.
CHAUCER, 1340(?)-1400 A.D.
Geoffrey Chaucer, who has been called the "morning star" of the English Renaissance, was a story-teller in verse. His _Canterbury Tales_ are supposed to be told by a company of pilgrims, as they journey from London to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury. [16] Chaucer describes freshly and with unfailing good spirits the life of the middle and upper classes. He does not reveal, any more than his contemporary Froissart, the labor and sorrows of the down-trodden peasantry. But Chaucer was a true poet, and his name stands high in England's long roll of men of letters.
SHAKESPEARE, 1564-1616 A.D.
This survey of the national authors of the Renaissance may fitly close with William Shakespeare, whose genius transcended national boundaries and made him a citizen of all the world. His life is known to us only in barest outline. Born at Stratford-on-Avon, of humble parentage, he attended the village grammar school, where he learned "small Latin and less Greek", went to London as a youth, and became an actor and a playwright. He prospered, made money both from his acting and the sale of his plays, and at the age of forty-four retired to Stratford for the rest of his life. Here he died eight years later, and here his grave may still be seen in the village church. [17] During his residence in London he wrote, in whole or in part, thirty-six or thirty-seven dramas, both tragedies and comedies. They were not collected and published until several years after his death. Shakespeare's plays were read and praised by his contemporaries, but it has remained for modern men to see in him one who ranks with Homer, Vergil, Dante, and Goethe among the great poets of the world.
PERSONALITY IN RENAISSANCE LITERATURE
Renaissance poets and prose writers revealed themselves in their books. In the same way the sculptors and painters of the Renaissance worked out their own ideas and emotions in their masterpieces. This personal note affords a sharp contrast to the anonymity of the Middle Ages. We do not know the authors of the _Song of Roland_, the _Nibelungenlied_, and _Reynard the Fox_, any more than we know the builders of the Gothic cathedrals. Medieval literature subordinated the individual; that of the Renaissance expressed the sense of individuality and man's interest in himself. It was truly "humanistic."
215. THE RENAISSANCE IN EDUCATION
HUMANISM AND EDUCATION
The universities of the Middle Ages emphasized scholastic philosophy, though in some institutions law and medicine also received much attention. Greek, of course, was not taught, the vernacular languages of Europe were not studied, and neither science nor history enjoyed the esteem of the learned. The Renaissance brought about a partial change in this curriculum. The classical languages and literatures, after some opposition, gained an entrance into university courses and displaced scholastic philosophy as the chief subject of instruction. From the universities the study of the "humanities" descended to the lower schools, where they still hold a leading place.
VITTORINO DA FELTRE, 1378-1446 A.D.
An Italian humanist, Vittorino da Feltre, was the pioneer of Renaissance education. In his private school at Mantua, the "House of Delight," as it was called, Vittorino aimed to develop at the same time the body, mind, and character of his pupils, so as to fit them to "serve God in Church and State." Accordingly, he gave much attention to religious instruction and also set a high value on athletics. The sixty or seventy young men under his care were taught to hunt and fish, to run and jump, to wrestle and fence, to walk gracefully, and above all things to be temperate. For intellectual training he depended on the Latin classics as the best means of introducing students to the literature, art, and philosophy of ancient times. Vittorino's name is not widely known to-day; he left no writings, preferring, as he said, to live in the lives of his pupils; but there is scarcely a modern teacher who does not consciously or unconsciously follow his methods. More than anyone else, he is responsible for the educational system which has prevailed in Europe almost to the present day.
A "CLASSICAL EDUCATION"
It cannot be said that the influence of humanism on education was wholly good. Henceforth the Greek and Latin languages and literatures became the chief instruments of culture. Educators neglected the great world of nature and of human life which lay outside the writings of the ancients. This "bookishness" formed a real defect of Renaissance systems of training.
COMENIUS, 1592-1671 A.D.
A Moravian bishop named Comenius, who gave his long life almost wholly to teaching, stands for a reaction against humanistic education. He proposed that the vernacular tongues, as well as the classics, should be made subjects of study. For this purpose he prepared a reading book, which was translated into a dozen European languages, and even into Arabic, Persian, and Turkish. Comenius also believed that the curriculum should include the study of geography, world history, and government, and the practice of the manual arts. He was one of the first to advocate the teaching of science. Perhaps his most notable idea was that of a national system of education, reaching from primary grades to the university. "Not only," he writes, "are the children of the rich and noble to be drawn to school, but all alike, rich and poor, boys and girls, in great towns and small, down to the country villages." The influence of this Slavic teacher is more and more felt in modern systems of education.
216. THE SCIENTIFIC RENAISSANCE
HUMANISM AND SCIENCE
The Middle Ages were not by any means ignorant of science, [18] but its study naturally received a great impetus when the Renaissance brought before educated men all that the Greeks and Romans had done in mathematics, physics, astronomy, medicine, and other subjects. The invention of printing also fostered the scientific revival by making it easy to spread knowledge abroad in every land. The pioneers of Renaissance science were Italians, but students in France, England, Germany, and other countries soon took up the work of enlightenment.
COPERNICUS 1473-1543 A.D.
The names of some Renaissance scientists stand as landmarks in the history of thought. The first place must be given to Copernicus, the founder of modern astronomy. He was a Pole, but lived many years in Italy. Patient study and calculation led him to the conclusion that the earth turns upon its own axis, and, together with the planets, revolves around the sun. The book in which he announced this conclusion did not appear until the very end of his life. A copy of it reached him on his deathbed.
THE COPERNICAN THEORY
Medieval astronomers had generally accepted the Ptolemaic system. [19] Some students before Copernicus had indeed suggested that the earth and planets might rotate about a central sun, but he first gave reasons for such a belief. The new theory met much opposition, not only in the universities, which clung to the time-honored Ptolemaic system, but also among theologians, who thought that it contradicted many statements in the Bible. Moreover, people could not easily reconcile themselves to the idea that the earth, instead of being the center of the universe, is only one member of the solar system, that it is, in fact, only a mere speck of cosmic dust.
GALILEO, 1564-1642 A.D.
An Italian scientist, Galileo, made one of the first telescopes--it was about as powerful as an opera glass--and turned it on the heavenly bodies with wonderful results. He found the sun moving unmistakably on its axis, Venus showing phases according to her position in relation to the sun, Jupiter accompanied by revolving moons, or satellites, and the Milky Way composed of a multitude of separate stars. Galileo rightly believed that these discoveries confirmed the theory of Copernicus.
KEPLER, 1571-1630 A.D.
Another man of genius, the German Kepler, worked out the mathematical laws which govern the movements of the planets. He made it clear that the planets revolve around sun in elliptical instead of circular orbits. Kepler's investigations afterwards led to the discovery of the principle of gravitation.
VESALIUS, 1514-1564 A.D., AND HARVEY, 1578-1657 A.D.
Two other scientists did epochal work in a field far removed from astronomy. Vesalius, a Fleming, who studied in Italian medical schools, gave to the world the first careful description of the human body based on actual dissection. He was thus the founder of human anatomy. Harvey, an Englishman, after observing living animals, announced the discovery of the circulation of the blood. He thereby founded human physiology.
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Vesalius, Harvey, and their fellow workers built up the scientific method. In the Middle Ages students had mostly been satisfied to accept what Aristotle and other philosophers had said, without trying to prove their statements. [20] Kepler, for instance, was the first to disprove the Aristotelian idea that, as all perfect motion is circular, therefore the heavenly bodies must move in circular orbits. Similarly, the world had to wait many centuries before Harvey showed Aristotle's error in supposing that the blood arose in the liver, went thence to the heart, and by the veins was conducted over the body. The new scientific method rested on observation and experiment. Students learned at length to take nothing for granted, to set aside all authority, and to go straight to nature for their facts. As Lord Bacon, [21] one of Shakespeare's contemporaries and a severe critic of the old scholasticism, declared, "All depends on keeping the eye steadily fixed upon the facts of nature, and so receiving their images simply as they are, for God forbid that we should give out a dream of our own imagination for a pattern of the world." Modern science, to which we owe so much, is a product of the Renaissance.
217. THE ECONOMIC RENAISSANCE
AN ECONOMIC CHANGE
Thus far the Renaissance has been studied as an intellectual and artistic movement, which did much to liberate the human mind and brought the Middle Ages to an end in literature, in art, and in science. It is necessary, however, to consider the Renaissance era from another point of view. During this time an economic change of vast significance was taking place in rural life all over western Europe. We refer to the decline and ultimate extinction of medieval serfdom.
DECLINE OF SERFDOM
Serfdom imposed a burden only less heavy than the slavery which it had displaced. The serf, as has been shown, [22] might not leave the manor in which he was born, he might not sell his holdings of land, and, finally, he had to give up a large part of his time to work without pay for the lord of the manor. This system of forced labor was at once unprofitable to the lord and irksome to his serfs. After the revival of trade and industry in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries had brought more money into circulation, [23] the lord discovered how much better it was to hire men to work for him, as he needed them, instead of depending on serfs who shirked their tasks as far as possible. The latter, in turn, were glad to pay the lord a fixed sum for the use of land, since now they could devote themselves entirely to its cultivation. Both parties gained by an arrangement which converted the manorial lord into a landlord and the serf into a free tenant-farmer paying rent.
THE "BLACK DEATH"
The emancipation of the peasantry was hastened, strangely enough, as the result of perhaps the most terrible calamity that has ever afflicted mankind. About the middle of the fourteenth century a pestilence of Asiatic origin, now known to have been the bubonic plague, reached the West. [24] The "Black Death" so called because among its symptoms were dark patches all over the body, moved steadily across Europe. The way for its ravages had been prepared by the unhealthful conditions of ventilation and drainage in towns and cities. After attacking Greece, Sicily, Italy, Spain, France, and Germany, the plague entered England in 1349 A.D. and within less than two years swept away probably half the population of that country. The mortality elsewhere was enormous, one estimate setting it as high as twenty-five millions for all Europe.
EFFECTS OF THE "BLACK DEATH"
The pestilence in England, as in other countries, caused a great scarcity of labor. For want of hands to bring in the harvest, crops rotted on the ground, while sheep and cattle, with no one to care for them, strayed through the deserted fields. The free peasants who survived demanded and received higher wages. Even the serfs, whose labor was now more valued, found themselves in a better position. The lord of a manor, in order to keep his laborers, would often allow them to substitute money payments for personal services. When the serfs got no concessions, they frequently took to flight and hired themselves to the highest bidder.
FIRST STATUTE OF LABORERS, 1351 A.D.
The governing classes of England, who at this time were mainly landowners, believed that the workers were taking an unfair advantage of the situation. So in 1351 A.D. Parliament passed a law fixing the maximum wage in different occupations and punishing with imprisonment those who refused to accept work when it was offered to them. The fact that Parliament had to reenact this law thirteen times within the next century shows that it did not succeed in preventing a general rise of wages. It only exasperated the working classes.
THE PEASANTS' REBELLION, 1381 A.D.
A few years after the first Statute of Laborers the restlessness and discontent among the masses led to a serious outbreak. It was one of the few attempts at violent revolution which the English working people have made. One of the inspirers of the rebellion was a wandering priest named John Ball. He went about preaching that all goods should be held in common and the distinction between lords and serfs wiped away. "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?" asked John Ball. Uprisings occurred in nearly every part of England, but the one in Kent had most importance. The rioters marched on London and presented their demands to the youthful king, Richard II. He promised to abolish serfdom and to give them a free pardon. As soon, however, as Richard had gathered an army, he put down the revolt by force and hanged John Ball and about a hundred of his followers.
THE JACQUERIE, 1358 A.D.
The rebellion in England may be compared with the far more terrible Jacquerie [25] in France, a few years earlier. The French peasants, who suffered from feudal oppression and the effects of the Hundred Years' War, raged through the land, burning the castles and murdering their feudal lords. The movement had scarcely any reasonable purpose; it was an outburst of blind passion. The nobles avenged themselves by slaughtering the peasants in great numbers.
EXTINCTION OF SERFDOM
Though these first great struggles of labor against capital were failures, the emancipation of the peasantry went steadily on throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. By 1500 A.D. serfdom had virtually disappeared in Italy, in most parts of France, and in England. Some less- favored countries retained serfdom much longer. Prussian, Austrian, and Russian serfs did not receive their freedom until the nineteenth century.
CONDITION OF THE PEASANTRY
The extinction of serfdom was, of course, a forward step in human freedom, but the lot of the English and Continental peasantry long remained wretched. The poem of _Piers Plowman_, written in the time of Chaucer, shows the misery of the age and reveals a very different picture than that of the gay, holiday-making, merry England seen in the _Canterbury Tales_. One hundred and fifty years later, the English humanist, Sir Thomas More, a friend of Erasmus, published his _Utopia_ as a protest against social abuses. _Utopia_, or "Nowhere," is an imaginary country whose inhabitants choose their own rulers, hold all property in common, and work only nine hours a day. In Utopia a public system of education prevails, cruel punishments are unknown, and every one enjoys complete freedom to worship God. This remarkable book, though it pictures an ideal commonwealth, really anticipates many social reforms of the present time.
STUDIES
1. Prepare a chronological chart showing the leading men of letters, artists, scientists, and educators mentioned in this chapter.
2. For what were the following persons noted: Chrysoloras; Vittorino da Feltre; Gutenberg; Boccaccio; Machiavelli; Harvey; and Galileo?
3. How did the words "machiavellism" and "utopian" get their present meanings?
4. Distinguish and define the three terms, "Renaissance," "Revival of Learning," and "Humanism."
5. "Next to the discovery of the New World, the recovery of the ancient world is the second landmark that divides us from the Middle Ages and marks the transition to modern life." Comment on this statement.
6. Why did the Renaissance begin as "an Italian event"?
7. "City-states have always proved favorable to culture." Illustrate this remark.
8. Why was the revival of Greek more important in the history of civilization than the revival of Latin?
9. Show that printing was an "emancipating force."
10. With what paintings by the "old masters" are you familiar?
11. How does the opera differ from the oratorio?
12. Why has Froissart been styled the "French Herodotus"?
13. How many of Shakespeare's plays can you name? How many have you read?
14. Can you mention any of Shakespeare's plays which are founded on Italian stories or whose scenes are laid in Italy?
15. Why did the classical scholar come to be regarded as the only educated man?
16. In what respects is the American system of education a realization of the ideals of Comenius?
17. Did the medieval interest in astrology retard or further astronomical research?
18. How did the discoveries of Galileo and Kepler confirm the Copernican theory?
19. What is meant by the "emancipation of the peasantry"?
FOOTNOTES
[1] Webster, _Readings in Medieval and Modern History_, chapter xix, "A Scholar of the Renaissance"; chapter xx, "Renaissance Artists."
[2] See page 545.
[3] See page 413.
[4] See page 604.
[5] Latin _humanitas,_ from _homo_, "man."
[6] See page 560.
[7] A Latin word meaning "cradle" or "birthplace," and so the beginning of anything.
[8] See page 574.
[9] See the plate facing page 591.
[10] See the illustration, page 202.
[11] For instance, the Invalides in Paris, St. Paul's in London, and the Capitol at Washington.
[12] In this chapel the election of a new pope takes place.
[13] See page 336.
[14] The so-called _Complutensian Polyglott_, issued at Alcalá in Spain by Cardinal Jimenes, did even more for the advance of Biblical scholarship. This was the first printed text of the Greek New Testament, but it was not actually published till 1522 A.D., six years after the appearance of the edition by Erasmus.
[15] A list of the great European painters would include at least the following names: Durer (1471-1582 A.D.) and Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543 A.D.) in Germany; Rubens (1577-1640 A.D.) and Van Dyck (1599- 1641 A.D.) in Flanders; Rembrandt (1606-1669 A.D.) in Holland; Claude Lorraine (1600-1682 A.D.) in France; and Velásquez (1599-1660 A.D.) and Murillo (1617-1682 A.D.) in Spain.
[16] See the illustration, page 442.
[17] The three-hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare's death was appropriately observed in 1916 A.D. throughout the world.
[18] See page 572.
[19] See page 133.
[20] See page 571.
[21] Not to be confused with his countryman, Roger Bacon, who lived in the thirteenth century. See page 573.
[22] See page 436.
[23] See page 541.
[24] A similar plague devastated the Roman world during the reign of Justinian.
[25] From _Jacques_, a common French name for a peasant.