Renaissance Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Characteristics== ===Humanism=== {{Main|Renaissance humanism|Renaissance humanism in Northern Europe|List of Renaissance humanists}} In some ways, [[Renaissance humanism]] was not a philosophy but a method of learning. In contrast to the medieval [[scholasticism|scholastic]] mode, which focused on resolving contradictions between authors, Renaissance humanists would study ancient texts in the original and appraise them through a combination of reasoning and [[empirical evidence]]. Humanist education was based on the programme of ''Studia Humanitatis'', the study of five humanities: [[poetry]], [[grammar]], [[history]], [[moral philosophy]], and [[rhetoric]]. Although historians have sometimes struggled to define humanism precisely, most have settled on "a middle of the road definition... the movement to recover, interpret, and assimilate the language, literature, learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome".<ref>Burke, P., "The spread of Italian humanism", in ''The Impact of Humanism on Western Europe'', ed. A. Goodman and A. MacKay, London, 1990, p. 2.</ref> Above all, humanists asserted "the genius of man ... the unique and extraordinary ability of the human mind".<ref>As asserted by Gianozzo Manetti in ''On the Dignity and Excellence of Man'', cited in Clare, J., ''Italian Renaissance''.</ref> [[File:Pico1.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Giovanni Pico della Mirandola]], writer of the famous ''[[Oration on the Dignity of Man]]'', which has been called the "Manifesto of the Renaissance"<ref>''Oration on the Dignity of Man'' (1486) [http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/pico.html wsu.edu] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110104024142/http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/pico.html |date=4 January 2011 }}</ref>]] Humanist scholars shaped the intellectual landscape throughout the early modern period. Political philosophers such as NiccolΓ² Machiavelli and [[Thomas More]] revived the ideas of Greek and Roman thinkers and applied them in critiques of contemporary government, following the Islamic steps of [[Ibn Khaldun]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=H.|first=Miller, John|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/11117374|title=Ibn Khaldun and Machiavelli : an examination of paradigms|oclc=11117374}}</ref><ref>Religion and Political Development Some Comparative Ideas on Ibn Khaldun and Machiavelli by Barbara Freyer Stowasser</ref> [[Pico della Mirandola]] wrote the "manifesto" of the Renaissance, the ''[[Oration on the Dignity of Man]]'', a vibrant defence of thinking.{{cn|date=November 2023}} [[Matteo Palmieri]] (1406β1475), another humanist, is most known for his work ''Della vita civile'' ("On Civic Life"; printed 1528), which advocated [[Classical republicanism|civic humanism]], and for his influence in refining the [[Tuscan language|Tuscan vernacular]] to the same level as Latin. Palmieri drew on Roman philosophers and theorists, especially [[Cicero]], who, like Palmieri, lived an active public life as a citizen and official, as well as a theorist and philosopher and also [[Quintilian]]. Perhaps the most succinct expression of his perspective on humanism is in a 1465 poetic work ''La cittΓ di vita'', but an earlier work, ''Della vita civile'', is more wide-ranging. Composed as a series of dialogues set in a country house in the Mugello countryside outside Florence during the plague of 1430, Palmieri expounds on the qualities of the ideal citizen. The dialogues include ideas about how children develop mentally and physically, how citizens can conduct themselves morally, how citizens and states can ensure probity in public life, and an important debate on the difference between that which is pragmatically useful and that which is honest.{{cn|date=November 2023}} The humanists believed that it is important to transcend to the afterlife with a perfect mind and body, which could be attained with education. The purpose of humanism was to create a universal man whose person combined intellectual and physical excellence and who was capable of functioning honorably in virtually any situation.<ref>Hause, S. & Maltby, W. (2001). ''A History of European Society. Essentials of Western Civilization'' (Vol. 2, pp. 245β246). Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning, Inc.</ref> This ideology was referred to as the ''[[Polymath|uomo universale]]'', an ancient Greco-Roman ideal. Education during the Renaissance was mainly composed of ancient literature and history as it was thought that the classics provided moral instruction and an intensive understanding of human behavior. ===Humanism and libraries=== A unique characteristic of some Renaissance libraries is that they were open to the public. These libraries were places where ideas were exchanged and where scholarship and reading were considered both pleasurable and beneficial to the mind and soul. As freethinking was a hallmark of the age, many libraries contained a wide range of writers. Classical texts could be found alongside humanist writings. These informal associations of intellectuals profoundly influenced Renaissance culture. Some of the richest "bibliophiles" built libraries as temples to books and knowledge. A number of libraries appeared as manifestations of immense wealth joined with a love of books. In some cases, cultivated library builders were also committed to offering others the opportunity to use their collections. Prominent aristocrats and princes of the Church created great libraries for the use of their courts, called "court libraries", and were housed in lavishly designed monumental buildings decorated with ornate woodwork, and the walls adorned with frescoes (Murray, Stuart A.P.). ===Art=== {{Main|Renaissance art}} Renaissance art marks a cultural rebirth at the close of the Middle Ages and rise of the Modern world. One of the distinguishing features of Renaissance art was its development of highly realistic linear perspective. [[Giotto|Giotto di Bondone]] (1267β1337) is credited with first treating a painting as a window into space, but it was not until the demonstrations of architect [[Filippo Brunelleschi]] (1377β1446) and the subsequent writings of [[Leon Battista Alberti]] (1404β1472) that perspective was formalized as an artistic technique.<ref>Clare, John D. & Millen, Alan, ''Italian Renaissance'', London, 1994, p. 14.</ref> [[File:Da Vinci Vitruve Luc Viatour.jpg|thumb|left|[[Leonardo da Vinci]]'s ''[[Vitruvian Man]]'' (c. 1490) demonstrates the effect writers of Antiquity had on Renaissance thinkers. Based on the specifications in [[Vitruvius]]' ''[[De architectura]]'' (1st century BC), Leonardo tried to draw the perfectly proportioned man. (Museum [[Gallerie dell'Accademia]], [[Venice]])]] The development of [[Perspective (graphical)|perspective]] was part of a wider trend toward [[Realism (arts)|realism]] in the arts.<ref>Stork, David G. ''[http://sirl.stanford.edu/~bob/teaching/pdf/arth202/Stork_SciAm04.pdf Optics and Realism in Renaissance Art] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614023308/http://sirl.stanford.edu/~bob/teaching/pdf/arth202/Stork_SciAm04.pdf |date=14 June 2007 }}'' (Retrieved 10 May 2007)</ref> Painters developed other techniques, studying light, shadow, and, famously in the case of [[Leonardo da Vinci]], [[human anatomy]]. Underlying these changes in artistic method was a renewed desire to depict the beauty of nature and to unravel the axioms of [[aesthetics]], with the works of Leonardo, [[Michelangelo]] and [[Raphael]] representing artistic pinnacles that were much imitated by other artists.<ref>Vasari, Giorgio, ''Lives of the Artists'', translated by George Bull, Penguin Classics, 1965, {{ISBN|0140441646}}.</ref> Other notable artists include [[Sandro Botticelli]], working for the Medici in Florence, [[Donatello]], another Florentine, and [[Titian]] in Venice, among others. In the [[Netherlands]], a particularly vibrant artistic culture developed. The work of [[Hugo van der Goes]] and [[Jan van Eyck]] was particularly influential on the development of painting in Italy, both technically with the introduction of [[oil paint]] and canvas, and stylistically in terms of naturalism in representation. Later, the work of [[Pieter Brueghel the Elder]] would inspire artists to depict themes of everyday life.<ref>''[http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/b/bruegel/pieter_e/biograph.html Peter Brueghel Biography]'', Web Gallery of Art (Retrieved 10 May 2007)</ref> In architecture, Filippo Brunelleschi was foremost in studying the remains of ancient classical buildings. With rediscovered knowledge from the 1st-century writer [[Vitruvius]] and the flourishing discipline of mathematics, Brunelleschi formulated the Renaissance style that emulated and improved on classical forms. His major feat of engineering was building the dome of the [[Duomo of Florence|Florence Cathedral]].<ref>Hooker, Richard, ''[http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/arts/Architec/RenaissanceArchitecture/ArchitectureandPublicSpace/ArchitectureandPublicSpace.htm Architecture and Public Space] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070522160730/http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/arts/Architec/RenaissanceArchitecture/ArchitectureandPublicSpace/ArchitectureandPublicSpace.htm |date=22 May 2007 }}'' (Retrieved 10 May 2007)</ref> Another building demonstrating this style is the church of St. Andrew in [[Mantua]], built by Alberti. The outstanding architectural work of the [[High Renaissance]] was the rebuilding of [[St. Peter's Basilica]], combining the skills of [[Bramante]], [[Michelangelo]], [[Raphael]], [[Antonio da Sangallo the Younger|Sangallo]] and [[Carlo Maderno|Maderno]]. During the Renaissance, architects aimed to use columns, [[pilaster]]s, and [[entablatures]] as an integrated system. The Roman orders types of columns are used: [[Tuscan order|Tuscan]] and [[Composite order|Composite]]. These can either be structural, supporting an arcade or architrave, or purely decorative, set against a wall in the form of pilasters. One of the first buildings to use pilasters as an integrated system was in the Old Sacristy (1421β1440) by Brunelleschi.<ref>{{cite book|title=Filippo Brunelleschi: The Buildings|last=Saalman|first=Howard|publisher=Zwemmer|year=1993|isbn=978-0271010670}}</ref> Arches, semi-circular or (in the [[Mannerism|Mannerist]] style) segmental, are often used in arcades, supported on piers or columns with capitals. There may be a section of entablature between the capital and the springing of the arch. Alberti was one of the first to use the arch on a monumental. Renaissance vaults do not have ribs; they are semi-circular or segmental and on a square plan, unlike the [[Gothic style|Gothic]] vault, which is frequently rectangular. Renaissance artists were not pagans, although they admired antiquity and kept some ideas and symbols of the medieval past. [[Nicola Pisano]] (c. 1220 β c. 1278) imitated classical forms by portraying scenes from the Bible. His ''Annunciation'', from the [[Pisa Baptistry|Baptistry at Pisa]], demonstrates that classical models influenced Italian art before the Renaissance took root as a literary movement.<ref>Hause, S. & Maltby, W. (2001). ''A History of European Society. Essentials of Western Civilization'' (Vol. 2, pp. 250β251). Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning, Inc.</ref> ===Science=== {{main|History of science in the Renaissance|Renaissance technology}} {{see also|Medical Renaissance}} [[File:Nikolaus Kopernikus.jpg|thumb|Anonymous portrait of [[Nicolaus Copernicus]] ({{circa|1580}})]] [[File:Pacioli.jpg|thumb|''[[Portrait of Luca Pacioli]]'', father of accounting, painted by [[Jacopo de' Barbari]],{{efn|It is thought that [[Leonardo da Vinci]] may have painted the [[rhombicuboctahedron]].<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/3619717 |title=The Portrait of Fra Luca Pacioli |journal=[[The Mathematical Gazette]] |volume=77 |issue=479 |page=143 |year=1993 |last1=MacKinnon |first1=Nick|jstor=3619717 |s2cid=195006163 }}</ref>}} 1495 ([[Museo di Capodimonte]])]] Applied innovation extended to commerce. At the end of the 15th century, [[Luca Pacioli]] published the first work on [[bookkeeping]], making him the founder of [[accounting]].<ref name=jkdiwan>{{cite book |last=Diwan |first=Jaswith|title=Accounting Concepts & Theories|publisher=Morre|location=London|id=id# 94452|pages=1β2}}</ref> The rediscovery of ancient texts and the invention of the [[printing press]] in about 1440 democratized learning and allowed a faster propagation of more widely distributed ideas. In the first period of the [[Italian Renaissance]], humanists favored the study of [[humanities]] over [[natural philosophy]] or [[applied mathematics]], and their reverence for classical sources further enshrined the [[Aristotle|Aristotelian]] and [[Ptolemy|Ptolemaic]] views of the universe. Writing around 1450, [[Nicholas of Cusa|Nicholas Cusanus]] anticipated the [[Copernican heliocentrism|heliocentric]] worldview of [[Nicolaus Copernicus|Copernicus]], but in a philosophical fashion. Science and art were intermingled in the early Renaissance, with polymath artists such as [[Leonardo da Vinci]] making observational drawings of anatomy and nature. Leonardo set up controlled experiments in water flow, medical dissection, and systematic study of movement and aerodynamics, and he devised principles of research method that led [[Fritjof Capra]] to classify him as the "father of modern science".{{efn|Exhaustive 2007 study by Fritjof Capra shows that Leonardo was a much greater scientist than previously thought, and not just an inventor. Leonardo was innovative in science theory and in conducting actual science practice. In Capra's detailed assessment of many surviving manuscripts, Leonardo's science in tune with holistic non-mechanistic and non-reductive approaches to science, which are becoming popular today.<ref>Capra, Fritjof, ''The Science of Leonardo; Inside the Mind of the Great Genius of the Renaissance'', New York, Doubleday, 2007. </ref>}} Other examples of Da Vinci's contribution during this period include machines designed to saw marbles and lift monoliths, and new discoveries in acoustics, botany, geology, anatomy, and mechanics.<ref>"Columbus and Vesalius β The Age of Discoverers". ''JAMA''. 2015;313(3):312. {{doi|10.1001/jama.2014.11534}}</ref> A suitable environment had developed to question classical scientific doctrine. The [[Age of Discovery|discovery]] in 1492 of the [[New World]] by [[Christopher Columbus]] challenged the classical worldview. The works of [[Ptolemy]] (in geography) and [[Galen]] (in medicine) were found to not always match everyday observations. As the Reformation and [[Counter-Reformation]] clashed, the [[Northern Renaissance]] showed a decisive shift in focus from Aristotelean natural philosophy to chemistry and the biological sciences (botany, anatomy, and medicine).<ref>[[Allen Debus]], ''Man and Nature in the Renaissance'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978).</ref> The willingness to question previously held truths and search for new answers resulted in a period of major scientific advancements. Some view this as a "[[scientific revolution]]", heralding the beginning of the modern age,<ref>Butterfield, Herbert, ''The Origins of Modern Science, 1300β1800'', p. viii</ref> others as an acceleration of a continuous process stretching from the ancient world to the present day.<ref>Shapin, Steven. ''The Scientific Revolution'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996, p. 1.</ref> Significant scientific advances were made during this time by [[Galileo Galilei]], [[Tycho Brahe]], and [[Johannes Kepler]].<ref>"Scientific Revolution" in ''[[Encarta]]''. 2007. [https://web.archive.org/web/20031205204251/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_701509067/Scientific_Revolution.html]</ref> Copernicus, in ''[[De revolutionibus orbium coelestium]]'' (''On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres''), posited that the Earth moved around the Sun. ''[[De humani corporis fabrica]]'' (''On the Workings of the Human Body'') by [[Andreas Vesalius]], gave a new confidence to the role of [[dissection]], observation, and the [[Mechanical philosophy|mechanistic]] view of anatomy.<ref name="short-science">Brotton, J., "Science and Philosophy", ''The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction'' [[Oxford University Press]], 2006 {{ISBN|0192801635}}.</ref> Another important development was in the ''process'' for discovery, the [[scientific method]],<ref name="short-science" /> focusing on [[Empiricism|empirical evidence]] and the importance of [[mathematics]], while discarding much of Aristotelian science. Early and influential proponents of these ideas included Copernicus, Galileo, and [[Francis Bacon]].<ref> Van Doren, Charles (1991) ''A History of Knowledge'' Ballantine, New York, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Tzmou_a0CCMC&pg=PA211 pp. 211β212], {{ISBN|0345373162}}</ref><ref>Burke, Peter (2000) ''A Social History of Knowledge: From Gutenberg to Diderot'' Polity Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, [https://books.google.com/books?id=fbGuxIsGjwsC&pg=PA40 p. 40], {{ISBN|0745624847}}</ref> The new scientific method led to great contributions in the fields of astronomy, physics, biology, and anatomy.{{efn|[[Joseph Ben-David]] wrote: {{blockquote|Rapid accumulation of knowledge, which has characterized the development of science since the 17th century, had never occurred before that time. The new kind of scientific activity emerged only in a few countries of Western Europe, and it was restricted to that small area for about two hundred years. (Since the 19th century, scientific knowledge has been assimilated by the rest of the world).}}}}<ref>{{Cite book | last = Hunt | first = Shelby D. | title = Controversy in marketing theory: for reason, realism, truth, and objectivity | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=07lchJbdWGgC| publisher = M.E. Sharpe | year = 2003 | page = 18 | isbn = 978-0765609328}}</ref> ===Navigation and geography=== {{further|Age of Discovery}} [[File:PietroCoppo.jpg|thumb|The world map by [[Pietro Coppo]], Venice, 1520]] During the Renaissance, extending from 1450 to 1650,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Woodward |first1=David |title=The History of Cartography, Volume Three: Cartography in the European Renaissance |date=2007 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago and London |isbn=978-0226907338}}</ref> every continent was visited and mostly mapped by Europeans, except the south polar continent now known as [[Antarctica]]. This development is depicted in the large world map ''Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula'' made by the Dutch cartographer [[Joan Blaeu]] in 1648 to commemorate the [[Peace of Westphalia]]. In 1492, [[Christopher Columbus]] sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain seeking a direct route to India of the [[Delhi Sultanate]]. He accidentally stumbled upon the Americas, but believed he had reached the East Indies. In 1606, the Dutch navigator [[Willem Janszoon]] sailed from the East Indies in the [[Dutch East India Company|VOC]] ship [[Duyfken]] and landed in [[Australia]]. He charted about 300 km of the west coast of [[Cape York Peninsula]] in Queensland. More than thirty Dutch expeditions followed, mapping sections of the north, west, and south coasts. In 1642β1643, [[Abel Tasman]] circumnavigated the continent, proving that it was not joined to the imagined south polar continent. By 1650, Dutch cartographers had mapped most of the coastline of the continent, which they named [[New Holland (Australia)|New Holland]], except the east coast which was charted in 1770 by [[James Cook]]. The long-imagined south polar continent was eventually sighted in 1820. Throughout the Renaissance it had been known as [[Terra Australis]], or 'Australia' for short. However, after that name was transferred to New Holland in the nineteenth century, the new name of 'Antarctica' was bestowed on the south polar continent.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cameron-Ash |first1=M. |title=Lying for the Admiralty: Captain Cook's Endeavour Voyage |date=2018 |publisher=Rosenberg |location=Sydney |isbn=978-0648043966 |pages=19β20}}</ref> ===Music=== {{Main|Renaissance music}} {{see also|Renaissance dance|List of Renaissance composers}} From this changing society emerged a common, unifying musical language, in particular the [[polyphony|polyphonic]] style of the [[Franco-Flemish]] school. The development of [[printing press|printing]] made distribution of music possible on a wide scale. Demand for music as entertainment and as an activity for educated amateurs increased with the emergence of a bourgeois class. Dissemination of [[chanson]]s, [[motet]]s, and [[mass (music)|masses]] throughout Europe coincided with the unification of polyphonic practice into the fluid style that culminated in the second half of the sixteenth century in the work of composers such as [[Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina|Palestrina]], [[Orlande de Lassus|Lassus]], [[TomΓ‘s Luis de Victoria|Victoria]], and [[William Byrd]]. ===Religion=== {{further|Renaissance Papacy|Reformation|Counter-Reformation}} [[File:Pope Alexander Vi.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Pope Alexander VI|Alexander VI]], a [[House of Borgia|Borgia]] Pope infamous for his corruption]] The new ideals of humanism, although more secular in some aspects, developed against a Christian backdrop, especially in the [[Northern Renaissance]]. Much, if not most, of the new art was commissioned by or in dedication to the [[Roman Catholic Church|Church]].<ref name="openuni" /> However, the Renaissance had a profound effect on contemporary [[theology]], particularly in the way people perceived the relationship between man and God.<ref name="openuni" /> Many of the period's foremost theologians were followers of the humanist method, including Erasmus, [[Huldrych Zwingli]], Thomas More, [[Martin Luther]], and [[John Calvin]]. [[File:Clovio magi.jpg|thumb|''[[Adoration of the Magi]]'' and ''[[Solomon]] adored by the [[Queen of Sheba]]'' from the ''[[Farnese Hours]]'' (1546) by [[Giulio Clovio]] marks [[Italian Renaissance#Renaissance end|the end of the Italian Renaissance]] of [[illuminated manuscript]] together with the ''[[Index Librorum Prohibitorum]]''.]] The Renaissance began in times of religious turmoil. The Late Middle Ages was a period of political intrigue surrounding the [[Papacy]], culminating in the [[Western Schism]], in which three men simultaneously claimed to be true [[Bishop]] of [[diocese of Rome|Rome]].<ref>[[Catholic Encyclopedia]], ''[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13539a.htm Western Schism]'' (Retrieved 10 May 2007)</ref> While the schism was resolved by the [[Council of Constance]] (1414), a resulting reform movement known as [[Conciliarism]] sought to limit the power of the pope. Although the papacy eventually emerged supreme in ecclesiastical matters by the [[Fifth Council of the Lateran]] (1511), it was dogged by continued accusations of corruption, most famously in the person of [[Pope Alexander VI]], who was accused variously of [[simony]], [[nepotism]], and [[Children of the ordained|fathering children]] (most of whom were married off, presumably for the consolidation of power) while a cardinal.<ref>[[Catholic Encyclopedia]], ''[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01289a.htm Alexander VI]'' (Retrieved 10 May 2007)</ref> Churchmen such as Erasmus and Luther proposed reform to the Church, often based on humanist [[textual criticism]] of the [[New Testament]].<ref name="openuni" /> In October 1517, Luther published the ''[[Ninety-five Theses]]'', challenging papal authority and criticizing its perceived corruption, particularly with regard to instances of sold [[indulgence]]s.{{efn|It is sometimes thought that the Church, as an institution, formally sold indulgences at the time. This, however, was not the practice. Donations were often received, but only mandated by individuals that were condemned.}} The 95 Theses led to the [[Reformation]], a break with the Roman Catholic Church that previously claimed hegemony in [[Western Europe]]. Humanism and the Renaissance therefore played a direct role in sparking the Reformation, as well as in many other contemporaneous religious debates and conflicts. [[Pope Paul III]] came to the papal throne (1534β1549) after the [[Sack of Rome (1527)|sack of Rome in 1527]], with uncertainties prevalent in the Catholic Church following the Reformation. Nicolaus Copernicus dedicated ''[[De revolutionibus orbium coelestium]]'' (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) to Paul III, who became the grandfather of [[Alessandro Farnese (cardinal)|Alessandro Farnese]], who had paintings by [[Titian]], [[Michelangelo]], and [[Raphael]], as well as an important collection of drawings, and who commissioned the masterpiece of [[Giulio Clovio]], arguably the last major [[illuminated manuscript]], the ''[[Farnese Hours]]''. ===Self-awareness=== [[File:The historian Leonardo Bruni.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Leonardo Bruni]]]] By the 15th century, writers, artists, and architects in Italy were well aware of the transformations that were taking place and were using phrases such as ''modi antichi'' (in the antique manner) or ''alle romana et alla antica'' (in the manner of the Romans and the ancients) to describe their work. In the 1330s [[Petrarch]] referred to pre-Christian times as ''antiqua'' (ancient) and to the Christian period as ''nova'' (new).<ref name=mommsen>{{cite journal | last = Mommsen | first = Theodore E.|author-link =Theodor Ernst Mommsen |title = Petrarch's Conception of the 'Dark Ages' | journal = [[Speculum (journal)|Speculum]] | volume = 17 | issue = 2 | pages = 226β242 | year = 1942| doi = 10.2307/2856364|jstor = 2856364 | s2cid = 161360211}}</ref> From Petrarch's Italian perspective, this new period (which included his own time) was an age of national eclipse.<ref name=mommsen/> [[Leonardo Bruni]] was the first to use tripartite [[periodization]] in his ''History of the Florentine People'' (1442).<ref name="Hankins">Leonardo Bruni, James Hankins, ''History of the Florentine people'', Volume 1, Books 1β4 (2001), p. xvii.</ref> Bruni's first two periods were based on those of Petrarch, but he added a third period because he believed that Italy was no longer in a state of decline. [[Flavio Biondo]] used a similar framework in ''Decades of History from the Deterioration of the Roman Empire'' (1439β1453). Humanist historians argued that contemporary scholarship restored direct links to the classical period, thus bypassing the Medieval period, which they then named for the first time the "Middle Ages". The term first appears in Latin in 1469 as ''media tempestas'' (middle times).<ref name="Albrow">Albrow, Martin, ''The Global Age: state and society beyond modernity'' (1997), Stanford University Press, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZwmdxMMjOd4C&pg=PA205 p. 205] {{ISBN|0804728704}}.</ref> The term ''rinascita'' (rebirth) first appeared, however, in its broad sense in [[Giorgio Vasari]]'s ''[[Le Vite de' piΓΉ eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori|Lives of the Artists]]'', 1550, revised 1568.<ref name="panofsky">[[Erwin Panofsky|Panofsky, Erwin]]. ''Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art'', New York: Harper and Row, 1960.</ref><ref>The Open University Guide to the Renaissance, ''[http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/renaissance/defining.htm Defining the Renaissance] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090721070445/http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/renaissance/defining.htm |date=21 July 2009 }}'' (Retrieved 10 May 2007)</ref> Vasari divides the age into three phases: the first phase contains [[Cimabue]], [[Giotto]], and [[Arnolfo di Cambio]]; the second phase contains [[Masaccio]], [[Filippo Brunelleschi|Brunelleschi]], and [[Donatello]]; the third centers on [[Leonardo da Vinci]] and culminates with [[Michelangelo]]. It was not just the growing awareness of classical antiquity that drove this development, according to Vasari, but also the growing desire to study and imitate nature.<ref>Sohm, Philip. ''Style in the Art Theory of Early Modern Italy'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) {{ISBN|0521780691}}.</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page