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Assistant professor Daniela Brown

Department of English
University of Bucharest

Unit 5

D. The Renaissance (end of the 14th century through the 17th century)

I. Etymology and Periodization

Renaissance: the “rebirth” of the values and tastes of Antiquity. A cultural movement from the 14th c (Italy)
to the 17th c (the rest of Europe) that influenced politics, science, religion, philosophy, the arts and
literature

II. Events
In politics:
 the Fall of Constantinople in the hands of the Turks (1453) and the retreat of Greek scholars to Italy
(running away from the Turks)
 the power of the word (diplomacy) used more effectively rather than the power of the sword (war)
In science:
 the invention of the printing press (around 1450) by Johannes Gutenberg which brought about the
spreading of ideas around Europe
In religion: for the Northern part of Europe: the Reformation: in 1517, Martin Luther PROTESTED against
the sale of indulgences and the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church in getting clerical offices in a
document called Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences to the door of a church in
Wittenberg. 1521- Luther’s excommunication from the Catholic Church marked the Protestant Reformation
which touched England too. The reaction of the Catholic Church: The Counter-Reformation (1545-1563)
In philosophy
 a stress on observation which, in the 17th century, developed into empiricism (knowledge: through
sensory experience and evidence based on experiments) (Francis Bacon: inductive
reasoning/induction: a general proposition is to be derived from particular examples)
In the arts:
 In the art of painting: the stress on mimesis (the introduction of the 3rd dimension: depth) and the
linear perspective (“a type of perspective used by artists, in which the relative size, shape, and position of
objects is determined by drawn or imagined lines converging at a point on the horizon.” Dictionary)
In education and the study of literature:
 The large use of Latin and vernacular literatures determined a deeper interest in classical texts
(ancient Greek and Roman ones)
 Humanism: a gradual reform in education based on (studia humanitatis or the humanities):
grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, moral philosophy, which was a response to the scholastic
approach to education (theology, law, medicine, logic and natural philosophy, all to prove the
existence of God).

III. The Renaissance man and Humanism

Homo Universalis/A polymath/ polymathic person/ Renaissance man: a very knowledgeable person
deeply immersed in several fields; universal learning (Petrarch, Thomas More, Leonardo da Vinci,
Michelangelo, Francis Bacon)

IV. The aim of Humanism was to create communities made of people educated in the spirit of culture,
rhetoric and ethics that would allow them to build a communal virtuous and moral life. The literary and
morally philosophical texts were those of ancient classicism.
“Humanism sought to replace a scholastic curriculum focused on…highly specialized systems of
philosophy, theology and logic with a broader, more ‘humane’ training in literature and rhetoric…It
introduced 2 programmes: an interest in the recovery, restoration and translation of classical texts
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from Greek and Latin antiquity; and a focus on training and speaking elegant Ciceronian1 Latin
(rather than the ‘debased’ medieval Latin of the schoolmen).”2

V. The Renaissance human model: the courtier

Baldassare Castiglione3’s book Il Libro del Cortegiano (The Book of the Courtier), published in 1528
describes a new human model: the courtier, very different from the medieval model of the knight (who was a
pilgrim and a defender of the Christian truth). It is an imagined dialogue on the ideal Renaissance man:
 someone in control of discourse in order to be able to serve his city and country
 someone full of eloquence:
 a./ educated in the spirit of ancient Classicism (knowing Greek and Latin
languages and philosophies), cultivated, refined in the knowledge of poetry
 b./ skilful in fighting and horsemanship, skilful in playing music, drawing,
painting, dancing, writing poetry, in behaving gracefully.

oto be eloquent: to dominate your interlocutor gracefully at the level of culture & at the level
of fighting and horsemanship.
 Sprezzatura: the ideal courtier should be able to do everything mentioned above in a natural graceful
way (the art that conceals art)
 the courtier has to be a man of honour and moral elegance
 the courtier should behave in a modest way, totally avoid arrogance and be polite when it comes to
the others’ efforts and opinions

VI. Renaissance Vision

1./ The human being: the most important creation of God, therefore, man is placed in the middle of God’s
universe. Not any human being, it is the man of genius, the cultural giant, the titan, the humanist: the
Renaissance man
2./ God’s universe is harmoniously ordered and this world of reality is an imitation of an abstract divine
order. The physical beauty of the world is a sign of revelation (Medieval Inheritance: M.I.)
3./ Art is the messenger of truth and the human being should aspire to a moral truth (M.I.)
4./ The approach to knowledge is by means of love (M.I.). 2./ and 3./ also express Marsilio Ficino’s Neo-
Platonist approach4: the world is the visible aspect of an invisible beauty and art has the function to reveal
this beauty. Michelangelo: the beauty of the human body irradiates the wonderful qualities of the mind and
soul
6./ Nicolaus Cusanus5 (15th c): Coincidentia opositorum (first mentioned by Heraclitus, 5th c BC) : the unity
of opposites where mutability is the ambassador of permanence
There is a relationship between permanence and mutability:
 the medieval vision: in the afterlife, there is a world in which man obtains perfection
 the Renaissance vision: man aspires to perfection in this life, in this world, which becomes extremely
precious. Eternity can be reached in this reality by moments of extreme intensity of living
Mutability is a way of understanding the ephemeral and the permanent, it is a way of appreciating life in this
world.
7./ Carpe Diem (Horace)6
8./ Learning is a permanent necessity and art has a moral function (“Renovatio Hominis”: the movement of
man to a higher level: the spiritual level: finding values and permanence in this reality.)

1
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( 106 BC-43BC): Roman orator, philosopher, prose stylist who greatly influenced the Latin
language (giving it a literary value), whose letters discovered by Petrarch in the 14 th century had an impact on the
beginning of the Italian Renaissance (Wikipaedia)
2
Thomas Crane, Mary. “Early Tudor Humanism”. A Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture. Ed.
Michael Hattaway. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003, 14
3
Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529): Italian courtier and humanist writer
4
Marsilio Ficino (15th century): Catholic priest, humanist philosopher, Neoplatonist (Neoplatonists believed human
perfection and happiness were attainable in this world, without awaiting an afterlife achieved through
philosophical contemplation.) (Wikipaedia)
5
Nicolaus Cusanus (1401-1464): German philosopher, humanist, theologian
6
Horace: 1st century BC Roman lyric poet.
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9./ “Homo Universalis” (see “III. Polymath”). In the Middle Ages, the stress falls on the voice of the
community, the anonymous “Everyman”, but in the Renaissance, the human being is no longer a part of a
multitude, he/she strives to have a particular identity, a name through the fame given by culture. It is a fight
against mutability and mortality.
10./ The concept of free choice: the human being can choose between God and Satan
11./ One should make one’s life as if it were a work of art
12./ The mobile perspective on truth: the Renaissance man realises he is no longer a unit, but a plurality of
selves, a multifaceted being (his own friend and his own enemy at the same time) (Hamlet)
13./ The world as a stage: the Renaissance people considered the whole world a stage in which men were
actors interpreting a part given by a Director (God) in the theatre play of life. Drama represented the most
important genre of the epoch.
14./ “Man is a God in ruins” (the drama of the limit): the tragic awareness that we are physically limited, but
have infinite aspirations and ideals
15./ Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas. Memento mori (See Holbein’s painting The Ambassadors)

VII. English Renaissance

English Renaissance was part of the Northern European Renaissance which, unlike the Italian Renaissance
(which basically remained secular), the Northern European one included the religious reform within the
humanist cultural movement (Desiderius Erasmus/Erasmus of Rotterdam7 (1466-1536): a Catholic priest and
classical scholar who spoke about religious toleration, reform within the Catholic Church and stress on
knowledge, Thomas More8)
Historical Facts
The beginning of the Renaissance in England is associated with the 1st Tudor king, Henry VII who came to
the throne in 1485. He had great interest in employing cultured and refined humanists for propagandistic
reasons connected to his divine right to rule.
A period that covered the reigns of the following monarchs from:
 the Tudor dynasty (1485-1603): Henry VII: 1485-1509, Henry VIII: 1509-1547, Eduard VI: 1547-
1553, Mary I: 1553-1558, Elizabeth I: 1558-1603
 the Stuart dynasty (1603- 1707): James VI of Scotland and I of England (1603-1625)

Literary Characteristics
The English Renaissance has, basically, two tendencies to be met either in some authors or both of them
within the same writer:

I. Authors like Thomas More (prose) and Edmund Spencer (poetry) dedicated their writing activity and
life mainly to POLITICS:
“for More, the highest duty of a men learned in the theory and practice of ancient
government was to serve his king”9

Thomas More’s humanist approach to a vita activa came into contrast to his Dutch friend, Erasmus’, whose
approach to life improvement was that of very little involvement into the political activity of the time (vita
contemplativa).

“ for Erasmus, the world was best improved by writing, by education and by a scholar’s
freedom of action, not by a direct involvement in the state politics… A prince was best
counselled from a safe distance, ideally through literature [which meant] an extended
political discourse”.10

Thomas More wrote Utopia, published in 1516 in Latin and its translated English version appeared in 1551

7
Erasmus wrote In Praise of Folly also known as In Praise of More (with reference to Thomas More, his English friend
(written in 1509 and printed in 1511)
8
Sir Thomas More (1478-1535): English statesman, lawyer, humanist, a councillor to King Henry XVIII and Lord
Chancellor. He was against Martin Luther and Protestant Reformation and would not recognize the king as the Supreme
Head of the Church, for which reason he was put to death. A very good friend of Erasmus.
9
Sanders, Andrew. The Short Oxford History of English Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993, p. 92
10
Ibid
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“Utopia” means “nowhere” in Greek.
He describes an island which is a decentralised kingdom ruled by an elected monarch surrounded by his
councillors. No property, no currency, no conflict. A place of morality and religious toleration. Communal
meals and uniforms.

Edmund Spencer (1552-1599): an official in Ireland (politically involved) and one of the first great English
poets in Modern English. He wrote:
 The Faerie Queene, (1590-the first 3 books, 1596-the next 3 books) an allegorical poem in praise of
Queen Elizabeth I whom she calls Gloriana, the Queen of the Fairies.Spencer defends Protestantism:
he compares Queen Mary I with Lucifera, a character representing Satan, an evil tyrant that must be
destroyed.
 Amoretti: a sonnet cycle (89 sonnets) (published in 1595) dedicated to his future wife (Elizabeth
Boyle), written in the Petrarchan tradition (spiritual love). The difference from Petrarch: Spencer is
writing about a woman who is accessible to him, courting her into marrying him)

Let not one sparke of filthy lustfull fyre

Beake out, that may her sacred peace molest:
Ne one light glance of sensuall desire
Attempt to work her gentle mindes unrest.
But pure affections bred in spotless brest…
(Spencer sonnet LXXXIII)

II. Sir Philip Sydney and William Shakespeare dedicated their writing activity to the FUNCTION OF
ART. They were not so very much dependent on politics in their writings.

Sir Philip Sydney (1554-1586): one of the best English Elizabethan poets, a courtier
In his lifetime, he stood for the model of Castiglione’s courtier.
A friend of Edmund Spencer and Giordano Bruno11
He wrote:

 An Apology of Poetry (The Defence of Poesy) (about 1579): an essay that represents a Renaissance
manifesto on the function of poetry: to teach, to please, to improve and to refine the human spirit.
Influenced by:
o Aristotle: poetry is more philosophical than history, because history deals with particular
things, while poetry deals with universal ones. Art imitates the universal quality in life, art is
a mirror.
o Plato: beauty is a quality of the spiritual which animates matter. It is the idea that gave birth
to mater, the idea is pre-existent.

William Shakespeare.

In the Renaissance, we can transform life for the better by paying attention to
art.

Bibliography
Hattaway, Michael, ed. A Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003
Pillat, Monica. Unpublished Taught Course on Medieval and Renaissance Literature. University of Bucharest,
Department of English Language and Literature, 1983. (For part VI: Renaissance Vision)
http://classweb.gmu.edu/rnanian/humours.html)
Sanders, Andrew. The Short Oxford History of English Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993

11
Giordano Bruno (1548-1600): Italian Dominican friar and astronomer, burned at the stake by the Catholic Church for
his belief that the Sun is a star, the Earth moves round its own axis, the universe is infinite. No divine creation.
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