Renaissance the Term \"Renaissance\" Means \"To Be

Renaissance

The term "Renaissance" means "to be reborn," or "rebirth," and as a cultural movement in Europe, the Renaissance is generally accepted to have begun in Florence Italy in the late 13th century. Some claim that it was the result of the fall of Constantinople and the many Greek scholars and texts which found their way to Italy soon after bringing with them not only the knowledge of the classical world, but the new Islamic knowledge that was derived from it. This influx on knowledge started a cultural revival which sought to recapture the glorious past of the classical world, but soon exploded into the creation of an entirely new cultural identity based on the classical past but transformed into something completely unique. The ideas of the Renaissance spread throughout Europe completely transforming European nations artistically, economically, politically, socially, technologically, and in virtually every other aspect of culture. One can say that the modern world is a direct descendant of the Renaissance, and its effects still influence modern society today.

As a cultural movement, the Renaissance included a number of different aspects: literature, art, politics, economics, philosophy, but most importantly humanism, or the idea that humans, and human activities were to play the central role in life. It was in Italy in the late 13th century that the Renaissance is generally accepted to have started, and while it began with the arts it soon spread to architecture, science, politics, and other aspects of culture. This cultural change took the form of new styles of painting and building, the rise of the universities, changes in politics and economics, all of which were responsible for bringing about the idea that humans were to be the center of life and culture; not supernatural or religious forces. (Gundersheimer, 1993, pp. 7-9)

From Italy, the ideas of the Renaissance spread throughout Europe and had differing affects on different areas of the continent. In terms of art, the Renaissance in Northern Europe was embraced by German and Flemish artists like Durer, van Eyck, Bruegel, and others who ceased painting religious themes and began to paint everyday life instead. ("The Northern Renaissance") They changed the focus of their subject matter from religion to ordinary human activities; manifesting the ideas of humanism in their art. The Northern European Renaissance also saw the creation of new technologies, such as the printing press in 1445, which forever altered the way information was transmitted. ("Renaissance: Printing and Thinking") This led to the creation and spread of European literature and the rise of English writers like Marlowe, Shakespeare, as well as the inspiration for one of the most influential books in English literature: the King James Bible.

There is a common belief that the burgeoning Islamic culture, when it expanded outside of the Arabian Peninsula, came into contact with the more ancient civilizations of Byzantium and Persia and was enhanced by the knowledge gained. (Saliba, 2007, p.4) The Muslims then took this knowledge of science, literature, philosophy, etc., gained from the classical world, and expanded it to create Islamic science and culture. Islamic culture then transmitted this new knowledge, derived from the wisdom of the classical Greeks and Romans, back into the classical world through its contacts with the Byzantine Empire (the remnants of the old Eastern Roman Empire). It is generally accepted that the fall of Constantinople "…played a very important role in transmitting scientific ideas from Islamic civilization to the European renaissance…" (Saliba, 2007, p.22) In effect, the Muslims took the knowledge of classical writers, created a new, expanded culture based on this knowledge, expanded this knowledge to include new ideas and concepts, and then transmitted all the new information back into Europe through the Byzantine Empire. And when Constantinople was conquered by the Muslims in 1453, much of the knowledge from Byzantium flowed westward into Italy with the many refugees fleeing the fall of Constantinople. The arrival of this new knowledge in Italy then provided the spark for the Europeans to attempt to recapture the grandeur of the classical world in their architecture, literature, politics and law, art, and society in general.