What Family Controlled the Throne of the Holy Roman Empire in the Renaissance

Italian Trade Cities

Italian city-states trading during the tardily Middle Ages fix the stage for the Renaissance by moving resources, civilisation, and knowledge from the East.

Learning Objectives

Bear witness how Northern Italy and the wealthy metropolis-states within information technology became such huge European powers

Cardinal Takeaways

Key Points

• While Northern Italy was not richer in resources than many other parts of Europe, the level of development, stimulated past trade, allowed it to prosper. In detail, Florence became 1 of the wealthiest cities in Northern Italy.
• Florence became the heart of this financial industry, and the gilded florin became the main currency of international trade.
• Luxury appurtenances bought in the Levant, such as spices, dyes, and silks, were imported to Italy and then resold throughout Europe.
• The Italian trade routes that covered the Mediterranean and beyond were besides major conduits of civilisation and cognition.

Key Terms

• Vitruvius: A Roman author, architect, and civil engineer (built-in c. fourscore–lxx BC, died after c. 15 BCE), perhaps best known for his multi-book work entitled De Architectura.
• Hanseatic League: A commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and their market towns that dominated merchandise along the coast of Northern Europe.
• Tacitus: A senator and a historian of the Roman Empire (c. 56–after 117 CE).
• Levant: The countries adjoining the eastern Mediterranean Bounding main.
• city-country: A political phenomenon of small independent states more often than not in the central and northern Italian peninsula between the 9th and 15th centuries.

Prosperous Metropolis-States

During the tardily Heart Ages, Northern and Central Italian republic became far more prosperous than the south of Italian republic, with the urban center-states, such as Venice and Genoa, amid the wealthiest in Europe. The Crusades had built lasting merchandise links to the Levant, and the Quaternary Crusade had done much to destroy the Byzantine Roman Empire as a commercial rival to the Venetians and Genoese.

The chief trade routes from the east passed through the Byzantine Empire or the Arab lands and onwards to the ports of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice. Luxury goods bought in the Levant, such as spices, dyes, and silks, were imported to Italia and so resold throughout Europe. Moreover, the inland city-states profited from the rich agricultural land of the Po valley.

From France, Germany, and the Low Countries, through the medium of the Champagne fairs, state and river trade routes brought appurtenances such as wool, wheat, and precious metals into the region. The extensive trade that stretched from Arab republic of egypt to the Baltic generated substantial surpluses that allowed significant investment in mining and agriculture.

Thus, while Northern Italy was not richer in resources than many other parts of Europe, the level of development, stimulated by trade, allowed it to prosper. In particular, Florence became one of the wealthiest cities in Northern Italy, due mainly to its woolen textile production, developed under the supervision of its dominant trade order, the Arte della Lana. Wool was imported from Northern Europe (and in the 16th century from Spain), and together with dyes from the east was used to make high quality textiles.

Revitalizing Merchandise Routes

In the 13th century, much of Europe experienced potent economic growth. The merchandise routes of the Italian states linked with those of established Mediterranean ports, and eventually the Hanseatic League of the Baltic and northern regions of Europe, to create a network economy in Europe for the first fourth dimension since the quaternary century. The city-states of Italia expanded greatly during this catamenia, and grew in power to go de facto fully independent of the Holy Roman Empire; autonomously from the Kingdom of Naples, outside powers kept their armies out of Italy. During this period, the mod commercial infrastructure adult, with double-entry bookkeeping, articulation stock companies, an international banking arrangement, a systematized foreign commutation market place, insurance, and government debt. Florence became the center of this fiscal industry, and the gold florin became the main currency of international trade.

While Roman urban republican sensibilities persisted, in that location were many movements and changes itinerant. Italy first felt the changes in Europe from the 11th to the 13th centuries. Typically there was:

• A ascent in population―the population doubled in this flow (the demographic explosion)
• An emergence of huge cities (Venice, Florence, and Milan had over 100,000 inhabitants by the 13th century, and many others, such every bit Genoa, Bologna, and Verona, had over fifty,000)
• Rebuilding of the great cathedrals
• Substantial migration from country to city (in Italy the rate of urbanization reached twenty%, making it the most urbanized lodge in the world at that fourth dimension)
• An agrarian revolution
• Development of commerce

The reject of feudalism and the rising of cities influenced each other; for example, the demand for luxury goods led to an increase in trade, which led to greater numbers of tradesmen becoming wealthy, who, in turn, demanded more luxury appurtenances.

Palazzo della Signoria eastward Uffizzi, Florence: Florence was one of the about of import city-states in Italian republic.

The Transfer of Culture and Knowledge

The Italian trade routes that covered the Mediterranean and beyond were also major conduits of culture and knowledge. The recovery of lost Greek texts, which had been preserved by Arab scholars, post-obit the Crusader conquest of the Byzantine heartlands revitalized medieval philosophy in the Renaissance of the 12th century. Additionally, Byzantine scholars migrated to Italy during and following the Ottoman conquest of the Byzantines between the twelfth and 15th centuries, and were of import in sparking the new linguistic studies of the Renaissance, in newly created academies in Florence and Venice. Humanist scholars searched monastic libraries for aboriginal manuscripts and recovered Tacitus and other Latin authors. The rediscovery of Vitruvius meant that the architectural principles of Antiquity could be observed again, and Renaissance artists were encouraged, in the temper of humanist optimism, to excel the achievements of the Ancients, like Apelles, of whom they read.

Venice and the Ottoman Empire: Crash Course World History #nineteen: John Green discusses the strange and mutually beneficial human relationship between a republic, the metropolis-state of Venice, and an Empire, the Ottomans—and how studying history tin assistance you to be a improve beau and/or girlfriend. Together, the Ottoman Empire and Venice grew wealthy by facilitating trade: The Venetians had ships and nautical expertise; the Ottomans had access to many of the well-nigh valuable goods in the world, especially pepper and grain. Working together across cultural and religious divides, they both become very rich, and the Ottomans became i of the most powerful political entities in the world.

Italian Politics

Italian politics during the time of the Renaissance was dominated past the rise merchant grade, especially one family, the House of Medici, whose power in Florence was nearly absolute.

Learning Objectives

Draw the intricacies of Italian politics during this time

Key Takeaways

Central Points

• Northern and Central Italy became prosperous in the late Eye Ages through the growth of international merchandise and the ascension of the merchant class, who eventually gained almost consummate control of the governments of the Italian city-states.
• A popular caption for the Italian Renaissance is the thesis that the master impetus of the early Renaissance was the long-running series of wars between Florence and Milan, whereby the leading figures of Florence rallied the people by presenting the state of war as ane betwixt the free republic and a despotic monarchy.
• The House of Medici was an Italian banking family unit, political dynasty, and later imperial business firm in Florence who were the major sponsors of art and architecture in the early and Loftier Renaissance.

Fundamental Terms

• Business firm of Medici: An Italian banking family, political dynasty, and later royal house in the Republic of Florence during the first one-half of the 15th century that had a major impact on the rise of the Italian Renaissance.
• Hundred Years' War: A series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the House of Valois, rulers of the Kingdom of France, for command of the Kingdom of French republic.

Italy in the Late Centre Ages

Past the Belatedly Middle Ages (circa 1300 onward), Latium, the quondam heartland of the Roman Empire, and southern Italy were generally poorer than the north. Rome was a city of ancient ruins, and the Papal States were loosely administered and vulnerable to external interference such as that of French republic, and later Kingdom of spain. The papacy was affronted when the Avignon Papacy was created in southern France as a effect of pressure level from King Philip the Fair of France. In the south, Sicily had for some fourth dimension been under foreign domination, by the Arabs and then the Normans. Sicily had prospered for 150 years during the Emirate of Sicily, and subsequently for ii centuries during the Norman Kingdom and the Hohenstaufen Kingdom, but had declined by the belatedly Middle Ages.

The Rise of the Merchant Course

In dissimilarity, Northern and Key Italy had go far more prosperous, and it has been calculated that the region was amongst the richest in Europe. The new mercantile governing class, who gained their position through fiscal skill, adapted to their purposes the feudal aristocratic model that had dominated Europe in the Centre Ages. A feature of the High Middle Ages in Northern Italy was the rise of the urban communes, which had broken from the control of bishops and local counts. In much of the region, the landed dignity was poorer than the urban patriarchs in the high medieval money economic system, whose inflationary rise left land-holding aristocrats impoverished. The increase in trade during the early Renaissance enhanced these characteristics.

This change also gave the merchants almost consummate command of the governments of the Italian metropolis-states, once more enhancing trade. I of the most of import effects of this political control was security. Those that grew extremely wealthy in a feudal country ran constant risk of running afoul of the monarchy and having their lands confiscated, as famously occurred to Jacques Coeur in France. The northern states too kept many medieval laws that severely hampered commerce, such as those confronting usury and prohibitions on trading with non-Christians. In the city-states of Italy, these laws were repealed or rewritten.

The 14th century saw a series of catastrophes that acquired the European economy to go into recession, including the Hundred Years' War, the Blackness Decease, and numerous famines. It was during this period of instability that the Renaissance authors such as Dante and Petrarch lived, and the start stirrings of Renaissance fine art were to exist seen, notably in the realism of Giotto. Paradoxically, some of these disasters would help establish the Renaissance. The Black Decease wiped out a third of Europe'southward population. The resulting labor shortage increased wages, and the reduced population was therefore much wealthier and better fed, and, significantly, had more than surplus money to spend on luxury goods. As incidences of the plague began to decline in the early 15th century, Europe's devastated population once once more began to abound. The new demand for products and services besides helped create a growing class of bankers, merchants, and skilled artisans.

Warring Italians

Northern Italia and upper Primal Italy were divided into a number of warring city-states, the virtually powerful being Milan, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Genoa, Ferrara, Mantua, Verona, and Venice. Loftier medieval Northern Italia was further divided by the long-running battle for supremacy betwixt the forces of the papacy and of the Holy Roman Empire; each metropolis aligned itself with one faction or the other, all the same was divided internally between the two warring parties, Guelfs and Ghibellines. Warfare between the states was common, but invasion from outside Italy was confined to intermittent sorties of Holy Roman emperors. Renaissance politics developed from this background. Since the 13th century, as armies became primarily equanimous of mercenaries, prosperous city-states could field considerable forces, despite their depression populations. In the course of the 15th century, the near powerful city-states annexed their smaller neighbors. Florence took Pisa in 1406, Venice captured Padua and Verona, and the Duchy of Milan annexed a number of nearby areas, including Pavia and Parma.

A pop explanation for the Italian Renaissance is the thesis, first advanced by historian Hans Businesswoman, that the master impetus of the early Renaissance was the long-running series of wars betwixt Florence and Milan. By the late 14th century, Milan had become a centralized monarchy under the control of the Visconti family. Giangaleazzo Visconti, who ruled the city from 1378 to 1402, was renowned both for his cruelty and for his abilities, and fix about building an empire in Northern Italy. He launched a long series of wars, with Milan steadily conquering neighboring states and defeating the various coalitions led by Florence that sought in vain to halt the advance. This culminated in the 1402 siege of Florence, when information technology looked as though the city was doomed to autumn, before Giangaleazzo suddenly died and his empire collapsed.

Baron's thesis suggests that during these long wars, the leading figures of Florence rallied the people by presenting the war as ane between the free commonwealth and a despotic monarchy, between the ideals of the Greek and Roman Republics and those of the Roman Empire and medieval kingdoms. For Baron, the most important figure in crafting this ideology was Leonardo Bruni. This time of crisis in Florence was the catamenia when the near influential figures of the early Renaissance were coming of age, such as Ghiberti, Donatello, Masolino, and Brunelleschi. Inculcated with this republican ideology, they later went on to advocate republican ideas that were to have an enormous affect on the Renaissance.

The Medici Family unit

The Business firm of Medici was an Italian cyberbanking family unit, political dynasty, and later imperial house that commencement began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until they were able to fund the Medici Banking company. The depository financial institution was the largest in Europe during the 15th century, which helped the Medici gain political power in Florence—though officially they remained citizens rather than monarchs. The biggest accomplishments of the Medici were in the sponsorship of art and architecture, mainly early and High Renaissance fine art and architecture. The Medici were responsible for the majority of Florentine fine art during their reign.

Their wealth and influence initially derived from the textile trade guided by the society of the Arte della Lana. Like other signore families, they dominated their city's government, they were able to bring Florence nether their family'due south power, and they created an environment where fine art and Humanism could flourish. They, along with other families of Italian republic, such as the Visconti and Sforza of Milan, the Este of Ferrara, and the Gonzaga of Mantua, fostered and inspired the nascency of the Italian Renaissance. The Medici family was continued to most other elite families of the time through marriages of convenience, partnerships, or employment, so the family unit had a central position in the social network. Several families had systematic access to the remainder of the elite families only through the Medici, perhaps similar to banking relationships.

The Medici Bank was ane of the most prosperous and most respected institutions in Europe. There are some estimates that the Medici family were the wealthiest family in Europe for a fourth dimension. From this base of operations, they acquired political power initially in Florence and later in wider Italia and Europe. A notable contribution to the profession of accounting was the comeback of the full general ledger system through the development of the double-entry bookkeeping system for tracking credits and debits. The Medici family were among the primeval businesses to use the arrangement.

Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici was the first of the Medici political dynasty, and had tremendous political ability in Florence. Despite his influence, his power was not absolute; Florence's legislative councils at times resisted his proposals, something that would not accept been tolerated by the Visconti of Milan, for instance. Throughout his life he was ever primus inter pares, or first among equals. His power over Florence stemmed from his wealth, which he used to control votes. As Florence was proud of its "commonwealth," Medici pretended to have little political ambition, and did not oftentimes hold public office. Aeneas Sylvius, Bishop of Siena and subsequently Pope Pius Ii, said of him, "Political questions are settled in [Cosimo's] house. The human he chooses holds office… He it is who decides peace and state of war… He is male monarch in all but proper name."

Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici: Portrait of Cosimo de' Medici, the found of the Firm of Medici, past Jacopo Pontormo; the laurel branch (il Broncone) was a symbol used likewise by his heirs.

The Church building During the Italian Renaissance

The new Humanist ideals of the Renaissance, although more secular in many aspects, developed against a Christian backdrop, and the church patronized many works of Renaissance art.

Learning Objectives

Clarify the church's role in Italy at the time of the Renaissance

Key Takeaways

Cardinal Points

• The Renaissance began in times of religious turmoil, especially surrounding the papacy, which culminated in the Western Schism, in which three men simultaneously claimed to be the truthful pope.
• The new engagement with Greek Christian works during the Renaissance, and especially the return to the original Greek of the New Testament promoted by Humanists Lorenzo Valla and Erasmus, helped pave the way for the Protestant Reformation.
• In addition to being the head of the church building, the pope became one of Italy'due south most important secular rulers, and pontiffs such as Julius Ii frequently waged campaigns to protect and aggrandize their temporal domains.
• The Counter-Reformation was a period of Cosmic resurgence initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation.

Central Terms

• neo-Platonism: A tradition of philosophy that arose in the 3rd century CE, based on the philosophy of Plato, which involved describing the derivation of the whole of reality from a single principle, "the One." Plotinus is traditionally identified every bit the founder of this schoolhouse.
• Western Schism: A split within the Roman Catholic Church that lasted from 1378 to 1417, when three men simultaneously claimed to exist the truthful pope.
• Counter-Reformation: A period of Catholic resurgence initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation.

The Church in the Late Center Ages

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 iii men simultaneously claimed to be the truthful pope. While the schism was resolved by the Council of Constance (1414), a resulting reform movement known as Conciliarism sought to limit the ability of the pope. Although the papacy somewhen emerged supreme in ecclesiastical matters by the Fifth Council of the Lateran (1511), it was dogged by continued accusations of corruption, almost famously in the person of Pope Alexander Half-dozen, who was accused variously of simony, nepotism, and fathering four children.

Pope Alexander Six: Alexander 6, a Borgia pope infamous for his abuse.

Churchmen such as Erasmus and Luther proposed reform to the church, often based on Humanist textual criticism of the New Testament. In October 1517 Luther published the Xc-five Theses, challenging papal authority and criticizing its perceived corruption, particularly with regard to instances of sold indulgences. The Ninety-five 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, also as in many other contemporaneous religious debates and conflicts.

Pope Paul III came to the papal throne (1534–1549) after the sack of Rome in 1527, with uncertainties prevalent in the Catholic Church following the Protestant Reformation. Nicolaus Copernicus defended De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) to Paul III, who became the granddaddy of Alessandro Farnese (key), who had paintings by Titian, Michelangelo, and Raphael, as well as an important collection of drawings, and who deputed the masterpiece of Giulio Clovio, arguably the last major illuminated manuscript, the Farnese Hours.

The Church and the Renaissance

The city of Rome, the papacy, and the Papal States were all affected past the Renaissance. On the ane mitt, information technology was a fourth dimension of great artistic patronage and architectural magnificence, when the church building pardoned and even sponsored such artists as Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Bramante, Raphael, Fra Angelico, Donatello, and da Vinci. On the other hand, wealthy Italian families often secured episcopal offices, including the papacy, for their own members, some of whom were known for immorality.

In the revival of neo-Platonism and other ancient philosophies, Renaissance Humanists did non pass up Christianity; quite to the opposite, many of the Renaissance'southward greatest works were devoted to it, and the church patronized many works of Renaissance fine art. The new ideals of Humanism, although more than secular in some aspects, developed confronting a Christian backdrop, especially in the Northern Renaissance. In turn, the Renaissance had a profound outcome on gimmicky theology, especially in the way people perceived the relationship between human being and God.

Michelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican Metropolis: Michelangelo'due south Pietà exemplifies the character of Renaissance art, combining the classical aesthetic of Greek fine art with religious imagery, in this case Mother Mary property the torso of Jesus after the crucifixion.

In addition to beingness the head of the church building, the pope became one of Italy's most of import secular rulers, and pontiffs such every bit Julius II ofttimes waged campaigns to protect and expand their temporal domains. Furthermore, the popes, in a spirit of refined competition with other Italian lords, spent lavishly both on private luxuries and public works, repairing or building churches, bridges, and a magnificent system of aqueducts in Rome that nonetheless function today.

From 1505 to 1626, St. Peter's Basilica, perhaps the most recognized Christian church, was built on the site of the old Constantinian basilica in Rome. This was a time of increased contact with Greek culture, opening upwards new avenues of learning, especially in the fields of philosophy, poesy, classics, rhetoric, and political science, fostering a spirit of Humanism–all of which would influence the church building.

Counter-Reformation

The Counter-Reformation, as well called the Catholic Reformation or the Catholic Revival, was the menstruum of Catholic resurgence initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation, beginning with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War (1648). The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort composed of four major elements—ecclesiastical or structural reconfigurations, new religious orders (such as the Jesuits), spiritual movements, and political reform.

Such reforms included the foundation of seminaries for the proper training of priests in the spiritual life and the theological traditions of the church, the reform of religious life by returning orders to their spiritual foundations, and new spiritual movements focusing on the devotional life and a personal human relationship with Christ, including the Castilian mystics and the French school of spirituality. It as well involved political activities that included the Roman Inquisition. One primary emphasis of the Counter-Reformation was a mission to attain parts of the world that had been colonized every bit predominantly Cosmic, and as well try to reconvert areas, such as Sweden and England, that were at one time Catholic but had been Protestantized during the Reformation.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/italy-during-the-renaissance/

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