According to fifteenth and sixteenth century humanist thinkers, the Middle Ages represented a thousand years of ignorance and superstition. These so-called Renaissance men, who saw themselves as leaders in an era of rebirth and learning, looked to the ancient Greeks and Romans for models in literature and art as their view of man and his world. Some historians, however, have questioned this interpretation about a sharp division between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; they cite increased intellectual activity starting in medieval universities. Thus the debate centers on whether the Renaissance was a unique age or a continuation of a bygone one. Using the documents provided, as well as any background knowledge, write an argumentative essay (multi-paragraph, thesis-driven) answering the following question. Document-Based Question: Was the Renaissance, with its unique advances, a period distinct from the Middle Ages or was it a continuation the high point of the Middle Ages? Guidelines Pre-Writing o Carefully analyze the document-based question in the box above (deconstruct and construct language from the question itself); identify, circle, and think about what the question is asking o Carefully analyze the source documents (deconstruct language and construct ideas), looking for strengths and tensions in the text; circle and identify patterns, trends, connections in the text; think about why these sources provided in the first place o Seek out outside research if you feel inclined; add a Works Cited page o Outline and think about the flow of the paper, and then write drafts Writing o Create a clear, narrow, causal/contrasting thesis statement o Use evidence from the source documents, as well as any helpful outside information (think about information from prior units) to support your thesis o Cite by quoting, summarizing, paraphrasing, and generalizing when helpful (but do not over-quote, over-summarize, over-paraphrase, etc.); the writing should be yours o Analyze how your evidence supports your position; show when you can, don t tell o Consider any alternatives or counter claims o Include an introduction (attention-grabbing opening, context, thesis, etc.), body paragraphs (transitions and topic sentences, information and evidence), and a conclusion (revisit the thesis in a nuanced and subtle way, thinking about the big picture, ending forcefully) o 3-4 pages in length, cite from a minimum of seven (7) sources Tentative Schedule* Consider prior knowledge or revisit sources learned in previous units; carefully analyze each of the sources in this document packet by Friday, 02/03/2017 Craft an outline by Monday, 02/06/2017 Craft a draft by Monday, 02/13/2017 Produce a final draft by Friday, 02/17/2017 * I reserve the right to spot-check or collect any work throughout the writing process, so please be mindful of completing your work in a measured fashion. Your writing will develop if you do space out the thinking and writing process.
Document 1 Excerpt from (1940) by Wallace K. Ferguson The idea that there was a great revival or rebirth of literature and the arts, after a thousand years of cultural sterility, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries originated with the Italian writers of the Renaissance themselves. Finding the feudal and ecclesiastical literature and Gothic art of the Middle Ages uncongenial to their taste, they turned for inspiration to the civilization of Roman and Greek antiquity Thus, from the beginning, the double conception of medieval darkness and subsequent rebirth was colored by the acceptance of classical standards. Document 2 Excerpt from The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1878) by Jacob Burchhardt In the Middle Ages both sides of human consciousness that which was turned within as that which was turned without lay dreaming or half awake beneath a common veil. The veil was woven of faith, illusion, and childish prepossession, though which the world and history were seen clad in strange hues. Man was conscious of himself only as a member of a race, people, party, family, or corporation only through some general category. In Italy this veil first melted into air man became a spiritual individual, and recognized himself as such. In the same way the Greek had once distinguished himself from barbarian, and the Arabian had felt himself an individual at a time when other Asiatics knew themselves only as members of a race. In far earlier times we can here and there detect a development of free personality which in Northern Europe either did not occur at all, or could not display itself in the same manner. But at the close of the thirteenth century Italy began to swarm with individuality; the charm laid upon human personality was dissolved; and a thousand figures meet us each in its own special shape and dress. Dante s great poem would have been impossible in any other country of Europe. For Italy, the august poet, through the wealth of individuality which he set forth, was the most national herald of his time. When this impulse to the highest individual development was combined with a powerful and varied nature, then arose the all-sided man in Italy at the time of the Renaissance we find artists who in every branch create new and perfect works, and who also made the greatest impression as men. Document 3 Excerpt from Renaissance or Prenaissance? by Lynn Thorndike in The Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. IV, No. 1 (January 1943), p. 74 But would it not make things clearer, if they ceased to employ the old name, since the old concept has been abandoned, and, instead of talking of the Renaissance, spoke of a period or movement or whatever it is they have in mind as the Prenaissance? The concept of the Italian Renaissance or Prenaissance has in my opinion done a great deal of harm in the past and may continue to do harm in the future. It is too suggestive of a sensational, miraculous, extraordinary, magical, human and intellectual development, like unto the phoenix rising from its ashes after five hundred years. It is contrary to the fact that human nature tends to remain much the same in all times. It has led to a chorus of rhapsodists as to freedom, breadth, soaring ideas, horizons, perspectives, out of fetters and swaddling clothes, and so on. It long discouraged the study of centuries of human development that preceded it, and blinded the French philosophes and revolutionists to the value of medieval political and economic institutions. It has kept men in general from recognizing that our life and thought is based more nearly and actually on the middle ages than on distant Greece and Rome, from whom our heritage is more indirect, bookish and sentimental, less institutional, social, religious, even less economic and experimental. But what is the use of questioning the Renaissance? No one has even proved its existence; no one has really tried to. So often as one phase of it or conception of it is disproved, or is shown to be
equally characteristic of the preceding period, its defenders take up a new position and are just as happy, just as enthusiastic, just as complacent as ever. You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will, But the scent of roses will hang round it still. Still lingers the sweet perfume of the Renaissance; still hovers about us the blithe spirit of the Prenaissance. Document 4 Excerpt from Western Civilization, Vol. I, Sixth Edition by William Hughes, Essex Community College The emergent culture was limited to a small number of people generally those who were well-todo. But even in an increasingly materialistic culture it was not enough just to be wealthy. It was necessary to excel in the arts, literature, and learning, and to demonstrate skill in some profession. The ideal Renaissance man, as Robert Lopez observes, came from a good, old family, improved upon his own status through his own efforts, and justified status by his own intellectual accomplishments. Document 5 Excerpt from A History of Europe from 1378 to 1494 by W.T. Waugh It has become evident that there was no suspension of intellectual life in medieval Europe. If there was a Revival of Learning, it occurred about the year A.D. 1000, since when human knowledge has never ceased to advance. It cannot even be said that the Humanists of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries revived the study of the classics. Scholars had been nourished on the classics for centuries.in the first place, the classical writer most studied in the Middle Ages was a Greek, Aristotle.And actually the medieval scholars of western Europe were acquainted with most of the Latin authors familiar to us. The merits of the artists and the influence o the Humanists scholars must be acknowledged. But one must beware of exaggerating the practical results of their work. It is undeniable that very few people knew or cared anything about the sayings or doings of the Humanists.[and] the plain fact remains that the masterpieces of Renaissance sculpture can have been seen by few, those of Renaissance painting by fewer. And in those days, unless you actually saw them, you could not tell what they were like Document 6 Excerpt from Petrarch s Secret, translated by W.H. Draper, 1911 My principle is that, as concerning the glory from which we may hope for here below [on earth], it is right for us to seek it while we are here below. One may expect to enjoy that other more radiant glory in heaven, when we shall have there arrived, and when one will have no more care or wish for the glory of earth. Therefore, as I think, it is in the true order that mortal men should first care for mortal things. Document 7 Excerpt from Life and Letters of Erasmus by A.J. Froude, 1894 The world is waking out of a long deep sleep. The old ignorance is still defended. Time was when learning was only found in the religious orders. The religious orders nowadays care only for money and sensuality [indulgence of the appetites], while learning has passed to secular princes and peers and courtiers. Where in school or monastery will you find so many distinguished and accomplished men as form your English Court? Shame on us all! The tables of priests and divines run with wine and echo with drunken noise and scurrilous jest, while in princes halls is heard only grave and modest conversation on points of morals or knowledge. That king of yours [Henry VIII of England] may bring back the golden age, though I shall not live to enjoy it, as my tale draws to an end.
Document 8 Two Models of the Universe An Illustration of the Ptolemaic Geocentric System by Portuguese Cosmographer and Cartographer Bartolomeu Velho, 1568 (Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris) Celestial Models of Heliocentric Theory, Nicholas Copernicus, 1514 Document 9 Alfonso X of Castille (1221-1284), who commissioned new astronomical tables calculated according to Ptolemy s theory with Arabic mathematical refinements If the Lord Almighty had consulted me before embarking on creation thus, I should have recommended something simpler.
Document 10 Universities founded approximately in the 12 th through 15 th centuries 12 th -13 th Century 14 th Century 15 th Century ITALY Bologna, 1088 Salerno, 1200s Vicenza, 1204 Arezzo, 1215 Padua, 1222 Naples, 1224 Vercelli, 1228 Siena, 1246 Curia Romana, 1244-1245 Rome (Studium Urbis), 1303 Perugia, 1308 Pisa 1343 Florence, 1349 Pavia, 1361 Ferrara 1391 Turin, 1405 Catania, 1444 Paris, 1150, 1200, 1215 Orleans, ante 1231 Toulouse, 1229, 1233 Oxford, N/A Cambridge, 1209 Valladolid, 1250 Palencia, 1212-1214 Salamanca, ante 1230 Seville, 1254, in 1260 (Latin and Arabic) Lisbon-Combra, 1290 FRANCE Angers, 1356 Avignon, 1303 Cahors, 1332 Grenoble, 1339 Orange, 1365 GREAT BRITAIN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL Lerida, 1300 Perpignan, 1349 Huesca, 1359 Aix, 1409 Dole, 1422 Poitiers, 1431 Caen, 1432 Bordeaux, 1441 Valence, 1452, 1459 Nantes, 1460 Bourges, 1464 Besancon, 1485 St. Andrews, 1415 Glasgow, 1451 Aberdeen, 1494 Barcelona, 1450 Saragossa, 1474 Palma (Majorca), 1483 Siguenza, 1489 Alcala, 1499 Valencia, 1500 GERMANY, BOHEMIA, AND THE LOW COUNTRIES Prague, 1347-1348 Vienna, 1365 Erfurt, 1379, 1392 Heidelberg, 1385 Cologne, 1388 Wurzburg Leipzig, 1409 Rostock, 1419 Louvain, 1425 Trier, 1454, 1473 Griefswald, 1428, 1456 Freiburg-im-Breisgau, 1455-1456 Ingolstadt, 1459, 1472 Mainze, 1476 Tubingen, 1476-1477