20094 pages
Topic overview
Since the fourteenth century, a cultural movement called the Renaissance had been spreading. The Renaissance, meaning “rebirth,” viewed itself as the rebirth of ancient Greek and Latin learning; as such, it rejected the...
20096 pages
Topic overview
Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) was a quintessential “Renaissance man,” in the sense that he was learned in a wide variety of intellectual and artistic fields. His writings, for example, span the gamut from advice on...
20095 pages
Topic overview
The trade routes that developed in the later Middle Ages ultimately spurred the final era of globalization. Columbus set off in 1492 to discover a more direct route to the trade centers of India and Asia, thereby also...
20091 page
Topic overview
The power of the visual arts is obvious. Dramatic photographs can capture buyers more easily than a product's name or a newspaper's headline. Photography, of course, is a modern art, but the Middle Ages and Renaissance...
20092 pages
Topic overview
The Middle Ages and Renaissance witnessed a radical transformation in intellectual life that has left indelible marks on modern society. At the start of the Middle Ages, intellectual life focused on spiritual matters and...
20092 pages
Topic overview
Political Life describes the ways in which people group together to advance their mutual self-interests. The development of legal systems is a prime example: individuals agree to give up certain freedoms in return for...
20093 pages
Topic overview
The plague, be it the bubonic plague or another more localized endemic, posed serious health risks throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Before the discovery of microorganisms, medical theory believed that bad...
20091 page
Topic overview
Some of the most dramatic changes between the Renaissance and the modern world have taken place in the realm of science and medicine. The documents in this section give witness to these changes. In Genji Monogatari...
20091 page
Topic overview
Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, farming underpinned the economy. The overwhelming majority of people lived in rural communities and spent their days working with animals, plants, and other people. Although...
20092 pages
Topic overview
Like those of women (see the previous section), the roles of children are often obscured in the public sector: small children do not run governments, do not usually write high literature, and do not build bridges on...
20093 pages
Topic overview
A person's clothing can make a powerful impression and imply what kind of a person he or she is. Even today, this supposed connection between clothing and internal qualities remains strong—we get a different impression...
20092 pages
Topic overview
Recreational life is often viewed today as an escape from the working world. The Middle Ages and Renaissance, however, generally viewed recreation as preparation for the real world. The Games and Sports section presents...
20092 pages
Topic overview
Religious life has stirred some of humankind's deepest emotions. Men and women have suffered hardship, persecution, and death for the sake of maintaining their religion. Missionaries have left their home countries and...
20091 page
Topic overview
Fortunately, most people today eat several times a day. Famine, of course, still wreaks tragedy across the globe, but the provision of a stable food supply to a large percentage of the earth's population remains one of...
20092 pages
Topic overview
Human communities have almost never lived in complete isolation from each other—there have always been “neighbors.” During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, however, the peoples of the world began, at one and the same...
20092 pages
Topic overview
Governmental systems and social hierarchies were so closely interwoven throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance that they must be treated in the same section. The major form of government during this period—kingship—is...
20091 page
Topic overview
There can be no doubt that the Middle Ages and Renaissance witnessed some of the most dramatic changes in the history of homo sapiens. This majestic sweep of time, stretching from the fifth century to the seventeenth...
20091 page
Topic overview
Women make up over 50 percent of the population, yet in many societies they are often not seen in the public eye. Throughout history, in both the West and the East, women have tended to be associated with the home rather...
20091 page
Topic overview
Although the concept of “the performing arts” conveniently groups together diverse art forms such as music, drama, and dance, the continuum between these arts and any other leisure activity was much stronger in the...
20091 page
Topic overview
Domestic life describes the activities, roles, and rhythms that adorn family life. Women and children, both of whom were frequently expected to remain out of the public spotlight during the Middle Ages and Renaissance,...
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Since the fourteenth century, a cultural movement called the Renaissance had been spreading. The Renaissance, meaning “rebirth,” viewed itself as the rebirth of ancient Greek and Latin learning; as such, it rejected the...