Week 30
The European Renaissance extends from about 1400 to 1600. Many scholars of various Italian city-states, especially Venice, will argue that the Renaissance continued long after the year 1600 and that is probably correct. So the exact dating of the waning of the Renaissance as a period in European history is wide open to debate. But in many ways the 17th century is a real modern world; the long age of transition is over. And in the 1600s we can see clearly the outline of modern society. For one thing, people start to use the word "modern." So what did the Renaissance achieve in its 200+ years? It changed European civilization forever. It ushered in a new age of knowledge; science; research; publications in print; translations from all languages; international travel to the newly discovered areas of the globe. It carried Western Civilization out of the Middle Ages and into the modern world. It is the great hinge, the cardinal point, in the long story of the West.
RECOMMENDED READING:
The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance,
Scribner, Reprint edition (June 1, 1995),
ISBN 0684803526
RECOMMENDED READING:
This is a beautiful book which covers the whole of the Renaissance in every field and every country. Margaret King is one of the greatest American scholars of the Renaissance, and she has written a very useful general book on the subject. What is especially attractive, is all the extra material: the charts, the maps, the photos, all of which make this a great study of the Renaissance. It would be a useful "textbook" for our whole year on the Renaissance. It was, of course, designed as a college textbook for a course on the Renaissance. If you buy a new copy, it is 35$ but there are many used copies listed on Amazon.
Margaret L. King, is Professor Emerita of history at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She is the author of several books on women, humanism, and Venice in the Renaissance, and is currently editor-in-chief of the Renaissance and Reformation online bibliography published by Oxford Bibliographies.
