Start of the Renaissance Italian Renaissance Origins of the Italian Renaissance Fourteenth century collapse Renaissance Development Spread of the Renaissance Renaissance music

Origins of the Italian Renaissance

Northern Italy in the High Middle Ages

By the late Middle Ages, central and southern Italy, once the heartland of the Roman Empire, was far poorer than the north. Rome was a city largely in ruins, and the Papal States were a loosely administered region with little law and order. Partially because of this, the Papacy had relocated to Avignon, France. Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia had for some time been under foreign domination.

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The north was far more prosperous, with the states of northern Italy among the wealthiest in Europe. The Crusades had built lasting trade links to the Levant, and the Fourth Crusade had done much to destroy the Byzantine Empire as a commercial rival to the Italians. The main trade routes running 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 Italy and then resold throughout Europe. Moreover, the inland city-states profited from the rich agricultural land of the Po River valley. From France, Germany, and the Low Countries, land and river trade routes brought goods such as wool, wheat, and precious metals into the region. The extensive trade that stretched from 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. Florence became one of the wealthiest cities of Northern Italy, due mainly to its textile production. Wool was imported from Northern Europe and Spain, and dyes from the east were used to make high quality clothing.

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The Italian trade routes that covered the Mediterranean and beyond were also major conduits of culture and knowledge. From Constantinople, recently Christianized Spain, and the Arab lands came much of the preserved ancient learning of the classical era. The Crusades led to some European contact with classical learning, preserved by Arabs, but more important in this regard was the Spanish Reconquista of the fifteenth century and the resulting translations of Arabic-language works by the Arabists of the School of Salamanca. From Egypt and the Levant, the scientific, philosophical, and mathematical thinking of the Arabs entered Northern Italy. The region also was sitting just to the north of the remnants of the heart of the Roman civilization, and if one looked carefully, ancient manuscripts could be found, architectural principles observed, and artistic styles examined.

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In the thirteenth century, Europe in general was experiencing an economic boom. The trade 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 unified European economy. The city-states of Italy expanded greatly during this period and grew in power to become de facto fully independent of the Holy Roman Empire. During this period, the modern commercial infrastructure developed with joint stock companies, an international banking system, a systematized foreign exchange market, insurance, and government debt. Florence became the centre of this financial industry and the Florin became the main currency of international trade.

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This produced a new class of aristocrats who won their positions through financial skill, overturning the feudal model that had dominated Europe in the Middle Ages. Northern Italy, with the exception of the region around Milan, had long been less feudal than the rest of Europe. In much of the region the landed nobility was consistently weaker than the urban patriarchs. The increase in trade during the early Renaissance enhanced this characteristic. The decline of feudalism and the rise 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 goods. This change also gave the merchants almost complete control of the governments of the Italian city-states, again enhancing trade. One of the most important effects of this political control was security. Those that grew extremely wealthy in a feudal state 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 also kept many medieval laws that severely hampered commerce, such as those against usury, and prohibitions on trading with non-Christians. In the city-states of Italy, these laws were repealed or rewritten.

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The Renaissance Start of the Renaissance Italian Renaissance Origins of the Italian Renaissance Fourteenth century collapse Renaissance Development Spread of the Renaissance Renaissance music