Humanism gained ground in the Renaissance in part as a revival of classical learning, and such a revival included a new study of classical humanism from the Greek and Roman world. Classical humanism placed an emphasis on philosophy and codes of ethics, notably embodied in the writings of Plato and ...

A booming economy along with the communes desire to obtain political power led to the formation of a new class in society which ultimately lead Europe into a period simply known as the Renaissance. Northern Italy's thriving economy was a result of great advances in shipbuilding. Their ships we...

BLACK DEATH The Black Death, also known as the Bubonic Plague, was a horrible disease that was spread mainly in the middle areas of Europe. It serves as a divider in the central and the late Middle Ages. There were many changes during these two ages, such as the importance of cities because of t...

Societies and cultures are often defined by the behaviours and idiosyncrasies that are unique to a group of people. Just as this rule generally applies to the modern world, so does it to the past and more specifically the time of rebirth in western society (AKA the Renaissance.) Just before and du...

The Middle Ages, the Early Renaissance, and the High Renaissance are only three ages individually but as a whole helped shape our modern philosophies and ideas of art and influenced generations of artists among them, Leonardo Da Vinci, Giovanni Bellini, and Giotto. Among there many works of art ther...

Humanism symbolizes an intellectual movement that began in Verona. Humanists had faith in and emphasized the dignity and worth of the individual. That faith turned into the rediscovery of the culture of classical antiquity, which contains elements of literature, history, rhetoric, ethics, and politi...

The Middle Ages covers roughly a thousand years, from approximately 400 to 1500 and the term generally refers to the changes that the European society experienced during these years. Many agree that there was not just one medieval civilization, but many. These civilizations are related to e...

Until fairly recently, the middle ages have been recognized as a period of social and economic stagnation. The humanists of the Renaissance, whose ideal was inspired by the antique civilization, considered the medieval world as a period of darkness and influenced greatly the biased perception of fut...

The western tradition of music has its origins in the chant tradition of the early Christian era. The monophonic music of chant dominated the middle ages and included the composition of sequences and tropes. In the high Middle Ages, organum emerged, thus introducing polyphonic textures into liturgic...

Higher education plays a major part in today's society. Expected to continue their education beyond high school, many students attend four-year universities and colleges. The emergence of such higher education was first recorded in Europe during the Middle Ages. The origins and characteristics o...

The Christian Church in the Middle Ages played a significant role in society. Unfortunately though, the church is often regarded as the capital of corruption, evil, and worldliness. Today, so many people depict the medieval church as being led by materialistic popes, devouring tithes from poverty-st...

This is the best new book I have read this year. Kelley is by no means a new author but this is a more sweeping work revealing the author's keen grasp of the philosophy of history and particularly of Western civilization. Kelley positions the roots of Western civilization in the Homeric and Platoni...

Raphael\'s \"School of Athens\" is considered by many art historians to be the absolute masterpiece of the Renaissance. It is the perfect pictorial counterpart to the enormous changes in thinking that came about in the 1300s as a result of economic and technological developments. Its rational perspe...

The spiritual attitude that dominated the Romanesque age was not as strong and sure during the Gothic. In the earlier period, people believed that the world was a God - inspired mystery that could be expressed in simple, direct art. In the Renaissance that followed the Middle Ages, p...

Black Death was the bubonic plague that struck Europe and the Mediterranean during the fourteenth century. It was known as the Great Mortality, or the Pestilence. The name "Black Death" was not giving until much later. This was also the divider of the central and the late Middle Ages. It's not ...

The Renaissance was a period by which modern scholars consider as that between 1350 -1600. Abundant in this new age was inventions and individualistic beliefs. Changes in music and cultural behavior were some of the most evident development from its predecessor of the Middle ages. Period of new inve...

Though the result of the Black Plague is initially deterioration, seen in Boccaccio's Decameron, the decline stimulates efforts at reform and renewal. In 1798 the English clergyman Thomas Malthus published the first edition of his influential Essay on the Principle of Population. In it, Malthus co...

The Mass of Saint Giles The Mass of Saint Giles by the unknown Master of Saint Giles embodies all the ideals of the Middle Ages. The painting's portrayal of the consecration of the host is consistent with the religious, God-fearing society of which it is a part. The spirit of the Middle Age...

The Middle AgesFor safety and for defense, people in the Middle Ages formed small communities around a central lord or master. Most people lived on a manor, which consisted of the castle, the church, the village, and the surrounding farmland. These manors were isolated, with occasional visits from p...

The RenaissanceIntroduction:In history, there were many time periods, one in which was called the Renaissance Period. This period ran from about the early fourteenth century through the late fifteenth century and in French, Renaissance means "The Re-Birth". It is defined in the American Heritage D...