The Renaissance was a period of rebirth of classical learning that flourished in Europe beginning in the fourteenth century. In the Middle Ages multiple events, new characteristics of creating, and new discoveries came to life. Each new event, characteristic, and discovery it led to the medieval developments that paved the way for the incoming Renaissance era. Along with these, there are five main events that also enhanced the Renaissance time period. These five events are the failure of The First Crusade, the rediscovery of Aristotle, The Black Death, giving power to the people, and the fall of Constantinople. Several characteristics of the Renaissance were caused by medieval developments. Some examples of these characteristics are the printing press, intellectual movements, art, music, literature, religion, and science. The Renaissance is more known as an intellectual movement or cultural event instead of simply a period of history. Lastly, new discoveries such as technological advances, building techniques, and agriculture were major developments of the Renaissance era. With all of the events, new characteristics of creating, and new discoveries the developments of the Renaissance started to form.
Five main events that started the Renaissance era are the failure of The First Crusade, the rediscovery of Aristotle, The Black Death, power to the people, and the fall of Constantinople. The first event that started this era was The First Crusade. Although The First Crusade did overall succeed, it did fail in other ways. The First Crusade accepted the fact that the cause of Christ was the highest and most paramount loyalty on earth. AcceptingCrusades the cracks in the middle ages slowly widened before Renaissance humanism could establish new loyalties. The Crusade impacted the Renaissance through the ways in which they made knowledge from Eastern cultures progressively attainable to the Latin West. Secondly, the rediscovery of Aristotle was the main cause of the shift into the Renaissance. Christian kingdoms of Spain pushed forward into Muslim cities and found Greek works of philosophy, medicine, geography, and science. This discovery of the Greek works reintroduced Aristotle back into the West. The third event was The Black Death, also known as The Bubonic Plague. The Black Death helped set the stage for the Renaissance. The deaths of many major officials caused social and political disruption in Florence, where the Renaissance is considered to have begun. The Black Death is often given excessive amounts of credit for the Renaissance. Some believe that all faith in God was destroyed and that opened up humanistic thought to flourish. Others believe that the faith in God only grew when the plague started to slow, it created more jobs and more power for the people. Some of the everlasting impacts said by Sara McGill in her book “The Black Death” consisted of “At the same time, farming became a less profitable venture, especially since there were not enough people to work the land. Estates lost value and nobles in rural areas lost power, allowing European royalty to begin amassing centralized power. Another effect was that there was less time for education among academics. Teachers and tutors at universities in Oxford and Paris were hired with fewer qualifications. This led to a general decline in education.” The fourth event, the power of the people, started during The Black Death. During the plague, taxes had been hiked and the people were fed up. During their revolt, John Wycliffe argued about the Christian sacraments. He also began translating the Bible from Latin to English. He found a message of egalitarianism and equality. Wyeliffe began spreading his findings and started “Wyeliffism”. This ultimately ended in a war against the authority of the church, the emperor, the king, and the pope. Therefore growing the age of Enlightenment. Lastly, the fifth event is the fall of Constantinople. The fall of Constantinople started with the Turks continuing to expand and attack. The emperor of Constantinople did his best to fight back, even by asking the pope to send in soldiers to drive away the Turks. The Turks eventually took over Constantinople. With the city in the hands of the Turks, Greek scholars fled west. While in the West, they brought knowledge of the Greek language, mathematics, and astronomical expertise, and the Greek intellectual legacy was in need of preservation. Their presence in the West brought a whole new renaissance to Greek culture.
There are many characteristics of the Renaissance era that were started through medieval developments. A few examples of these are the printing press, intellectual movements, art, music, literature, religion, and science. The printing press came from a high demand for perfect reproductions of texts. It is known as one of the greatest developments of the Renaissance. It allowed the modern culture to develop and keep growing, therefore benefiting more and more people. The printing press allowed bibles, books, printed music, and more to be made in large amounts to make it to more people. The second characteristic is about the intellectual movement. It consisted of the evolution of Renaissance humanism as a method of thinking, it was a whole different outlook. The intellectual movement was described as Renaissance humanism. Renaissance humanism changed Greek and Roman texts to more contemporary thought. This thought allowed for a new mindset during the middle ages. Art is another characteristic of the Renaissance. Renaissance painters used more realistic ways and depictions of art than in the middle ages. There was less prominence on religious art artists who were wanting their art to look as real as possible. Some of those artists consisted of Botticelli who was a part of the well-known Medici family. Leonardo da Vinci was considered one of the greatest minds of all time. Lastly, Michelangelo was said to be the greatest painter and sculptor of all time. Music also had a large impact on this time period. Innovations in the Renaissance were partly made possible by expanding patronage beyond the Catholic church. New technologies in music meant new inventions of instruments, such as the harp. The printing press was also beneficial to music because it allowed music to be printed. A fifth characteristic is the Renaissance’s literature. Renaissance literature started with Greek and Roman aspects of learning. Writers of this time consisted of but were not limited to Leonardo da Vinci, Nicolo Machiavelli, and William Shakespeare. They were known to be the greatest writers of all time. These writers took their beliefs and expressed them in new ways. Leonardo da Vinci took his drawings and wrote them down in his notebooks. Nicolo Machiavelli wrote a book about religion, and politics were rooted in his books. Each writer of this time was unique but all paved the way for the Renaissance. Westernreservemedia.org states, “William Shakespeare is considered one of the greatest writers who ever lived. He wrote at least 37 plays and 154 sonnets. Little is known about his life; however, we do know that he was an actor and performed at the Globe Theater.” The continuous growth in the Renaissance time period tremendously changed the way the world took on religion. Catholic churches became extremely weak by the time the 15th century started. One of the leading causes of its weakness was the Black Death. This is a reason society looked at religion as a major change. There was one specific person who wanted to change the catholic churches for the better, and that was Martin Luther. He wanted things such as the selling and trading of indulgences to be removed from these churches. Another thing he wanted to do is practice nepotism. The printing press helped the creation of the Bible as well, making these reasons for the rise in religion. The last characteristic is science. Science in the Middle Ages was based on the Greek belief in-laws and reasoning. A major scientific discovery came from Polish mathematician and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. His discovery was the idea of the heliocentric solar system. This discovery states that the sun is the center of the solar system, rather than the earth, and before Copernicus's discovery, everyone thought the earth was the center. This idea was a huge breakthrough, and he was soon banned from the catholic churches. Empiricism took place of the scientific thought and was the first indication of the separation of science and religion. Soon the thought of science and religion being separated caused major conflict, which led to scientists being prosecuted. Many characteristics were founded through medieval developments that led to the rise of the Renaissance. Some of these characteristics are but are not limited to the printing press, intellectual movements, art, music, literature, religion, and science. All of these have been a major impact and how the Renaissance came about and ended up.
Many discoveries came to life at the beginning of the Renaissance era. They were discoveries made in technology, agriculture, and architecture. Some technological advances consisted of the adoption of gunpowder and the invention of vertical windmills. The adoption of gunpowder came along in China but was perfected in Europe for the use of its full military potential. Windmills were used for many different tasks in the middle ages such as grinding corn into flour. A Penn State article states the advantages and disadvantages of a windmill such as “For one thing, the windmill does not need to be next to a river, nor does it need the millrace running from upstream to power the wheels. On the other hand, the windmill needs to be placed in a windy location, either on top of a hill or near the coastline where winds are unobstructed and relatively constant.”. Agriculture in the middle ages was an experimental time, the people were figuring out new things that worked and things that didn't. Some of the most common crops consisted of wheat, beans, barley, peas, and oats. The origin of open field system came from this time period. They made plows and hand tools for all their agricultural needs. Lastly, the discoveries in architecture. The architecture in this time period had a Romanesque look to it in the early middle ages and a more Gothic look in the late middle ages. The aspects of Gothic architecture involved wider windows, an increased number of towers, decorative designs, and using natural light. This architecture ties in with the medieval developments of the Renaissance.
In conclusion, the medieval developments that paved the way for the Renaissance consisted of a variety of different aspects. From the events that took place, to the people that formed new ideas, the Renaissance could not have started without the help of medieval developments.