I'll spend a good portion of the time dealing with Greer & Lewis Chapter 7 . Last week, I began to suggest some of the changes which challenged the Feudal Order. This week we'll look at those changes in some detail and at the beginnings of rhe Renaissance. Pay some particular attention to the section on the New Economy, with the concurrent growth in the importance of cities. I'll do some more with cities generally. Economic instruments and practices which we take for granted were invented during this era, and mark the emergence of what we call the "modern" world. (Remember the sections of Magna Carta which respond to urban and commercial needs.
Don't neglect the sections on overseas expansion. You will need to be aware of the way empires in the new world changed the balance of power in Europe. (We should be particularly conscious of this change, for it resulted in an "English" North America, rather than a "Mediterranean" one.)
For Thursday, March 1 or Friday, March 2
Read Greer and Lewis, Chapter 8.
As far as Chapter 8 goes, be prepared to give a definition of "Humanism" in your own words. you might also try to work up a comparitive chart which illustrates the difference between medieval and renaissance thinking. This chapter will make you very aware of the breadth of impact of the "new thought," and you need to consider all of it in a general way. You probably need to read more closely the sections on scholarship and humanistic education: the generation which led the quest for American independence was profoundly influenced by the ideals which first arose in the Renaissance.
We aren't going to have much time to devote to Platonism, but I will want to look at the section on the Empirical method and also at Christian Humanism. Puritan thought mixed these two strains, and Puritans profoundly influenced American political developments.
It is important to take note of the breadth of time and place we're considering here. The Renaissance didn't happen everywhere at once: we should be aware of the century or more it took for ideas to penetrate the nooks and crannies of the Western Europe.
Two Medieval Cities: Bruges, Belgium, above, shows the densely compact urban plan, though some of the buildings are of the 19th and 20th centuries. York, England, at ground level gives a sense of what these cities were like. The typical pattern is shops below, accommodations for merchants above. The economic power of this emerging merchant class hastened the decay of feudalism.
The press of time isn't going to let us do much more than glance at this vital and interesting period. If you find it interesting you might want to take Western Civilization I and Western Civilization II. IF you do that, you might as well take the History Core Concentration and broaden your understanding of the past which shaped our present.
Medieval and Renaissance influences in American Architecture can be observed in these
two Salem, Massachusetts, Houses. Below and left is the Turner House (1668, much altered). Note how
irregular it is. The forms you see arise from the functions to which the house was put with little
or no concern for composition or design. Below and right is the The Crowninshield Bentley House
(c.1727-30). Note how symmetrical and orderly it is. Note, too, the use of design elements
inspired by the classical world, chiefly the triangular shaped pediments above the door and the
dormer window. How greatly the world view has changed in a matter of only 60 years. To look
I'll spend a good portion of the time dealing with Greer & Lewis Chapter 7 . Last week, I began to suggest some of the changes which challenged the Feudal Order. This week we'll look at those changes in some detail and at the beginnings of rhe Renaissance. Pay some particular attention to the section on the New Economy, with the concurrent growth in the importance of cities. I'll do some more with cities generally. Economic instruments and practices which we take for granted were invented during this era, and mark the emergence of what we call the "modern" world. (Remember the sections of Magna Carta which respond to urban and commercial needs.
