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How Did The Renaissance Separate From The Middle Ages

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Though in the past the term renaissance has been applied to the period of tremendous cultural and artistic evolution, many modern historians argue the Renaissance, particularly the Italian Renaissance, is an extension of the Middle Ages rather than a definitive time period. The degree at which the Renaissance has been over-exaggerated has also been considered influential in the modern perspective of the 15th century.
Jacob Burckhardt’s piece The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, published in the mid-19th century, introduces, or at least supports, the idea that the Renaissance was a time period separate from the Middle Ages due to the emergence of individualism. Prior to the Renaissance, “man was conscious of himself only as a member of a race, people, party, family, or corporation—only through some general …show more content…

He adds that there is too much credit given to Renaissance artists, that they “were really rather medieval. They were more traditional in their behavior, assumptions and ideals than we tend to think—and also more traditional than they saw themselves” (Burke, 172). That does not mean to say that Renaissance men were not influential, just not as progressive as they believed themselves to be. Petrarch is considered extraordinary for reintroducing and defending pagan classical works in a culture dominated by the Catholic Church. He writes in his Letter to Boccaccio that “to desert out studies shows want of self-confidence rather than wisdom, for letters do not hinder but aid the properly constituted mind which possesses them; they facilitate our life, they do not retard it” (Petrarch, 162). Petrarch’s contribution was still significant, but it was not the first of its

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