The Middle Ages And Renaissance

These changes indicated that man was not tied to the Church, and that he could think freely for himself. As can be seen, astronomy changed man’s view of man during the Renaissance by showing that the lives of people were not controlled by outside institutions.

The renaissance changed man’s view of man by Ptolemy saying that we were the center of the universe and everything orbited us. This was later proven wrong by Copernicus, another scientific genius. Copernicus was saying that everything orbited the sun and not Earth. The ideas of Copernicus was upsetting the Catholic Church because he was basing it off of mathematics and the church got upset because they wanted it to be based off god.

Nyctophobia; the fear of the dark. However, it’s not exactly the fear of darkness itself, but rather, what could be lurking within it. Now, the Dark Ages weren’t actually “dark”, but it was a time of rapid decline in Europe in which historians don’t have much information. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe was thrown into a never ending battle of hardships. From the Black Plague to the loss of beloved heroes and heroines, the country really was left in the dark, until a flicker of hope emerged offering a new beginning: the Renaissance. The Renaissance lasted from the 14th to the 17th century and was an era of “rebirth” in European history. During this period, culture throughout Europe underwent a dramatic reformation where classic

Another important figure in the Scientific Revolution was Galileo Galilei. He was an Italian born professor of mathematics who had a great interest in the workings of the universe. Galileo served as a professor at the University of Padua, and it was during this time that he began to question the accuracy of the Churches representation of the world. Galileo’s approach towards knowledge was much different then the afore mentioned Copernicus. Where as Copernicus presented his finding to the mercy of the church, Galileo wrote his conclusions and left the Roman Catholic Church interpret them as they chose. The very nature of his findings pitted him as an opponent of the church.

The shift between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was characterized by great socio-economic, political, and religious changes. Politically, the feudal system of the Middle Ages was exchanged for a more stable centralized republic/monarchy system that gave the people more freedom and input. Religiously, secularism became more important as stability gave people a chance to concern themselves with the “here and now” rather than simply the “hereafter.” Socially, there was a shift from dogma and unshakeable belief to humanism and the ability to interpret things for oneself. The Middle Ages began around 400 CE and lasted until 1400 CE while the Renaissance began around 1200 and continued until 1600. The 200 years that overlap between

Before The Renaissance, there was a time period known as the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages was a time of darkness and illiteracy. Around eighty percent of the European population was illiterate and or uneducated relying completely on the Roman Catholic Church for education. The uneducated were mostly peasants. The few people that were educated were priests, and other religious figures in the church. Although as time progressed peasants, began to become more independent. With the invention of the printing press education began to become more widespread. Many people began to become specialized in other subjects besides farming and questioned the ideas of the church. As the Middle Ages came to an end so did the strength and overall power of the Roman Catholic Church.

This shows Ptolemy based his work off of other scholars that mostly look at the church for things whereas Copernicus did his own research and used facts to back up his theory. The ideas of Copernicus have changed the way people thought about the nature of man and man's place in the universe because they no longer thought earth was the center of the universe. Another example of someone conducting their own experiment is Andreas Vesalius on the human body. Before his theory of the human body people believed that each sign of the zodiac controlled a certain part of the body. An example is the constellation called Aries the Ram controlled the head.

The Renaissance period is known for the revival of the classical art and intellect born in ancient Greece and Rome. The Renaissance is also a time that is marked by growth, exploration, and rebirth. The Italian Renaissance started in Florence and progressively made its way into Venice and then into the great city of Rome. During the Renaissance, Rome was home to some of the most renowned works of art and the finest architectural masterpieces in the world - too many that still holds true today. Along with the delicate architecture and grand artistry, Rome was also home to a mixture of people and cultures. It is in this cultural context and through the book A Street Life in Renaissance Rome: A Brief History with Documents, that understanding how men, woman, and specifically Jews and Christians lived in Rome becomes important to better understand this period of renewal.

Additionally, there were numerous illiteracy peoples widespread throughout Europe, and larger than 85 percent were peasant farmers called serfs. On the other hand, during the Renaissance, men spread literacy, art and create machines. Moreover, the scientific revolution, which transpired during the Renaissance, showed man the idea of a change in men's view. Though there isn't much data on the Renaissance or the Dark

The Renaissance was an efflorescence of the arts and changes in many different areas such as political, social, economical, and cultural. It was the rebirth of art, literature, and learning in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from an agricultural to an urban society. The Renaissance ideals emphasized ideas of humanism and human achievement. Artists and writers used realistic techniques, such as perspective, and they believed man should be the subject of study, not God.

Ideas in science, especially astronomy and human anatomy, changed how many viewed man and led to a path of enlightenment. One example of the variation in science was the shift from a geocentric to a heliocentric universe. Pre-renaissance the Catholic Church conveyed that the center of the universe was earth. At the time, arguing with the church was considered a sin, so rarely did anyone try to contradict this idea. The geocentric viewpoint had been long affirmed until Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish astronomer, reversed this idea, solely based off of mathematics and observations. Promptly after during the Renaissance, scholars studied Ptolemy and realized the idea that the center of the universe was actually the sun, not the earth. The heliocentric doctrine that Copernicus came up with was first denied because the Catholic church had claimed the earth, and humans, were at the center of everything, and the universe revolves around man. This was a real epiphany to people at the time because it made them rethink that perhaps without them being the center of the universe they aren't the most important things. This helped to expand means, though out of just religion and themselves. These ideas changed how many viewed man because it was proven that humans were not the center of the

Vesalius uses reason to determine that the zodiacs didn’t have an influence on the human body and he researched how exactly they were built. Because the church and religion no longer dictated the thoughts of the masses, individual citizens were free to make their own scientific

The Christian religions rise to supremacy in the middle ages was the result of several factors. Christians had long been persecuted by the Roman Empire because the Romans felt that Christianity challenged and offended the Greco-Roman Gods and the Christians were prone to revolt against Roman rule. Christianity survived because it had many teachings that appealed to the downtrodden in Roman society, these teachings being that even though they were suffering they would gain equality and possibly superiority in the next life, Christianity gave them hope.

The study of the universe, astronomy, was a highly debated subject as two astronomers, Ptolemy and Copernicus; both brought forth contrasting theories regarding the universe (Document C). The rise of humanism both aided and impeded the advance of science. It caused the people of the Renaissance to challenge the understanding of man’s existence, and look at astronomy for answers to understand man’s place in the universe. As discovery became more of a priority, church became less of one. This caused problems because the church was supposed to be the center above all else, and now peoples’ time was beginning to be consumed by educating themselves about their purpose scientifically to be on

In the Middle Ages, art was centered around the Church. The purpose of art was to glorify the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Altshuler, 2009, p. 127). Art was not made to produce a feeling it was made simply to tell a story. Artists were usually sanctioned by the church to complete specific works. All artists were male with the exception of some women who did embroideries (Altshuler, 2009, p. 127). Many different types of media was used during this time including; paint, embroidery, stain glass, relief statues and more.