The Spirit, Ideals, And Values Of An Individual Can Express A Great Deal

I was living a new city where English is not the primary language and was responsible for finding my way to various jobs and castings. I augmented my perseverance and independence, by eagerly adapting to the public transit system, becoming intimately familiar with the city and picking up a surprising amount of Italian. I also seized the opportunity to absorb as much culture as I could during my stay. For example, the amazing opportunity I had to do a photoshoot in Lago di Garda, to commemorate the 750th anniversary of Dante’s birth inspired me to read his famous Inferno from The Divine Comedy.

Boccaccio, through the stories in The Decameron, often makes fun of the Italy’s false perfection and immortality. Through each story he picks a specific aspect of the Italian imperfect to poke fun at and highlight the ridiculousness or hypocrisy of. One topic he often highlights is religion and how arbitrary it was at this time in Italy, especially during the time of the black plague. Two of these stories that discuss religion are the First Day First story and the Third Day First Story. These two stories focus on religion and the falsely perfect smoke screen that hides the naivety and hypocrisy in their holiest of places and people.

This book is argued whether Castiglione was trying to put out a guideline as to how to become a courtier or whether it was just on philosophical ideals. The book does present many of the philosophical ideas that were rampant through the 16th century with the ideas of Socrates and Plato and the emergence of philosophy in this era. However, I would argue that this book has too many specific and particular aspects it mentions as to becoming a courtier that Castiglione was definitely trying to show to people

Giovanni Boccaccio and Francesco Barbaro provides for not only the men, but women in Italian society their conventional opinion on the perfect example of how a wife should act and behave in order to keep the domestic life at peace and whole. Through their story and most gracious outlook on a woman’s life, we can see what a marriage was life during this time.

This book described the “ideal renaissance gentleman” through advice given by the courtier. Throughout the book are conversations between the courtiers of the Duke of Urbino, discussing the vision of a perfect court. It is an example of a dialogue, which is a popular renaissance literary structure, composed of drama and conversation. Castiglione’s work had a large impact on the aristocratic idea of the perfect English gentlemen and was thought to be an interpretation of Renaissance court life. The Book of the Courtier was a representation of the ideas and values of Renaissance Humanism, as it emphasized the growth of individual thought and character. This relates to one of the concepts of the Renaissance, “exaltation of human capacities and potential”. The value of the individual is believed to be important in the humanistic way of life. Society was starting to become more concerned with human potential and achievements. Focus was turning away from spiritual matter, and turning towards more worldly matter. This book epitomized the “universal man”, or the “renaissance man”, which is a man that excels in everything. This brings us to an important renaissance term mentioned by Castiglione, known as sprezzatura. Sprezzatura means to preform well, without appearing to have put in much effort or thought about the matter and is mentioned

appreciative of its brilliance and energy”.(Grudin, “The Achievement”). Castiglione’s views in The Courier stray from the ordinary Humanist outlook, he pushes toward reinvented Humanism.(“The Achievement” 12). Castiglione influenced many with this book. As Grudin states, “Castiglione’s professed subject matter would epidemically inspire European letters and manners of the 16th century, his more profound contribution would be echoed in the work of Montaigne and Shakespeare”.(“The Achievement” 12). Castiglione helped produce modern Humanist views with the work of his book. This piece of writing was also able to influence Shakespeare, one of the world’s most famous authors (who no doubt himself impacted society in an enormous way).

Re-Writing the Creation Story: How Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man Influenced the Renaissance and Man’s Perception of Himself

“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.” This maxim applies to the poet Dante Alighieri, writer of The Inferno in the 1300s, because it asserts the need to establish oneself as a contributor to society. Indeed, Dante’s work contributes much to Renaissance Italy as his work is the first of its scope and size to be written in the vernacular. Due to its readability and availability, The Inferno is a nationalistic symbol. With this widespread availability also comes a certain social responsibility; even though Dante’s audience would have been familiar with the religious dogma, he assumes the didactic role of

His works demonstrated a very exceptional and notable way of expressing one’s thoughts. Not only expressing his opinions directly through the Maxims, Guicciardini influenced people indirectly through works such as Storia d’Italia. In this work, in addition to emphasizing the history of the Renaissance, he inserts his vision into the calamity and the treachery of human nature in general. For instance, he focused on human cleverness: “Duke of Milan was committed to give him. All the same, Lodovico with his usual cunning still went on assuring the Pope and Piero de’ Medici of his desire for peace and quiet in Italy” (Guicciardini 136). Guicciardini also commented on Maestro Mariano da Genazzano’s treachery in his preaching “Genazzano came to preach under color of opposing Girolamo; but hinted cleverly from the pulpit that the city should come to agreement with the league, and in private he negotiated with Pierro’s friends” (Guicciardini 63). Throughout Guicciardini’s works, he made tireless efforts to teach the readers about humans’

Upon their arrival in Padua, Lucentio with his “trusty servant”, Tranio, declares his desire to “haply institute A course of learning and ingenious studies.” (The Taming of the Shrew I.I.8-9). It is clear that Lucentio aims to impress his father and pursue knowledge in order to be a deserving heir to Vincentio’s wealth. Tranio, however, has a very different agenda for spending his time in Padua. Tranio pulls Lucentio’s attention away from meticulous learning, as he was paid to provide, and offers an extremely unorthodox path to knowledge. In order to sway the mind of his master, Tranio employs complementary rhetoric starting with “Mi perdonato, gentle master mine.” (I.I.25). Tranio methodically butters up Lucentio with reinforcements to Lucentio 's “resolve to suck the sweets of sweet philosophy.” (1.1.27-28). These words of Tranio’s serve to convince Lucentio that Tranio truly does serve his ‘good master’s’ best interest.

In fact, Giovanni and Lusanna reassures on the discussion of how much social status and wealth affected the citizens of fifteenth century Florence in several ways. From what information has

What I found most interesting about these letters were the individuals who make up the society. I found is a little difficult to determine if the wants of an individual were not only caused by the pressures to go along with society. When I look back onto early cultures, it is nice to have reminders like this collection of letters. No matter how unfamiliar early Florence society appears, it is still easy to find the similarities that are embedded within my own. These letters provide needed examples of an average life in the Renaissance, from a nontraditional historian's perspective. Ideas like strict tradition, religion, and societal norms breakthrough from the words of actual Florence citizens. I feel that the early Renaissance society comes to life so vividly because it is told from the perspective Bartolomeo

On Thursday, February 16th, we discussed excerpts from On the Dignity of Man by Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola. These excerpts were written during the Renaissance period where most Europe was of Catholic faith. If someone choose not to follow the Pope or go against Catholic doctrine, they were considered a heretic. This was almost the case with Pico. Pico wanted to organize a conference to debate his Nine Hundred Theses. He was then almost accused of heresy because the Church viewed the Theses as heretical. On the Dignity of Man written as the introduction to the Nine Hundred Theses.

Antonio De Luca was born into a family of peasants in 1870 in the capital of Campania, Italy which was in Naples . Antonio’s family consisted of seven people, his parents and four of his siblings. Their family was lower class and they had to live in the suburbs of Naples where housing had restricted to a small area with terrible housing conditions . Their house had not contained any bathrooms, sanitation systems or proper storages. His father worked as a baker for his uncle’s bakery near Porta Nolana while his mother worked at home as a tailor to repair damaged clothing . Antonio at a young age had to help with the household as during that time period,