Origin and meaning of term ‘Renaissance’
Georgio Vasari (1511-74), an Italian historian of arts
in the sixteenth century, used the term 'rinascita' to denote the 'rebirth of
the arts' in Italy in his work biographies of Italian
artists.
Jules Michelet, the great French historian, coined the
term 'Renaissance' in 1855. So the term
Renaissance is French and derived from the Latin word ‘renascor’ meaning
rebirth.
However, it was Jacob Burckhardt who, in his classic
work The Civilization of Renaissance in Italy (1860), interpreted it as the
dawn of modernity and popularized this concept.
Today the term refers to that momentous period in
European history that began in Italy, particularly Florence, in the fourteenth
century, spread throughout the European continent, and continued until the
beginning of the seventeenth century.
Definition of Renaissance
In a limited sense, the Renaissance was an interest in
the knowledge and science of the ancient civilization of Greece and Rome.
While in its broad sense it was an attitude that began
to appear in Italy in the period from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century,
which Jules Michelet identifies as the 'discovery of
the world and man'.
Which was buried in the supremacy of religion in the
middle age.
1.
Rediscovery
and spread of classical learning
In fact, after the fall of Constantinople by the Turks
in 1453 AD, the scholars there started migrating towards Italy. Cardinal
Bessarion alone reached Italy with 800 manuscripts. The result was that Greek
logic and learning bypassed their decline and migrated to Italy. In the Renaissance,
large numbers of Western scholars learned Greek and mastered almost the entire Greek
literary heritage that is known today.
2.
Discovery
of the world
Bacon, the father of modern science, told in his book
'The Advancement of Learning' that knowledge can be gained not only by
contemplation but by exploration of nature. Copernicus, a Polish resident,
refuted Ptolemy's geocentric theory, for which Bruno was once burnt alive. Jan
Kepler supported Copernicus' ideas with his mathematical proofs. Which was
directly experienced by Galileo's telescope. In this period, Newton discovered
gravity and Harvey discovered the circulatory system. These scientific
achievements appreciated the positivist approach to knowledge. Not only this,
it encouraged those adventurers for geographical discoveries and voyages, which
were supported by the state and inspired by 'God, Gold and Glory'.
3.
Discovery
of the man
The Renaissance was marked by a clear shift from divine matters to human matters. The most important expression of this inclination is humanism of the Renaissance. In the technical sense humanism is a program of study that replaced the orthodox logic and metaphysics of the Middle Ages with an emphasis on the study of language, literature, and ethics. Literature and history were now called humanities. In simple sense, it is such an ideology by which praise of human being, emphasis on his essential dignity, unwavering faith in his immense creative power and declaration of inalienable rights of the individual is the essence of humanism. We find an echo of the Greek philosopher Protagoras who thought 'this meaningless world has no meaning if man does not give it meaning' in Italian humanist Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's work 'Oration on the Dignity of Man' when he says that 'more wonderful than man there is none, the human is a miracle.' Its ideas are called 'Manifesto of Renaissance'. Shakespeare repeats it, 'What a wonderful creation man is, .... man is equal to God.'
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