CHAPTER
1
‹^57
The Challenge of the
Renaissance
IN THIS CHAPTER
Summary: The Renaissance refers to the revival of commerce, the renewal of
interest in the classical world, and the growing belief in the potential of human
achievement that occurred on the Italian peninsula between 1350 and 1550.
This chapter describes the society, values, and artistic achievements of the
Italian Renaissance and their spread to northern Europe.Key Terms:
✪^ Guilds Exclusive organizations that monopolized the skilled trades in Europe
from the medieval period until broken by the development of cottage indus-
tries in the eighteenth century.
✪^ Humanism In the Renaissance, both a belief in the value of human achieve-
ment and an educational program based on classical Greek and Roman
languages and values.
✪^ Studia humanitas The educational program of the Renaissance, founded on
knowledge of the classical Latin and Greek languages and literatures.
✪^ Oration on the Dignity of Man One of the best articulations (1486) of the
belief in the dignity and potential of humans that characterized Renaissance
humanism, authored by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.
✪^ The Prince The book by Niccolò Machiavelli (1513), which marks the shift^
from a “civic ideal” to a “princely ideal” in Renaissance humanism. The princely
ideal is focused on the qualities and strategies necessary for attaining and
holding social and political power.KEY IDEA10
CHAPTER
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