The Renaissance

Nicholas V ......................................

(1397–1455)

Pope from 1447 until 1455 who resolved
the long-standing conflict between the
conciliar movement and the Papacy and
whose efforts to restore classical Rome
made him in the view of many historians
the first “Renaissance pope.” Born as Tom-
maso Parentucelli, in Sarzana, a town near
Genoa, he was the son of a physician and
a talented scholar and linguist. He traveled
to Florence, where he was hired as a tutor
to the city’s aristocratic families. After
studying theology at the University of Bo-
logna, he traveled throughout northern
Europe as a scholar and book collector.

Nicholas was appointed as the bishop
of Bologna in 1444. He was sent by Pope
Eugene IV to the Holy Roman Empire in
order to resolve the dispute between the
pope and the emperor. His skillful diplo-
macy was rewarded with an appointment
as cardinal and in 1446, as the successor
to Eugene IV.

As pope, Nicholas’s mission was to
undo the work of the Council of Basel,
whose delegates were asserting the primacy
of church councils. He signed an impor-
tant treaty known as the Concordat of Vi-
enna with Frederick III, the king of Ger-
many, who agreed that the council’s
decisions would have no effect in his lands.
Nicholas made great efforts to resolve si-
mony and other corrupt practices that
were throwing the church into ill repute.
Nicholas ended the long schism in the
western church by convincing the last an-
tipope, Felix V, to give up his claim to the
Papacy in 1449. Nicholas crowned Freder-
ick III as the Holy Roman Emperor in
1452, the last pope to carry out this ser-
vice. In the same year, he wrote a papal
decree,Dum Diversas, that allowed the
king of Portugal to take non-Christians as

slaves, thus giving the papal stamp of ap-

proval to the growing African slave trade.

Nicholas began the revival of culture

and learning in the city of Rome. He re-

built and repaired the city and aspired to

make it a monument to the power and

prestige of the popes. Rome’s walls were

fortified, its streets paved, its sewers and

water systems repaired, and its ancient sys-

tem of Roman aqueducts returned to ser-

vice. He sponsored the work of scholars

and copyists in bringing the works of an-

cient writers to light after centuries of ne-

glect. Nicholas also established the Vatican

Library, the largest repository of books in

Europe.

SEEALSO: Council of Basel; Fall of Con-

stantinople; Papacy; slavery

Nogarola, Isotta ...............................

(1418–1466)

An Italian scholar, author, and feminist

who was renowned, and notorious for her

ambition to debate religion and philoso-

phy with the men of the Renaissance. Born

into a noble family of Verona, she was of-

fered an extremely rare (for a young girl)

private education. Her tutor, Martino Riz-

zoni, followed the new humanist philoso-

phy and instructed her in Latin, moral phi-

losophy, poetry, and history—leaving out

rhetoric, considered to be the exclusive do-

main of young men preparing themselves

for a public career. She wrote skillful es-

says and letters in classical Latin and

sought a mentor in Guarino of Verona,

then the leading humanist of northern

Italy, who ignored her for a full year be-

fore deigning to reply to her letter with a

scornful rejection.

In 1438 Nogarola fled plague-stricken

Verona for Venice. She drew criticism in

that city for presuming to debate male

scholars, and was satirized in an anony-

Nogarola, Isotta