HANDBOOK TO LIFE IN RENAISSANCE EUROPE HANDBOOK TO LIFE IN RENAISSANCE EUROPE SANDRA SIDER Handbook to Life in Renaissance Europe Copyright © 2005 by Sandra Sider All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sider, Sandra. Handbook to life in Renaissance Europe / Sandra Sider. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8160-5618-8 1. Renaissance—Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title. CB361.S498 2005 940.2´1—dc222004020088 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. 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This book is dedicated to my husband CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix Major Figures 58 Reading 63 LIST OF MAPS x 3 ART AND VISUAL CULTURE 65 Painting 67 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi Tapestries 78 Sculpture 80 INTRODUCTION: Prints 85 ORIGINS OF THE RENAISSANCE xiii Decorative Art 85 Major Artists 89 1 HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, Reading 98 AND SOCIETY 1 Italy 3 4 ARCHITECTURE AND Holy Roman Empire 9 URBAN PLANNING 99 France 10 Rise of the Architect 100 Spain and Portugal 11 Influence of Rome 106 Germany 15 Ecclesiastical Buildings 109 The Netherlands 15 From Fortresses and Castles Poland and Hungary 16 to Renaissance Palaces 111 England and Scotland 17 Villas 113 Major Rulers and Their Dates of Office 19 Patronage in Italian Civic Architecture 115 Major Figures 22 Beyond Italy and France 117 Reading 27 Major Architects 120 Reading 122 2 RELIGION 29 The Papacy 30 5 LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE 123 Catholic Church 34 Humanism, Philology, and Publishing 124 Protestant Reformation 47 Literary Theory 128 Judaism 54 Poetry 129 Islam 56 Prose 133 Drama 140 10 SCIENCE AND MEDICINE 249 Oratory and Rhetoric 144 Astronomy and Astrology 250 Library Collections 146 Chemistry 253 Major Writers 148 Mathematics 254 Reading 157 Optics 257 Botany and Drugs 257 6 MUSIC 159 Anatomy and Medicine 260 Sacred Music 160 Major Figures 263 Secular Music 162 Reading 268 Working Conditions and Patronage 164 Musical Instruments 167 11 EDUCATION 269 Publication of Musical Material 170 Humanistic Education 270 Major Composers 172 University Education 277 Reading 175 Education in the Vernacular Languages 279 Apprenticeship 281 7 WARFARE 177 Education of Girls and Women 282 Major Wars 178 Major Figures 285 Armor and Traditional Weaponry 182 Reading 287 Soldiering 185 Military Medicine 190 12 DAILY LIFE 289 Fortifications 191 Time and the Calendar 291 Major Leagues, Battles, Sieges, Family Life 293 and Peace Treaties 192 Ceremonies, Festivities, and Other Public Major Figures 196 Events 299 Reading 205 Clothing and Costume 303 Food and Cooking 305 8 COMMERCE 207 Disease, Illness, and Death 306 Banking and Accounting 208 Reading 307 Mining 210 Textiles 212 13 CONCLUSION: Agriculture 213 LEGACY OF THE RENAISSANCE 309 Wine, Beer, and Spirits 214 Scholarship 310 Crafts 215 Influences of the Renaissance 311 Printing and Publishing 216 Slavery 218 GLOSSARY 313 Major Figures 219 Reading 221 CHRONOLOGICAL CHART 321 9 EXPLORATION AND TRAVEL 223 Geography and Cartography 224 MUSEUMS AND OTHER COLLECTIONS 324 Travel 228 Exploration 232 BIBLIOGRAPHY 326 Major Figures 241 Reading 247 INDEX 345 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Portrait of Cosimo I de’ Medici 7 Portrait of Iolanta Ludovica, wife of Philibert II Portrait of Alfonso V 9 of Savoy 84 Portrait of Francis I 11 Painted enamel plaque of the Crucifixion 84 Portrait of Charles V 13 Lusterware plate with the arms of Aragon Portrait of Philip II 14 and Sicily 87 Portrait of Pope Leo X 32 Intarsia paneling in the study of the duke of Full-page miniature of the Resurrection in a Urbino 88 manuscript life of Saint Margaret of Antioch 35 Liturgical garment with metallic embroidery Church of Santa Croce, Florence 36 on black velvet 89 Saint Francis Xavier and his missionary Part of the 16th-century cloister of the entourage, painted on a folding screen 38 Monastery of San Giovanni Evangelista Gilt silver monstrance for presenting the in Parma, Italy 103 Eucharistic host 39 Tempietto, San Pietro in Montorio, Leaf from a Gutenberg Bible 45 Rome, Italy 105 Martin Luther at the Wittenberg church Plan, elevation, and section of the ruins door in 1517 47 of the Roman Colosseum 108 Noah’s ark in an illustrated book of Genesis 48 Coffered ceiling in the porch of the Pazzi Portrait of Jean Calvin 49 Chapel, 15th century, Florence, Italy 110 First leaf of the book of Joshua from an Château of Langeais, France, constructed illuminated Hebrew Bible 54 during the latter 15th century 112 Entrance hall of the Regensburg Synagogue 55 Engraving of the Monastery of El Escorial, Prayer carpet 57 Spain 118 Apparatus for translating three-dimensional Scene of the assassination of Julius Caesar, objects into two-dimensional drawings 67 from the first illustrated edition of the Linear perspective illustrated in a woodcut works of the classical Roman poet of the interior of a building 68 Horace 125 Portrait of Michelangelo 70 Portrait of Louise Labé 131 Altarpiece (retable) of the Apotheosis Scene from a novella painted on the panel of the Virgin 73 of an Italian cassone (storage chest) 136 Head of the Virgin 77 Title page of a book in French about The Last Supper depicted in a tapestry 79 King Arthur’s search for the Holy Grail 138 Swabian (German) limewood sculpture Illustrated page from the plays of the classical of the Virgin and Child 81 Roman dramatist Terence 141 L IST OF I LLUSTRATIONS AND M APS ix Musical instrument maker’s workshop 160 Movable navigational tool 237 Three angels singing from a shared Portrait of Christopher Columbus 239 choir book 165 Illustration of an armillary sphere 252 Cortege of drummers and soldiers at the royal Geometrical studies of the human face 255 entry of Henry II, king of France, Illustration of a pineapple 258 into Rouen in 1550 168 Botanical illustration and analytical text 259 Double virginal with pictorial lid 170 Example of a patient in full-body traction 262 Three musicians with books of music 171 Classroom scene 271 Armor of George Clifford, third earl An allegory of arithmetic 280 of Cumberland, c. 1580–85 183 Carpenter’s apprentice cutting wood 281 Double-barreled wheel lock pistol Saint Anne reading to the Virgin 283 of Charles V, c. 1540–45 185 Legal tribunal with the prince adjudicating 290 Battle scene depicting pikemen and cavalrymen 186 System for counting by one’s fingers 292 Wooden siege tower with soldier preparing Venetian lacquered wood chest 293 to ascend 191 Two children teasing a cat 296 A man weighing gold 210 Fifteenth-century merchant’s home, Hydraulic pump for mining operations 211 Dinan, France 297 Brocaded velvet, with silk and metallic thread 212 Iron door knocker 298 Historiated initial E depicting grape picking Tomb monument for the duchess and wine making 215 of Albuquerque 301 Illustrations of the “heathens” and “monstrous Portrait of Sebastian Brant in a brocaded races” believed to inhabit foreign lands 224 garment and fur hat 303 Portolan chart of western Europe Kitchen still life 306 and northwestern Africa 227 Allegory of avarice, with skeleton 307 Map of the world 229 LIST OF MAPS Europe, c. 1460 3 Major voyages of exploration 233 Italian Peninsula, c. 1500 5 Portuguese voyages to 1498 235 Europe, c. 1519 179 Asia and the Indian Ocean, 16th century 236 H ANDBOOK TO L IFE IN R ENAISSANCE E UROPE x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS olin Eisler; Paul Grendler; Albert Rabil, Jr.; and for The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance, two CHenry Rasof read my initial outline for the important resources for the present book. Abby book and made several wise suggestions, for which I Sider, my daughter, graciously did the research for am extremely grateful. Additional thanks are due the List of Museums. I would also like to thank my Paul Grendler for his superb work as editor of the excellent editor at Facts On File, Claudia Schaab, as Encyclopedia of the Renaissance and Gordon Campbell well as the copy editor, Susan Thornton. INTRODUCTION: ORIGINS OF THE RENAISSANCE he period covered by the Renaissance varies, claim parts of the Orient, and into the North Ameri- Tdepending on the geographic region or subject can continent, searching for gold and converts to under discussion. The Renaissance began in north- Christianity. Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe ern Italy in the latter 14th century, culminating in both defined and extended the Earth, situating Euro- England in the early 17th century. Consequently the peans within a vast world of possibilities. present book spans two centuries, c. 1400–c. 1600, The word renaissance means “rebirth,” and the emphasizing the pervasive influence of Italian sources most obvious example of this phenomenon was the on the development of the Renaissance in other parts rediscovery of Europe’s classical Roman past. of southern Europe as well as in the north. Although important texts of ancient Greek authors, Although the ideal of the Renaissance individual such as Homer and Plato, first became known in was exaggerated to the extreme by 19th-century crit- Western Europe during the Renaissance, very little ics and historians, there was certainly a greater aware- was understood about the culture of ancient Greece.