"I want to know what were the steps by which
man passed from barbarism to civilization (Voltaire)"
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What are our origins?
Where are we now?
Where are we headed?
Share your thoughts with us!
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Volume Five (The Renaissance)
"Four elements constitute Civilization -- economic provision, political organization, moral traditions, and the pursuit of knowledge and the arts. "
"I shall proceed as rapidly as time and circumstances will permit, hoping that a few of my contemporaries will care to grow old with me while learning. "
"These volumes may help some of our children to understand and enjoy the infinite riches of their inheritance."
"Civilization begins where chaos and insecurity ends." SAVONAROLA AND THE REPUBLIC
The Prophet
The Statesman
Literature: The Martyr
Architecture and Sculpture: The Republic and the Medici
Art Under the Revolution
In this volume the term "Renaissance" refers only to Italy. Will Durant studies the growth of industry, the rise of banking families like the Medici, the conflicts of labor and capital and considers the reasons why Italy was the first nation, and Florence the first city in Italy, to feel the awakening of the modern mind. He follows the cultural flowering from Florence to Milan, Mantua, Ferrata, Verona and Venice, Padua and Parma, Bologna, Rimini, Urbino, Perugia, Siena, and Naples.
In each city of Italy we witness a colorful pageant of princes, queeens, dukes, or doges -- of poets, historians, scientists, and philosophers -- of painters, sculptors, engravers, illuminators, potters, and architects -- of industry, education, manners, morals, crime, and dress -- of women and love and marriage -- of epidemics, famines, earthquakes, and death.
Dr. Durant draws vivid vignettes -- of Petrarch, Boccaccio, Cosimo de' Medici, Fra Angelico, Donatello, Beatrice and Isabella d'Este, Leonardo da Vinci, Piero della Francesca, Signorelli, Perugino, Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Aldus Manutius, Correggio, Alexander VI, Caesar and Lucrezia Borgia, Julius II, Leo X, Raphael, and Michelangelo.
The Renaissance, by recalling classic culture, ended the thousand year rule of the Oriental mind in Europe.
This volume, then, is about YOU. Join our group daily and listen to what Durant and the rest of us are saying. Better yet, share with us your opinions.
Ambrogio Calepini gave his name to the early English dictionaries (Calepins). and
predated by a couple of hundred years the later lexicographers extolled here by the
Oxford Dictionary -
http://www.askoxford.com/worldofwords/oed/legendarylexicographers/?view=ukWikipedia has a fine picture of a bust of this learned Augustinian monk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrogio_Calepino
I suggest we post the following material along with Brian's instructions in # 356 on as many foreign site as possible.
The Story of Civilization has been active as a discussion group for eight years. We are now talking and reading about Italy during the Renaissance years.
That period in history was launched by reports of the travels of Marco polo and the reappearance of classical objects from antiquity. Early archeologists unearthed what once was Rome and the Arabs of Spain brought Greek and Roman documents to 13th century Italy. Genovese and Pisan trade with others around the Mediterranean basin brought new Hellenic influences to the Italian peninsula. Artists were ready to break out of the idealistic constrictions of the past and to push into more realistic areas of art expression.
Trade brought new wealth to Italian merchants and gave rise to a moneyed merchant class. The new wealth found it's way to the Papacy and it encouraged dissipation among the Popes of the period. This led to abuses and to conflict with European royalty and dissension from within the Church.
Things happen in this period of history that change the way of the world forever. We can never go back and it all happened here.
Come share with us this discussion of one of the most significant periods in the history of the world.
You'll be glad you came and you will gain in understanding why we are where we are today.
