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Main Ideas
Main Ideas


the rise of folk culture and popular literature in most European countries towards the end of the Middle Ages changes in secular education, particularly the founding of universities culminating in the birth of a self-conscious new age with a new spirit
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The Renaissance refers to the period in European civilization towards the end of the Middle Ages, which was characterized by a surge of interest in classical learning and values. The Renaissance emerged when social instability, economic sluggishness and intellectual depression became so intolerable that most of the people, especially the intellectuals could no longer accept the worsening situation. The Renaissance as a movement first started in Florence and then expanded to Venice, Rome and other Italian cities before it swept the rest parts of Europe. Painting and sculpture were the most sensitive fields to the change with their subjects and tastes, shifting from dullness, stagnation, lack of emotion and divinity to dynamics, enthusiasm and humanitarianism. Literature and ideology soon followed
中世纪（Middle Ages）（约公元476年~公元1453年），是欧洲历史
上的一个时代（主要是西欧），自西罗马帝国灭亡（公元476年）到 东罗马帝国灭亡（公元1453年）的这段时期。这个时期的欧洲没有一 个强有力的政权来统治。封建割据带来频繁的战争，造成科技和生产 力发展停滞，人民生活在毫无希望的痛苦中，所以中世纪或者中世纪 早期在欧美普遍被称作“黑暗时代”，传统上认为这是欧洲文明史上 发展比较缓慢的时期。 政治上：封建专制制度的建立和完善，（领主，庄园主，骑士） 经济上：以奴隶为主的生产方式——以农民为主的半雇佣劳动制度 文化思想上：以基督教为中心和主导 （唯灵主义）
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Main Ideas
Main Ideas
Factors that contributed to the emergence of the Renaissance:


the break-up of feudal structures the strengthening of city-states in Italy the emergence of national monarchies in Spain, France, and England the thrive of many different kinds of social structures, such as guilds, civic associations, councils and monastic chapters, which were based on some form of autonomy
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Interpretation of Cultural Terms
Interpretation of Cultural Terms
monastic chapter 教会或修道院管理处: a Christian administrative office within the church
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I. Background to the Renaissance II. Source, Feature and Significance of the Renaissance III. Cultural Achievements of the Renaissance
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Interpretation of Cultural Terms
Interpretation of Cultural Terms
Bologna University 博洛尼亚大学: one of the oldest universities (together with that of Paris) established in Bologna, a city in northern Italy, famous for the studies of law and other medieval and Renaissance subjects
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Interpretation of Cultural Terms
Interpretation of Cultural Terms
folk culture 民间文化: cultural activities about the ordinary people, particularly the lower class people, which often included vulgarity jokes and sarcasm of the lower class, especially against the upper-class culture which cared for order, social classes, peace and good manners of aristocracy and the royal family
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as other important areas proceeded and the movement further separated itself from feudalistic tyranny, ecclesiastic bondage and sought intellectual freedom and ideological emancipation. The Renaissance is characterized by seeking ideological emancipation, intellectual freedom and political awareness, based on cultural production and religious reformation. All these were undertaken or unfolded gradually but widely, extending its influences to every corner of Europe, with more and more people getting involved. The achievements were seen principally in six areas, namely, painting, sculpture, poetry, fiction, drama and religious reformation as well as the change in the cultural and intellectual climate.
IV. Social Ideology during the Renaissance V. The Religious Reformation
VI. Developments of Natural Science VII. Beginning of Modern Philosophy VIII. Classicism and the Cultural Salon
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The Renaissance was an important stage in the historical process of the Western civilization and indicated a transitional period from the Middle Ages to the modern era in the development of Western culture. Economic and intellectual changes during the Renaissance both helped to speed up Western social and cultural development and prepared the necessary conditions for the rapid progress in political, social and ideological areas of the Modern Age.
(1) Italy’s prosperous trade and production of handicraft, which furnished a material basis for cultural development