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Summary
The cities of Italy flourished during the late Middle Ages, serving as trading posts connecting Europe, the Byzantine Empire, and the Muslim world via the Mediterranean Sea. In the north of Italy, the most prosperous of these cities—Florence, Venice, and Milan—became powerful city-states that ruled the surrounding regions. Further south, the Papal States, centered in Rome, gradually grew to rival the wealth of the northern cities, and exerted a tremendous influence over Italian life and politics as the seat of the papacy. Along with a few other minor centers of wealth and power, Florence, Venice, Milan, and the Papal States became the cradle of the Renaissance.
The Renaissance, beginning in the mid-14th century, was marked by a turn from the Church-dominated values of medieval life toward the philosophical principles of humanism. While the Church had long emphasized spiritual preparation for the afterlife, the Italian people, especially the educated middle class, became interested in individual achievement and emphasized life in this world. They believed strongly in the potential for individual accomplishment in the arts, literature, and politics, and encouraged a cultivation of talents in a wide range of fields. Renaissance thinkers decried medieval life as primitive and backwards, instead taking inspiration from the ancient Greeks and Romans.
One of the earliest and most prominent humanist writers was Francesco Petrarch, often known as the founder of humanism. Petrarch believed that true eloquence and ethical wisdom had been lost during the Middle Ages and could only be found by looking to the writings of the ancients, especially Virgil and Cicero. Petrarch’s works included poetry, historical biographies, and scores of letters, many of which were eventually published and widely read. One of his most popular letters, "The Ascent of Mount Vertoux," is considered by many historians to embody the new spirit of the Renaissance.
Analysis
Geography, more than anything else, gave Italy an advantage over northern Europe in when amassing wealth and breaking free from the feudal system. Strategically located on the Mediterranean Sea between the majority of Europe and the Byzantine Empire, Italian cities were able to participate extensively in international trade, integrating commerce into daily life. At the same time, Italy maintained a market economy, preventing feudalism from taking hold as it did elsewhere in Europe. In this way, Italy became exposed to a large-scale flow of both goods and ideas much earlier than most other regions in Europe while still preserving a greater freedom in both society and mind than the rest of Europe.
Italy was also geographically and culturally closer to the history and ideas of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The new Italian city-states arose from the ruins of the Roman Empire, and a Greek influence was maintained by the trade with the Byzantine Empire, which was similarly built atop the ruins of ancient Greece. The Greek influence grew throughout the late 14th century and into the 15th century, as Greeks fleeing the fall of Constantinople in 1453 settled in Italy, bringing the knowledge of ancient Greek history and culture with them.
However, the primary aspect of medieval life, the Church, remained a centerpiece of Renaissance life, and religion continued to exert an extraordinary power over the thoughts and actions of individuals. Due to this, Petrarch and many other Renaissance intellectuals often described feelings of being torn between two sides of their personalities. Petrarch, like many Renaissance intellectuals, was comfortable in the seclusion of pious monastery life and believed in the Christian ideal of self-denial, but also loved to travel and enjoyed worldly pleasures. Even as he advocated study and learning, he feared that the accumulation of worldly knowledge might prevent him from achieving salvation. This inner turmoil was a common dilemma for Renaissance thinkers, as the principles of humanism and the doctrines of the Church clashed.
