HIST1011 2023

MODULE 2

LECTURE 3: REBUILDING IN EUROPE, c. 1400-1600

 Module 2

This module is concerned with the key developments in World History between about 1350 and 1600 CE. It argues that this period was
shaped most significantly by the rebuilding, indeed recreation, of new Empires after the devastation caused by a major pandemic, and
the growing connections and confrontations between those new empires. It argues that this period marks the key division between the
early modern and the modern period, when the global world we recognize today began to take clearly recognisable shape.

In the module’s lectures, we will cover…

• The crisis of the ‘Black Death’ pandemic from the mid-1330s to the early 1400s. We look at its causes, spread and social responses in
global comparative context.

• Post-pandemic political recovery and revival that led to the birth of large centralized Empires in eastern Afro-Eurasia, with several
case studies from across 15th and 16th century Afro-Eurasia: Ming China, the Ottoman and Mughal Empires.

• How , by contrast, Christian Europe struggled to unify under any single dominant political authority, but nevertheless underwent
significant cultural and intellectual ferment. The results were contradictory: an outpouring of creative thought broke the hold of
Catholicism over European minds (see module 1) and gave rise to an alternative Protestant Christianity, a process shaped by almost
unrelenting religious violence between the two.

• The emergence of two Catholic kingdoms, Portugal and Spain, in the 1400s and their expansion, by 1500 CE, across the Indian and
Atlantic oceans . Their encounters with the indigenous American empires of the Aztec and the Incas – whom we meet for the first
time in this course – gave birth to the Atlantic World system, an epochal event in World History that brought the peoples and
products of the Americas into contact and conflict with Africa and Europe for the first time, with complex consequences for all
involved.
Lecture 3 turns from State-building in Asia to consider state-building in Europe in the 15 th and 16th century. In
this lecture, you’ll see how:

• New political powers began to emerge in the 1400s, in the shape of Italian city states (discussed briefly) and,
more enduringly, in the kingdoms of Portugal and Spain. However, the particularly complex dynamics of this
region meant no single authority came to truly dominate as the Ming, Ottoman or Mughals were doing
elsewhere.

• Despite sharp political fragmentation, artists, intellectuals and humanist writers, under the patronage of
newly wealthy dynasts, forged a radical new culture based on the recovery of ancient and Islamic learning:
the Renaissance.

• The Renaissance of the 15th century gave way to a century of great violence in the 16th century, as critical
thinkers and activists split Christianity into rival Protestant and Catholic spheres. This ‘Protestant
Reformation’ and the Catholic counter-reformation birthed vicious religious war across Europe.
Western Christendom, 1400–1500. Europe
was a region divided by dynastic rivalries
during the fifteenth century. Here, you can
locate the most powerful regional
dynasties, which we consider in this lecture:
Portugal, Castile, Aragon, France, England,
and the Holy Roman Empire, as well some
important ‘city-states’ (powerful,
independent urban centres). Using the
scale, you can contrast the sizes of political
units in this map with the Ming, Ottoman
and Mughal dynasties that were the subject
of lecture 1 in this module. Note also here
the many popular uprisings, which are
indicative of much social turmoil.

A Tour through 15th century

Iberia. Shortly after the fall of
Granada, the last Spanish
bastion of Islam, in 1494
Hieronymus Münzer of
Nuremberg undertook an epic
journey through the newly
reconquered Iberian peninsula.
Elizabeth Drayson retraces his
odyssey
Four Obstacles to State Building in the 15th century
Plague Waves
Languages
Private Armies
The Power of the Catholic Church

The Flagellants were groups of religious extremists who

emerged in Europe during the Black Death. The
Flagellants believed that the Black Death was a
punishment from God for the sins of humanity, and that
the only way to atone for these sins was through physical
penance. They would march through towns and cities,
often barefoot and wearing white robes, and would beat
themselves with whips and scourges in public displays of
penitence. They gained a significant following,
particularly among the poor and disenfranchised, and
their public displays of penance often drew large crowds.
 Italian City States

The Spice Trade’s Middlemen

Finance Houses
Venice
Florence
 Stabilization and New Monarchies on the Iberian Peninsula

PORTUGAL
Portugal and ‘the Moors’
The Straits of Gibraltar
Fall of Moroccan Cuetta
Joao I (r. 1385-1433) and Henry the Navigator (r. 1433-1485)
The conquest of Castile
Trade with West Africa: Cape Verde, Sao Tome, Principe and Fernando Po
Land Grants and Sugar Colonization in the Mid-Atlantic Islands: Madeira, Azores

The Tower of Belem is a

fortified tower located in
Lisbon, Portugal. It was
built in the 16th century as
a symbol of Portugal’s
growing maritime power,
and was an important
DeepDive centre of prayer and ritual
before sea navigators set
David Abulafia shows sail into the Atlantic Ocean.
how the previously It is now a UNESCO World
uninhabited mid- Heritage Site
Atlantic islands were
transformed forever
in the 15th century.
History Today (2019)
 Stabilization and New Monarchies on the Iberian Peninsula

Spain
Political and Religious Diversity in Spanish Iberia
The Reconquista
Isabel & Ferdinand
Castile & Aragon
The Fall of Grenada (1492)
Conversos and the Inquisition

DEEPDIVE
A steady head and a steely spine helped
Isabella of Castile manoeuvre her way to
the throne. Outsmarting and outlasting
her rivals, she rose to become Spain’s
iconic queen in a masculine world. NatGeo
History (2018).

Holding Spain in its grip for more than

three centuries, Doris Moreno Martinez
looks at how the Spanish Inquisition relied
on fear, ruthlessness, and public violence
to enforce devotion to the church NatGeo
History (2016).

Maria Lara Martinez shows how all people

in Spain—whether monks or Moriscos, Ferdinand and Isabella Entering Granada This altar relief, sculpted by
men or women, converted Christians or Felipe Vigarny in the early sixteenth century, depicts the triumphant
covert Jews—lived in fear of the Spanish entrance of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella into the city of
Inquisition for more than 350 years. Granada after their conquest of this last Muslim stronghold in Spain.
NatGeo History (2021)
 Textbox: State-building elsewhere in Christendom, 1400-1600

Elsewhere in Europe, dynasts sought to unite new kingdoms in the 1400s and 1500s.

Holy Roman Empire. Although their efforts at state building pale in comparison with those of the empires rising in Asia, one family, the Habsburgs, established a long-lasting and
significant dynasty in central Europe. How had they emerged? After the collapse of Charlemagne’s Frankish Empire (see module 1 lecture 3) in the mid-9th century, much of central
Europe had splintered and fragmented into a dizzying variety of small rival states: principalities, dukedoms, archbishoprics, royal houses and ‘micro’ kingdoms. But among many,
particularly in the eastern parts of Charlemagne’s former empire, a dream persisted to unify Europe under one authority and to reclaim the cohesion and integration once enjoyed by
the Roman Empire in classical antiquity. In the late 13th century, a loose confederation of small rulers elected an ‘Emperor’ from the House of Habsburg (located in present-day
Austria). The territory over which he ruled they called the ‘Holy Roman Empire’. It was not the same as the Roman Empire, but the Habsburgs used the term to acquire legitimacy, to
signal their interest reviving the past, and to deepen their connection with the Catholic church. In theory, the Holy Roman Empire encompassed an enormous territory stretching from
its centre in present-day Austria and Germany to Belgium and Holland in the west, Italy and Switzerland in the south, and Poland and Croatia to the east. Successive rulers of this
empire (among the most important was Charles V who reigned 1519 to 1556) became enormously wealthy and eventually came into possession of Spain and Portugal late in the
1500s. However it was always a chimerical, elusive empire, far too loosely organised to centralise power as had occurred in the Ming, Ottoman and Mughal worlds. The Habsburgs
had constantly to defend their almost imaginary empire against revolts (notably in Netherlands) and as well as confront Ottoman harassment on their eastern borders. Despite an
attempt to ‘down-size’ the empire by ‘splitting’ it between two monarchs in the late 1500s, the size and wealth of Habsburg Empire continued to provoke enormous tension within
Europe.

Valois France. Meanwhile in the northwest of Europe, the great age of monarchy would take longer to dawn than in either Portugal, Spain or central Europe. Feudal rulers – the
House of Valois in France and Plantagenets in England – of the two neighbouring territories fought one another incessantly during the decades of plague, so that historians refer to
the bloody period between the 1340s and 1440s as ‘The Hundred Year War”. When Valois forces pushed the Plantagenets back across the English Channel during these
confrontations, they began a slow process of consolidating royal power across today’s France, Helped by diplomatic marriages and unifying memory of Joan of Arc, a female warrior-
saint who fought against helped the Valois crown expand its domain; the Kingdom’s population reached some 15 million by 1550. But its stability and cohesion was always
undermined by peasant revolts and religious conflict. This situation prevailed until the last Valois King was assassinated in 1589, paving the way for the House of Bourbon to take the
crown. Under the House of Bourbon, full unification of the Kingdom of France and the entrenchment of a powerful, absolutist monarchy there would be the work of the 17th century
(absolutism means a form of government where one body, usually the monarch, controls the right to tax, judge, make war, and coin money)

Tudor England. The situation in England at the end of the Hundred Years War (1440s) was similarly unpromising for state-builders. The Plantagenets fractured almost immediately
after failing to take northwestern France. This gave way to a thirty-year civil war between rival Houses of Lancaster and York in England’s north, settling little. Both families in this so-
called ‘War of the Roses’ ultimately lost out to the Tudors, who seized the throne in 1485. The Tudors spent the next century gradually strengthening the power of their monarchy
and the English economy, sufficient enough to withstand challengers from neighbouring Scots and religious interests. It was not until Queen Elizabeth I took power in 1558 that a
centralised state was secured. Elizabeth used her control of patronage (to grant privileges to favoured elites) and elaborate court festivities to secure her pre-eminence. Also, refusing
to share her power with a man, the “Virgin Queen” never married and exerted sole control over the church, military, and aristocracy. Tudor rule came close to being absolutist, except
that England’s population was small (a mere 3 million people compared to the tens of millions under Ming or Mughal rule) so to raise money the English monarchs needed the
support and consent of landowners. The landowners agreed, but only on the condition they retain a say in government, which they did so through a collective body called parliament.
 A Cultural Renaissance, c. 1450-1550
What was the European Renaissance?

Economic prosperity as foundation for cultural change

Revival of ancient Greek, Roman and Islamic knowledge
Breaking the Church’s authority on truth and order
Humanism
The Printing Press
Transformations in Architecture, Painting and Sculpture and the Body

New Intellectual Communities

Diffusion of Renaissance culture from southern Europe
Exiles, Refugees and Cosmopolitan Cities
Aristocrats and Non-Aristocrats
Humanist Education and its Limits
‘The Republic of Letters’
Dissidents and New Political Philosophies: Civic Humanism and Machiavellianism
Invention of the modern Printing Press Around 1450, the
German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing
press. It was not a complex or elaborate device. Consider the
simplicity of this mechanical device, with few moving parts and
the use of a modest screw to push plates together.
The persecution and Was there a Women’s Nonetheless, its ability to reproduce thousands of pages per
execution of Jews in 15th- Renaissance? Four day—as opposed to only dozens at the hands of scribes—
century Italy highlights historians whether the slashed the cost of printing and made information cheap. Just
the ambiguous attitudes DeepDive great advances of the as important, the device itself was inexpensive and easy to
of Renaissance Renaissance were build. Within a few decades, printing presses were in operation
intellectuals towards extended to women throughout western Europe, reading books became
Jewish people. History History Today (2020) commonplace, and authorities (especially religious ones) lost
Today (2013) what control was left to them over the creation and flow of
information.
 RENAISSANCES EXEMPLARS: DA VINCI

Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper depicts Christ’s disciples reacting to his announcement that one of them will betray him. Da Vinci used the technique of perspective and classical
treatments of the body to give vivacity and three-dimensionality to even religious paintings, which until then had been somewhat abstract and flat.
 RENAISSANCES EXEMPLARS: MICHEALANGELO

Michelangelo’s David (left), standing over 13 feet high,

was conceived as an expression of Florentine civic ideals,
harking back the forms of classical antiquity. His Sistine
Chapel (above right) and the detail within (below right)
gave Adam, the first person to appear in the Christian
bible, the body of a classical Greek God.

DeepDive
Lauri Fedi takes you
through all the panels of
the Sistine Chapel the
peak of Renaissance art,
in a lavishly illustrated
article
 RENAISSANCES EXEMPLARS: BOTTICELLI

DEEPDIVE

Alessandro Pagano profiles the

painter whose works of art revered
Europe’s classical past and
celebrated his Florentine patrons,
Sandro Botticelli was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. His portraits often feature idealized and harmonious depictions of the the powerful Medici family. NatGeo
human form, reflecting the importance of the human body, while also offering striking realism and naturalism. Above all, Botticelli History (2019).
celebrated the individual and their unique qualities, a key aspect of Renaissance humanism. Art such as the above (painted in the
1480s), did much to shape particularly European conceptions and values of feminine and masculine ‘Beauty’, but it is always important
to remember that these ideals were inventions born of a certain time and place, and not widely shared globally.
 RENAISSANCES EXEMPLARS: SOFONISBA

Not all Renaissance artists where men, even though gender hierarchies were pronounced in 15th century
Europe. Sofonisba Anguissola was an Italian Renaissance painter who gained recognition for her portraits of
nobility and prominent figures. Her painting "Lady in Ermine“ (left) reflects Renaissance values by portraying
the sitter as an individual with a distinct personality, emphasizing naturalism and realism in the lifelike
rendering of her features and clothing, and using classical ideals and aesthetics.

DEEPDIVE
A profile of Sofonisba
Anguissola. Appointed
as a court painter to
the king of Spain, the
Italian artist became
Europe’s first female
superstar artist.
NatGeo History (2022)
 RENAISSANCE EXAMPLAR:
FLORENCE CATHEDRAL

Cosimo de’ Medici (1389–1464) funded

the completion of the sumptuous
Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in
Florence, Italy, topped by the architect
Brunelleschi’s masterful Duomo (dome),
the largest built since antiquity. The
Dome is inspired by the classical
Pantheon in Rome, and incorporates
other classical elements such as
Corinthian columns. It is probably the
finest architectural example of
Rennaiscance principleS of mathematics,
geometry and rationalism.

DeepDive

Manuel Saga looks in

depth at the processing
building the Cathedral
of Santa Maria del
Fiore, and how it
astonished the world
with its colossal dome,
Manuel Saga looks in depth at engineered by Filippo
how the Cathedral of Santa Brunelleschi. NatGeo
Maria del Fiore astonished the History (2022)
world with its colossal dome,
engineered by Filippo
Brunelleschi
 Textbox: New Theories of Power and War

The Renaissance was not only an embrace of the arts. It was also a vehicle that enabled the more direct study of
worldly power. Close reading of the ancient Greek and Roman political treatises emboldened 16th century
Rennaiscance scholars to address more forthrightly the conditions under which power could be maintained or
undermined. New forms of governance were invented—and older forms buttressed. The Florentine Niccolò
Machiavelli wrote the most famous text on authoritarian power, arguably the foundational text of modern political
science.

In his book The Prince (1513, pictured left), Machiavelli argued, in contrast to the Civic Humanists (addressed earlier),
that political leadership was not about obeying God’s rules but about mastering the amoral means of modern
statecraft. Holding and exercising power were ends in themselves, he claimed; civic virtue was merely a pretense on
the part of the elite who simply wanted to keep the upper hand. Machiavelli was also renowned for his essay The Art
of War (1521). Here, he argued that ancient Roman military tactics, including the deploying of trained, armed citizens,
would make for a more trustworthy army than the use of mercenary soldiers. The enrolment of the broad citizenry in
the defence of the state, he insisted, would also make for political stability. These ideas – initially wholly radical given
that most 16th century monarchs put little trust in the own citizens - circulated widely and would gradually catch on
and inspire military reforms across Europe. As we will see in later lectures, this produced enormous consequences in
Europe and elsewhere in the world.

Meanwhile, specialized military engineers produced a wave of publications – most of them as easy-to-share pamphlets
- devoted to proper fortification design. In a Europe so frequently at war, these found a ready audience. The writers
advocated the construction of defences not pleasing to the eye but to best able to absorb the force of modern
cannons. Machiavelli’s fellow Italian Niccolò Tartaglia was one military thinker who had noticed the upsurge in cannon
usage from the 15th century, and produced an important treatise on ballistics in which mathematics was applied, for
the very first time, to the trajectory of projectiles. This work too provided influential. Thus began a long-lasting battle
between military architects seeking to construct invincible defence works and artillery makers seeking to destroy
them. As we’ll see, the inhabitants of coastal East Africa and south Asia were soon to get first-hand experience of
these new theories.

Surviving years in the snake pit of Renaissance politics and a torturous stint in jail, Niccolò
Machiavelli penned The Prince, his landmark study of the mechanisms of power. Andrea
DeepDive Frediani offers a fuller portrait of his life and times during the making of this seminal
political theory text. NatGeo History (2020).
 RELIGIOUS REFORMATION FROM C. 1520

PRINT CULTURE & ANTI-CLERICISM

Persecution of Heretics and Witches
Catholic “Indulgences”
Monks Mistresses

PROTESTANTISM (and its sects)

Luther and Lutheranism
Calvinism and Presbyterianism
Anglicanism (and Episcopalians)
Anabaptism and Quakerism

THE COUNTER-REFORMATION
Reaffirmation of Catholicism
Reform in the Papacy: piety and prudence
The Jesuits
Persecution: Exorcisms, Witch-Burning & Censorship

RELIGIOUS WAR
Protestant Peasant Uprisings
Civil Wars
Toward the Thirty Years War (from 1618).
Protestant Reformation. Following Luther’s lead, many reformers created inexpensive pamphlets to increase the
circulation of their message. Pictured here is a woodcut from one such pamphlet, which shows Luther and his followers
fending off a corrupt Pope (Leo X)
DEEPDIVE: THE REFORMATION
Tales of wives shaming errant husbands, brides
forcing lovers to marry them and maidservants
taking their rapists to court emerge from
Suzannah Lipscomb’s research into the female
residents of Reformation France. So, she asks,
does this mean that women in 16th-century
Europe wielded more power than we previously
thought? Histories (2019)

They tortured, tricked and terrorised suspects

into confessions – often with undisguised relish.
So, asks Marion Gibson, should the witchfinders
of 16th and 17th-century Europe be dismissed
as sadists and charlatans? Histories (2022)

Frank Furedi explores whether the ideas set out

by Martin Luther sparked a reformation in the
idea of authority itself, and gave birth to the
modern notion of individual or personal
freedom. History Today (2017)
Religious Divisions in Europe after the
Reformation, 1590. By about 1600, the
Reformation had divided western Europe. In
this map, you can see the distribution of
Catholic and Protestant communities, as
well as Protestantism’s sub-sects. Note how
Protestantism gained firm footholds in the
Holy Roman Empire, the British Isles and, to
a lesser degree, France. In these areas, and
especially along their borders, tensions
were most pronounced. In eastern Europe,
the Ottomans controlled territories
inhabited by Eastern Orthodox Christians.
Jewish communities were dispersed
throughout both (on Jewish diaspora in
Europe, see Perspectives in module 2
lecture 1.

The 16th-century French Wars of Religion

Witch-hunters
 PERSPECTIVES: THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR (1618-1648)

The religious conflict that erupted in the 16th century spilled over well into the 17th,
climaxing (though not completely ending) with the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). The
brutal conflict began as a struggle between Protestants and Catholics within the Holy
Roman Empire (see earlier slide), but it soon became a war for pre-eminence in all of
continental Europe It became a complex, multi-actor conflict between Protestant princes
and the Catholic Holy Roman emperor for religious predominance in central Europe; a
struggle for regional supremacy among different Catholic powers (the Spanish, Austrians
and French); and a bid for independence by the Protestant Dutch, who wanted to trade
and worship as they liked, against their Catholic Spanish overlords.

In the course of a war fought heavily by ill-paid and poorly fed mercenaries, both sides
committed many atrocities against civilians. Most famously, in 1631, Catholic forces
besieged and then destroyed the beautiful German town of Magdeburg, killing three-
quarters of the civilian inhabitants. In total, fighting, disease, and famine wiped out a third
of the German states’ urban population and two-fifths of their rural population. The war
also depopulated Sweden and Poland.

Ultimately the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) concluded hostilities. It stated, in essence, that
as there was a rough balance of power between Protestant and Catholic states, they would
simply have to put up with each other. The Dutch won their independence, but the war’s
enormous costs provoked severe discontent elsewhere. Central Europe was so devastated
that it did not recover in economic or demographic terms for more than a century.

The Thirty Years’ War also transformed war making. Whereas most medieval struggles had
been sieges between nobles leading small armies, centralized states fielding standing
armies now waged decisive, grand-scale campaigns. The war also changed the ranks of The mercenary armies of the Thirty Years’ War were renowned for pillaging and tormenting
soldiers: as the conflict ground on, local enlisted men defending their king, country, and civilians. Here the artist Jacques Collot, from Nancy in eastern France, depicts the officially
faith gave way to hired mercenaries or criminals doing forced service. Even officers, who sanctioned punishment of renegade soldiers before an orderly group of townspeople. The
previously obtained their stripes by purchase or royal decree, now had to earn them. caption that appeared with the image indicted the soldiers as “damned and infamous thieves
Gunpowder, cannons, and handguns became standardized: Europe’s wars were now [hanging] like bad fruit, from this tree.”
beginning to feature huge standing armies boasting a professional officer corps, deadly
artillery, and long supply lines bringing food and ammunition to the front. The costs—
material and human—of war began to soar.
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS
 DEEPDIVE: ACCLAIMED SCHOLARSHIP
Bois, Guy, The Crisis of Feudalism: Economy and Society in Eastern Normandy, c. 1300–1550 (1984). A
good case study of a French region that illustrates the turmoil in fourteenth-century Europe

Hale, John, Renaissance Europe, 1480-1520 (1994). A beautifully crafted account of the politics,
economics, and culture of the Renaissance period in western Europe

Jones, E. L., The European Miracle (1981). A provocative work on the economic and social recovery
from the Black Death.

Hackett, H. The Elizabethan Mind: Searching for the Self in an Age in Uncertainty (2022). Charts the
changing ways in which the mind was understood, and the thought processes of Reformation society
in an age of upheaval.

Tuchman, Barbara W., A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century (1978). A book that
shows, in a vigorous way, how war, famine, and pestilence devastated Europeans in the fourteenth
century.

Brady, Thomas A., Heiko A. Oberman, and James D. Tracy (eds.), Handbook of European History 1400–
1600: Late Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation, vol. 1, Structures and Assertions (1996). A
good synthetic survey of recent literature and historiographical debates.

Febvre, Lucien, The Problem of Unbelief in the Sixteenth Century: The Religion of Rabelais (1982). A
tour de force of intellectual history by the man who moved the study of the Reformation away from
great men to the broader question of religious revival and new mentalities.

Pelikan, Jaroslav, Reformation of Church and Dogma (1300–1700) (1988). An important overview of
major religious controversies.

Roper, Lyndal, Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet (2016). A magisterial biography that
demonstrates the ways in which Luther was a rebel but also a man of his time.
 DeepDive: Documentaries
The Reformation (2006) - This BBC documentary series
examines the Protestant Reformation in Europe, focusing on key
figures such as Luther, John Calvin, and Huldrych Zwingli. The
series explores the impact of the Reformation on European
society and politics, and includes interviews with historians and
theologians.
"Calvinist (2017) - This documentary film explores the history
and beliefs of Calvinism, a branch of Protestantism that
originated in Switzerland in the 16th century. The film includes
interviews with theologians and historians, and examines the
impact of Calvinism on European and American culture and
politics.
The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance (2004) - Directed by
Justin Hardy, this documentary series explores the role of the
Medici family in the cultural and political developments of
Renaissance Italy. The series won a Primetime Emmy Award for
Outstanding Nonfiction Series.
Secrets of the Vatican (2014) - Directed by Antony Thomas,
this HBO documentary exposes the dark history of the
Catholic Church during the Renaissance period, including
corruption, power struggles, and scandals.
Revolution of Conscience: The Life, Convictions, and Legacy
of Martin Luther (2003, 56 minutes): This documentary
chronicles Martin Luther’s life using a variety of primary
documents and expert analysis. Expands on many of the
theological questions of the day, questions that had
prompted Luther to post his famous ninety-five theses on the
doors of the cathedral at Wittenberg
Cities of Light: Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain (120 minutes,
2007). This documentary was created by Unity Productions
Foundation to promote dialogues about religious diversity
and coexistence. There also is a website with background
information on the making of the film along with info about
geography, literature, technology transfer, and religion.
Renaissance Unchained (2016). Waldemar Januszczak
challenges the traditional notion of the Renaissance having
fixed origins in Italy, looks at the importance of religious
narrative in art, and focuses on Venice and its extraordinary
impact on art history.
 DeepDive Web Resources

The Renaissance
Annenberg Foundation interactive and in-depth resources on the Renaissance, as well as
numerous other topics.
www.learner.org/exhibits/renaissance/
 TIMETRAVEL: WATCH
Luther (2003) - This historical drama stars Joseph Fiennes as Martin Luther,
the German theologian who challenged the Catholic Church in the 16th
century. The film explores Luther's life, beliefs, and struggles, and also
depicts the social and political climate of the time. Nominated for three
Canadian Screen Awards (including Best TV Movie) and won two Gemini
Awards (Best Performance by an Actor and Best Direction in a Dramatic
Program or Mini-Series).
Elizabeth (1998) - Directed by Shekhar Kapur and starring Cate Blanchett,
this film is set during the 1590s, the early years of Queen Elizabeth I's reign,
and explores her rise to power. Nominated for seven Academy Awards
(including Best Picture), won one Academy Award (Best Makeup), and won
four BAFTA Awards (including Best British Film).
The Borgias (2011-2013) - This television series, created by Neil Jordan,
follows the rise of the Borgia family to power in Renaissance-era Italy.
Nominated for several Primetime Emmy Awards and won several Canadian
Screen Awards (including Best Drama Series).
Isabel (2011-2014) - This Spanish television series tells the story of Queen
Isabella I of Castile and explores the politics and religious conflicts of 15th-
century Spain. It has won numerous awards, including Best Fiction Series at
the 2013 Ondas Awards and Best Historical Production at the 2014 Magnolia
Awards.
Queen Margot (1994) - Directed by Patrice Chéreau, this film is set
in 16th-century France and tells the story of the St. Bartholomew's
Day massacre, a pivotal event in the French Wars of Religion. The
film won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Devils (1971) - Directed by Ken Russell, this classic film is set
in 17th-century France and is a fictionalized account of the events
surrounding the Loudun possessions. The film won the Special Jury
Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Wolf Hall. This series, based on Hillary Mantel’s award winning
novel of the same name, is set in 16th century England and tells
the story of Thomas Cromwell, a commoner who rose to become
one of the most powerful men in the court of Henry VIII. Highly
praised for its vivid depiction of Tudor England and its complex,
nuanced characters.
"The Witch" (2015) - Directed by Robert Eggers, this critically
acclaimed horror film is set in 17th century New England, but
deals with themes of witchcraft and witch persecution that were
also prevalent in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. The
film won numerous awards and nominations, including the Best
Director prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
 TimeTravel: Listen (the Renaissance)
Text on this and following slides adapted from J. Staines, Rough Guide to Classical Music (2010)

Madrigals
The outstanding vocal group La
Vocal compositions described as madrigals were written and
Venexiana is the perfect introduction to
performed throughout the Renaissance: as early as the 1320s, when
the beauties of the Italian Renaissance
a homespun style of secular music first emerged in northern Italy,
madrigal, here showcasing pieces by
and were still being composed as late as the early 1600s, when
Monteverdi.
madrigals reached a pinnacle of expressiveness and sophistication.
The origins of the word itself are obscure: it’s most likely to derive
from “mother” – indicating that the songs were sung in Italian dialect
(the “mother” tongue), rather than Latin, the language of Church. The
earliest surviving fourteenth-century madrigals are two- or three-
voice pieces, with little ambition to seriousness, but by the end of the
16th century they stretched musical boundaries, containing five or six
voices and experimenting with imaginative, often audacious,
polyphonic structures. They were taken up by brilliant singers and This album comprises settings of
became a species of enjoyable concert music. Guarini’s influential verse drama Il
pastor fido (The Faithful Shepherd)
by madrigalists ranging from the
well-known (Marenzio and
Monteverdi) to the more obscure
(Casentini and Saracini).
 TimeTravel: Listen (the Renaissance)

The Sopranos and the Concerto di Donne. The exalted status of the soprano
voice in Western music can be partly traced to the personal obsession of one Musica Secreta are a group of highly
man. In the small dukedom of Ferrara in northern Italy, Duke Alfonso II d’Este experienced singers dedicated to
(1533–97) gathered together a select group of virtuoso female musicians to researching and performing Renaissance
perform at his court. His fascination with the female voice led him to search music for female vocal ensemble.
out exceptional singers, and to bring them to Ferrara. The resulting consort of Dangerous Graces offers a selection of
women – the concerto di donne – was Alfonso’s “musica secreta” (secret songs by four composers with strong
music), hidden away from the public eye and the pomp of the court. They links to Ferrara – de Rore, Ignegneri,
would perform in the duke’s private apartments for distinguished guests or for Luzzaschi and de Wert – in beautifully
Alfonso’s pleasure alone. judged and often exquisite performances.

From a sixteenth-century perspective this was radical and, initially at least,

shocking. The only professional female performers at the time were actors in
the popular theatres, the commedia dell’arte, who had – by courtly standards
– no claims to respectability. So when the duke set about recruiting singers in
1580, he had to avoid any suggestions that these daughters of the upper
middle classes, were being employed as professionals, since this would imply
the role of servants or courtesans. No expense was spared in indulging the
duke’s passion. Arranged marriages and generous salaries compensated the
women for their precarious position and ambiguous status. Their repertoire
was the “beautiful and delicious” madrigals, rearranged as solos, duets and
trios. The range of emotions in these dramatic pieces could pass swiftly
through rage, anger, hope, scorn, sorrow, love and despair, anticipating the
birth of opera by a half-century. As the fame of the women grew, so
imitations flourished and before long few courts were without their own
concerto di donne.
 TimeTravel: Listen (the Renaissance)

Castrato.
Throughout the Middle Ages the Church had upheld Saint Paul’s If you want to know what an actual castrato
injunction to “Let your women keep silence in the churches” by using sounded like, this is the only place to go.
children for choral music. It’s not known exactly when their ranks were Alessandro Moreschi, first soprano of the
joined by castrated adult males, but they seem to have become Sistine Chapel for thirty years, was in his
commonplace by the middle of the sixteenth century. Castration was forties when he made these recordings in
usually carried out by parents, even though castration of one’s offspring Rome in 1902 and 1904. The ethereal voice
was technically punishable by death or excommunication. The Church that emerges over the crackle is like nothing
was prepared to believe the stories of childhood mishap – a kick from a you’ll have heard before. But be prepared: it
horse or a bite from a wild pig – that virtually every castrated soprano as disturbing to listen to as it is poignant.
offered to explain his mutilation. Powerless to reverse the dreadful
deed, choirmasters took the view that the unfortunate child might as
well be put to good use. These uses were initially exclusively
churchbound, and a top-class castrato could earn good money. By some
estimates, some four thousand children were being castrated annually in
Italy alone, although only a tiny number of castrated children ever found
fame or fortune. After 1600 the castrato became an essential
component of opera (see later lectures). Another aspect of the adult
castrato’s life remains controversial. Marriage for castrati was banned by
both Catholics and Protestants, but many of them seem to have been
singularly popular as consorts for both sexes, and some enjoyed a
thriving parallel career as high-class prostitutes.
 TimeTravel: Listen (the Reformation)

Lutheran Hymns, Martin Luther, who we have covered in this lecture,

was highly musical (he sang and played the flute) and a great admirer
of the polyphonic masters of the period. When he began reforming
the liturgy, music maintained its central role. Indeed, when he This re-creation of a performance of a Lutheran Christmas
composed his Deutsche Messe (German Mass) in 1526 he did so with mass of around 1620 consists, in the main, of music by
the help of leading musicians. The German Mass was an attempt to Praetorius. Recorded in the vast resonant space of Roskilde
establish a simple model that retained much of the Roman rite but Cathedral, Denmark.
included German paraphrases. The melodies written for the German
Mass were relatively simple, and avoided elaborate decorative
variants. Though these melodies had an obvious kinship with
Gregorian chant, their accents and cadences made them closer to the
patterns of speech and therefore easier to understand.

At the heart of these changes was the idea of greater congregational

engagement. To that end Luther advocated the singing of hymns,
called chorales, at all church services. His first hymnal, the
Achtliederbuch (1524), contained eight of these, four of which were
written by Luther himself. There was soon a great demand for
chorales, which meant not only writing new words
and melodies but just as frequently adapting already existing ones:
folk songs and popular songs were used and existing Latin hymns
were given German texts. Early examples still in use today include In
dulci jubilo (Good Christian Men, Rejoice) and Ein’ feste Burg (A
Mighty Fortress), the former adapted from a lullaby, the latter written
(and probably composed) by Luther. Just how elaborate the music
was in a Lutheran service depended on how musically well-endowed
a particular church might be. But, whatever the case, a large degree
of congregational participation in the form of chorale singing was
always at the heart of the action in the 16 th century.
 TimeTravel: Listen (the Reformation)

English Choral Music

No one escaped the political and religious upheavals that convulsed This superlative recording by a mixed-voice choir offers
England in the sixteenth century. Church musicians found themselves music written for various Protestant authorities, it’s
balancing on a series of religious faultlines, yet what resulted was their Latin music that feels most vivid.
arguably the most exciting period ever to occur in English music. Up to
the 1540s, the country’s choral traditions had been tied to the ancient
practices of worship at the monasteries, in which florid chant was the
dominant style. The first major turning point came in 1549 with the
publication of the Book of Common Prayer, an English-language volume
influenced by Luther and Calvin. A new musical ideal emerged in which
music should “not be full of notes”, but instead communicate the
meaning of the words. Polyphonic choral singing cautiously began to
appear. The new prayer book also offered opportunities to perform
non-liturgical texts, the main result being the development of English-
language anthems. The period’s most talented musicians were
The Tallis Scholars at their incomparable best. Each
undeniably Thomas Tallis (c.1505–1585) and William Byrd (c.1537–
anthem is subtly and sensitively shaped, and the
1623), for whom crisis seems to have acted, if anything, as impetus
singers’ remarkable clarity of tone perfectly serves the
rather than impediment. Agonized as often as they are ecstatic, full of
simplicity of the music
anguish as well as joy, these works attest to the force of their
composers’ belief, as well as the fraught circumstances of their
composition.
 TimeTravel: Play
Pentiment (2022).“An evocative recreation of 16th-century Bavaria
examines how the tide of history crashes against the lives of
everyday people, all framed by an intriguing crime story…. You are a
manuscript illuminator at time which saw the rise of Protestantism
following the radical teachings of Martin Luther, the popularisation
of printed books, the uprising of peasants against cruel landowners
and the blasphemous revelation that the Earth revolves around the
sun… the whole thing looks like a cross between a tapestry and an
early-modern illustrated manuscript”.
Assassin's Creed II (2009) and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (2010)
- Set in Renaissance Italy, this action-adventure game follows the
story of Ezio Auditore da Firenze as he uncovers a conspiracy
involving the Knights Templar. The game won several awards,
including the BAFTA Award for Best Action Game and the NAVGTR
Award for Game of the Year. Equal Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
(2010) follows Ezio as he builds a brotherhood of assassins in
Renaissance Rome. This game also won several award.
Europa Universalis IV – The Art of War (2013). The Renaissance and
Reformation are central to the base game, while the Art of War add-
on puts the focus on the 30 Years War and bubbling political
instability between church and state. The game won the Golden
Joystick Award for Best Strategy Game and was nominated for the
BAFTA Games Award for Best Strategy and Simulation Game
Kingdom Come: Deliverance (2018) - Set in 15th-century
Bohemia, this action role-playing game follows the story
of Henry, a blacksmith's son who becomes embroiled in a
civil war, in an environment filled with historically
accurate weapons, characters, and buildings. Players
need to eat, drink and sleep to stay healthy. Furthermore,
armor, clothing, and perishable food deteriorate as time
passes. The game won several awards
.
The Guild 2: Renaissance. This simulation game allows
players to manage a family dynasty during the
Renaissance period in Europe and build a business empire
through trading, crafting, and politics.
Rise of Venice. In this cerebral trading simulation, you
play a young man striving for success, power and wealth.
With the support of your family, you begin to build up a
trading empire across Genoa, Tripoli, Rome, Alexandria
and Constantinople. As you progress through the ranks of
Venetian society, increasing your power with smart
trading moves and calling in the occasional favour you
can begin to assemble your own fleet. Build up new
production facilities, face off against pirates as well as
political enemies to finally become the Doge of Venice.
 TimeTravel: Taste
Reformation Raisin and Greens Pie
This 1596 recipe (modernised by History Extra), for or a “pie of bald meats [greens] for fish days” was handy for times such as Lent or
Fridays when the church forbade the eating of meat (another similar recipe is called simply Friday Pie). Medieval pastry was a disposable
cooking vessel, but in the 1580s there were great advancements in pastry work. Pies became popular, with many pastry types, shapes and
patterns filled with everything from lobster to strawberries. This pie’s sweet/savoury combo is typical of late Renaissance cookery in
England

Ingredients Method
For the pastry 1, To make the pastry, rub the butter into the flour, work in egg and water, and knead lightly.
500g Flour Use half to line a 10-inch metal flan dish.
150g Butter
1 Egg 2. Remove the coarse stalks of the greens, shred leaves thinly, mix with other ingredients (add
black pepper) pack into the dish.
For the filling
250g Mixture of spinach, cabbage, lettuce, chard 3. Cover with pastry, keeping some back to make decorations for the top.
50g Raisins
30g Hard cheese, grated 4. Bake at 150°C for 50-60 mins, brushing the top with a little butter and sprinkling on a little
60g Fresh breadcrumbs fine sugar before serving.
½tsp Salt
1tsp Sugar
3 Egg yolks, raw
1 Egg yolk, hard boiled
30g Butter, melted
Black pepper, to taste
 TimeTravel: Taste

Renaissance Elderflower & Cheese Fritters (from https://www.historicalcookingclasses.com/elderflower-fritters/)

The elderberry blossoms, berries and young shoots have been used in the kitchen for centuries. The oldest elder recipe comes from Italy. The recipe can be found in the
Roman cookbook De re coquinaria (About the art of cooking) from the first century AD. It is an oven dish of elderberries mixed with eggs, wine, oil, pepper and garum, the
famous Roman fish sauce. The elder was also used extensively in the Middle Ages. Herbal teas, fresh drinks, omelets, cakes and fried snacks were made from the blossoms.
In the Renaissance, elderflower appears to have been a favorite seasoning in Italy at the courts of popes and cardinals. The following recipe comes from the the Liber de arte
coquinaria by Maestro Martino (ca. 1465).

The original reads, in translation: “Take some good fresh cheese and a little aged cheese, and crush well, adding a bit of sifted flour to them and the necessary amount of egg
whites; likewise, a little milk and some sugar; and grind all these things well together, remove from the mortar, and add a sufficient amount of elderflowers at your own
discretion; they should not be crushed or crumbled, so as not to make the mixture too clear, that is, too liquid, so that you can form the round fritters using your hands, or in
whatever shape you like, and then fry them in good rendered lard or butter, or in good oil; and serve very hot”

Modernized, it reads:

Ingredients (for 15 small fritters)

1 egg white
100 grams of ricotta
100 grams of mature cheese or Parmesan cheese
50 grams of flour
50 ml of milk
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 cup of elderflowers* (no stems!)

Method
1. Beat the egg white in a bowl until stiff.
2. Grate the cheese.
3. In another bowl, put the ricotta, cheese, flour, milk and sugar and mix vigorously. Lightly fold the egg white into the mixture until it is completely absorbed and the mixture
has become visibly more airy.
4. Gently stir in the elderflowers.
5. Put a layer of about 2 centimetres of vegetable oil in a frying pan and heat. Take a tablespoon of the batter and let it slip into the oil.
6. Bake them on both sides until golden brown and then drain them on kitchen paper.
7. Eat them warm, sprinkled with a little salt.