OCC CIV NOTES 9/14

Early 15th century- Italy wasn't an actual country, but a collection of cities
by 1500- Italy had 2 cities with over 100,000 cities
by 1550- italy had 20 cities had over 50,000
160,000 in venice
60-70,000 people in many other cities in Italy
1/5 of italy is mountain, 3/5 is hilly
-this discourages agriculture, pushes people towards cities naturally
Naples was largest city in all western europe
In ALL Europe excluding Italy, there were less than 20 cities with population of >25,000
-Italy was massively urban

-most of these cities were self-governing republics
-13 universities in Italy
-in the universities, professors are paid very well, university education is a prerequisite for civic office
-cities are devoted to providing a good education to civic leaders
-education includes math, science, arts, grammar, etc
-leads to unusually high NUMERACY, as well as literacy
-these universities were the best in europe, better than Oxford, Cambridge, or anything else in Europe

Italian cities had lots of craft workshops and guilds
-this fosters literacy and numeracy in the lower classes as well
In rest of Europe, vast majority of population is illiterate, lives in rural countryside
-contrast with Italy, where most are literate, and live in cities

Italy is ideally suited geographically for trade with Ottomans, persians, egyptians, etc
-this is because of the fact that Italy physically sticks way out into the mediterreanean, fosters sea trade
-has huge areas of coast
-many of largest cities in Italy were port cities (including Naples and Venice, two of largest cities in Europe)
-Venice was largest port city in Europe
-Spices through venice are a huge import into Italy, and out into Europe
-in 1500, 2.5 million pounds of spices were exported from Alexandria ALONE into venice ALONE

Italians also dominated European banking, as well as trade (one leads to the other)
-Florence was the center of banking
-banking built the Medici family's fortune
-In the rest of Europe, it's difficult to raise taxes from poor citizens
-European kingdoms would go to Italy to borrow money (no national banks)
-Italy basically owns money supply for all of Europe
In many ways, Italy was a capitalist society (the first of its kind)
-however, Italy is still not yet an industrialized country
-commercially and financially, italy is capitalisitic, however

Even as early as 15th century, Italians have developed INSURANCE!
-insurance and limited liability invented as early as the 15th century!
-you could actually take out insurance on ships and cargoes
-encouraged investment
-Limited liability invented-
-you could invest in a company without fear that your entire fortune would be taken away if the company fails
-essentially selling stock?
-hugely important for investment

Italians end up consuming massive amounts of goods
-Italians live in luxury not seen elsewhere in europe
-with this comes discussion of tastes, connoseuirship (sp?)
-italians, who live in cities, place unusually high emphasis on being civilized and urbane

When printing becomes widespread, the change is unbelievable
-number of works in circulation explodes
-Large european library before printing was invented had 600 books in it
-in the entirety of europe c.1440- there was a TOTAL of 100,000 books
-by 1500, there were an estimated 9,000,000
-Italy becomes a center of printing of books, even though germany invented it (because they had the manuscripts)
-books which were once 'lost' (only one copy existed in one monastery, whatever) now became massively widespread
-Italy becomes center of printing of classical texts and wisdom
-begins to attract scholars to discuss and analyze the new books
-out of this comes a much much greater appreciation of classical times (greco-roman times)

Italy looks to its past of greatness (rome, etc)
-Italy preserves even the rubble of its former excellence (roman ruins)
-the Roman palaces were turned to vineyards, circus maximus was a vegetable gardens
-constant reminder of how great they could still become again

Italy was an extremely unusal convergence of many factors that contributed to its greatness
-massive trade
-huge cities
-center of printing
-center of banking (provides capital)
-surrounded by rubble of former greatness
-re-emergence of study of classical roman times
All of these contribute to the italian renaissance

renaissance progress
-rebirth of those arts and things which were once great
-resurgence in the liberal arts
-painting, sculpture, rhetoric, learning of history, music, etc
-in middle ages, when humans were celebrated, they were celebrating the immortal soul
-in renaissance, humans celebrated free will
-human struggle was far more valued than before
-astrology was attacked, people determine their own fates
-adjectives heroic, divine, immortal were applied to men, rather than gods
-the idealized figure of man was immortalized, revered
-the sense of the individual was greatly fostered here
-people begin thinking much more about the human individual state
-autobiographies were written much much more often
-popes, historians, even goldsmiths wrote autobiographies
-people begin to think that even they themselves are interesting
-art is beginning to try to convey the emotional states of those portrayed
-portraits are becoming one of the dominant art forms of the period
-joined by the landscape and the still-life
-artists begin to dissect even humans, sketch human anatomy
-mirrors begin to become more important, interesting
-with a mirror, people start to think more about themselves, how they look, how others percieve them
-portaits begin to try to depict reality much much much more faithfully
-familiarity with the classics was pretty much a requirement for a gentleman
-one must be a 'universal man' or a 'renaissance man'
-an individual must have an ease of taste, appreciation of music, sculpture, artifacts, know history, sciences, etc
-one must be learned, but must not appear to have spent EFFORT to get that way
-the courtier was the chief book written during the period that outlines these sorts of things
-renaissance man- one who knows and loves everything, but who doesnt make you feel inferior
-the courtier was joined by many other books establishing acceptable etiquette for gentlemen
-good manners were essential
-from italian renaissance comes the fork, rather than using just your fingers and a knife
-people came from all over europe to learn these sorts of things (etiquette, knowledge, etc)
-these sorts of practices were geared towards those with money
-many people in italy could afford this, because trading brings wealth to even the lower classes
-outside of italy, however, only the upper classes of the land-based economies could afford this
-basically landowners, high classes
-this means that the vast majority of the population outside of italy were peasants, or 'the rude people'