Social Changes during the Renaissance Era

Social Changes during the Renaissance Era

Thesis Statement

The Renaissance was a period in the European history, which was characterized as a time of great social and cultural change. The Renaissance was not only an age of economic growth but it was also a period of intense cultural ferment. Tremendous changes began in social, artistic, political and scientific endeavors during the renaissance era. The Renaissance was an incredibly amazing period of change in the West, driven by varying cultural formations, the developments in exploration, shifting empires, and advancements in science and technology.

Introduction

Matteo Palmieri of Florence, writing in the 1430s, observed "this new age, so full of hope and promise" with a more outstanding group of "nobly-gifted souls" than had been seen by the world in a thousand years. Palmieri believed, like others of his time that he was living in a special time, a period of tremendous artistic and intellectual creativity with an inspiration from the ancient world. That time period is referred as the Renaissance era.

The Renaissance era, from the very name, has been distinguished as a period of social and cultural rebirth after the dark ages of declination related with the Middle Ages. The Renaissance is regarded as the era of great cultural and intellectual flourishing. Significantly, during the Renaissance, the label Middle Ages was invented when those years of Middle Ages were conceived by scholars as a mere interval in the history of the civilization between the downfall of the classical world of the Greeks and the Romans and its current rediscovery. Humanism, whose major principle was that individual growth was sacred, became the intellectual cornerstone of the Renaissance. The world was centered by Renaissance thinkers around humans, making them the crucial judges in artistic, moral, and political issues. An impressive advancement was brought by shift from the collective consciousness to the individual not only in the various fields of knowledge, including art, literature, music, and philosophy but also in economic and religious lifestyle.

This paper begins with a concise synopsis of the characteristics of the Renaissance era that initiated in the 14th century. This analysis is then followed by a discussion of social changes during the Renaissance era, which encompass the changes in artistic, religious and economic lifestyles.



Discussion

The Renaissance was the period of European history that was characterized by a renewed interest in classical Roman past. The Renaissance began in Italy in the fourteenth century and spread throughout the rest of Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In this period, the fragmented feudal society of the Middle Ages, characterized by a primarily agricultural economy and a cultural and intellectual life dominated by the Church, society became progressively dominated by centralized political institutions with an urban economy and trade that developed the patronage of education, the arts and music.

Key Characteristics of the Renaissance Era

There was an immense interest, during the Middle Ages, in classical literature particularly Latin and Latin translations of Greek. This interest was mainly limited to the professional activities ...