Renaissance Italy stimuli

Renaissance Italy fascinates us, especially since we perceive it as coming from nowhere. Suddenly–from the darkness of Middle Ages–emerges bright and colorful art and productive thoughts. That is how the Italian Renaissance is perceived in popular culture, or used to be perceived, to be precise because that view changes.

Historians knew it for quite a while already. Like seeds underground, the conditions for that phenomena were germinating throughout the Middle Ages. And one of the sources or the shells that kept the seeds alive and growing were universities.

The first universities in Europe started popping up 400 years before the Renaissance:
— University of Bologna (1088)
— University of Salamanca (1134) 
— University of Paris (c.1150) 
— University of Oxford (1167)
— University of Cambridge (1209)
— University of Padua (1222)
— University of Naples Federico II (1224)
— University of Toulouse (1229)
— University of Siena (1240).

Al-Azhar University (Egypt) was established even earlier – in 970. And the University of Al Quaraouiyine was founded in Morocco by Fatima al-Fihri in 859. It was the oldest degree-granting university.

And we should not miss the Asian contribution to this process. The residential university system was introduced actually many centuries earlier by ancient Vedic Indians in the world’s oldest Taxila University, now in Pakistan. It was established probably in 4th century BCE. There is a reason to believe that over 10,000 students from China, Babylon, Syria, and Greece in addition to Indian students studied Buddhism there.

Why the Asian and African achievements matter for the case of the European Renaissance? Because of the event that has happened in 1204 and 1453.

The 1204 year was the year of the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204). As a result of the chain of unfortunate events, the crusaders, instead of recapturing Jerusalem (that was their intended goal), sacked Constantinople, the capital of arguably the richest and culturally most advanced Byzantine empire at the time.  

For three days, the crusaders robbed and ruined many ancient Greco-Roman and medieval works of art, killed many of the civilian population and looted their property, stripped off all the valuables of the city’s churches and monasteries. The total amount of spoils was about 900,000 silver marks. 

And what happened with all these values? They filled the houses and coffers of many Europeans. The famous bronze horses from the Hippodrome were brought to Venice and, since then, adorn the façade of St Mark’s Basilica. Naturally, so much new wealth made the foundation of universities more affordable. 

And what all the poets, writers, humanists, musicians, artists, astronomers, philosophers, architects, theologians, scribes and politicians had to do when the city was robbed so ruthlessly? Many of them escaped to Europe too, bringing with them all the scientific knowledge and other cultural achievements. 

Constantinople recovered and brought back its splendor for another 200 years until an Ottoman army conquered the city in 1453. This time even more scholars and artists fled to Europe and Italy specifically, the latter being now the rising capitalist center with an excess of riches and desire to leave the name or a portrait at least to posterity.

There were also other factors like famine, plague, wars, and… climate. Between 1315 and 1322, Europe experienced a horrible famine. Then the plague killed between a third and half of Europe’s population. The Hundred Years’ War and a few smaller ones swept Europe too, so it looked quite devastated by 1400.

And then the climate of the northern Mediterranean has improved, the plague and wars subsided, the populations started recovery. More people and a better climate lead to more production surplus and more money for new art and science. 

All these explain the rise of wealth, innovation, and spirit in Italy.

And that’s why the year 1453 is considered the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance.