Full transcript
0:00INSTRUCTOR: All right welcome back, everyone.
0:02And here we are in our new story of the Renaissance,
0:06the birth of the modern world.
0:09And so we're going to go through this lecture here.
0:12And let me just kind of start by giving you
0:14the big objective, what I really want you to understand out
0:17of this lecture.
0:18And there's really two basic points.
0:20Number one is how is the Renaissance very different,
0:26the new modern world, different from the Middle Ages?
0:29And we're basically talking about the time between 1400
0:32AD and 1600 AD, right?
0:35That 200 year period, how is it different in the Middle Ages?
0:39And number two, the other big objective
0:42is how so many of the things that
0:44happen during the Renaissance are still with us today.
0:47This is the part of the modern world.
0:49One of the things about any modern history
0:52is understanding-- look at how we are today.
0:55Why are the way we are.
0:56And a lot of the things that happened during the Renaissance
0:59impact us today.
1:00And so we're going to see some of that
1:01as well as we go through our story here.
1:04All right, so that's essentially what we're doing here.
1:07And we'll go through our keywords here in a second,
1:09and we'll start with that.
1:11So here we are.
1:14Just a few key words.
1:15You already have the word Renaissance, obviously,
1:17from the first slide there.
1:18Make sure you get that down.
1:20And then Italy, Dante, Divine Comedy,
1:23we'll talk about that, The Inferno.
1:25I put it twice.
1:26Virgil, and vernacular, right?
1:29And so I'm going to explain all those words.
1:30You're going to have other sets of keywords.
1:32This is keywords number one.
1:34You'll have another set of keywords later.
1:36So just be aware of that.
1:38All right, you're going to have a few here.
1:39So let's just go to our map of Italy.
1:43And here we are in Italy where the Renaissance begins.
1:47So let's start with the most basic thing.
1:49What does the word "renaissance" mean, right?
1:52Well, the word "renaissance" basically means rebirth.
1:55And it means rebirth of the Greco-Roman world.
2:00It means the rebirth of the science,
2:02the math, the literature.
2:04All of that stuff that kind of disappeared during the Middle
2:07Ages comes back.
2:10So anything that the Greeks and the Romans developed
2:13would happen.
2:14Why does the Renaissance start in Italy first?
2:17Why doesn't it start in France or England?
2:20Why does it begin in Italy and then spreads everywhere else?
2:23Well, a few reasons.
2:25So guess there's three factors I could think of.
2:28And again, anytime I say there are three factors, 1, 2, 3,
2:31of why the Renaissance starts in Italy first.
2:35I would say, one, it's the center
2:38of the Greco-Roman world, right?
2:40This is where ancient Greece was, ancient Rome was.
2:43So it makes sense you're going to have
2:45the Renaissance starting there.
2:47Number two-- so if number one is just
2:50the center of the Roman world, number two,
2:53it's center of trade.
2:54If you look at Italy, of course, it juts out
2:56in the Mediterranean Sea.
2:58Lot of trade.
2:59And with lots of trade, a lot of ideas come.
3:02You have a lot of ideas that came from the Eastern world
3:06into Italy, and so a lot of the ideas that were lost
3:10in the Middle Ages come back.
3:12And because of the center of trade,
3:14that's where you have a lot of flourishing of ideas.
3:17And number three is money.
3:19I think that's another factor of why the Renaissance starts
3:22in Italy first.
3:23The money will drive much of the Renaissance,
3:25and Italy is very wealthy.
3:27They have a lot of ports, a lot of cities, a lot of wealth.
3:30And that will drive them.
3:32So I think those are the three major factors.
3:34I mean, another one maybe you could throw
3:36in there is the Black Death.
3:38The Black Death probably started in Italy first,
3:40so it ended in Italy first.
3:41And maybe they have a little bit of jump on things.
3:44But essentially, those are the three major reasons
3:46why the Renaissance begins in Italy first.
3:50So again, it's not just to write down Italy--
3:52write down the word Italy, you're
3:54also explaining why the Renaissance start there.
3:56So we know what it means.
3:58We know when, Again, the Renaissance
3:59are about 1400 to 1600 AD.
4:03And so that's the time period that we're talking about.
4:06And in terms of why Italy, it's those reasons I mentioned.
4:11Now, the next point is this-- you
4:13don't go to sleep at night in 1399
4:16and you're living in this medieval world,
4:18and then you wake up in 1400 and boom,
4:20everything's modern and everything's
4:22new that we're going to talk about today.
4:24There is a transition.
4:26And so I always do mention this one guy named Dante.
4:29Dante is a writer from Italy.
4:33And again, anytime you see these words,
4:36it's not enough just to write down the word.
4:38Everything I say about the person, you want to get down.
4:40So Dante, he's writing in Italy in the 1300s.
4:46So technically-- the way I like to talk about Dante
4:50is I say he's kind of got one foot in the Middle Ages.
4:53We'll put M-A, Middle Ages.
4:56And he's got one foot in the Renaissance.
4:59He's kind of parallel.
5:00He's kind of this transitional figure from one time
5:03period to another time period.
5:04What do mean by that?
5:05How is he a figure of the Middle Ages?
5:07Well, he's writing in the 1300s.
5:10So he's writing clearly in a time period in the Middle Ages.
5:13His book, The Divine Comedy, or The Inferno, which
5:17is part of The Divine Comedy--
5:19The Divine Comedy is broken up into three books.
5:21--is all about faith.
5:22It's all about religion.
5:23It's all about the church.
5:25It's all about salvation.
5:27And so you say, well, OK, clearly this
5:29is a person, Dante, who's a medieval figure.
5:32He's writing in the Middle Ages.
5:33He's writing about faith.
5:35Even his book, The Divine Comedy,
5:37is broken up into three books.
5:39And every book has 33 chapters.
5:42That's not an accident.
5:43The number three.
5:45Remember, we talked about trial by ordeals,
5:47how three was a religious number.
5:49And so everything about Dante on the surface
5:52makes him look like he is a medieval writer,
5:55a person from the Middle Ages.
5:58But he's also got a couple of traits
6:01that make him a modern writer, that
6:03make him somebody more we would associate with the Renaissance.
6:07What do I mean by that?
6:09Well, one of the characteristics,
6:11if you ever read Dante's Inferno--
6:12for those of you who haven't read it,
6:13it's a fun little read.
6:14It's basically he's going through the different levels
6:17of Hell, and he's describing the different levels of Hell.
6:19And he's got a guide with him.
6:23And the question is, who is this guide?
6:25And his guide is this man named Virgil.
6:28And Virgil is the guide of Dante.
6:32And who is Virgil?
6:34Well, Virgil is a Roman writer.
6:36That's Virgil.
6:36He's a Roman writer.
6:38If the Renaissance is the rebirth
6:40of the Greco-Roman world, it makes sense
6:42that a Renaissance writer would use an ancient Roman
6:47writer as his guide.
6:48I hope you're following me on this.
6:50So in other words, if Dante was purely a medieval writer,
6:54who would he use as his guide?
6:56A religious figure.
6:57A Pope, a Saint, whatever.
7:00But he decides to go all the way back to the ancient Romans
7:04and pick a man named Virgil to be his guide.
7:06That's a Renaissance characteristic.
7:09It's a characteristic of the modern world.
7:11So I hope you kind understand what I'm saying with that.
7:14The other interesting point about Dante
7:18is when he writes the story of The Divine Comedy,
7:22it's the language he writes it in.
7:24And one of the key words I gave you there
7:26was the term vernacular.
7:28And what is that term vernacular mean?
7:30Well, vernacular is a fancy schmancy word.
7:34You do want to know it.
7:35It means writing in the spoken language of the people.
7:39So, again, every time you see these keywords,
7:41you're rewriting them in your notes, you're defining them.
7:44So vernacular means spoken language of the people.
7:47So if you live in France, you write in French.
7:49You live in Germany, you write in German.
7:51You live in England, you write in English.
7:53You live in Italy, you write in Italian.
7:56He writes this in Italian.
7:58In the Middle Ages, everything was written in Latin.
8:01Nobody reads and writes Latin anymore.
8:03Everybody today, of course, reads and writes
8:05in the vernacular.
8:07Guys, that's a characteristic of the modern world.
8:10It's one of those things that starts in the Renaissance
8:13that we still do today.
8:15It's not small.
8:16I want you to think about why does it
8:17matter that people start writing in the vernacular?
8:20Well, the vernacular, the spoken language of the people
8:22means that more people are now going
8:24to have access to information and ideas as opposed to Latin.
8:28Who reads and writes in Latin?
8:29Well, the church.
8:30And that's it.
8:31And a few elite nobles maybe.
8:34And so really, the reality is that this now
8:37opens up a lot of information.
8:39So I talk about Dante because yes, he's
8:42a transitional figure, but I also
8:44talk about Dante because he serves
8:46to give us the first characteristic of how
8:50the modern world is different in the Middle Ages.
8:53We go from Latin to the vernacular.
8:55And we see this in Dante's writings as well.
8:59All right, so I hope all that's clear.
9:00So we talked about the term renaissance.
9:03We explained why the Renaissance starts in Italy.
9:06We explained the transition, so hopefully, all
9:09that you understand before we move on to our next slide
9:12as we begin to look at other characteristics
9:15of the modern world and how they're so
9:18different than the Middle Ages.
9:20all right, so that was one good example.
9:22We're going to go through several more.
9:24So here are the keywords for economic changes
9:27from the Middle Ages to the modern world.
9:30So let's explain all of these.
9:32Each of these is incredibly important to our world today.
9:37I'm going to, hopefully, be able to show you
9:38what I mean by that, and you'll understand how these terms are
9:43important to our world today.
9:45So there's, basically three major economic industries
9:48that are going to be important.
9:50Again, if I say there are three economic industries, 1, 2, 3.
9:54The first one, banking.
9:56Second one, global trade.
9:58And the third one is going to be printing.
10:00And then you've got some other names there associated
10:02with each one, which we'll explain.
10:04So let's start with banking.
10:06So banking was around before the modern world.
10:10It wasn't that all of a sudden people decided to create banks.
10:13But it's how a bank works that's so important that explains why
10:18banking wasn't very important in the Middle Ages,
10:20and the modern world and today becomes a big part of our life.
10:24There's a term here you see, usury.
10:26What is that term usury mean?
10:28Well, usury is just a fancy word meaning
10:31loaning money on interest.
10:34In the Middle Ages, the church said usury is wrong.
10:37You cannot charge people interest for money.
10:40In other words, if I give you $100,
10:42I can only expect $100 back.
10:44It's lovely.
10:45Not much motivation to open up a bank.
10:47Well, as we move into the modern world,
10:50I already explained to you that the power of the church
10:53goes down.
10:53The church has lost a lot of its influence,
10:56a lot of its control, and therefore, nobody really
10:58cares what the church says anymore.
11:00I don't want to say nobody cares,
11:01but they don't care as much as they used to.
11:03And so you still want to be nice, nice with the church,
11:06but the church is not going to be
11:07able to demand no more usury.
11:09And so now that the church leaves that demand, then yeah,
11:13I could give you $100.
11:14You owe me $110, $120, whatever we agreed to.
11:17Then, I just made $20 for basically loaning you money.
11:20That's usury.
11:21Good.
11:22And so all of a sudden, the banking industry
11:24begins to grow and flourish.
11:25And I want you to think about this.
11:28Does banking impact our world today?
11:31And, of course, the obvious answer is beyond yes.
11:33I mean, if we shut down our banks tomorrow,
11:36we'd have Lord of the Flies.
11:38It'd be just insanity.
11:41And think of all the things that we can't
11:43do without banking industry.
11:44We can't have a house.
11:46You want to buy a house.
11:48Who goes and buys a house cash?
11:49Nobody buys a house cash.
11:51You go to the bank, you get a loan.
11:53Each month, when you get your loan, you pay your mortgage.
11:56And by the way, I don't know if anybody ever
11:57realized this, but the first four letters
12:00in the word "mortgage," mort is mortuary.
12:04Death.
12:06So keep that in mind.
12:06Just a little side note there.
12:08But we can't do that.
12:10You can't open up a business.
12:11How do you open up a business without a bank?
12:13Very few people can open up a business
12:14unless they can go to a bank and get a business loan.
12:18And if you can't open up business,
12:19how do you create work?
12:20How do you create jobs?
12:21Guys, ask yourself this question.
12:23When is the last time somebody making
12:25minimum wage gave you a job?
12:27It doesn't work that way.
12:28Who gives jobs?
12:29Who creates work?
12:30People with money.
12:31If they don't have money, if they don't have businesses,
12:34you don't have jobs.
12:35You can't have capitalism.
12:37For all the flaws of capitalism--
12:40Winston Churchill once said democracy
12:42is the worst form of government than all the others.
12:44I think you can say the same thing about capitalism.
12:47Capitalism is the worst form of economics
12:49except all the others.
12:50The reality is every economic system has its flaws,
12:54but there's only been one economic system
12:56in human history that has actually been proven
12:58to raise people out of poverty.
13:00And that is capitalism.
13:02That never happens without the banking industry.
13:05And later, we'll talk about.
13:08And in History 111, we talk a lot
13:09about the Industrial Revolution, the positives, the negatives.
13:12One of the things I always try to do
13:13is give different perspectives.
13:15What are the positive things?
13:16What are the negative things?
13:17To give you the full picture of things.
13:20But none of this happens without banking.
13:22So that's one.
13:23That's one really important economic industry.
13:27Number two, trade.
13:30Now you've always had trade, right?
13:32But this is different.
13:33Now, what we have is global trade.
13:35So that's the keyword.
13:36Don't just say, well, a new economic industry has trade.
13:39No, that's ridiculous.
13:40We've had trade since cavemen.
13:41I'll trade you my rock for your rock.
13:44Now we're talking about global trade.
13:46Go to your house and just look at things in your house
13:49and what is made in Cypress, California?
13:51My guess is nothing is made in Cypress, California?
13:54Where is everything made?
13:55Oh, China.
13:56Other than China, Latin America, other countries in Asia.
14:01Lots of places in the world we have stuff.
14:05In the modern world, you have the global trade beginning.
14:091400 to 1600, the age of exploration.
14:131492, Columbus set sail the ocean blue.
14:16Magellan-- what are all these guys looking for?
14:19They're looking for global trade routes.
14:21And try to imagine our world today without trade.
14:24How do we function?
14:25All the things you have, your computers, your gidgets,
14:28your gadgets, your food, your clothing, everything.
14:31We just can't survive without global trade today.
14:34And that's something that begins during the Renaissance.
14:38So this is something different.
14:39You didn't have global trade.
14:42You had a little bit.
14:43You had some global trade in the Middle Ages.
14:45Actually, if you think about it, Marco Polo, right?
14:47The story of Marco Polo, that starts
14:49at the end of the Middle Ages.
14:50But a true sense of big global trade
14:53everywhere from Asia to Africa to Latin America to Europe,
15:00of course, that really develops in the early modern world,
15:03the Renaissance period.
15:05So that's important.
15:06And again a very impact on our lives today.
15:09Third, the third economic industry
15:12is the printing industry.
15:14And when we talk about the printing industry, of course,
15:16we need to know the key guy, the one
15:19name that I'm giving you here.
15:20I'm not giving you a lot of names of people
15:22in this lecture, but this is definitely
15:24a person you want to know.
15:25A man named Johannes Gutenberg.
15:27And with a name like Gutenberg, he is, of course, from Germany.
15:31So here he is.
15:32There's Gutenberg, again.
15:34And Gutenberg is the man in Germany in 1455.
15:39And, again, this again?
15:40Another example?
15:41No, you don't need to memorize 1455 Gutenberg invents
15:46the printing press.
15:47You don't need to memorize that exact date.
15:49As long as you know circa 1400s, mid-1400s, we're good.
15:54But in 1455, Gutenberg is going to the printing press.
15:59And in many ways, this is even more important to our world
16:03today than trade or banking.
16:06And if you think of how important trade or banking is,
16:08it's pretty stunning.
16:09This is what the printing press looks like.
16:12And you go, well, why is this so important?
16:15So let's go through this step by step.
16:17The first reason the Gutenberg press is significant
16:20is because it allows for the creation of books faster.
16:26The time it takes me to write one book by hand--
16:28this thing can create thousands.
16:30If have a multiple of these, I can create tens of thousands.
16:33So that's step one.
16:34Step two-- there's a few steps to this.
16:37So that's one.
16:38Step two, books become cheaper.
16:40Step three, more people can read and write.
16:43More literacy.
16:44Now I don't want you to think 1455,
16:46he invents the printing press.
16:471460, everyone can read, right?
16:49It doesn't work that way.
16:51It's still going to take a number of years
16:54before everyone can read and write.
16:56But at least you're still getting to a point
16:58where more people are going to be literate.
17:01So it does increase literacy.
17:03But step four, and most significantly,
17:06is what is going to be written and how
17:09is it going to impact society.
17:12Now that you can produce more things
17:14and more people are literate, what
17:16that means is things like the Bible, the Gutenberg Bible,
17:19is going to be written.
17:20Well, you have the Gutenberg Bible.
17:22Well, that means more people can read the Bible.
17:24And if could read the Bible myself, I could read it myself
17:28and I can interpret it myself.
17:29And then if I interpret it myself,
17:31I could say I don't agree with the way the Catholic Church is
17:34interpreting the Bible.
17:36I'm Christian.
17:36I believe in Christianity, but I think
17:38it's being interpreted the wrong way.
17:39I will create my own version of Christianity.
17:42That's where you get the Protestant Reformation.
17:45So that's pretty big.
17:47Think of how many people that are Catholics.
17:49But think of how many Christians there that are not Catholics.
17:51And once you have these new ideas, then, it's a cycle.
17:55Then, the printing press allows you
17:56to spread these ideas and more people-- oh, I like that idea.
18:00There's that old saying, if a tree falls in a forest
18:03and there's nobody's there, does it make a sound?
18:05Well, in this case, no.
18:06You can have the most brilliant idea in the world.
18:08If you have no way to get it out there, it dies.
18:12And so the printing press now allows
18:13those ideas to get out there.
18:15So you can write about religion, science.
18:19You could write about how the world works.
18:21And so it's not a coincidence, shortly
18:23after the printing press you get the Scientific Revolution.
18:28You can write about politics.
18:30And so you eventually get, I don't want a king
18:33to have all the power.
18:35And so you get the Enlightenment ideas, the US revolution.
18:38You have all these remarkable new ideas
18:40that create the United States, and the French Revolution.
18:43All these new thoughts that change society politically.
18:47So that's why the printing press is really important.
18:49It's not just an economic industry.
18:51I kind of group it with the economics, but reality
18:54goes way beyond being an economic industry.
18:57So I hope you understand all of that.
18:59So, printing press, really important.
19:01So those are the three big economic industries
19:03you need to be familiar with.
19:05So we have the banking, the global trade, and the printing.
19:09And, again, for each one, you want
19:10to be able to not just know them but understand the details,
19:13the words that I gave you associated with them in terms
19:17of what's going on.
19:18All right, so hope all that's clear.
19:20Let's move on.
19:22All right, so these are the keywords for the social changes
19:26from the Middle Ages through the modern world.
19:28So we talked about the economic changes now the social changes.
19:32So let's run through a few of these
19:33and we'll start with the first one there
19:36on the list, of course.
19:38The term secularism and humanism,
19:42those kind of go together.
19:43So in the Middle Ages, pretty much everything
19:46revolved around the church.
19:48In the modern world, in the Renaissance,
19:51people are still religious.
19:52I don't want you to think-- oh, he
19:53said oh, people don't believe in religion anymore.
19:54No, they are.
19:55People are still very religious.
19:57But there are these new ideas.
19:58What is secularism?
20:00Secularism is simply defined as non-religious.
20:03Saying in other words, yes, I believe in the afterlife.
20:06I like the afterlife, but there's
20:08a lot of good things in this life as well.
20:10I want to enjoy this life, the secular world.
20:13That's what secularism means.
20:15Humanism.
20:16Humanism means man centered.
20:19That man is capable of all things, not just god.
20:23So those are two ideas that develop in the Renaissance.
20:27Now, are those ideas with us today?
20:29And the answer is absolutely they're with us today.
20:32And where are they stronger?
20:34They're actually stronger in Europe
20:36than the United States, especially secularism.
20:39And how do you see this?
20:42What do I mean by secularism being really strong in Europe,
20:45moving away from God?
20:46Well, if you go to churches in Europe today,
20:48you don't see families going to church
20:50and praying on Sundays like you do in much of the United
20:53States of America.
20:54In California-- California is more like Europe.
20:57You don't see much of that in California.
20:59And, again, whether this is good or bad,
21:01that's not my job to let you guys all know.
21:03You can decide all this stuff yourself.
21:05But I want you to understand the differences of how
21:09it's a secular world in Europe and in places like California
21:13and other--
21:14a lot of coastal areas.
21:16Children.
21:17Who has more children, religious people or secular people?
21:20Well, religious people of any faith.
21:22More religious people have more children.
21:24Secular people don't have as many children.
21:26And in Europe, a lot of people aren't
21:28aware of this, if you take out immigration,
21:31the population of Europe in some countries
21:34is flat if not declining a little bit.
21:37Why?
21:38Because they're not having a lot of kids.
21:39Why?
21:40Because they're so secular.
21:41They just want to enjoy this life.
21:43They don't want the responsibilities of a child
21:46and all of that.
21:47And so they're more secular.
21:49As somebody who's a father, I can tell you
21:51that having a child is the greatest gift in the world.
21:55It gives you so much fulfillment and purpose.
21:57But a lot of people don't recognize that sometimes,
22:00and so they have less children.
22:03So that's what makes it more secular.
22:05Another point I always bring up here because this is, I think,
22:08important to think about.
22:09A lot of times, I'll throw things out just to make people
22:12think and question things sometimes.
22:14Because we oftentimes hear of religious extremism.
22:17And there is, right?
22:18You could do great things in the name of religion.
22:20And people have done bad things in the name of religion.
22:23Well, it's the same thing with secularism.
22:25Can you develop good things out of secularism?
22:27Sure.
22:28humanism, man centered, man is capable of all things.
22:30Of course.
22:31But there's also really extremes of this.
22:34If you think of communism, for example.
22:37Communism is a secular ideology.
22:40It takes away God.
22:42It takes away religion.
22:44Fascism, Nazism, those were secular.
22:46Those were non-religious movements.
22:49And so you could take anything to an extreme.
22:52And I think that's kind of an important note
22:54to note as well on all this.
22:56So just some things to think about.
22:58All right, the next one in there there is individualism.
23:00What do I mean by that?
23:02Well, think in your mind right now.
23:04Can you name yourself any artists from the Middle Ages?
23:07And you're probably going, I don't know any artists
23:09from the Middle Ages.
23:11Were there artists in the Middle Ages?
23:12Well, there were a lot of artists in the Middle Ages.
23:14I don't expect anybody to know any of them.
23:16Now, if I were to ask you name me some artists
23:19from the Renaissance.
23:20And you're thinking, OK, I know some of them.
23:22I know there's Leonardo, and Raphael, and Donatello.
23:25All the Ninja Turtles.
23:26And I can even think of other artists from the modern world.
23:29And Picasso, and Rembrandt.
23:30I know them.
23:31I've heard of them.
23:32Why is it-- and the reason you know the artists
23:34of the modern world, but not of the Middle Ages
23:37is because of individualism.
23:38You know what the artists of the modern world begin to do?
23:43Start signing their work.
23:44Why?
23:44Because they wanted individualism and just
23:47another term I'll just write up here, fame.
23:50They wanted to be known.
23:51They wanted everybody to know who they were.
23:53Michelangelo, famous beyond belief.
23:55Everybody knew who Michelangelo was.
23:57Even at his time.
23:59And so, very famous.
24:00Because they wanted that.
24:02They strived for that.
24:03Hey, it's me.
24:03I did this.
24:04I did this.
24:05And so you know, I always say is that part of our world today?
24:07And say sometimes, oh, my god, fame
24:09is kind of a disease today.
24:11We've sometimes confused fame for significance
24:13in our society today.
24:15People oftentimes know the most famous person, but not
24:18the more important people in society.
24:21So anyways-- but those are things
24:23that start during the Renaissance, OK?
24:26So those are three keywords go together-- secularism,
24:30humanism, and individualism.
24:32All right, the next characteristic-- social change.
24:35We're still on social changes obviously here.
24:37--from the Middle Ages to the modern world is nobility.
24:40What if you were a noble in the Middle Ages?
24:44Nobles in the Middle Ages, their job was to fight.
24:47What if you're a noble in the modern world?
24:49Well, if you're a noble in the modern world,
24:51you need to do much more than fight.
24:53And there's a really good source called
24:54The Book of the Courtier, written
24:56by a man named Castiglione.
24:58So this is my copy of it.
25:00Gonna go through it here in a second with you.
25:02It's a primary source.
25:04He writes this right during the heart of the Renaissance
25:06period, around 1500 AD.
25:09And Castiglione essentially describes what
25:12a noble is supposed to be like.
25:14I'm going to read to you some excerpts.
25:16As I read each excerpt, you just jot down the characteristics.
25:20And I want you to basically see how different a noble is
25:23in the Middle Ages compared to a noble is in the modern world.
25:26That's essentially what Castiglione is doing
25:29in this Book of the Courtier.
25:30Excuse me, in The Book of the Courtier.
25:32He is describing what your ideal noble should be like.
25:35All right, so give me a moment here.
25:36Let me find the first page here, and we'll get started.
25:40He says, "I wish our courtier to be well-built with finely
25:43proportioned members.
25:44I would have him demonstrate strength and lightness
25:46and suppleness and be good at all physical exercises
25:49and befitting a warrior.
25:50Here, I believe his first duty is
25:52to know how to handle expertly every kind of weapon,
25:54either on foot or mounted, to understand all their finer
25:58points and to be especially well informed
25:59about all those weapons commonly used among gentlemen."
26:02So you need to be able to fight, but so much so far just
26:06like the Middle Ages.
26:07But he goes on.
26:10"There are also many other sports,
26:12which although do not require--
26:13directly require the use of weapons,
26:15are closely related to arms and demand
26:17a great deal of manly exertion."
26:20He goes on and says "it seems also fitting
26:22that the courtier should know how to swim, jump, run,
26:25and cast the stone.
26:26Another noble sport which is very suitable for the courtier
26:29to play is tennis, for this shows
26:31how well he is built physically and how quick and agile
26:33he is in every member."
26:35So you need to be able to play sports, not just fight and kill
26:39people.
26:39Then, it gets a little bit more interesting.
26:43He says, "what the courtier especially requires in order
26:46to speak and write well, therefore,
26:48is knowledge because the man who lacks knowledge has nothing
26:51in his mind worth hearing, has nothing
26:53worth writing or speaking."
26:55So that's the third point, right?
26:57That you need to be able to be smart and intelligent.
26:59And then he gets really specific.
27:01Again, you're getting each of these points
27:03down as I'm going through them.
27:06He says, "I should like our courtier
27:08to be more than an average scholar,
27:09at least in those studies which we call the humanities.
27:11He should have knowledge of Greek
27:13as well as Latin because of the many different things
27:15that are so beautifully written in that language.
27:17He should be very well acquainted with the poets
27:20and know us with the orators and historians.
27:22And also skilled at writing both verse and prose, especially
27:25in our own language."
27:26So you need to know how to speak at least three languages.
27:30So that's pretty spectacular.
27:32He then goes on and says, "gentlemen, I
27:34must tell you I'm not satisfied with our courtier
27:36unless he is a musician and he can play several instruments."
27:40All right?
27:41And he says, "I think our courtier should certainly not
27:44neglect.
27:44And that is the question of drawing
27:45and the art of painting itself."
27:47And guys, I don't know if you can see it, but just like,
27:49the beginning part of the book.
27:51And so you have to be a painter, a sculptor, a musician,
27:55speak languages.
27:55We have a term for somebody who could do all this,
27:57and it's the term Renaissance man.
28:00So that's pretty cool, right?
28:01That's one of the other characteristics of the middle--
28:05modern world that's different in the Middle Ages.
28:08All right, so, again, I'm hoping you
28:10see how some of these things are still with us today.
28:13All right, the next thing there is dowry.
28:15We have that term.
28:16We saw that in the Middle Ages.
28:17So we've seen everything changing, right?
28:20The
28:20Political structure has changed.
28:22We have now stronger Kings.
28:24That's different than what we had in the Middle Ages.
28:27The economic structure has changed,
28:29the social structure is changing, obviously.
28:32What about marriages?
28:33Well, doesn't change.
28:35This is one thing that does not change from the Middle Ages
28:37to the modern world.
28:39You're still marrying because it's arranged.
28:41Parents still tell you who to marry.
28:43You still have a dowry.
28:44So that's one thing that does not change.
28:47All right, the next few words here-- hopefully, you
28:49have them down because I'm going to go through a few slides.
28:52The next kind of development of the modern world
28:54that's different than the Middle Ages, science.
28:58And you could see this in a few images here.
29:01So this is an embryo.
29:02All three of these images I'm going to show you
29:04here are by Leonardo da Vinci.
29:07So here you have the embryo.
29:09Here is you have the very famous Vitruvian Man.
29:15And this is da Vinci's flying machine.
29:17I don't know if you ever played that old game Assassin's Creed,
29:19and you have that in there.
29:21But flying machine no never really flew.
29:23But the point is this is all science.
29:24Is this the Scientific Revolution?
29:27Not quite yet, but it's on the heels of science.
29:29Is science part of our world today?
29:31Well, of course, science is part of our world today.
29:34It's a very big part of our world today.
29:37And when I do a lecture on Scientific Revolution,
29:39we get into a lot of interesting things about science.
29:43One of the things I always tell people is you
29:45have to distinguish between science and scientists.
29:48Scientists are human.
29:49They're flawed.
29:50They have their biases.
29:51They have their agendas.
29:52Science is science.
29:54And it's very interesting to look
29:55at science in that perspective and what
29:57it does and the impact it has and all the things science does
30:02for good in society.
30:03But also things you can point out
30:05that is not doing good for society, believe it or not,
30:07if you think about it.
30:08Think of the Nazi doctors.
30:10Because they were scientists.
30:11But they did horrible things.
30:13So it's just kind of interesting to think about.
30:16So obviously, our world has benefit dramatically
30:19from the modern world because of scientific developments.
30:22And so we see this starting from the period of the Renaissance
30:29with da Vinci and a few examples there.
30:31So that's another characteristic of the modern world.
30:33You didn't have much of this at all in the Middle Ages.
30:35Now you do.
30:37All right next
30:39O story here.
30:40This is my favorite little story here architecture.
30:43So this is just kind of a fun little story.
30:45It's the story of what we call the Duomo in Florence.
30:48I've been there.
30:49It's gorgeous.
30:50It's an amazing cathedral with a big dome.
30:54And you can-- actually, when I do this in class,
30:57I use Google Earth and I show students exactly where it is.
31:00And I show students the inside of the dome and everything.
31:02It's really cool, if you want to Google Earth it yourself
31:04and look at-- just go to the Duomo in Florence.
31:07And it's this beautiful cathedral.
31:09But you could see, in this image, there's a dome.
31:12And the whole deal is when they actually built this cathedral,
31:16there was no dome on top because no one
31:19knew how to build a dome to it.
31:21Until this one guy comes along, a man named Brunelleschi.
31:25So this guy named Brunelleschi--
31:28I'm going to have I can see an egg here.
31:30What's this egg have to do with my story here?
31:32I'm going to show you here in a second.
31:34So let me go to my next slide here.
31:36And the story of Brunelleschi and the egg.
31:39What is going on here?
31:40So Brunelleschi was this genius architect who basically said,
31:45I could build a dome in Florence.
31:47And the people in Florence were desperate.
31:50They're like, great.
31:51How are you going to do this?
31:52And Brunelleschi says, I'm not telling you
31:55how I'm going to do this.
31:56You just have to trust me.
31:58- Give me the commission, and I will build you the dome.
32:01And they all look at him-- like he's crazy.
32:05What do you mean you just-- we're not just
32:06going to give you money?
32:07Tell us how you're going to do it,
32:08and then we'll build you the dome.
32:10And then I'll build, and then we'll give you the money.
32:12And they go back and forth and back and forth
32:15and Brunelleschi refuses to tell him how
32:17he's going to build the dome.
32:18And they demand, we're not going to give you
32:19a penny unless you tell us how you're
32:21going to do this because he had a reputation of being
32:22a crazy guy.
32:23So anyways, he tells them, all right, you don't trust me.
32:26I will challenge any architect.
32:28Give him all an egg.
32:29And any architect who can make an egg stand on their head--
32:33on its head on a flat surface gets to build the dome,
32:36gets the money.
32:37No questions asked.
32:38So let me show you what's going to happen here.
32:40Excuse me.
32:41I'll put this here.
32:43OK, let's see.
32:44Set this up for you.
32:47All right, so-- I don't know.
32:48I think you've seen this one.
32:49Well, all right, so here is my flat surface, my table, right?
32:53Here is the egg.
32:54And this is what Brunelleschi does.
32:55And every architect comes trying to make an egg stand
32:58on its head on a flat surface.
32:59Every single one of them fails.
33:02After every one fails, this is what Brunelleschi does.
33:05He takes the egg, takes the flat surface--
33:08[SPLAT]
33:09--and does like so.
33:11See this well?
33:12Here it is.
33:13Egg standing on its head on a flat surface.
33:16There you go.
33:17And that's how he does that.
33:19And, of course, everybody looks at him
33:21like, well, that's silly.
33:22Anybody could do that if you told us
33:24that's what you were going to do.
33:26And so Brunelleschi gets the commission.
33:28He used a raw egg.
33:30I used a hard boiled egg.
33:31It would make a big mess if I used a raw egg when I do this.
33:36But it's just a fun little story I
33:37like sharing because it is during the Renaissance.
33:40It is an example of how you could do anything.
33:43Humanism.
33:44Man is capable of all things.
33:45It's also kind of the arrogance that
33:47comes with humanism, sometimes.
33:49It's kind of a double edged sword.
33:51You know, that dome, he does build it.
33:53We don't even know exactly how he built it,
33:56but it really shows that there's an arrogance.
33:59I could do anything.
33:59I don't need to explain anybody.
34:01But then he did it.
34:02So kind of cool.
34:03So anyways, that's a little, quick, funny story
34:05on Brunelleschi and the dome, the egg.
34:07Next time you want to challenge--
34:09so I bet I can make an egg stand on its head,
34:10on the flat surface.
34:11You could show them how to do that.
34:12Cool.
34:13Anyways, that's a little bit of fun stuff.
34:15All right, so that's basically it
34:16in a nutshell for the Renaissance, all right?
34:19So I want you to know the characteristics.
34:20Again, there's two big themes.
34:22How is the Renaissance different than the Middle Ages?
34:26And how some of the things in the Renaissance
34:28impact the modern world today.
34:30So we're going to go on with some more lectures after this.
34:33Hope you're all good, and let me know again
34:36if you have any questions.
34:37Thank you.