The Seeds to the Renaissance



     In order to understand the Renaissance it's necessary to go back around 1000 years, a full millenium, before the Renaissance began. While that may seem stretching things a bit, it's very easy to picture when you think of the Renaissance as a rebirth or a rediscovering of something lost. Then ask the questions, "What was lost?" "Who lost it?" Where was it?" It may also be necessary to realign one's conceptions with the facts as they are known to be and not as one might perceive them to be.


Setting the stage for the Renaissance

1. The decline of the Roman Empire
2. The establishment of feudalism
3. The iron hand of the Christian Church
4. The supression of secular art and liturature
5. The preservation of classical art and liturature
6. The revelation of repressed learning

Here's the story:

It all begins with the Roman Empire.
At it's height the Roman Empire contained all the splendors and all the knowledge of the known civilized (i.e Western and near-Eastern) world. There were no printing presses and all books were handmade individually. Yet there were 28 libraries boasting hundreds of thousands of books, many plundered from the libraries of conquered lands. The books were one-of-kind and in that sense irreplacable except through transcription, a slow and painstaking proceedure. Although Rome had a small literacy rate (partially due to the illiterate countries they assimilated), it did have public libraries and an education system, though a private one geared toward the sons of upper class parents.

Roman Empire 500 AD

[ map - The Roman Empire, 500 AD ]

As Rome expanded throughout the years, its influence spread and its knowledge increased, but, unfortunately, its ability to maintain itself became greatly reduced. Eventually, the West - what is now England, France, Spain, Germany - was overrun by local tribes and invaders, freeing itself from Roman rule. These peoples had little use for the preservation of Roman culture. The Eastern portion of the empire became based, not in Rome, but in Byzanthium, a city later called Constantinople, then Istanbul in what is now Turkey. The people in the Eastern Roman Empire considered themselves true Romans, but in reality they were a mixed bag of cultures. The Byzantine Empire became the trove of learning. Under Constantine, after whom Constantinople was named, Christianity started becoming the accepted religion, effectively doing away with polytheism.

Islam Expansion circa 9th century

[ map - The Expansion of Muslim rule, 800 AD ]

Further east around this time, the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, had unified the Arab tribes under the religion of Islam. The Muslims were, and still are, great innovators and lovers of knowledge. As the Muslim influence grew and their armies conquered surrounding lands, they applied pressure to the Byzantine Empire. While the Muslims sidestepped Constantinople and swept across Northern Africa into Spain, there was some interaction between these great dynasties and the Muslims added the knowledge of the classical Greeks and Romans to their own. In fact, the Muslim preserved and restore a great quanitity of classical works. Meanwhile the Byzantine Empire became more Greek-centered and little of value was produced there. The Christian Church and feudalism became dominant features in Western Europe during this time. Feudalism filled the void left by the absence of Roman rule while the Church became the repository of learning, but not a very forthcoming one. This time became known as the Dark Ages and lasted up to the Renaissance. As the Muslims took over the Iberian Peninsula and moved to dominate the rest of Europe, Charles Martel's Frank army effectively ended any such dreams at Tours in 732 ensuring that Christianity remain the prevailing religion.


And when the smoke clears....

It's the 10th century. What was Rome survives in a small area around Constantinople, the center of the Byzantine Christian Church. The feudalistic society of Western Europe is dominated by the Roman Catholic Church where the centers of learning are the monasteries and peoples' lives revolve around work and religion. Surrounding Europe are the Muslims whose center of learning are the universities, the mosques and the libraries. But, while their laws are also repressive, unlike the Christian Church, the Islamic Church does not forbid or persecute other religions, though they do tax them. The Muslim areas were like light on the perimenter of dark Europe but all inroads into Europe had been blocked.

All throughout Europe land was divided into tiny states with no cohesion and no central government. This led to feudalism. This hierarchy or caste system relegated the common man to a lowly subserviant postition. But the common man was doubley affected - fisrt by the state and second by the church which played an equal role in his life.

As dismal as life was under feudalism, life under muslim rule seemed much brighter in comparison. According to a BBC production on Religions and Ethics :
In the 10th century, Cordoba, the capital of Umayyad Spain, was unrivalled in both East and the West for its wealth and civilisation. One author wrote about Cordoba:

"there were half a million inhabitants, living in 113,000 houses. There were 700 mosques and 300 public baths spread throughout the city and its twenty-one suburbs. The streets were paved and lit... There were bookshops and more than seventy libraries."

Muslim scholars served as a major link in bringing Greek philosophy, of which the Muslims had previously been the main custodians, to Western Europe.
Muslims in medieval Spain also contributed to the advancement of technolgy and to the phenomenon referred to as the 12th century Renaissance.


Two events precipitated the Renaissance, though by hundreds of years. http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/santiago/text.html 1085 King Alfonso VI (1065-1109) of Castile conquers Toledo, the old Visigothic capital, gaining control of, among other things, its immense library. This library held hundreds of volumes on astronomy, medicine, philosophy, metaphysics, algebra, ethics, etc. It is precisely through this library (and the heavy translating efforts of many toledanos) that Europe came to know the works of Aristotle, Plato and Muhammed abu-Muhammed al-Ghazali.

The Renaissance Chess