Profound changes in the socio-economic and spiritual life of Italy at the end of the XIV century. played a decisive role in the emergence and development of European culture called the Renaissance.

The main feature of the revivalist movement is anthropocentrism (Greek anthropos - man), an orientation towards a comprehensive understanding of the existence of a particular person, the justification of his intrinsic value. Humanistic views are reflected in works of literature and art, philosophical and scientific treatises.

Philosophy, considering the problems of the universe (ontology, natural philosophy), socio-historical development, the process of cognition, gradually overcomes the former theological form. The spiritual life of society begins to acquire a secular character. The first political theories and social utopias emerge. Significant development receives natural science knowledge.

The main features of the Renaissance

The era of the Renaissance (or Renaissance), having arisen in Italy (the end of the 14th century), then (the 15th-16th centuries) turns into a phenomenon of pan-European culture. The radical change in the spiritual life of the European peoples had deep roots in the socio-economic changes caused by the formation of early bourgeois relations. The revival movement begins in Venice, Florence, Genoa (northern Italy), where trade developed intensively, processes of initial accumulation of capital took place, and republican political regimes dominated. In a narrow sense, the term "revival" meant the active use by writers, philosophers, and scientists of the rich traditions of the ancient heritage. In a broad sense, it has become synonymous with the new European culture. Anthropocentrism becomes its essential feature - an intense interest in a particular person, his activities, place in the world, purpose, internal and external appearance, needs and aspirations. Individualism as a fundamental setting when considering a person becomes a means of substantiating his self-worth, the need for liberation from the socio-political and spiritual shackles of the Middle Ages. The growth of the personal factor also finds its expression in social psychology, which, for example, manifests itself in relation to the time factor. It was during this period that the first mechanical clocks appeared on the towers of the Italian city-states. The most prominent humanist G. Manetti argued that the almighty God, like a banker, distributes time to people like money, and then strictly asks everyone about the advisability of using it. Time becomes an active factor in personal, individual activity.

In the Renaissance, the demand for mental, intellectual labor increases, the number of so-called "free professions" is growing rapidly, and a secular intelligentsia is being formed. In distribution and development new culture an important role was played by "humanistic circles" - communities of progressively thinking representatives of art, science, religion, actively opposing the dominance of scholasticism.

The emergence of a humanistic worldview

Philological science was the main activity of the humanists. Humanists began to look for rewriting, to study first literary and then artistic monuments of antiquity, primarily statues. Moreover, as in Florence - ancient city, founded by Yeshe in antiquity, and in Rome, and in Ravenna, and in Naples, most of all Greek and Roman statues, painted vessels, rakonets, and buildings have been preserved. For the first time in a thousand years of Christianity, ancient statues were treated not as pagan idols, but as works of art. The same can be said about ancient books. Of course, ancient thinkers were not irrevocably forgotten - in the era of the so-called Carolingian renaissance, that is, in the K century, and a century later, during the reign of Emperor Otto, and indeed throughout the entire Middle Ages, ancient manuscripts were copied in monasteries - otherwise they simply would not even reached the time of the Renaissance, because the originals have not been preserved. And on the philosophy of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, the creator of the theological system of Catholicism, built a picture of the world, which the church took for dogma. The ancient applied art, inherited by the Byzantine artistic craft, did not die either.

But it is with the humanists that the inclusion of the ancient heritage in the education system begins, acquaintance with ancient literature, sculpture, philosophy (that is, what is best preserved) of wide educated circles. Poets and artists strive to imitate ancient authors, to revive ancient art in general. But, as often happens in history, especially the history of art, the revival of some old principles and forms (unless, of course, highly gifted people revive) leads to the creation of a completely new one. Florence was the recognized capital of the Italian Renaissance. Here the great poet Dante Alighieri (1225-1321) was born and received universal recognition. His pen belongs to: "The Divine Comedy", "Feast", "On the Monarchy". It was these works that had a great influence on the minds and hearts of people, inspired humanists. Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374), another great lyric poet of Italy, is considered to be the founder of the revivalist movement. In the cycle of poems (canzoniere) dedicated to Laura, the asceticism of medieval consciousness is opposed by natural feelings for the beloved and nature. A deeply religious man, he resolutely rejected scholasticism, which he considered the embodiment of stupidity and nonsense.

The progressive philosophy of the Renaissance was an integral part of humanistic culture. One of the most profound and original thinkers of the early Renaissance was Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. His main works are: "On Scientific Ignorance", "On Assumptions", "Simple Man" (four dialogues), "On the Search for God", "On the Hunt for Wisdom" and others. He was an active member of the humanist circle. He gained the greatest influence when his childhood friend became Pope Pius II, and he actually took second place in the church hierarchy. The work of N. Kuzansky is anti-scholastic in nature, which is manifested in the pantheistic trend of his philosophy, an increased interest in ancient philosophy. Numerous works use the ideas of Pythagoras, Democritus, Anaxagoras, Aristotle, Boethius, especially Plato and the Neoplatonists. Of course, he does not and cannot deny the creationist provisions of the Christian doctrine, but, on the contrary, being one of the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, he sought to defend its dogmas. But, nevertheless, the identification in one way or another of God and nature (pantheism) actually undermined the postulate of creation.

In the theory of knowledge, he considered the main goal not to achieve an unchanging, forever given "divine truth", but the infinite expansion of human knowledge about the world around him. He singles out as stages of cognition: sensations that give rise to vague images of things; reason designates things by names, operates with figures, reveals opposites and opposes them; reason carries out dialectical thinking and, through the ability to think the infinite, overcomes all opposition; intuition realizes the comprehension of truth through the complete coincidence of opposites. The mind is independent of sensations and reason and is a reflection of the absolute intellect - God. Consistently developing the doctrine of the "coincidence of opposites" in the infinite, Kuzanets considers the problems of the identity of "maximum" and "minimum" (ontology), absolute and relative in cognition ("Scientific ignorance"), "microcosm" (man) and "macrocosm" (world ). The consideration of these and other problems, the content of which is directed against the prevailing dogmatism, makes N. Kuzansky one of the founders of the New European. The development of the humanistic worldview is closely connected with the active development of the doctrine of man. An example of this is the work of Pico Dela Mirandola (1463-1494), who develops the idea of ​​Platonism about the "middle" position of man between the earthly, animal and divine. With free will, he can descend to a beast or rise to a god-like being. Here the main concept of the anthropology of the Renaissance is expressed: a person creates his own destiny, is "his own sculptor and creator", is capable of unlimited self-improvement and a happy life on earth, not in heaven.

Political Doctrines and Social Utopias

Deep socio-economic changes contribute to the manifestation of new ideas about the political structure of society, social ideals, ways and means to achieve them. One of the first bourgeois political ideologists was Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) - statesman, writer, historian. In his most famous work, "The Sovereign" ("Prince") reveals the motives for people's activities - material interest, selfishness. The egoistic nature of man makes necessary the state structure of society. The state is the highest manifestation of the human spirit, and serving the state is the meaning and happiness human life. Machiavelli believes that the best form of state is a republic, where everyone is responsible for its fate. But if the people do not have developed democratic traditions, then the sovereign can use any means to achieve political goals. As a private person, the sovereign cannot neglect moral norms, but for the sake of the prosperity of the state, he may not take them into account. In the future, Machiavellianism began to be understood as unscrupulousness, cynicism in achieving political goals /See. Machiavelli N. Sovereign. Moscow: Planeta, 1990/.

The English humanist and politician Thomas More (1478-1535) in his book "Utopia" tried to solve the specific problems of social reorganization. The book consists of two sections. The first analyzes the concrete historical conditions of English society in the 16th century. The second describes the ideal social structure that exists on a fictional island - Utopia (gr. U - no; topos - a place. A place that does not exist). The main principles of this society are the absence of private property and compulsory labor for all. According to T. More VUtopias:

There is no private property;

all citizens participate in productive labor;

Labor is carried out on the basis of universal labor service;

All produced products (results of labor) become the property of society (public warehouses) and then are evenly distributed among all the inhabitants of Utopia:

Due to the fact that everyone is busy with work, a short working day of six hours is enough to ensure Utopia;

People who have shown special abilities in the sciences are exempted from labor activity;

The dirtiest work is done by slaves - prisoners of war and convicted criminals;

The primary cell of society is not a consanguineous family, but a "working family" (in fact, a work collective);

All officers are elected - directly or indirectly;

Men and women have equal rights (as well as equal responsibilities);

Residents believe in God, there is complete religious tolerance.

Another, the most famous project of social reconstruction is associated with the name of Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639). His interest in natural science was combined with an even greater interest in the socio-political problems of his time. For participation in the struggle against the Spanish yoke, he spent about thirty years in prison, where he wrote his main work - "The City of the Sun". The action takes place in the fantastic City of the Sun, where its inhabitants - solariums - have built an ideal society based on social justice, and enjoy life and work. By Campanelle, in the City of the Sun:

There is no private property;

All citizens participate in productive labor;

The results of labor become the property of the whole society, and then are evenly distributed among its members;

Labor is combined with simultaneous training;

The life of solariums is regulated to the smallest detail, from getting up to going to bed;

Solariums do everything together: they go from work to work, work, eat, rest, sing songs;

Much attention is paid to education - from birth, the child is taken away from his parents and brought up in special schools, where he learns the sciences and is accustomed to collective life, other rules of behavior of the City of the Sun;

At the head of the City of the Sun is a lifelong ruler (elected by solariums) - Metaphysician, who owns all the knowledge of his era and all professions.

The ideas of the utopian socialists put forward during the Renaissance were a response to the social injustice that had taken place and had many supporters among those who wanted to change the world both in the Renaissance and in the future.

Natural science views of the Renaissance, natural philosophy

Italian humanists of the XIV-XV centuries. relatively little interest in the natural sciences. But the development of production, the complication of practical activity revealed the need for an ever deeper study of nature, to identify the patterns of the processes occurring in it. One of the features of Renaissance science is that it arises in close connection with art. Moreover, this unity is sometimes manifested in the activities of one person. An example of this is the work of a brilliant artist, engineer, scientist - naturalist, philosopher - Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Having been educated in art workshops, he quickly becomes a first-class master of painting. His paintings "La Gioconda", "The Last Supper" and others represent the main masterpieces of the Renaissance. The scope of his engineering interests is boundless. He was the first to express the ideas of a loom, a parachute, a helicopter, a submarine, hydraulic locks and others. Being an irreconcilable opponent of scholastic scholarship, he saw the basis of scientific activity in practice, developed a method of purposeful experience - experiment. He deeply comprehended the meaning and role of science in cognition ("Science is the commander, and practice is the soldiers"). Rightfully entered the history of science as a pioneer of modern natural science

The most important scientific discovery of the period under review is the heliocentric system of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), which laid the foundations of scientific astronomy. The "Copernican coup" undermined the centuries-old dominance of the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic cosmology, which asserted the central place of the Earth and its immobility, led to far-reaching conclusions about the failure of religious ideas, contributed to the formation of a scientific worldview, and had a decisive influence on the further development of natural science /See. there. c.117-128/.

The ideas of N. Copernicus received their comprehensive development in the natural philosophy of the great Italian thinker Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), who embodied in his work most fully and deeply such important features of humanistic philosophy as pantheism, dialectics, a keen sense of the harmony of nature, its infinity. The radical pantheism of the thinker, i.e. the absolute identification of God and nature, which denied the postulate of the doctrine of the creation of the world - the reason for his irreconcilable conflict with the church, which played a tragic role in his fate. Fundamental in his teaching is the concept of the One, which is both the cause of being and the very existence of things. God, as it were, "moves" into nature, which perceives such of his qualities as infinity in space and time, creative nature, and others. Based on the inseparability of God and nature, he gave the latter an active role, argued that matter "creates everything from its womb." The Nolan gave physical homogeneity to all the infinite of the world, adhered to hylozoism (universal animation of nature), thereby explaining the reason for the movement of cosmic bodies: the law of universal gravitation had not yet been discovered. He actively uses the provisions of the dialectic of N. Cusa, frees it from theological content and formulates it as a doctrine of nature. For example, J. Bruno refuses to recognize the absolute center of the Universe: the infinity of the One excludes the very possibility of such a center. Thus, various theological and scholastic restrictions on the infinity of the Universe and the surrounding world are removed. The naturalistic pantheism of G. Bruno played an important role and found its continuation in the European freethinking of the 18th-19th centuries. /Cm. there. c.154-176/.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) - the great natural scientist completes the development of science of the Renaissance period and opens the page of European experimental and mathematical natural science. Opponent of scholastic scholarship, Galileo, founded a mechanistic interpretation of the world, adhered to the views of deism. As a result of the evidence formulated by him, the heliocentric system of N. Copernicus and J. Bruno turns from a hypothesis into a demonstrative theory. Revising the previous physical views, which were under the strong influence of scholasticism, the scientist creates dynamics - the doctrine of the movement of bodies. The discovery of the laws of mechanics, as well as the laws of planetary motion around the Sun (I. Kepler), the knowledge of which was based on mathematical methods, leads to the final rejection of the elements of anthropomorphism. The concept of the law of nature acquires a strictly scientific content. Galileo formulated his main ideas in the "Dialogue on the two main systems of the world - Ptolemaic and Copernican". The Inquisition, under the threat of burning, forced the scientist to formally renounce his "delusions", but nothing could stop the progressive development of science

The era ... of new prerequisites for the formation of humanistic culture era Renaissance was the emergence of a humanistic intelligentsia. ... about the social elitism of bourgeois culture. IN era Renaissance for the first time there was an idea of ​​​​intellectual ...

Epoch Renaissance (10)

Abstract >> Philosophy

IV. PHILOSOPHY AGES REVIVAL Sometimes the term Renaissance" is understood in a broad sense ... to nature, what happened in era Renaissance, can be illustrated with a catchphrase ... mystery. And only in era Renaissance it is an earthly woman, beloved, ...

In the development of world artistic culture, the Renaissance is an era of exceptional significance. The term "Renaissance" (fr. renaissance) was first used by a famous painter, architect and art historian J. Vasari(1512-74) V in his book "Biographies of the most famous painters, sculptors and architects". He meant the revival of antiquity. Later, mainly XVIII century, the era of the Italian Renaissance was characterized mainly as the era of the rebirth of man, as the era of humanism. However, the origins of this interpretation of the culture of Italy XIV- XV centuries originate in this very era. No matter how historians argue about whether the Renaissance is a world phenomenon or this cultural process is unique to Italy, in any case, the unique and inimitable culture of the Italian Renaissance is a kind of model with which the phenomena of the revival in the cultures of other countries are compared.

The main features of the Renaissance culture are:anthropocentrism, humanism, modification of the medieval Christian tradition, a special relationship to antiquity - the revival of ancient monuments of art and ancient philosophy, a new attitude to the world. These features are closely related to each other. Studying one in isolation from the others threatens to lose objectivity in assessing this interesting time.

Renaissance culture did not develop in all European countries. She had different character, and different boundaries in time. Italy was the classical country of the Renaissance. Already at the end of the XIII century. sprouts of a new worldview and a new art appeared (Proto-Renaissance); This culture flourished in the 15th century (Early Renaissance) and reached the top at the beginning of the XVI century. (High Renaissance)- (1490-1530). The Renaissance is becoming obsolete in Italy in the 30s. XVI century, but in Venice it continues until the end of the century.

Why is the classical country of the Renaissance - Italy? On the Apennine Peninsula, earlier than in other European countries, new economic relations began to take shape. Due to their geographical position, the cities of Italy became the center of international trade and banking. Such cities were Florence, Pisa, Siena, Genoa, Milan, Venice. Italy was also distinguished by its political structure. It was not a single country, but represented a number of independent regions and cities that constantly competed and were at enmity with each other. Already in XI- XIII centuries in some of them, anti-feudal revolutions took place, as a result of which these cities gained independence and established a republican form of government.

The primacy among the Italian city-states) belonged to Florence, like Athens in Greece. The city was ruled by a council of heads of various workshops. patricians of all privileges.

And, finally, Italy was singled out by another important circumstance from the point of view of culture: it was here that antiquity was rediscovered. In the forgotten vaults, the works of ancient authors were searched for: fragments of columns, beautiful Greek and Roman statues, bas-reliefs, high reliefs were retrieved. Measurements of the ruins of ancient buildings revealed patterns of harmonic proportions.

With the definition of the main features is connected and chronology of the Italian Renaissance (Renaissance). Periods of the history of Italian culture are usually denoted by the names of centuries:

Ducento - (XIII century) - Proto-Renaissance;

Trecento (XIV century) - continuation of the Proto-Renaissance;

Quattrocento (XV century) - Early Renaissance;

Cinquecento (XVI century) - High Renaissance.

At the same time, the chronological framework of the century does not quite coincide with certain periods of cultural development: for example, the Proto-Renaissance dates back to the end of the 13th century, the Early Renaissance ends in the 90s. XV century., And the High Renaissance is becoming obsolete by the 30s. 16th century Only in Venice, the term "Venetian Renaissance" or "late Renaissance" is more often used for this period.

The basis of changes in the sphere of culture was new outlook, due to significant changes in the life of many European countries: Italy, the Netherlands, France, Germany, England. Earthly existence was called the only real, and man - beautiful or striving for beauty. Asceticism was rejected, and the human right to enjoy earthly pleasures was proclaimed.

There is a completely different view of man and the world. The Middle Ages were the time of the dominance of religion, which affirmed the insignificance of man in the face of Almighty God. Religious asceticism proclaimed the earthly world and man as the embodiment of sin and evil, called for a continuous struggle with passions, for repentance, mortification of the flesh, patience and humility in anticipation of a transition to a better other world. The main thing in the new - humanistic worldview was an unusually high idea of ​​\u200b\u200bman. Man was declared the center of the universe and the measure of all things, the creator of himself. Its high purpose, dignity and value, its limitless possibilities were affirmed. Ideal became harmonious, strong, spiritually rich, comprehensively developed (homo universale - universal man) personality. Freedom is the most precious acquisition of man.

Samples of morality and beauty, pagan love for everything earthly humanists (primarily Italy) found in the heritage of antiquity - monuments of art, history, philosophy. Hence the name of the era - the Renaissance (in Italian - Rinashimento, in French - Renaissance), although the study and fascination with antiquity was the result of a new understanding of life.

In the field of philosophy, ancient teachings received new development and content:

Stoicism (Petrarch),

Epicureanism (walla)

Neoplatonism (Ficino, Pico della Mirandolla),

Pantheism (N. Kuzansky, Paracelsus, Campanella, Bruno). According to pantheistic views, laws governing

world, there are internal laws of nature. God was understood not as an external supernatural force, but was identified with nature. The ancient Greek idea of ​​the identity of the microcosm (man) and the macrocosm (nature) was also revived.

In Mantua, in 1425, the first humanistic school (V. da Feltre) was founded. Its name - "House of Joy"- emphasized the desire to give the teaching the character of pleasure, not cramming.

In the Renaissance, a new stage in the development of science begins. Astronomy, geography, anatomy, mathematics achieve great success: Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492; Vasco de Gamma in 1498 opened a sea route to India; Amerigo Vespucci(1499-1504), Magellan (1519-22) and other navigators proved the sphericity of the Earth. The scientific revolution was the heliocentric system N. Copernicus(published in 1543). J. bruno under the influence of the theory of Copernicus and N. of Cusa created the doctrine of the infinity of the universe and made other discoveries.

The content of the article

REVIVAL LITERATURE, literature of the countries of Europe during the period of affirmation and dominance of the ideology of the Renaissance, reflecting the typological features of this culture. Covers the period from the 16th to the first quarter of the 17th century in different countries. Literature is one of the most important achievements of the culture of the Renaissance, it was in it, as in the fine arts, that new ideas about man and the world inherent in this culture manifested themselves with the greatest force. The object of literature was earthly life in all its diversity, dynamics and authenticity, which fundamentally distinguishes Renaissance literature from medieval literature. A feature of the literature of the Renaissance, as well as of all culture, was the deepest interest in the individual and her experiences, the problem of the individual and society, the glorification of the beauty of man, the heightened perception of the poetry of the earthly world. Like the humanism-ideology of the Renaissance, the literature of the Renaissance was characterized by the desire to respond to all topical issues of human existence, as well as an appeal to the national historical and legendary past. Hence the flourishing of lyric poetry, unprecedented since antiquity, and the creation of new poetic forms, and subsequently the rise of dramaturgy.

It was the culture of the Renaissance that placed literature, more precisely poetry and studies of language and literature, above other types. human activity. The very fact of the proclamation at the dawn of the Renaissance of poetry as one of the ways of knowing and understanding the world determined the place of literature in the culture of the Renaissance. The development of Renaissance literature is associated with the formation of national languages ​​in European countries, humanists in Italy, France, England act as defenders of the national language, and in many cases as its creators. A feature of Renaissance literature was that it was created both in national languages ​​and in Latin, but almost all of its highest achievements were associated with the former. The cult of the word and the acute awareness by humanists of their own personality for the first time raised the question of originality and originality literary creativity, which may have led to the search for new artistic, at least poetic forms. It is no coincidence that the Renaissance is associated with the emergence of a number of poetic forms associated with the names of the artists who created them - Dante's tercina, Ariosto's octave, Spencer's stanza, Sidney's sonnet, etc. The question of the artist's originality raised the question of style. Gradually, instead of the dominant of style, the dominant of the genre is being established. It is no coincidence that the theorists of Renaissance literature devoted a special study to almost every genre.

Renaissance literature fundamentally changed the genre system. A new system of literary genres was created, some of them, known since antiquity, were revived and rethought from humanistic positions, others were created anew. The greatest changes affected the sphere of dramaturgy. Instead of the medieval genres, the Renaissance revived tragedy and comedy, genres that had literally left the stage in the days of the Roman Empire. In comparison with medieval literature, the plots of the works change - first mythological ones are approved, then historical or modern ones. The scenography is changing, it is based on the principle of plausibility. First, comedy returns, then tragedy, which, due to the peculiarities of the genre, is affirmed during the period when the new culture realizes the inevitability of the conflict between the ideal and reality. The pastoral is quite widespread in literature.

The epic in the literature of the Renaissance is presented in different forms. It should be noted, first of all, the wide distribution of the epic poem, the medieval chivalric novel acquires a new life, and new content is poured into it. At the end of the Renaissance, a picaresque novel is established. The true creation of the Renaissance is the genre of the short story, the typological foundations of which were laid by Boccaccio.

Dialogue became a specific Renaissance genre. It was originally a favorite form of writing by humanists, whose goal was to force the reader, after weighing the pros and cons in disputes, to draw a conclusion for himself.

Renaissance poetry was also associated with the emergence and revival of a number of genres. It is characterized by the dominance of lyric poetry. Of the ancient genres of epic poetry, the ode and hymn are being revived, lyric poetry is closely connected with the emergence, development and improvement of the sonnet, which has become the leading form of lyrics, as well as the madrigal. An epigram, an elegy, and less often a ballad also receive development. It should be noted that in different countries of Europe both the problems of style and the problems of genre acquired different meanings.

The literature of the Renaissance, like the entire culture of the Renaissance, relied on ancient achievements and repelled them. Hence, for example, the emergence of "learned drama" as an imitation of ancient drama. At the same time, she creatively developed the folk traditions of medieval literature. These features were, to one degree or another, inherent in every national literature.

Italian literature

The history of Renaissance literature, like the entire culture of the Renaissance, begins in Italy. At the beginning of the 16th century it was heralded by the great poet Dante Alighieri (1265–1321). In their philosophical writings (Feast And Monarchy) and the greatest poem The Divine Comedy it reflected all the complexities of the worldview of a person in transition, who already clearly sees the future of a new culture.

The true initiator of the Renaissance is Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374), in whose work a turn to a new culture and other spiritual values ​​was determined. It was with his activities that the reconstruction of ancient culture began, the study literary monuments, search for ancient manuscripts. Petrarch was not only a scientist, but also a prominent philosopher, political figure, in fact, the first intellectual in the history of Europe. He raised knowledge to such a height that in 1349 he was solemnly crowned with a laurel wreath on the Capitol in Rome, like ancient heroes.

For contemporaries, Petrarch became both a symbol and an ideal personality of a new culture. He proclaimed the principle of the need to master the cultural heritage of antiquity, but this task involved the formation of a morally perfect, spiritually enriched and intellectually developed person. A person had to base his choice on the experience of the past.

Petrarch created a new system of thinking, defined all ideas about the Renaissance man, was a prominent philologist, improved the Latin language. In his Latin works, he relied on the ancient tradition, in the spirit of Virgil he wrote eclogues, in the spirit of Horace - Poetic messages. He considered his best work Africa(1339–1341), a poem in Latin after a model Aeneid where he is on behalf of ancient heroes prophesies of the great coming glory of Italy and the revival of an even greater Italian culture. He remained in the history of literature, primarily as the creator of a collection of poems. song book, written by him in Italian and dedicated to glorifying the beauty of human feelings, love that ennobles and improves a person. The name of his beloved Laura since the time of Petrarch has become a household name, and the book itself has become a model for most Renaissance poets, so that the verb “petrarchize” even appeared in France.

For the first time in literature, Petrarch not only justified love experiences, but also revealed their extraordinary versatility, the complexity of the feelings of a person in love. Even more unusual for contemporaries was the closeness with which he described the spiritual world of his beloved.

Petrarch's younger contemporary and friend, Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375), was his successor. His literary heritage is quite diverse: the writer also turned to traditional genre courtly romance ( filocolo And Philostrato) and classical epic ( Tezeid). Boccaccio created a number of works in new genres: he owns a novel in prose and verse Comedy of the Florentine Nymphs that marked the beginning of the pastoral genre. Peru Boccaccio also owns an unusually lyrical pastoral poem Fiesolan nymphs. He created the first psychological novel in Europe Elegy of Madonna Fiametta. In the history of literature, he remained, first of all, the creator of the genre of the Renaissance short story, the famous collection Decameron. IN Decameron a new society (narrators of short stories) has been bred - educated, sensitive, poetizing the world, beautiful. This world is based on a common culture and is opposed scary pictures death and decay of society during the plague epidemic.

In the short stories, the author gives the widest panorama of life situations and phenomena. The heroes represent all layers of European society, and they all highly value earthly life. New hero- a person who is active, able to fight fate and enjoy life in all its manifestations. Boccaccio's man is fearless, he strives to conquer and change the world, he insists on his freedom of feelings and actions and the right to choose.

Boccaccio at the same time proclaims the equality of all people by birth, denying the class partitions of medieval society. The value of a person is determined only by his personal qualities, and not by origin, the will and mind of a person triumph over the random circumstances of his fate. His writings contributed to the development of the Italian literary language.

Literature of the 15th century was associated with the development of lyrics in the work of Angelo Poliziano (1454–1494) and Lorenzo de Medici (1449–1492), whose work is characterized by carnival songs singing the joy of life (). Poliziano owns the first humanistic poem written for the theatre, The legend of Orpheus. In the 15th century the first pastoral novel was created Arcadia Jacopo Sanadzaro, who influenced the further development of the genre.

The genre of the short story received in the 15th century. further development. Poggio Bracciolini (1380–1459) left a collection of facetia (jokes, similar in genre to short stories). At the end of the century, the genre of the short story (already in the Neapolitan dialect) was associated with the work of Tommaso (Masuccio) Guardato (c. 1420–1476), who left the book Novellino.

A significant place in the literature of the Italian Renaissance is occupied by epic poetry, which fed on plots drawn from chivalric romances, and, above all, the Carolingian cycle. The best examples of this poetry were Big Morgante Luigi Pulci (1432–1484) and Orlando in love(1483-1494) Matteo Boiardo (1441-1494).

The High Renaissance in the literature of Italy was characterized by the predominance of the classical Renaissance style, monumental and sublime, embodying the humanistic ideals of beauty and harmony, from which the idealization of reality followed. It is connected, first of all, with the name of Ludovico Ariosto (1474–1533), who left a grandiose poem Furious Roland, which became one of the greatest peaks of the Italian Renaissance. Like his predecessor Matteo Boiardo ( Roland in love). Ariosto turned to the plots of chivalric novels dedicated to the paladins of Charlemagne and the knights of the Round Table. Medieval images and situations take on a new look and receive a new interpretation: the heroes are endowed with Renaissance personality traits, strong feelings, strong will and the ability to enjoy life. The inventiveness and freedom of the author in compositional construction novel with the general harmonic balance of the entire text. Heroic episodes could be combined with purely comic episodes. The poem was written in a special stanza, often called the "golden octave". The lyrical stream in the era of the High Renaissance is associated with the poetry of Pietro Bembo, who became the founder of the poetry of Petrarchism, who cultivated the poetic heritage of Petrarch. Bembo, in addition, proved the advantages of the Tuscan dialect, in which he saw the basis of the literary Italian language ( Reasoning in prose about the folk language).

For Literature Late Renaissance characteristic is the preservation of the existing system of genres, but much changes in it (plots, images, etc.), including the ideological orientation. M. Bandello (1485–1565) and J. Cinthio (1504–1573) became the greatest masters of the short story of this period. AND Novellam Bandello and One hundred stories Cintio is characterized by extreme drama of situations, increased dynamism, an unadorned image of the underside of life and fatal passions. The novel takes on a pessimistic and tragic character. The third of the novelists of the Late Renaissance, Giovanni Francesco Straparola (1500-1557), is also characterized by a departure from the harmony and clarity of the Renaissance, his language is intertwined with the common folk, and the author relies on folklore. A special place in this period is occupied by the autobiographical work of the famous sculptor and chaser Benvenuto Cellini.

The lyric poetry of the late Renaissance in Italy is largely associated with the work of women. The poems of V. Colonna (1490–1547) and G. Stampa (c. 1520–1554) reflected dramatic experiences and passion. A very special place in the literature of Italy of the Late Renaissance is occupied by the poetic works of the great artist Michelangelo, whose poetry is permeated with extremely tragic motifs. The literature of the Late Renaissance is crowned with the artistic legacy of Torquato Tasso (1544–1595). His early work Aminta(1573), was created in the genre of dramatic highly poetic pastoral. He is best known for his epic poem Liberated Jerusalem(1580). The plot was drawn from the era of the Crusades, but the glorification of the exploits of its heroes is organically combined with new trends, the influence of the ideas of the Counter-Reformation. The poem combined the ideas of the Renaissance, the trends of the late Renaissance and the fabulous elements of chivalric novels (bewitched forest, magical gardens and castles). The heroic poem was permeated with religious motifs, it is characterized by an extraordinary richness of language and sound writing.

To a lesser extent, dramaturgy developed in Italy. In the 16th century mainly comedies and pastorals were written. Comedies were written by such great authors as Machiavelli (1469-1527) ( Mandrake) and Ariosto (1474–1533), and the play of the great scientist and thinker Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) completes the development of the comedy of the Italian Renaissance. Along with the "scientific comedy", created according to ancient models, the folk comedy of masks also develops, tragedy is born. By the end of the century, the pastoral (due to the development of the court theater and music) was becoming more widespread ( faithful shepherd D. Guarini). ( biography).

A characteristic feature of the literature of the 16th century. is the emergence and activity of literary associations, primarily academies.

French literature

The literature of the Renaissance in France developed predominantly already in the 16th century, although its forerunner is usually considered to be the great poet François Villon (1431–1469), the first truly tragic poet in France who turned to the theme of deprivation and loneliness. The beginning of the Renaissance poetry itself comes from the school of the so-called. "great rhetors" who did a lot for the formation of a literary form. The first Renaissance poet is the last of them, Jean Lemaire de Belge (1473-1525), who brought the secular beginning and the Renaissance joy of life into literature, relying on ancient poetry and the great masters of the Italian Renaissance (Dante and Petrarch). The Lyon school of poets also repelled from the ancient tradition, the largest representatives of which were Maurice Saive (c. 1510 - c. 1564) and the “beautiful ropemaker” Louise Labe (1525/26–1565), whose poetry is associated primarily with the development love theme. Grace, naturalness and strength of feeling of an abandoned woman are combined in her poetic heritage with the sophistication of style. Labe's love lyrics were distinguished by deep humanity, with the accuracy of the image and the chasing of the form of the sonnet.

The first rise of Renaissance poetry in France is associated with the name of Clément Marot. The nature of it literary heritage Maro justifiably allows us to consider him the founder of Renaissance poetry in France: he completely broke with the medieval poetic tradition and introduced a number of new forms (including the sonnet). From ancient poets, he borrowed a number of poetic forms (eclogue, epigram, satire). As a court poet, Maro left mainly elegant works written in non-large genres (slogans, epigrams, "gifts"), which are characterized by secularity and even playfulness. Maro's work as a whole was characterized by a more sublime harmonic character, a Renaissance vision of the world and man. He carried out a gigantic work of translating the biblical psalms into French.

It was from the first half of the 16th century. there was a struggle for the approval of the national French language, which was greatly facilitated by the activities of philologists and poets.

The heyday of French poetry was associated with the activities of the Pleiades literary group, which created a national poetic school. The first serious work of this group was its literary manifesto Defense and glorification of the French language(1549), traditionally attributed to Joachin du Bellay (1522-1560), where new ideas about national culture and literature. The author associated the rise and flourishing of culture with a nationwide rise and prosperity; the level of development of culture, thus, was determined by the level of development of the state and the people. At the same time, the cult of antiquity, characteristic of the Renaissance, is traced in the manifesto and the slogan of imitation of ancient authors is declared. The artistic program of the Pleiades affirmed the priority of the French language and its equality with Latin and Italian, and proclaimed the high appointment of the poet-creator. Language was proclaimed a kind of art, and poetry its highest form. They considered the ancient heritage as an incentive for the development of national literature. The composition of the group changed, but the leaders in it were Pierre Ronsard (1524-1585), Joashen du Bellay and Jean Antoine Baif. To the greatest extent, the spirit of the Renaissance culture and its ideals were expressed in the work of the leader of the Pleiades, Ronsard. A humanist, he sang the joy of life, man and human love as the pinnacle of his life. The cult of nature, the feeling and perception of the beauty of the world, characteristic of the poet's worldview, were reflected in the affirmation of the idea of ​​the organic unity of man and nature. The legacy of Ronsard also manifested his critical perception of society ( Hymn to gold, poems protesting against civil wars) and philosophical reflections on the fate of mankind. At the same time, he sought to glorify his homeland ( Anthem of France). A special place in his work was occupied by the themes of love and nature, he left several books dedicated to love ( Love for Cassandra, Love for Mary and etc.). He owns an epic poem franciade. He was rightfully considered by his contemporaries to be the “Prince of Poets”.

Second in importance in the Pleiades was Joashen du Bellay, a poet and literary theorist. The provincial nobleman went under the influence of Ronsard to Paris, where he became an active member of the Pleiades. He owns several collections of poems (including Olive, Regrets, Various rural fun, Roman antiquities). Regrets And Roman antiquities put forward Du Bellay to a place of honor in French literature. The author was not inherent in the grandiosity of ideas and images and the scope of fantasy, he gravitated towards simplicity, his poetry is rather intimate. It is characterized by an elegiac mood, reflections on life's hardships and suffering, sincerity and melancholy, softness and light sadness. In the early period of his work, Du Bellay largely shared the general attitudes of the Pleiades and its leader Ronsard, especially in the interpretation of the problem of love, although even during this period his poetry was characterized by a personal, individual sound, an expression of a special spiritual mood. This collection clearly shows the influence of the mannerist examples of the Italian Petrarchists. In his most mature writings, Du Bellay went far beyond his first collection. Roman antiquities(included 33 sonnets) - a collection of philosophical lyrics, in which historical theme combined with the comprehension of past eras and their personal experience. The tragic beginning, the understanding of the frailty of human deeds and the omnipotence of time found their expression in Roman antiquities. At the same time, high spiritual thoughts and beautiful creations are preserved, according to the poet, in the memory of people. Thus, he emphasized faith in the enduring character cultural heritage and literature in particular. The pinnacle of Du Bellay's work is considered to be his Regrets, in essence, the poet's lyrical diary during his stay in Rome. In the sonnets, the Renaissance idea of ​​the triumph and flourishing of the personality disappears, instead of it there appears a tragic awareness of the inevitability of the triumph of terrible circumstances independent of the will and actions of a person. IN Regrets condemnation of wars, meanness and venality of the court, the policy of sovereigns, an understanding of national values ​​was expressed. IN Regrets reflected the crisis that had already begun both in the worldview of the poet himself and in all French humanism, the beginning of a spiritual tragedy and the collapse of Renaissance ideals during the civil wars of the second half of the century. Found an expression in the collection central problem late Renaissance - a contradiction between the Renaissance humanistic ideal of the individual and society and the reality that really surrounds humanists.

Among other members of the Pleiades, we should mention the talented Remy Bellot (c. 1528–1577) and the scientist J. Baif (1532–1589), as well as Etienne Jodel (1532–1573), who created the first classical French tragedy Captured Cleopatra(1553). He also tried his hand at comedy in verse ( Eugene, 1552). The play was characterized by patriotic pathos and sharp criticism of churchmen.

Jodel was the first French dramatist to completely break with the medieval theatrical tradition, his plays were antiquity oriented and written according to the rules. Jodel's dramaturgy in many respects anticipates the tragedy of French classicism of the 17th century. In his late work, the influence of mannerism and even baroque is felt.

Religious wars contributed to the decline of the Pleiades and determined the specifics of the work of the last of the major poets of the French Renaissance. Theodore Agrippa D "Aubigne (1552–1630), a convinced Calvinist, nobleman, as a child, swore an oath to devote himself to the cause of the Christian faith and kept it. The firmness and stamina of his character were combined with exceptional fidelity to faith, honor and the king. At the end of his life he was forced leave his homeland and retire to Geneva.His first literary experiments ( Spring) were associated with the poetic tradition that came from Ronsard and even from Petrarch. Glory to him brought a unique poetic epic Tragic Poems(1577–1589). The idea, structure and artistic images of the poem have no analogues not only in French, but also in European literature of the Renaissance. According to the tragic worldview of the author, and in terms of pictorial power, and in terms of emotional intensity Tragic Poems represent an exceptional monument of the late Renaissance, already anticipating the Baroque, "the century, having changed mores, asks for a different style." And yet the poem clearly shows the spirit of the Renaissance, Tragic Poems- the cry of trampled humanity. Her language is replete with extraordinary expressive images, sublime pathos is combined with caustic sarcasm and extreme drama, the presentation takes on a grandiose, almost cosmic scale. Creativity (he left Memoirs and a major historical work) completes the development of French Renaissance poetry.

The development of the French prose of the Renaissance is largely connected with the short story, the history of which is opened by One hundred new novels(1486). Among the numerous collections, stand out New fun and fun conversations famous freethinker and author of satire Peace cymbal Bonaventure Deperrier (1510–1544), which gives a broad panorama of everyday life in contemporary French author and displays colorful individualized images. The legacy of the crowned humanist writer Marguerite of Angouleme (1592–1549) is considered to be the pinnacle of French short stories. The sister of the French King Francis I was at the center of a brilliant court, the entire intellectual and refined court society. Having become the Queen of Navarre, she broke away from the usual cultural environment of the French court, but managed to create a new major center of culture in a remote province, attracting more and more new figures of the French Renaissance. She entered the history of literature as a writer and poetess. The Platonic beginning, characteristic of her circle, found its maximum expression in the poetry of the Queen of Navarre herself. She owns allegorical poems and poems. The true glory of Margarita as a writer was compiled by a collection of short stories Heptameron. The collection remained unfinished, it was supposed to contain 100 short stories, but the writer managed to write only 72. Its second edition (1559), where the short stories with sharp anti-church attacks were replaced by more neutral texts, was called Heptameron. A feature of the collection was the author's refusal to use wandering traditional plots of short stories, their plots are connected with the personal experience of the narrators or other real events. The participants in the events were people from the immediate environment of the writer, and even her relatives. Hence the special autobiographical flavor of the book and the depth of the characters of the storytellers, bringing to the fore not so much the stories themselves, but the discussion. Compared to other collections of Renaissance short stories Heptameron represents a narrower social circle, in the book we are talking rather about feelings, moral situations and wealth inner peace of people. It is characteristic that there is no jubilant optimism in the collection - many stories are sad, and their interpretation shows a discrepancy between the high ideal of man and the reality of the surrounding world. The work of Margaret of Angouleme and in particular the collection Heptameron reflected the beginning of the crisis of the ideals of the French Renaissance.

The highest achievement of French Renaissance literature in prose is the work of François Rabelais (1483-1553). The search for a humanist (a famous doctor) led him to literature, from 1532 he began to publish individual books of his famous novel “from the life of giants”, each of which was condemned in turn by the Sorbonne, and the fourth (1552) was sentenced to be burned by Parliament. In the novel Rabelais Gargantua and Pantagruel the inseparable connection between the French culture of the Renaissance and the medieval folk tradition of laughter is expressed. In the novel, there is undoubtedly a parody with the help of hyperbolization of medieval genres, traditions and values. At the same time, humanistic ideals and values ​​are affirmed. Rabelais, a doctor and scientist, promoted the cult of knowledge and the study of science as a means of educating a harmonious person, he insisted on the right of a person to think and feel freely, and opposed religious fanaticism. The novel depicts a kind of social utopia - the Thelema monastery, where a person can realize his right to freedom, the joy of life and the desire for knowledge. At the same time, optimism and faith in the limitless possibilities of man are inherent in this book: "man was created for peace, not for war, born for joy, for enjoying all the fruits and plants."

Humanistic ideals persist in French literature well into the late 16th century; generalized and expressed them in a new created literary genre- essay - Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592). For the first time in the history of literature, the author stated his own experiences and experiences, "the content of my book is myself." The personality of Montaigne became the subject of analysis of his work Experiences. He proclaims a humanistic understanding of the destiny of man - the goal of human life is the pursuit of happiness and pleasure. It was he who connected this idea with the idea of ​​natural life and the natural freedom of man. The presence of freedom determines the nature of the social order, and all people are equal by nature. Montaigne summed up the development of humanism, and rather skeptically assessed the results of the development of sciences and even art, insisting on simplicity and clarity, anticipating the principles of the coming classicism.

German literature

In Germany, the fate of the literature of the Renaissance was closely connected with the Reformation. In many ways, the work of the great Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466/9–1536) adjoins the cultural area of ​​Germany. Erasmus is the leading thinker of Europe, he left a great legacy, but two satires received the greatest popularity - Praise of stupidity And Talking is easy. This tradition also includes the famous ship of fools Sebastian Brant (a satire that was a huge success), and the famous satire of Erasmus of Rotterdam Praise of stupidity(1511) and Talking is easy where sharp criticism is given modern society. German literature assumes a special polemical character on the eve of the Reformation. In a tense atmosphere of ideological struggle, famous Letters from dark people, a hoax of humanists, a satire written in Latin by humanists K. Rubian, G. Bush and U. von Hutten in the form of letters on behalf of fictional clerics. Satire dominates the German literature of the era and is most clearly manifested in the writings of the humanist Ulrich von Hutten, who ridiculed the Catholic Church in his dialogues.

The formation of the German literary language was connected with the Renaissance and the Reformation. Translation of the prominent figure of the Reformation Martin Luther of the Bible into German meant the approval of the norms of the common German language. Poetry acquires less importance in Germany, the work of Hans Sachs (1494-1576) came from the German tradition and reproduces the urban life of Germany. Of particular importance in German literature are the so-called. folk books, anonymous writings designed for mass reading. In terms of their content, they are extremely colorful, they combined fairy tale motifs, plots of chivalric novels, anecdotes, and even historical narrative. They were also different in character: if Beautiful Magellone was inherent in poetry, then in The Tales of Thiel Ulenspiegel And Schildburgers there is a sharp satirical jet. Finally, the Renaissance ideal of the thirst for knowledge and glory, the cult of the limitless possibilities of man are present in Stories about Dr. Johann Faust, the famous sorcerer and warlock(1587), the first treatment of this story in world literature.

English literature

The emergence of new trends in literature has been observed since the emergence of humanist circles in universities, which were influenced by Italian humanism. The largest figure of humanism in England was Thomas More (1478–1535), who left one of the program works of the Renaissance Utopia where an ideal society is drawn, built on equality and justice, where the principle of collective property and community of labor prevails, there is no poverty, and the goal is to achieve the common good. As a true humanist More insists on the harmonious development of the personality in this society, most of the time of each person is given to intellectual pursuits. It is characteristic that in an era when Europe was torn apart by religious strife, Mor draws in his ideal state the triumph of religious tolerance, and mercilessly mockingly describes the lot of gold in Utopia.

English poetry of the Renaissance was born at the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII, when literary leisure became widely popular at court. The first humanist poet was John Scalton, educator of the future Henry VIII, famous for his scholarship. Scalton left a number of satirical poems ( Why don't you come to court). In the first half of the century there was an assimilation of new literary forms and genres, as well as of the ancient heritage. The popularity in England of Petrarch's poetry led to the establishment of the sonnet as the leading poetic form, although slightly modified from classical Italian. The first English Petrarchist poet Thomas Wyeth (1503-1542) introduced a sonnet of three quatrains and a final couplet, love lyrics were further developed by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (Surrey) (1517-1547), who left the cycle dedicated to "Geraldine" and also perfected the form of the sonnet. The flowering of English literature, and above all, poetry, was associated with the "golden age" of the reign of Elizabeth Tudor. During this period, philanthropy in relation to art and literature especially develops. The emphasized interest in language led to the creation of a special court language, refined and overloaded with comparisons. Literature developed primarily in the field of poetry and drama. The dominance of lyric poetry was due in the middle of the century with the advent of the lyrics of T. Wyeth and G. Surry, but the true flowering of lyric poetry was associated with the name of Philip Sidney (1554-1586), a true innovator in poetry and literary theory. Turning to the sonnet form already established in England, he created a cycle of 108 sonnets. Astrophile and Stella, where poetic miniatures were united by a common idea into a single whole and a “love story” was created with a complex range of experiences. The ending is sad, the hero (Astrophil) had no response to his feelings and devotion. Sidney's sonnets included dialogue, the first time an ironic theme appears in the genre. The sonnet becomes the dominant form in the English poetry of the Renaissance, but other poets of this time (the so-called Elizabethans) also worked in the genres of odes, elegies, ballads, epigrams, satires, etc. Sidney also acted as a literary theorist, defending the high purpose of poetry, its educational impact on the individual, leading to the moral improvement of people (treatise Protection of poetry). He also became the first person in England to turn to the pastoral genre in his unfinished novel Arcadia(published in 1590).

The greatest English poet of the Renaissance was Edmund Spenser (c. 1552–1599). Unlike the aristocrat Sidney, Spencer lived a difficult life; he left a significant legacy in lyric poetry, worked in the traditional Renaissance genres of sonnets and hymns. He developed the English pastoral in his "shepherd's calendar", where the usual for the pastoral shepherd's idyll against the backdrop of nature was combined with the proclamation of civic ideals. Spencer is best known for his poem fairy queen, the most important work of the poet. Spencer turned to the plot, drawn from a medieval chivalric romance, to a cycle of legends about King Arthur. The adventures of the knights, each of which is the embodiment of one of the 12 virtues, made up the plot, but the disclosure of characters, interest in the heroic principle. The thirst for glory, the desire for moral perfection in the spirit of humanistic ideals, all this filled the Arthurian plot with Renaissance content. In addition, the appeal to Arthurian legends was also determined by the general interest in national history. Later, looseness, a free depiction of human passions, was introduced into English poetry. At the same time, the glorification of the joy of life and love was preserved. Its peculiarity was the search for new forms of verse. Sidney introduced the "masculine rhyme", Spencer became the inventor of a special "Spencer" stanza. Prose developed mainly in the genre of the short story, and often there was an element of satire and glorification of bourgeois virtues (labor, thrift, modesty of morals) in them. A number of diverse novels emerge (utopian, pastoral, even close to picaresque).

Biggest breakthrough English literature Renaissance has committed in dramaturgy, where, of course, the British were ahead of all of Europe. The English theater reaches its highest development in the 1580s-1590s. Initially, English dramaturgy was associated with imitation of ancient, and plays were written on subjects from ancient history. By 1580, English dramaturgy was already characterized by a particular variety of genres and produced a number of brilliant playwrights. The plays of John Lily, filled with lush rhetoric, were addressed to the court audience, but in them, like Robert Green, one can notice a clearly expressed patriotic orientation and proximity to folk tales ( A comedy about George Green, a Weckfield field watchman). Since Spanish tragedy Thomas Kidd came into use "bloody drama". In general, dramaturgy was characterized by a variety of genres (tragedy, comedy, historical play, even pastoral) and playwrights were unusually prolific (due to the needs of the stage and the contingent of the audience). The specificity of English dramaturgy was also the continued mixing of high and low genres in one play, which provided the effect of contrast and subsequently deeply resented the theorists of classicism.

The peculiarity of this theater was that, relying on the national past, the ancient heritage and the achievements of the Renaissance culture, he was able, in a language accessible to the widest masses, using grandiose images, to raise the eternal questions of human existence, the meaning of his life, purpose, time and eternity, the relationship individual and society.

The playwrights, who had actors at hand (they usually worked with the troupe and wrote based on its capabilities), not only brought titanic characters to the stage, but also raised the question of the moral responsibility of the individual to society, of what the unlimited freedom of the extraordinary brings with it. a person for other, albeit not so great, people, what is the fate of the people in "fateful minutes." At the turn of the 16th-17th centuries. the theater was able to generalize all the experience accumulated by the Renaissance, and express it, deepening the ideas put forward earlier.

These doubts and contradictions were expressed in the work of the first great tragic playwright Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593). Marlo created the image of Faust, who sought to rebuild the world. Through the mouths of his other character, the cruel conqueror, the illiterate shepherd Tamerlane, the playwright sets out his understanding of the destiny of man, “an anxious and indomitable spirit” draws him to action and knowledge. The heroes of Marlowe for the first time showed the reverse side of the ideal of the Renaissance man - they are extraordinary and oppose society, violating not only its laws, but also the generally accepted norms of humanity. Because of their immoralism, they aroused both horror and admiration. With the work of Marlo, a new stage in the development of the dramaturgy of the English Renaissance begins, which turned out to be associated with an analysis of internal spiritual contradictions, with the image of a grandiose personality, inevitably drawn to death.

The pinnacle of the development of the Renaissance (and European theater) is the work of William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The exact number of his plays and the time of their creation is unknown, based on the analysis of the first posthumous edition, the researchers identified 37 plays (the so-called canon) and suggested dates. IN Lately some scholars are inclined to add to him individual works traditionally attributed to Shakespeare, and the dispute about the authorship of the entire heritage has resumed again. Creativity is divided into three periods. The first period (1590–1600) is dominated by comedies; most of them are lyrical, some are everyday, others include elements of a romantic fairy tale or pastoral. All of them expressed the ideals of the Renaissance, are imbued with the joy of life, glorify human feelings and active human activity, are deeply humanistic ( A dream in a summer night. Much ado about nothing, twelfth Night, Merry Wives of Windsor). His first tragedies based on subjects from ancient history belong to the same period ( Julius Caesar), as well as a cycle of historical plays dedicated to national history (chronicles), in which the historical and political concept of the playwright was expressed ( Richard II, Henry IV,Henry V, Richard III and etc.). It was in them that he first considered the problem of power, ruler, tyranny, the role of the people in the political life of the country and the legitimacy of power. At the turn of the first and second periods, the most poetic of Shakespeare's tragedies was created - a true hymn to love, dying due to the inertia of society ( Romeo and Juliet). The second period (1601–1602) was characterized by a crisis in the humanistic worldview and the playwright's turn to the genre of tragedy. Tragedies had the deepest philosophical content. In them, the Renaissance hero opposes not only the hostile world, but also the new time, the Renaissance harmony of the individual and society is destroyed. It is in tragedy Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Roman tragedies Anthony and Cleopatra And Coriolanus) Shakespeare showed the most complex psychological struggle and the dialectic of passions in the souls of his characters, revealed the depth of the conflict. The third period (1608–1612) was characterized by the appearance of romantic, almost fairy tale plays ( Cymbeline, winter fairy tale, especially Storm), imbued with nostalgia for the ideals of the Renaissance, Shakespeare remained faithful to the ideals of the Renaissance in them - a harmoniously developed person is “the crown of all things”, but he is given to decide the fate of the world only outside the familiar world, in a fairy tale (utopia, pastoral).

Shakespeare in his work so deeply revealed the contradictions of human nature and comprehended the fate of the individual and society that not only deepened the ideas of Renaissance humanism, but his understanding of man, reflections and experiences were perceived by later eras, and plays entered the golden fund of eternal works, and without them and to this day, the activity of a drama theater is unthinkable.

The name of Shakespeare is associated with the concept of "tragic humanism": awareness of the tragedy of the individual, forced to fight with society. Almost always this struggle is doomed, but necessary and inevitable. Shakespeare fully shared the ideals of the Renaissance, but the central conflict of his plays was determined by the discrepancy between the Renaissance ideal of man and reality. Society is hostile to this ideal.

A critical attitude towards an imperfect society is connected with its attitude towards time, a powerful force, which, however, does not correspond to the principles of the world order, according to the figurative expression of the playwright: "Time has dislocated the joint." This dooms most of Shakespeare's characters to inevitable death, and even in comedies with a happy ending, the characters go through severe trials. Most of his heroes strive to comprehend not only themselves, but also their time, and the place of man in the world and eternity, and the confrontation between good and evil. Reflection, understanding by them of their destiny, fate, mistakes leads them to enlightenment.

The greatness of Shakespeare lies in the fact that he was able to raise questions that concern people at all times, make the ideals of the Renaissance close to posterity and create unusually complex, versatile, psychologically deep images. Shakespeare inherited the ideal of man from the Renaissance, but a note of bitterness already anticipates another time. Shakespeare's successors ("the younger Elizabethans") already expressed not only the crisis of Renaissance ideals, but also the tragic perception of the world, characteristic of Mannerism and Baroque.

Spanish literature

Spanish literature was predominantly associated with the 16th century; by the end of it, crisis phenomena were noticeable in it, in many respects anticipating the appearance of the baroque (). From the beginning of the 16th century leading Renaissance genres are formed in literature. The specifics of the situation in the country determined an unusually early awareness of the inconsistency of the Renaissance ideals with the surrounding reality, which left an imprint on the nature of literature.

Spanish literature at the same time developed on a national basis. It is characteristic that the genre of the chivalric novel is developing in it, which reflects new ideas about the world and man: the joy of mastering the world, secular character, a new ideal of man and the norms of his behavior in society. The best of many of this "mass literature" was the famous Amadis of Gaul Garcia Montalvo (1508), which was completed by various authors and eventually grew to 12 books (instead of 4), withstood more than 300 editions and gained pan-European popularity. Roman-drama also belongs to the Spanish prose of the Renaissance. Celestina F. De Rojas, where the bright love of the main characters is opposed by the surrounding vicious and base world of the city. Elements of the picaresque novel were already formed in the chivalric romance; the first complete example of this genre appears in the middle of the 16th century. Anonymous romance Life of Lazarillo of Tormez was a novel in short stories, in which all plot threads are resolved, on the contrary, in comparison with morality. Realism, even naturalism of the image, sharp satire determined the success of the novel.

The pinnacle of Spanish Renaissance literature is considered to be the creative heritage of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547–1616). Complicated fate the author, his vast experience (up to debt prison and Algerian captivity) are also reflected in his work. Cervantes remained faithful to the ideals of the Renaissance, which was clearly manifested in his early works. The first of these was a pastoral novel Galatea in which the heroes were endowed with nobility and moral stamina. Its characters Instructive short stories endowed with the same properties in any test. His tragedy is fanned with heroic and patriotic pathos Numancia. The writer's humanistic worldview was most fully embodied in his famous novel Don Quixote of La Mancha. The story of a poor knight who had read chivalric novels and embarked on a journey was conceived as a mockery of obsolete ideals. The first readers perceived the novel in this way. But in the novel there is also high humanity, genuine humanism: the Knight of the Sad Image, remained true to humanistic ideals and became a symbol of humanity in a world of cruelty and deceit.

The noble chivalry worshiped by the great hero of Cervantes implied in its essence the main idea of ​​humanism - a genuine and selfless service to the common good of mankind and justice, a person is obliged to "protect the disadvantaged and oppressed by the powerful of this world." The hero literally rushes into battle in defense of high ideals and believes in the triumph of virtue. In fact, Cervantes paints the image of the ideal Renaissance man, but endows him with madness. The madness of Don Quixote only emphasizes the absurdity of a cynical and pragmatic society. Peculiarity Don Quixote how the novel consisted of ambiguity, the possibility different perceptions and interpretation of characters and situations, it is full of contradictions. And each subsequent era perceived it in a different perspective.

The poetry of the Spanish Renaissance reflected the desire for sophistication and emphasized exaltation, while it could also contain the most subtle analysis of human experiences, a description of the beauty of nature, and the glorification of love for God.

The Spanish dramaturgy of the Renaissance was associated with the process of secularization of the theatre. The beginning of the heyday of the Spanish theater coincides with the Renaissance, and in many respects this heyday was due to the work of Lope de Vega Carpio (1562-1635). Coming from an urban environment, Lope de Vega lived an adventurous life and, in fact, created a new Spanish theater. Lope probably set a record for the size of his artistic heritage: more than 2,000 plays were attributed to him, of which 468 have come down to us, including 426 comedies. It was he who determined the nature of the Spanish drama, combining elements of the comic and the tragic in the plays. Lope abandoned the principle of the unity of place and time, retaining the unity of action. Lope de Vega, like Cervantes, retains faith in the triumph of the humanistic ideal of a perfect and free individual. Only high personal qualities and talents of a person have value. The rest is unimportant for a humanist, including class affiliation. This line is carried out in his best comedies of the "cloak and sword" genre ( Dog in the manger, Dance teacher, Girl with a jug). In his other comedies, the playwright reveals the power of human feelings that overcome all obstacles.

In a number of plays, the playwright poses serious moral and even political problems ( Star of Seville, Silly to others, smart to yourself, Punishment without revenge), they often intensify the tragic beginning, in many respects anticipate the development of the theater of the Baroque era.

The play occupies a special place in his work. Sheep source, where Lope de Vega brought the peasants to the stage, depicted a peasant uprising against the feudal lord and showed the peasants morally steadfast, courageous, heroic, surpassing not only their masters, but also the king and queen in their strength of mind. Thanks to their brilliant plot and linguistic merits, the depth of interpretation of the characters of his plays, they entered the golden fund of European literature.

The literature of the Renaissance fully expressed all the features of this culture, its secular character, aspiration for a person and his feelings, interest in the earthly world. Her works (along with the art of the Renaissance) acquire special significance, reaching the “status of the highest artistic perfection” (M. Andreev). Renaissance literature became fully classical, expressed the cultural values ​​of the Renaissance, created new genres and determined the paths for its further development.

Irina Elfond

Literature:

Empson W. Essays on Renaissance literature. Cambridge, 1995
Foreign Literature of the Renaissance, Baroque, Classicism. M., 1998
Lewis C.S. Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature. Cambridge, 1998
Shaitanov I.O. History of foreign literature, vol. 1. M., 2001. vol. 2, 2002



XIV-XV century. In the countries of Europe, a new, turbulent era begins - the Renaissance (Renaissance - from the French Renaissanse). The beginning of the era is associated with the liberation of man from feudal serfdom, the development of sciences, arts and crafts.

The Renaissance began in Italy and continued its development in the countries of northern Europe: France, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal. The late Renaissance dates from the middle of the 16th to the 90s of the 16th century.

The influence of the church on the life of society has weakened, interest in antiquity is reviving with its attention to the personality of a person, his freedom and development opportunities. The invention of printing contributed to the spread of literacy among the population, the growth of education, the development of sciences, arts, including fiction. The bourgeoisie was not satisfied with the religious worldview that prevailed in the Middle Ages, but created a new, secular science based on the study of the nature and heritage of ancient writers. Thus began the "revival" of ancient (ancient Greek and Roman) science and philosophy. Scientists began to search for and study ancient literary monuments stored in libraries.

There were writers and artists who dared to oppose the church. They were convinced that the greatest value on earth is a person, and all his interests should be focused on earthly life, on how to live it fully, happily and meaningfully. Such people, who dedicated their art to man, began to be called humanists.

Renaissance literature is characterized by humanistic ideals. This era is associated with the emergence of new genres and with the formation of early realism, which is called so, "Renaissance realism" (or Renaissance), in contrast to the later stages, enlightenment, critical, socialist. The works of the Renaissance give us an answer to the question of the complexity and importance of the assertion of the human personality, its creative and active principle.

Renaissance literature is characterized by various genres. But certain literary forms prevailed. Giovanni Boccaccio becomes the legislator of a new genre - the short story, which is called the Renaissance short story. This genre was born of a feeling of surprise, characteristic of the Renaissance, before the inexhaustibility of the world and the unpredictability of man and his actions.

In poetry, it becomes the most characteristic form of a sonnet (a stanza of 14 lines with a certain rhyme). Dramaturgy is developing a lot. The most prominent playwrights of the Renaissance are Lope de Vega in Spain and Shakespeare in England.

Journalism and philosophical prose are widespread. In Italy, Giordano Bruno denounces the church in his works, creates his own new philosophical concepts. In England, Thomas More expresses the ideas of utopian communism in his book Utopia. Widely known are such authors as Michel de Montaigne ("Experiments") and Erasmus of Rotterdam ("Praise of Stupidity").

Among the writers of that time are also crowned persons. Poems are written by Duke Lorenzo de Medici, and Marguerite of Navarre, sister of King Francis I of France, is known as the author of the Heptameron collection.

In the fine arts of the Renaissance, man appeared as the most beautiful creation of nature, strong and perfect, angry and gentle, thoughtful and cheerful.

The world of Renaissance man is most vividly represented in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican, painted by Michelangelo. Biblical stories form the vault of the chapel. Their main motive is the creation of the world and man. These frescoes are full of grandeur and tenderness. On the altar wall is the Last Judgment fresco, which was created in 1537-1541. Here, Michelangelo sees in man not the "crown of creation", but Christ is presented as angry and punishing. The ceiling and altar wall of the Sistine Chapel represent a clash of possibility and reality, the sublimity of the idea and the tragedy of the implementation. "The Last Judgment" is considered a work that completed the Renaissance in art.

Material from the Uncyclopedia

The Renaissance, or the Renaissance (from the French renaître - to be reborn), is one of the brightest eras in the development of European culture, spanning almost three centuries: from the middle of the 14th century. until the first decades of the 17th century. It was an era of major changes in the history of the peoples of Europe. Under the conditions of a high level of urban civilization, the process of the emergence of capitalist relations and the crisis of feudalism began, nations were formed and large national states were created, new form political system - an absolute monarchy (see. State), new social groups were formed - the bourgeoisie and wage-working people. The spiritual world of man also changed. Great geographical discoveries expanded the horizons of contemporaries. This was facilitated by the great invention of Johannes Gutenberg - printing. In this complex, transitional era, a new type of culture arose, putting man and the world around him at the center of his interests. The new, Renaissance culture widely relied on the heritage of antiquity, comprehended differently than in the Middle Ages, and in many respects rediscovered (hence the concept of "Renaissance"), but it also drew from the best achievements of medieval culture, especially secular - knightly, urban , folk. The man of the Renaissance was seized with a thirst for self-affirmation, great achievements, actively involved in public life, rediscovered the world of nature, strove for its deep comprehension, admired its beauty. The culture of the Renaissance is characterized by a secular perception and understanding of the world, the assertion of the value of earthly existence, the greatness of reason and creativity human dignity of the individual. Humanism (from lat. humanus - human) became the ideological basis of the culture of the Renaissance.

Giovanni Boccaccio is one of the first representatives of the humanistic literature of the Renaissance.

Palazzo Pitti. Florence. 1440-1570

Masaccio. Tax collection. Scene from the life of St. Petra Fresco of the Brancacci Chapel. Florence. 1426-1427

Michelangelo Buonarroti. Moses. 1513-1516

Rafael Santi. Sistine Madonna. 1515-1519 Canvas, oil. Art Gallery. Dresden.

Leonardo da Vinci. Madonna Litta. Late 1470s - early 1490s Wood, oil. State Hermitage. Saint Petersburg.

Leonardo da Vinci. Self-portrait. OK. 1510-1513

Albrecht Durer. Self-portrait. 1498

Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Snow hunters. 1565 Oil on wood. Museum of Art History. Vein.

Humanists opposed the dictatorship of the Catholic Church in the spiritual life of society. They criticized the method of scholastic science based on formal logic (dialectic), rejected its dogmatism and belief in authorities, thus clearing the way for the free development of scientific thought. Humanists called for the study of ancient culture, which the church denied as pagan, perceiving from it only that which did not contradict Christian doctrine. However, the restoration of the ancient heritage (humanists searched for manuscripts of ancient authors, cleared texts from later accretions and copyist errors) was not an end in itself for them, but served as the basis for the decision actual problems modernity, to build a new culture. The range of humanitarian knowledge, within which the humanistic worldview developed, included ethics, history, pedagogy, poetics, and rhetoric. Humanists have made a valuable contribution to the development of all these sciences. Their search for a new scientific method, criticism of scholasticism, translations of scientific works of ancient authors contributed to the rise of natural philosophy and natural science in the 16th - early 17th centuries.

The formation of the Renaissance culture in different countries was not simultaneous and proceeded at different rates in different areas of culture itself. First of all, it took shape in Italy with its numerous cities that have reached a high level of civilization and political independence, with ancient traditions that are stronger than in other European countries. Already in the 2nd half of the XIV century. in Italy there have been significant changes in literature and humanitarian knowledge - philology, ethics, rhetoric, historiography, pedagogy. Then the arena of the rapid development of the Renaissance became art and architecture, later a new culture embraced the sphere of philosophy, natural science, music, theater. For more than a century, Italy remained the only country of Renaissance culture; by the end of the 15th century. The revival began to gain strength relatively quickly in Germany, the Netherlands, France, in the 16th century. - in England, Spain, countries of Central Europe. Second half of the 16th century became a time not only for the high achievements of the European Renaissance, but also for the manifestations of the crisis of a new culture caused by the counteroffensive of reactionary forces and the internal contradictions of the development of the Renaissance itself.

The origin of Renaissance literature in the 2nd half of the XIV century. associated with the names of Francesco Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio. They affirmed the humanistic ideas of the dignity of the individual, linking it not with generosity, but with the valiant deeds of a person, his freedom and the right to enjoy the joys of earthly life. Petrarch's "Book of Songs" reflected the subtlest shades of his love for Laura. In the dialogue "My Secret", a number of treatises, he developed ideas about the need to change the structure of knowledge - to put a person at the center of the problem, criticized the scholastics for their formal-logical method of cognition, called for the study of ancient authors (Petrarch especially appreciated Cicero, Virgil, Seneca), highly raised the importance of poetry in man's knowledge of the meaning of his earthly existence. These thoughts were shared by his friend Boccaccio, the author of the book of short stories "The Decameron", a number of poetic and scientific works. In the "Decameron" the influence of folk-urban literature of the Middle Ages is traced. Here, humanistic ideas found expression in artistic form - the denial of ascetic morality, the justification of a person's right to the full manifestation of his feelings, all natural needs, the idea of ​​nobility as a product of valiant deeds and high morality, and not the nobility of the family. The theme of nobility, the solution of which reflected the anti-estate ideas of the advanced part of the burghers and the people, will become characteristic of many humanists. The humanists of the 15th century made a great contribution to the further development of literature in Italian and Latin. - writers and philologists, historians, philosophers, poets, statesmen and orators.

In Italian humanism, there were directions that approached the solution of ethical problems in different ways, and above all, the question of the paths of a person to happiness. So, in civil humanism - the direction that developed in Florence in the first half of the 15th century. (its most prominent representatives are Leonardo Bruni and Matteo Palmieri) - ethics was based on the principle of serving the common good. Humanists argued the need to educate a citizen, a patriot who puts the interests of society and the state above personal ones. They affirmed the moral ideal of an active civil life as opposed to the ecclesiastical ideal of monastic seclusion. They attached particular value to such virtues as justice, generosity, prudence, courage, courtesy, modesty. A person can discover and develop these virtues only in active social communication, and not in flight from worldly life. The humanists of this trend considered the best form of government to be a republic, where, in conditions of freedom, all human abilities can be most fully manifested.

Another direction in the humanism of the XV century. represented the work of the writer, architect, art theorist Leon Battista Alberti. Alberti believed that the law of harmony reigns in the world, man is also subject to it. He must strive for knowledge, for understanding the world around him and himself. People must build earthly life on reasonable grounds, on the basis of acquired knowledge, turning it to their advantage, striving for the harmony of feelings and reason, the individual and society, man and nature. Knowledge and obligatory work for all members of society - this, according to Alberti, is the way to a happy life.

Lorenzo Valla put forward a different ethical theory. He identified happiness with pleasure: a person should enjoy all the joys of earthly existence. Asceticism is contrary to human nature itself, feelings and reason are equal, their harmony should be sought. From these positions, Valla made a strong criticism of monasticism in the dialogue "On the monastic vow."

At the end of the XV - the end of the XVI century. the direction associated with the activities of the Platonic Academy in Florence became widespread. The leading humanist philosophers of this trend - Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, in their works, based on the philosophy of Plato and the Neoplatonists, exalted the human mind. For them, the heroization of the individual has become characteristic. Ficino considered man to be the center of the world, a link (this connection is realized in knowledge) of a perfectly organized cosmos. Pico saw in man the only being in the world endowed with the ability to form himself, relying on knowledge - on ethics and the sciences of nature. In the “Speech on the Dignity of Man”, Pico defended the right to free thought, believed that philosophy, devoid of any dogmatism, should become the lot of everyone, and not a handful of the elect. The Italian Neoplatonists approached a number of theological problems from new, humanistic positions. The intrusion of humanism into the realm of theology is one of important features European Renaissance in the 16th century

The 16th century was marked by a new upsurge in Renaissance literature in Italy: Ludovico Ariosto became famous for his poem Furious Roland, where reality and fantasy are intertwined, the glorification of earthly joys and sometimes sad, sometimes ironic understanding of Italian life; Baldassare Castiglione created a book about the ideal man of his era ("The Courtier"). This is the time of creativity of the outstanding poet Pietro Bembo and the author of satirical pamphlets Pietro Aretino; at the end of the 16th century. Torquato Tasso’s grandiose heroic poem “Jerusalem Liberated” was written, which reflected not only the conquests of secular Renaissance culture, but also the beginning crisis of the humanistic worldview, associated with the strengthening of religiosity in the conditions of the counter-reformation, with the loss of faith in the omnipotence of the individual.

Brilliant success was achieved by the art of the Italian Renaissance, which was initiated by Masaccio in painting, Donatello in sculpture, Brunelleschi in architecture, who worked in Florence in the first half of the 15th century. Their work is marked by a bright talent, a new understanding of man, his place in nature and society. In the 2nd half of the XV century. V Italian painting along with the Florentine school, a number of others developed - Umbrian, North Italian, Venetian. Each of them had its own characteristics, they were also characteristic of the work of the largest masters - Piero della Francesca, Andrea Mantegna, Sandro Botticelli and others. All of them revealed the specifics of Renaissance art in different ways: the desire for lifelike images based on the principle of “imitation of nature”, a wide appeal to the motifs of ancient mythology and the secular interpretation of traditional religious plots, an interest in linear and airy perspective, in the plastic expressiveness of images, in harmony of proportions. etc. A common genre of painting, graphics, medal art, and sculpture was the portrait, which was directly related to the affirmation of the humanistic ideal of man. The heroized ideal of the perfect man was embodied with particular fullness in the Italian art of the High Renaissance in the first decades of the 16th century. This era brought forward the brightest, multifaceted talents - Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo (see Art). There was a type of universal artist who combined in his work a painter, sculptor, architect, poet and scientist. Artists of this era worked in close contact with the humanists and showed great interest in the natural sciences, primarily anatomy, optics, and mathematics, trying to use their achievements in their work. In the XVI century. Venetian art experienced a special upsurge. Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto created beautiful canvases, notable for the richness of color and realism of images of a person and the world around him. The 16th century is the time of the active assertion of the Renaissance style in architecture, especially for secular purposes, which was characterized by a close connection with the traditions of ancient architecture (order architecture). A new type of building was formed - a city palace (palazzo) and a country residence (villa) - majestic, but also proportionate to a person, where the solemn simplicity of the facade is combined with spacious, richly decorated interiors. A huge contribution to the architecture of the Renaissance was made by Leon Battista Alberti, Giuliano da Sangallo, Bramante, Palladio. Many architects created designs for an ideal city based on new principles of urban planning and architecture that responded to the human need for a healthy, well-equipped and beautiful living space. Not only individual buildings were rebuilt, but entire old medieval cities: Rome, Florence, Ferrara, Venice, Mantua, Rimini.

Lucas Cranach the Elder. Female portrait.

Hans Holbein the Younger. Portrait of the Dutch humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam. 1523

Titian Vecellio. Saint Sebastian. 1570 Oil on canvas. State Hermitage. Saint Petersburg.

Illustration by Mr. Dore for the novel by F. Rabelais "Gargantua and Pantagruel".

Michel Montaigne is a French philosopher and writer.

In the political and historical thought of the Italian Renaissance, the problem of a perfect society and state became one of the central ones. In the works of Bruni and especially Machiavelli on the history of Florence, built on the study of documentary material, in the works of Sabellico and Contarini on the history of Venice, the merits of the republican structure of these city-states were revealed, and the historians of Milan and Naples, on the contrary, emphasized the positive centralizing role of the monarchy. Machiavelli and Guicciardini explained all the troubles of Italy, which became in the first decades of the 16th century. the arena of foreign invasions, its political decentralization and called on the Italians for national consolidation. A common feature of Renaissance historiography was the desire to see in the people themselves the creators of their history, to deeply analyze the experience of the past and use it in political practice. Widespread in the XVI - early XVII century. received a social utopia. In the teachings of the utopians Doni, Albergati, Zuccolo, the ideal society was associated with the partial elimination of private property, the equality of citizens (but not all people), the universal obligation of labor, and the harmonious development of the individual. The most consistent expression of the idea of ​​socialization of property and equalization was found in the "City of the Sun" by Campanella.

New approaches to solving the traditional problem of the relationship between nature and God were put forward by natural philosophers Bernardino Telesio, Francesco Patrici, Giordano Bruno. In their writings, the dogma about God the Creator, who directs the development of the universe, gave way to pantheism: God is not opposed to nature, but, as it were, merges with it; nature is seen as existing forever and developing according to its own laws. The ideas of the Renaissance natural philosophers met with sharp resistance from the Catholic Church. For his ideas about the eternity and infinity of the Universe, consisting of a huge number of worlds, for sharp criticism of the church, condoning ignorance and obscurantism, Bruno was condemned as a heretic and put on fire in 1600.

The Italian Renaissance had a huge impact on the development of Renaissance culture in other European countries. This was facilitated in no small measure by the printing press. The major centers of publishing were in the XVI century. Venice, where at the beginning of the century the printing house of Alda Manutius became an important center of cultural life; Basel, where the publishing houses of Johann Froben and Johann Amerbach were equally important; Lyon with its famous printing of the Etiennes, as well as Paris, Rome, Louvain, London, Seville. Typography became a powerful factor in the development of Renaissance culture in many European countries, opened the way to active interaction in the process of building a new culture of humanists, scientists, and artists.

The largest figure of the Northern Renaissance was Erasmus of Rotterdam, whose name is associated with the direction of "Christian humanism". He had like-minded people and allies in many European countries (J. Colet and Thomas More in England, G. Bude and Lefevre d'Etaple in France, I. Reuchlin in Germany). Erasmus understood the tasks of the new culture broadly. In his opinion, this is not only the resurrection of the ancient pagan heritage, but also the restoration of the early Christian teaching. He did not see fundamental differences between them in terms of the truth to which a person should strive. Like the Italian humanists, he associated the improvement of man with education, creative activity, revealing all the abilities inherent in it. His humanistic pedagogy received artistic expression in "Conversations Easily", and his sharply satirical work "Praise of Stupidity" was directed against ignorance, dogmatism, and feudal prejudices. Erasmus saw the way to the happiness of people in peaceful life and the establishment of a humanistic culture based on all the values ​​of the historical experience of mankind.

In Germany, the Renaissance culture experienced a rapid rise at the end of the 15th century. - 1st third of the XVI century. One of its features was the flowering of satirical literature, which began with Sebastian Brant's The Ship of Fools, which sharply criticized the mores of the time; the author led readers to the conclusion about the need for reforms in public life. The satirical line in German literature was continued by the "Letters of Dark People" - an anonymously published collective work of humanists, chief among whom was Ulrich von Hutten - where ministers of the church were subjected to devastating criticism. Hutten was the author of many pamphlets, dialogues, letters directed against the papacy, the dominance of the church in Germany, the fragmentation of the country; his work contributed to the awakening of the national self-consciousness of the German people.

The greatest artists of the Renaissance in Germany were A. Durer, an outstanding painter and unsurpassed engraver, M. Nithardt (Grunewald) with his deeply dramatic images, the portrait painter Hans Holbein the Younger, and Lucas Cranach the Elder, who closely connected his art with the Reformation.

In France, the Renaissance culture took shape and flourished in the 16th century. This was facilitated, in particular, by the Italian wars of 1494-1559. (they were fought between the kings of France, Spain and the German emperor for the mastery of Italian territories), which revealed to the French the wealth of the Renaissance culture of Italy. At the same time, a feature of the French Renaissance was an interest in the traditions folk culture, creatively mastered by humanists along with the ancient heritage. The poetry of K. Maro, the works of the humanist-philologists E. Dole and B. Deperrier, who were members of the circle of Margaret of Navarre (sister of King Francis I), are imbued with folk motives and cheerful freethinking. These trends are very clearly manifested in the satirical novel of the outstanding Renaissance writer Francois Rabelais "Gargantua and Pantagruel", where plots drawn from ancient folk tales about merry giants are combined with ridicule of the vices and ignorance of contemporaries, with a presentation of the humanistic program of upbringing and education in the spirit of the new culture. The rise of national French poetry is associated with the activities of the Pleiades - a circle of poets led by Ronsard and Du Bellay. During the period of civil (Huguenot) wars (see Wars of Religion in France), journalism was widely developed, expressing differences in political position opposing forces in society. The major political thinkers were F. Othman and Duplessis Mornet, who opposed tyranny, and J. Bodin, who advocated strengthening a single national state headed by an absolute monarch. The ideas of humanism found deep reflection in Montaigne's "Experiences". Montaigne, Rabelais, Bonaventure Deperier were prominent representatives secular free-thinking, which rejected the religious foundations of the worldview. They condemned scholasticism, the medieval system of upbringing and education, dogmatism, and religious fanaticism. Main principle Montaigne's ethics are a free manifestation of human individuality, the liberation of the mind from submission to faith, the full value of emotional life. Happiness he connected with the realization of the internal possibilities of the individual, which should be served by secular upbringing and education based on free thought. In the art of the French Renaissance, the portrait genre came to the fore, the outstanding masters of which were J. Fouquet, F. Clouet, P. and E. Dumoustier. J. Goujon became famous in sculpture.

In the culture of the Netherlands of the Renaissance, rhetorical societies were an original phenomenon, uniting people from different strata, including artisans and peasants. At the meetings of the societies, debates were held on political and moral-religious topics, performances were staged in folk traditions, there was a refined work on the word; humanists took an active part in the activities of societies. Folk features were also characteristic of Dutch art. The largest painter Pieter Brueghel, nicknamed "Peasant", in his paintings of peasant life and landscapes with particular completeness expressed the feeling of the unity of nature and man.

). It reached a high rise in the 16th century. the art of the theater, democratic in its orientation. Everyday comedies, historical chronicles, heroic dramas were staged in numerous public and private theaters. The plays of K. Marlowe, in which majestic heroes defy medieval morality, of B. Johnson, in which a gallery of tragicomic characters emerge, prepared the appearance of the greatest playwright of the Renaissance, William Shakespeare. A perfect master of different genres - comedies, tragedies, historical chronicles, Shakespeare created unique images of strong people, personalities who vividly embodied the features of a Renaissance man, cheerful, passionate, endowed with mind and energy, but sometimes contradictory in his moral deeds. Shakespeare's work exposed the deepening gap between the humanistic idealization of man and the real world, which was deepening in the era of the Late Renaissance. The English scientist Francis Bacon enriched Renaissance philosophy with new approaches to understanding the world. He contrasted observation and experiment with the scholastic method as a reliable tool of scientific knowledge. Bacon saw the way to building a perfect society in the development of science, especially physics.

In Spain, Renaissance culture experienced a "golden age" in the second half of the 16th century. the first decades of the 17th century. Her highest achievements are associated with the creation of a new Spanish literature and the national folk theater, as well as with the work of the outstanding painter El Greco. The formation of a new Spanish literature, which grew up on the traditions of chivalric and picaresque novels, found a brilliant conclusion in brilliant novel Miguel de Cervantes "The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha". The images of the knight Don Quixote and the peasant Sancho Panza reveal the main humanistic idea of ​​the novel: the greatness of man in his courageous fight against evil in the name of justice. Cervantes' novel is both a kind of parody of the chivalric romance that is fading into the past, and the widest canvas folk life Spain in the 16th century Cervantes was the author of a number of plays that made a great contribution to the creation of the national theater. To an even greater extent, the rapid development of the Spanish Renaissance theater is associated with the work of the extremely prolific playwright and poet Lope de Vega, the author of lyric-heroic comedies of the cloak and sword, imbued with the folk spirit.

Andrei Rublev. Trinity. 1st quarter of the 15th century

At the end of the XV-XVI centuries. Renaissance culture spread in Hungary, where royal patronage played an important role in the flourishing of humanism; in the Czech Republic, where new trends contributed to the formation of national consciousness; in Poland, which became one of the centers of humanistic freethinking. The influence of the Renaissance also affected the culture of the Dubrovnik Republic, Lithuania, and Belarus. Separate tendencies of a pre-Renaissance nature also appeared in Russian culture of the 15th century. They were associated with a growing interest in the human personality and its psychology. In art, this is primarily the work of Andrei Rublev and the artists of his circle, in literature - “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”, which tells about the love of the Murom prince and the peasant girl Fevronia, and the writings of Epiphanius the Wise with his masterful “weaving of words”. In the XVI century. Renaissance elements appeared in Russian political journalism (Ivan Peresvetov and others).

In the XVI - the first decades of the XVII century. Significant shifts have taken place in the development of science. The beginning of a new astronomy was laid by the heliocentric theory of the Polish scientist N. Copernicus, which made a revolution in the ideas about the Universe. It received further substantiation in the works of the German astronomer I. Kepler, as well as the Italian scientist G. Galileo. The astronomer and physicist Galileo constructed a spyglass, using it to discover the mountains on the Moon, the phases of Venus, the satellites of Jupiter, etc. The discoveries of Galileo, which confirmed the teachings of Copernicus about the rotation of the Earth around the Sun, gave impetus to the more rapid spread of the heliocentric theory, which the church recognized as heretical; she persecuted her supporters (for example, the fate of D. Bruno, who was burned at the stake) and banned the writings of Galileo. Many new things have appeared in the field of physics, mechanics, and mathematics. Stephen formulated the theorems of hydrostatics; Tartaglia successfully studied the theory of ballistics; Cardano discovered the solution of algebraic equations of the third degree. G. Kremer (Mercator) created more advanced geographical maps. Oceanography emerged. In botany, E. Kord and L. Fuchs systematized a wide range of knowledge. K. Gesner enriched knowledge in the field of zoology with his History of Animals. Knowledge of anatomy was improved, which was facilitated by the work of Vesalius “On the structure of the human body”. M. Servetus suggested the presence of a pulmonary circulation. The outstanding physician Paracelsus brought medicine and chemistry closer together, made important discoveries in pharmacology. Mr. Agricola systematized knowledge in the field of mining and metallurgy. Leonardo da Vinci put forward a number of engineering projects that were far ahead of his contemporary technical thought and anticipated some later discoveries (for example, an aircraft).