what is the definition of a Renaissance?

Answer 1

Renaissance is: the activity, spirit, or time of the great revival of art, literature, and learning in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the 17th century, marking the transition from the medieval to the modern world.

Answer 2

the height of a period of novelty
the richest,most advanced moment in a civilization
with Art,science,philosophy etc ,
History has proved that this was always when the power of a single religion was at it s lowest,and always went hand in hand with a drug culture,

Rome had Renaissance periods so did Greece ,the Netherlands in the 1700dreds,Atlantis,the central American civilizations ,Babylon,the cities of Ur and Mu,Semuria,China and India,Kublai Khan time and many others

the opposite were periods of Habit,these were when religion was dominant,education restricted ,
like the Middle or Dark ages
the United States is not having a Renaissance if that is what you were hoping

Answer 3

Dictionary definition and pronunciation: renaissance - Yahoo! Education
... pronunciations, and spellings for renaissance in the free online ... often Renaissance. A revival of intellectual or artistic achievement and vigor: the Celtic ...education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/renaissance

Answer 4

A Renaissance is a cultural rebirth.

Answer 5

In the traditional view, the Renaissance was understood as a historical age in Europe that followed the Middle Ages and preceded the Reformation, spanning roughly the 14th through the 16th century.

The Italian Renaissance of the 15th century represented a reconnection of the west with classical antiquity, the absorption of knowledge (particularly mathematics), a focus on the importance of living well in the present (Renaissance humanism), and an explosion of the dissemination of knowledge brought on by the advent of printing. In addition, the creation of new techniques in art, poetry, and architecture led in turn to a radical change in the style and substance of the arts and letters. The Italian Renaissance was often labeled as the beginning of the Modern Age, or the Early Modern.

Present day historians are skeptical about excessive claims for the modernity of the period and the common assumption that previous centuries were in some way "darker", viewing the Renaissance as a cultural program or movement based on humanism, arts, and the classics rather than an entire historical age.


The term Renaissance (rebirth, Rinascimento in Italian), as used to indicate the flourishing of artistic and scientific activities beginning in Italy in the mid 1300s, first appears in the Vite, published in 1550 by Italian artist Giorgio Vasari. It is the French word for the Italian rinascita, used by French historian Jules Michelet, and expanded upon by Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt (both in the 1860s). Rebirth refers to both a rediscovery of ancient classical texts and learning, and to the widespread revitalization of European culture resulting from the application of this classical knowledge in the arts and sciences. Thus Renaissance can refer to this rebirth of classical learning and knowledge or to the ensuing rebirth of European culture.

Giorgio Vasari was the first to coin the term Renaissance, in his book Vite (1550), though an awareness of the ongoing rebirth in the arts had been in the air from the time of Alberti. Since the publishing of Vite, historians have differed in their interpretations of the meaning of Renaissance. Many historians now view the Renaissance as more of an intellectual and ideological change than a substantive one. Marxist historians, for example, hold the view that the changes in art, literature, and philosophy affected only a tiny minority of the very wealthy and powerful, leaving the lives of the great mass of the European population unchanged.

Many historians now point out that most of the negative social factors popularly associated with the "medieval" period - poverty, ignorance, warfare, religious and political persecution, and so forth - seem to have actually worsened in this era which saw the rise of Machiavelli, the Wars of Religion, the corrupt Borgia Popes, and the intensified witch-hunts of the 16th century. Many people who lived during the Renaissance did not view it as the "golden age" imagined by certain 19th century authors, but were concerned by these social maladies. Significantly, though, the artists, writers, and patrons involved in the cultural movements in question believed they were living in a new era that was a clean break from the Middle Ages.

Johan Huizinga (1872–1945) acknowledged the existence of the Renaissance but questioned whether it was a positive change. In his book The Waning of the Middle Ages, he argued that the Renaissance was a period of decline from the High Middle Ages, destroying much that was important. The Latin language, for instance, had evolved greatly from the classical period and was still a living language used in the church and elsewhere. The Renaissance obsession with classical purity halted its natural evolution and saw Latin revert to its classical form. Robert S. Lopez has contended that it was a period of deep economic recession. Meanwhile George Sarton and Lynn Thorndike have both argued that scientific progress was slowed.

Historians have begun to consider the word Renaissance as unnecessarily loaded, implying an unambiguously positive rebirth from the supposedly more primitive Middle Ages. Many historians now prefer to use the term "early modern" for this period, a more neutral term that highlights the period as a transitional one that led to the modern world.

There are several possible explanations for the emergence of the Renaissance in Florence:

The Medici family
One of the oldest explanations is that patronage of the Medici allowed for the advancement of artwork, especially under Lorenzo, which in turn led to the Renaissance. However, the start of the Renaissance can be dated around 1410 to 1420, prior to the Medici's rise to power.
The Great Man argument
This theory argues that the existence of individual geniuses — Donatello, Brunelleschi, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo — sparked the Renaissance. This is often cited as a circular argument which fails to explain the circumstances which differentiated these particular geniuses from those before or after.
The rise of individualism theory
This is a similar argument that argues for a change from collective neutrality towards the lonely genius.
The Black Plague theory
In the 14th Century, it is estimated that up to one-third or more of the population of Europe died of the plague. The plague was indiscriminate; it affected kings and serfs, priests and peasants, the pious and the sinful. Neither fervent Christian beliefs, the payment of indulgences, confession, or anything else, provided protection from it. In this theory, this caused the Christian worldview to wobble very badly, and led people to think more about life rather than the afterlife. This, together with the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg (1450s) and the wide dissemination of humanistic philosophies from the Greco-Roman era - Aristotle in particular, but also Plato (and so Socrates), Epicurus, Cicero, Seneca and others - created the intellectual climate which both fostered the emergence of Humanism, the interest in man and the here and now.

Answer 6

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1) - Cite This Source
Ren‧ais‧sance  /ˌrɛnəˈsɑns, -ˈzɑns, -ˈsɑ̃s, ˈrɛnəˌsɑns, -ˌzɑns, -ˌsɑ̃s; especially Brit. rɪˈneɪsəns/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ren-uh-sahns, -zahns, -sahns, ren-uh-sahns, -zahns, -sahns; especially Brit. ri-ney-suhns] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun 1. the activity, spirit, or time of the great revival of art, literature, and learning in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the 17th century, marking the transition from the medieval to the modern world.
2. the forms and treatments in art used during this period.
3. (sometimes lowercase) any similar revival in the world of art and learning.
4. (lowercase) a renewal of life, vigor, interest, etc.; rebirth; revival: a moral renaissance.
–adjective 5. of, pertaining to, or suggestive of the European Renaissance of the 14th through the 17th centuries: Renaissance attitudes.
6. noting or pertaining to the group of architectural styles existing in Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries as adaptations of ancient Roman architectural details or compositional forms to contemporary uses, characterized at first by the free and inventive use of isolated details, later by the more imitative use of whole orders and compositional arrangements, with great attention to the formulation of compositional rules after the precepts of Vitruvius and the precedents of existing ruins, and at all periods by an emphasis on symmetry, exact mathematical relationships between parts, and a general effect of simplicity and repose.
7. noting or pertaining to any of the various adaptations of this group of styles in foreign architecture characterized typically by the playful or grotesque use of isolated details in more or less traditional buildings.
8. noting or pertaining to the furnishings or decorations of the Renaissance, in which motifs of classical derivation frequently appear.

Answer 7

rebirth

Answer 8

rebirth!!