why did the renaissance start in italy?

Answer 1

You are referring, of course, to the ITALIAN Renaissance of the 15th century. For this we can site a handful of specific factors, esp. involving economic prosperity in the cities of Italy at that time, many of these related to trade... more below.

But the difficulty with answering your question is that the very terminology nowadays carries a number of questionable assumptions. For starters, this so-called "Renaissance" was not quite as glorious as its participants portrayed it. More importantly, it was NOT so unique.

In fact, recent scholars have taken to speaking of MULTIPLE renaissances, of which "THE Renaissance" (the one beginning in Italy in the 15th century) was but one. As a matter of fact, there is a fair case to be made that the "Renaissance of the 12th century" (of the "High Middle Ages") played a more pivotal role in advancing society, esp. in areas of STUDY (academics, founding of science). Note that this earlier renaissance was at the time of the creation of the UNIVERSITY system, from which many of the scholarly advances began to flow as scholars from across Europe began to work together. These earlier advances (including also advances in government, technology, etc.) over several CENTURIES were the ground in which Italy's Renaissance grew.

"The Italian “Renaissance” was not a “rediscovery” of classical learning. Rather, it was a period of cultural emulation during which people of fashion copied the classical style in manners, art, literature, and philosophy. Out of passion for their own ancient days of glory, explains French historian Régine Pernaud, Italians began to claim that Western history consisted of “two periods of light: antiquity and the Renaissance...and between the two...crude centuries and obscure times.” Thus, from fashionable enthusiasm and ethnic pride was born the notion of a dark age followed by a dawning of a new enlightenment. But, it wasn’t so. Scholastic scholars knew and understood the works of Plato, Aristotle, and all the rest."
http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleid.17713/article_detail.asp

Now the Italian (cultural) Renaissance (and its successors in other countries), was made possible in large part because of growing economic prosperity of And this was due to a number of advances, and esp to growing TRADE. How did this happen? The interactions with the Islamic world, including the Crusades played a large part. See the following articles for details:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Renaissance#Origins

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_of_the_12th_century

Answer 2

One compelling reason that the Renaissance started in Italy has to do with the trading done between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire. Muslims had manuscripts of the ancient Greek texts. Many of these texts were of books that were legendary in western Europe, never seen before, sometimes never known before.

With the advent of printing in 1450 with Gutenberg's press, there was a technology explosion combined with an intellectual explosion because books were no longer rare, expensive and hard to produce. Literacy also exploded with more people able and wanting to read than ever before. One no longer had to have a book copied by scribes over a period of many months or years, and many copies of the same book could be produced in a very short time.

In terms of art, Florence, another republic in Italy, was run by the Medici family, who were patrons of the visual arts. They commissioned many churches and monasteries to be decorated with Biblical scenes by masters of the Early Renaissance in the early 1400's. Later, Lorenzo di Medici patronized both the masters of painting, but also sculptors like Michelangelo, poets, philosophers, and other intellectuals. They were trying to emulate the school of Plato and his followers.

Once the Pope borrowed artists from Florence to decorate his palaces and the Sistine Chapel, the Renaissance spread to the rest of Europe due to the influence of the Papal Court.

Answer 3

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.

In the traditional view, the Renaissance was understood as an 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 re-connection 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, classics, and Christianity rather than an entire historical age.