Are you a "child of the Renaissance?"?

Question

why or why not?

Answer 1

My middle son is. He loves and collects swords and the regalia from that period. Acts out such and likes all those types of movies, Eragon, Lord of the Rings, etc. He was born in the wrong era,

Answer 2

no. as i was not born during the Renaissance, and that is the meaning i get from that phrase, then it would be impossible for me or for anyone in the past several centuries to be a child of the Renaissance. if you mean does someone consider themselves a 'Renaissance' man or woman, different question, and no, not really. there are very few true "Renaissance" men or women alive in this world today, people who truly know a lot about a lot of different subjects and also do something about it.

Answer 3

no

Children in the Renaissance


the harshness of family life greatly affected children. Children especially were susceptible to disease and death. Several children in a prosperous merchant or noble family might die of illness in childhood. However, in a peasant family, those children who survived childhood were extremely lucky. A young peasant mother may be lucky to end up with one grown child after years of child- birth. In addition, mothers and fathers often died by the time they reached thirty, leaving children without one or both parents. Babies whose parents could not afford to keep them and babies who were born to slave mothers in wealthy houses might be left at orphanages where they would be cared for by wet nurses.

As a result, death of children and adults was considered to be a matter of fate and happened so frequently that it was considered normal. Montaigne, who lived in the seventeenth century, was quoted by Michel Pierre as writing, "I have lost two or three suckling children, not without regret, but without being much disturbed."

Children were generally miniatures of their parents, and were expected to dress, talk, and act as adults. The only difference between adults and children was that children had no rights. In some cases, children could be bought and sold by parents to make money. If the child were a peasant, they would be working in the fields or the kitchen as soon as possible. Middle class children whose parents were artisans or merchants would begin to learn their parent's trade as soon as possible. Noble sons were trained to become warriors and courtiers, and noble daughters learned to be accomplished and attractive in order to procure a profitable marriage arrangement for their families.

However, in the south of Europe and among the wealthy, the situation for children was a bit different. According to Charles L. Mee, Jr., "Children were meant to play, to be shielded from the worries and harshnesses of the grown-up world, and to work hard at their studies in preparation for the time when their presumably carefree days would end." This observation, which can be observed starting in the nobility, was part of a trend that was spreading throughout all of Europe during the Renaissance. It was the formation of the modern family. Though this change swept through the privileged class, not much changed for peasant families. The struggle and harsh lifestyle of the peasants gave them little time to worry about others.

In the middle and upper classes, regard toward children grew during the Renaissance. According to Michel Pierre, "One sign of this change was that in religious paintings the infant Jesus took on the features of a real child, whereas before he was always given the severe face of an adult, sometimes even a face with wrinkles." In Italy during the Renaissance, letters between husbands and wives often spoke of children, both their own and others, with warmth and affection.

Education during the Renaissance became increasingly more important and popular. Noble children often attended four to six hours of school per day and went to work or to a university at age fifteen. Usually, education started around age seven, though often younger. Upper-class girls might be sent to convents for education until either her family found her a husband or she became a nun, saving her family the expense of a dowry.

A boy's education was more extensive. A boy's education was either by a governor, college, or a tutor at home. Students, primarily in Italy, were often taught grammar and arithmetic because those were the tools of a merchant. However, privileged families such as the Medici family had their children instructed in Latin, Greek, logic, and philosophy. Boys everywhere learned a little Latin, philosophy, and rhetoric as part of a good education. If attending a school, a boy faced harsh discipline, long hours, and bad food among other uncomfortable factors of everyday life. Along with this formal education, a noble boy was taught the ways of warrior and courtier, which included riding, swordsmanship, dancing, and the arts of war.

Peasants were usually completely uneducated, stripping away from them one of the key factors in social mobility. Artisans would be educated through an apprenticeship or at home, although it was possible for a boy to attend a cathedral school to become a member of the clergy.

Marriage for noble children was usually very early as a result of the child's obligation to gain power and prosperity for their family and produce heirs to continue dynasties. In lower classes, a man did not marry until they had obtained land or established themselves in a trade. Women of those classes usually waited until their families could raise a proper dowry before they married. Women were usually significantly younger than the men they married.