1. The Italian Renaissance
The Big Idea
The growth of wealthy trading cities in Italy led to a rebirth of the arts and learning called the Renaissance.
Main Ideas
Increased trade with Asia brought wealth to Italian trade cities, leading to the Renaissance.
Italian writers and artists contributed great works during the Renaissance.

2. Main Idea 1: Increased trade with Asia brought wealth to Italian trade cities, leading to the Renaissance.
After the end of the Black Death, the economy of Europe began to grow again. Goods became available, people bought more, and trade increased.

3. Trade with Asia
In the 1200s, the Mongols took over China. They made roads safe again, including the Silk Road, a trade route between Europe and China.
Traders and travelers began to use the routes again. One famous trader was Marco Polo, who traveled with his family. Some of their journeys went over the Silk Road.
When the Polos arrived in China, they met the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan. The Polos spent 20 years in Asia.
A writer helped Polo record his journey. Descriptions about Asia made Europeans curious, and they desired Asian goods.

4. The Trading Cities of Italy
Four northern Italian cities became trading centers.
Florence
Genoa
Milan
Venice
The cities of Milan and Florence were manufacturing centers. Venice and Genoa were port cities on the Mediterranean Sea, where the goods and services flowed.
Milan produced weapons and silk. Florence was a center for weaving wool into cloth.

5. Florence
Florence stands out as an example of the great trade and wealth coming into Italy.
Wool trade initially created wealth, but banking increased that wealth.
Bankers kept money for merchants all over Europe and made money by charging interest, a fee that lenders charge people who borrow money from them.
The Medici family were the greatest of the Florence bankers.
Cosimo Medici wanted Florence to be the most beautiful city in the world.
He also valued education and built libraries and collected books.
The love of art and education was a key feature of a time we call the Renaissance, which means “rebirth.”

6. Main Idea 2: Italian writers and artists contributed great works during the Renaissance.
During the Middle Ages, people were devoted to religious study. By the 1300s, scholars began to study subjects such as history, literature, public speaking, and art.
These subjects were called the humanities, and they led to the thinking and learning known as humanism.
Humanism is a way of thinking and learning that stresses the importance of human abilities and actions.

7. Rediscovering the Past
The popularity of the humanities was due to a new interest in ancient history.
During the 1300s, when the Turks conquered much of the Byzantine Empire, scholars fled to Europe and took great works of literature with them.
Many of the works were ancient classical writings, such as works by Greek thinkers.
Italian scholars wanted to revive subjects that the Greeks and Romans had studied.
Other sources of inspiration were Roman ruins and fine classical statues.

8. Italian Writers: Dante and Machiavelli
Dante Alighieri was a politician and poet. Dante wrote in Italian, the common language of the people.
Before Dante, most medieval writers had written in Latin.
Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince. He was also a politician, and his book told leaders how to rule.
Told politicians to focus on the “here and now,” not on theories

9. Italian Art and Artists
During the Renaissance, Italian artists created some of the most beautiful paintings and sculptures in the world.
New techniques, like perspective, made their work come alive.
Perspective is a way of showing depth on a flat surface.

10. Great Artists
There were several great Italian Renaissance artists, but two stand out.
Michelangelo was one of the great Italian artists. He was known as a master. He not only painted portraits but also designed buildings, wrote poetry, and painted murals on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
Leonardo da Vinci was the true genius of the Renaissance. He was a great painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, and engineer. He studied anatomy, the structure of human bodies, to make his paintings more real. His Mona Lisa portrait is one example.