WEBVTT 1 00:00:21.519 --> 00:00:26.239 Hello, and welcome to Western SIV Early Modern Europe Overview 2 00:00:26.399 --> 00:00:31.679 Number one, Life in fourteen fifty. Today, we're going to 3 00:00:31.719 --> 00:00:36.520 start our Early Modern Europe Overview by setting a baseline. 4 00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:41.479 It is hard to see what changes between fourteen fifty 5 00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:45.399 and sixteen fifty occur if we do not really know 6 00:00:45.479 --> 00:00:50.520 where things stand in fourteen fifty. The last time I 7 00:00:50.600 --> 00:00:54.520 did anything like this was a look at high medieval 8 00:00:54.679 --> 00:00:58.960 urban life, which was a long time ago, and I'm 9 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:04.560 not confident anyone remembers that now. Once we finished with 10 00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:08.159 today's program, I'm going to do a short series of 11 00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:14.480 shows that examine changes in society, culture, politics, economics, and technology. 12 00:01:15.799 --> 00:01:19.519 That should set us up nicely to begin what will be, 13 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:23.319 for me, the longest story arc I have ever attempted, 14 00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:28.439 the Thirty Years War. I want to start by looking 15 00:01:28.480 --> 00:01:32.840 at how business and business was intertwined with travel circa 16 00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:37.680 fourteen fifty. Now, look, before I even do that, I 17 00:01:37.719 --> 00:01:40.200 should note that there was no such thing as a 18 00:01:40.319 --> 00:01:46.280 uniform quote unquote Europe in fourteen fifty. France and England 19 00:01:46.400 --> 00:01:48.519 are still in the one hundred Years War, though it 20 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:53.280 only is about three years to go. Italy is a patchwork. 21 00:01:53.799 --> 00:01:58.439 The Reconquista still rages in Spain. Heck, for a little 22 00:01:58.439 --> 00:02:03.319 while at least, Constantinople is still a thing. So I'll 23 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:07.719 draw distinctions where possible, but please understand that I'm going 24 00:02:07.799 --> 00:02:10.599 to paint with a broad brush here, and so I'm 25 00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:12.960 sure a lot of things that I'm going to say 26 00:02:13.080 --> 00:02:17.719 historians would argue wouldn't hold up to close scrutiny. Good thing, 27 00:02:17.800 --> 00:02:23.000 then I'm not a historian. So with that being said, 28 00:02:23.400 --> 00:02:28.319 Business and travel urban merchants in Italy, Germany and the 29 00:02:28.360 --> 00:02:30.960 Low Countries and the Low Countries I've used this phrase 30 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:36.120 before today, that's Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. People of 31 00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:41.039 these areas developed new business techniques, including various forms of contracts, 32 00:02:41.439 --> 00:02:45.479 some of them temporary partnerships and some more permanent arrangements 33 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:49.840 in Italian which were called compagnie. That's obviously the root 34 00:02:49.919 --> 00:02:54.280 of the English word company. Compagnie in Italian literally means 35 00:02:54.400 --> 00:02:59.199 bread together, i e. Sharing of bread. These trading companies 36 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:04.360 Circle fourteen fifty sponsored land and sea expeditions in search 37 00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:07.879 of better routes, sources of supply, and of course new markets. 38 00:03:08.759 --> 00:03:13.360 Merchants from Florence, Venice, Genoa and other northern Italian cities 39 00:03:13.639 --> 00:03:17.759 established merchant colonies or at the very least set up 40 00:03:17.800 --> 00:03:22.800 permanent agents in far off locations. During the fourteenth century, 41 00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:28.599 merchants from Venice, Genoa, Barcelona, and other southern European cities 42 00:03:28.800 --> 00:03:32.280 developed permanent trading centers in most of the ports of 43 00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:37.439 the Middle East and many in North Africa. Genoese merchants 44 00:03:37.639 --> 00:03:42.240 dominated in the Aegean and Black Sea, meeting caravans carrying 45 00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:47.719 goods from India, Central Asia, and China. As we know, 46 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:52.159 these caravans also brought the Black Death, which came to 47 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:57.280 Europe from Asia in thirteen forty seven. Venetian merchants paid 48 00:03:57.280 --> 00:04:01.360 more attention to Asian spices in the Red Sea up 49 00:04:01.400 --> 00:04:04.840 to Cairo, which in the mid fifteenth century was the 50 00:04:04.840 --> 00:04:09.919 capital of the Mamlouk Empire. In near Eastern cities, so 51 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:13.879 in what today we would call Turkey, Egypt, and the 52 00:04:13.879 --> 00:04:17.839 Middle East, European merchants lived separately from the rest of 53 00:04:17.879 --> 00:04:21.839 the community. Now, don't get me wrong, these weren't ghettos 54 00:04:21.959 --> 00:04:26.199 or the precursors to ghettos. Merchants lived in their own enclaves, 55 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:29.800 but lived a higher standard of living than most of 56 00:04:29.839 --> 00:04:34.160 the rest of the population. Here, local rulers granted these 57 00:04:34.199 --> 00:04:39.680 foreign merchants special rights and privileges. The same could be 58 00:04:39.720 --> 00:04:45.160 said of Northern Europe. In northern European cities from Holland 59 00:04:45.240 --> 00:04:50.160 to Poland, different communities joined together to create Europe's first 60 00:04:50.199 --> 00:04:55.680 ever commercial league, the Hanseatic League. The Hanseatic League controlled 61 00:04:55.759 --> 00:04:59.720 a large swath of Northern trade, from the fur trade 62 00:04:59.759 --> 00:05:04.360 with Moscow, the fish trade with Norway and Sweden, and 63 00:05:04.399 --> 00:05:10.120 the wool trade in Flanders. But by the fourteen fifties, 64 00:05:10.839 --> 00:05:15.639 driven by the fall of Constantinople, the European trade market 65 00:05:16.120 --> 00:05:23.120 was decisively changing. It was, in a word, turning west. 66 00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:27.360 The Portuguese made direct contact with the Mali Empire in 67 00:05:27.399 --> 00:05:31.839 West Africa, opening up the potential for trade in gold 68 00:05:31.920 --> 00:05:37.439 and slaves. This is where African slavery as a concept 69 00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:43.639 in Europe and the Americas really begins. Portugal then encouraged 70 00:05:43.959 --> 00:05:48.079 colonization in the islands of the Atlantic, which later provided 71 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:52.560 a springboard for further exploration into Africa and west toward 72 00:05:52.600 --> 00:05:57.199 the Americas. They built docks and shipyards and places like 73 00:05:57.240 --> 00:06:02.120 the Azores, the Madeira Islands, Verde Islands, and the Canaries. 74 00:06:03.199 --> 00:06:08.000 While economic motives inspired merchants to travel and escaping creditors 75 00:06:08.079 --> 00:06:12.920 or legal authorities, maybe spurred sailors and pedlars. Religious motives 76 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:16.879 drew others to the sea routes of Europe. From ancient times, 77 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:20.759 many of the world's religions encouraged pilgrimages to holy sites. 78 00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:25.480 Chinese Buddhists went to India. Japanese Buddhist sech later went 79 00:06:25.519 --> 00:06:30.879 to China. Now, of course, Christian pilgrims traveled well, and 80 00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:35.120 another group of travelers worth pointing out here is, of course, 81 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:41.240 the pilgrims. Christian pilgrims traveled to Canterbury in England, Mario 82 00:06:41.279 --> 00:06:46.079 Wolf in Austria, Chechwara in Poland, and some ventured to 83 00:06:46.120 --> 00:06:52.560 the international pilgrimage sites of Jerusalem, Rome Constantinople which kept 84 00:06:52.560 --> 00:06:58.519 its name, or Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, because 85 00:06:58.879 --> 00:07:01.240 making a pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the duties 86 00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:04.279 of a believer in Islam. Even by the year twelve hundred, 87 00:07:04.319 --> 00:07:07.439 there was a steady pilgrimage traffic in the western Indian 88 00:07:07.480 --> 00:07:14.120 Ocean local shrines to holy believers, also through Muslims, inns, 89 00:07:14.199 --> 00:07:18.720 hostels and shops were established along major routes, supplying these 90 00:07:18.759 --> 00:07:23.759 pilgrims with shelter, food, and even souvenirs. And this is 91 00:07:23.839 --> 00:07:28.279 one area where women as well as men made these journeys. 92 00:07:30.199 --> 00:07:34.160 There wasn't such a thing as leisure travel or vacation 93 00:07:34.399 --> 00:07:36.279 as we think of it. For ninety nine point nine 94 00:07:36.360 --> 00:07:41.560 percent of the population. Royals went on progress and the 95 00:07:41.639 --> 00:07:45.560 nobility would retire to country estates. Nobody went on like 96 00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:50.160 vacation to Paris, for example, But as I mentioned, people 97 00:07:50.199 --> 00:07:53.279 did travel a lot out of religious conviction. Even after 98 00:07:53.319 --> 00:07:57.160 the fall of Constantinople, European pilgrims still traveled to see 99 00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:01.399 saint relics and holy shrines, and in particular the Santiago 100 00:08:01.399 --> 00:08:04.399 de Compostele, as I mentioned in Spain, became an extremely 101 00:08:04.399 --> 00:08:09.759 popular destination. Christian communities in Asia and Africa were separated 102 00:08:10.160 --> 00:08:14.199 from European Christians by the spread of Islam, which first 103 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:18.480 motivated an accompanied Arab conquests in the Middle East, North Africa, 104 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:22.120 and the Iberian Peninsula, and then later continued to expand 105 00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:26.959 in sub Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia. Muslim 106 00:08:27.079 --> 00:08:31.560 legal scholars, Sufi mystics, and other religious leaders helped to 107 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:35.879 spread and solidify Muslim teachings both within and beyond territories 108 00:08:36.080 --> 00:08:40.519 in which the rulers were Muslims. Effective missionaries in both 109 00:08:40.600 --> 00:08:46.600 Christianity and Islam often absorbed and modified indigenous traditions and 110 00:08:46.799 --> 00:08:51.120 customs as they moved, so that place is sacred to 111 00:08:51.159 --> 00:08:56.200 specific gods became identified instead now with saints or apostles 112 00:08:56.480 --> 00:08:59.720 in Christianity, and sometimes local gods could become the men 113 00:08:59.799 --> 00:09:04.879 off stations of Allah in Islam. By fourteen fifty. There 114 00:09:04.919 --> 00:09:10.919 were therefore wide variations in rituals, practices, institutions, and even 115 00:09:11.039 --> 00:09:16.120 doctrine in both religions, some sanctioned by authorities, others not. 116 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:20.840 Travelers from one part of Christendom or one part of 117 00:09:21.240 --> 00:09:25.360 Dar al Islam the land of Islam to another frequently 118 00:09:25.399 --> 00:09:29.639 commented on just how strange and perhaps unacceptable they found 119 00:09:29.879 --> 00:09:34.600 the practices of their co religionists as they moved. Now, look, 120 00:09:34.600 --> 00:09:37.720 the vast majority of Europeans didn't travel very far from 121 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:42.559 their home villages, most for their entire lives, but some 122 00:09:42.799 --> 00:09:47.240 were going great distances, and by the fourteen fifties those 123 00:09:47.320 --> 00:09:52.200 distances were rapidly expanding. Not that new routes of travel 124 00:09:52.240 --> 00:09:55.840 were always a one way street. Mind you, routes could 125 00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:00.960 close or disappear. The Viking colony on Eland had all 126 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:04.879 but died out by fourteen fifty. The Ottoman conquest in 127 00:10:04.919 --> 00:10:07.960 Greece had cut off many routes of travel to the East, 128 00:10:09.399 --> 00:10:14.320 but the key difference was by the fourteen fifties, Europeans 129 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:20.039 responded to these setbacks by finding new routes. While it's 130 00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:24.039 unlikely that most Europeans would have noticed it at the time, 131 00:10:25.039 --> 00:10:29.840 fourteen fifty marks the beginning of a much greater European 132 00:10:29.919 --> 00:10:35.720 interaction with the rest of the world. Now, in terms 133 00:10:35.759 --> 00:10:38.519 of society, if we examined Europe as a whole in 134 00:10:38.600 --> 00:10:42.279 fourteen fifty, the nobility is still by far the most 135 00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:46.919 powerful group, though to be fair, the term nobility is 136 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:52.240 becoming a bit misleading now because the nobility varied a lot, 137 00:10:52.440 --> 00:10:59.759 from kings, princes all the way down to petty lords. Now, traditionally, 138 00:11:00.200 --> 00:11:04.159 Europe had been throughout all of the Middle Ages what 139 00:11:04.320 --> 00:11:08.360 is called tripartite. That means is that there were three 140 00:11:08.759 --> 00:11:14.679 social groups, those who fought nobles, those who prayed clergy, 141 00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:20.840 and those who worked everyone else. Of Course, the key 142 00:11:20.879 --> 00:11:24.360 problem with this is that the traditional conception of society 143 00:11:24.480 --> 00:11:27.679 overlooked the people who lived in the towns and cities. 144 00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:33.279 By fourteen fifty that numbered perhaps one quarter of the 145 00:11:33.320 --> 00:11:37.960 population in the Low countries, one fifth of Italy, one 146 00:11:38.120 --> 00:11:42.759 sixth of Spain and Portugal. Towns began to grow in 147 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:47.080 Europe during the eleventh century around a couple of key cores, 148 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:51.559 military camps, crossroads of trade, cathedral, seaports. Those sorts of 149 00:11:51.639 --> 00:11:56.279 things Gradually they won from whatever sovereign they happened to 150 00:11:56.279 --> 00:12:00.919 have legal and political rights, often codified in a town charter. 151 00:12:01.799 --> 00:12:06.240 They developed institutions of self government, regulated trade and production, 152 00:12:07.080 --> 00:12:11.639 attracted migrants from the countryside. These were the communities that 153 00:12:11.679 --> 00:12:15.440 were often hard hit by first and subsequent outbreaks of 154 00:12:15.480 --> 00:12:19.360 the Bubonic plague, though a few, like Nuremberg in Germany, 155 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:23.480 developed strict rules of quarantine that managed to keep the 156 00:12:23.480 --> 00:12:30.279 plague outside the walls. Even by fourteen fifty, the tripartype 157 00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:36.080 model for Europe was out of date. Still, society remained 158 00:12:36.159 --> 00:12:41.039 divided by group or social order. That much was still true. 159 00:12:41.159 --> 00:12:45.080 It is crucial to note, however, that while money might 160 00:12:45.559 --> 00:12:50.039 overlap with status, that wasn't a given. Those in the 161 00:12:50.120 --> 00:12:54.320 first order, the nobility, were more likely to be wealthier 162 00:12:54.360 --> 00:12:59.320 than the third, but that wasn't always the case. If 163 00:12:59.320 --> 00:13:02.200 it wasn't the case, then why in the world would 164 00:13:02.200 --> 00:13:07.399 merchants constantly be buying titles of nobility, increasingly an excellent 165 00:13:07.480 --> 00:13:12.360 source of revenue for kings. James the First, as we know, 166 00:13:13.080 --> 00:13:16.440 sold titles of nobility like they were going out of style, 167 00:13:17.399 --> 00:13:23.120 indicating that oftentimes the merchants of the quote unquote third 168 00:13:23.240 --> 00:13:28.679 social order were actually wealthier than some nobility. And then, 169 00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:34.559 of course there was gender. Certainly most Europeans believed that 170 00:13:34.679 --> 00:13:39.639 men were superior to women, but to what extent well 171 00:13:39.879 --> 00:13:43.600 factored in here were not as sure, or at least 172 00:13:43.919 --> 00:13:48.399 not everyone agreed back then. Was a wealthy noble woman 173 00:13:48.559 --> 00:13:55.440 superior to a peasant man, yes, but was she superior 174 00:13:55.559 --> 00:14:01.200 to a lesser male noble Opinions on that were divided 175 00:14:02.600 --> 00:14:06.440 poverty less in the divisions between men and women, creating 176 00:14:06.440 --> 00:14:11.200 a sort of quote unquote equality of misery, never a 177 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:16.480 good thing to have. Many women recognized a level of 178 00:14:16.559 --> 00:14:22.159 liberation if they were widowed and they chose to remain unmarried. Politically, 179 00:14:22.679 --> 00:14:25.440 European boundaries continued to be in a state of flux. 180 00:14:25.480 --> 00:14:29.000 In fourteen fifty. Other than a few rivers, there were 181 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:31.159 not firm boundaries in the way that we think of 182 00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:34.200 them today. Rather, I think it's best if we think 183 00:14:34.759 --> 00:14:36.840 of the lines on the maps that we all see 184 00:14:36.879 --> 00:14:42.799 as sort of blurred lines and regions. France was less 185 00:14:42.840 --> 00:14:46.919 of a united kingdom than a patchwork of allied lesser states, 186 00:14:46.919 --> 00:14:50.159 for example, and honestly it will remain so until the 187 00:14:50.200 --> 00:14:54.440 eve of the Revolution. For most people in Europe, cultural 188 00:14:54.440 --> 00:14:58.159 and intellectual life in fourteen fifty was still very closely 189 00:14:58.279 --> 00:15:03.600 ranked to religion. Oh this is slowly starting to change. Monasteries, 190 00:15:03.679 --> 00:15:07.440 convins and cathedral schools had always been the main avenues 191 00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:10.600 to basic literacy since the tenth century for all but 192 00:15:10.679 --> 00:15:15.000 the elite, who could afford to hire private tutors. By 193 00:15:15.039 --> 00:15:18.639 the twelfth century, wealthy businessmen in a few cities had 194 00:15:18.720 --> 00:15:22.679 established small schools to teach reading and arithmetic, but even 195 00:15:22.759 --> 00:15:28.279 these used religious texts as their basic reading material. Beginning 196 00:15:28.320 --> 00:15:31.840 in the twelfth century, some of these cathedral or municipal 197 00:15:31.840 --> 00:15:38.240 schools developed into universities, teaching advanced subjects in law, medicine, theology, 198 00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:42.639 and philosophy. Of course, they were taught only to older 199 00:15:42.799 --> 00:15:46.600 male students and This is along with a more general 200 00:15:46.639 --> 00:15:50.320 curriculum what we would call the liberal arts to younger 201 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:55.279 boys and men. Students at these universities, even those not 202 00:15:55.360 --> 00:15:59.279 studying theology or planning on a church career, were considered 203 00:15:59.279 --> 00:16:03.399 to be clergy in terms of legal jurisdiction and tax issues. 204 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:06.399 The technical term is that they were in the quote 205 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:11.559 unquote minor orders, though their regular participation in riots and 206 00:16:11.639 --> 00:16:16.000 drunken brawls might make us reconsider just how clerical this 207 00:16:16.120 --> 00:16:21.799 group was. Universities shaped the cultural and economic life of 208 00:16:21.840 --> 00:16:24.960 the cities in which they were located. The number of 209 00:16:25.039 --> 00:16:29.039 universities increased slowly from the twelfth century onward. In the 210 00:16:29.120 --> 00:16:33.519 year thirteen hundred, there were fifteen to twenty universities in Europe. 211 00:16:33.559 --> 00:16:40.080 By fifteen hundred there were over fifty university education and 212 00:16:40.200 --> 00:16:44.240 the preparatory study necessary to enter those universities was all 213 00:16:44.279 --> 00:16:48.679 conducted in Latin. Now, what that meant was that scholars 214 00:16:48.799 --> 00:16:53.600 from Portugal to Poland could communicate with one another in 215 00:16:53.679 --> 00:16:58.519 a lingua franca. Students could travel from one university to 216 00:16:58.600 --> 00:17:03.279 another easily, and they freated did. Learning Latin served as 217 00:17:03.519 --> 00:17:07.160 kind of a male puberty right for urban boys with 218 00:17:07.200 --> 00:17:11.960 an ion careers that required university study. It often bonded 219 00:17:11.960 --> 00:17:14.960 this group together and set it aside from the rest 220 00:17:14.960 --> 00:17:20.240 of the population. Scholars corresponded with one another and published 221 00:17:20.400 --> 00:17:24.680 in Latin until the eighteenth century, and university classes in 222 00:17:24.799 --> 00:17:28.519 many subjects continued to be taught in Latin right up 223 00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:35.480 to the nineteenth though Latin dominated scholarly discourse. Beginning in 224 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:39.680 the fourteenth century, writers in some parts of Europe began 225 00:17:39.720 --> 00:17:44.039 to use local dialects rather than Latin for poems and stories, 226 00:17:44.839 --> 00:17:49.559 and these local dialects slowly developed into the vernacular literary 227 00:17:49.640 --> 00:17:56.599 languages of Italian, French, English, and others. This new type 228 00:17:56.640 --> 00:17:59.920 of literature was the result of increasing levels of vern 229 00:18:00.480 --> 00:18:06.039 literacy in the cities of Europe. Alongside schools teaching boys Latin, 230 00:18:06.519 --> 00:18:09.759 small schools, often very little more than a room or 231 00:18:09.799 --> 00:18:12.839 maybe even just a corner of someone's house, had begun 232 00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:17.720 to teach boys and a couple girls basic reading, writing, 233 00:18:18.119 --> 00:18:23.599 and basic mathematics. Vernacular languages slowly replaced Latin in official 234 00:18:23.640 --> 00:18:28.680 and business records, providing employment for folks in notary positions, 235 00:18:28.720 --> 00:18:34.079 secretarial positions, and clerks. This process started to broaden the 236 00:18:34.119 --> 00:18:38.039 circle of literate individuals within one area, but it also 237 00:18:38.119 --> 00:18:41.680 separated those in one area more sharply than those elsewhere. 238 00:18:42.680 --> 00:18:46.759 In the twelfth century, everyone in Europe spoke a local dialect, 239 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:50.880 often referred to as the mother tongue, and very very 240 00:18:50.920 --> 00:18:55.400 few spoke, read, and wrote Latin. By the mid fifteenth century, 241 00:18:56.079 --> 00:19:00.559 this was still true, but in addition, some people now spoke, read, 242 00:19:00.920 --> 00:19:04.240 and wrote dialects that were becoming to be regarded as 243 00:19:04.599 --> 00:19:09.839 French or Italian. Those whose mother tongue was a dialect 244 00:19:09.839 --> 00:19:13.480 that did not become a literary language, let's say, people 245 00:19:13.519 --> 00:19:17.200 in Wales, for example, had to learn a language that 246 00:19:17.359 --> 00:19:20.559 varied extremely from their own, almost to the extent that 247 00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:26.079 perhaps Latin did. This was perhaps the period when vernacular 248 00:19:26.160 --> 00:19:30.319 literatures were taking off for the first time. This is 249 00:19:30.359 --> 00:19:35.079 the age of Dante and Chaucer. It was also the 250 00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:38.480 age of humanism, which was a totally new approach to 251 00:19:38.599 --> 00:19:43.960 education that began in northern Italian cities and rapidly spread outward. 252 00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:49.079 Humanism was a lot like the classical concept of rhetoric. 253 00:19:49.839 --> 00:19:52.000 It was supposed to prepare you for a life in 254 00:19:52.359 --> 00:19:57.519 business or at court. Humanism stressed things like the art 255 00:19:57.519 --> 00:20:03.079 of persuasion, public speaking, and effect writing. Crucially, to humanists, 256 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:09.200 education was never about private edification. It wasn't about cloistering 257 00:20:09.240 --> 00:20:14.079 yourself up in some monastery and searching for truth. You 258 00:20:14.119 --> 00:20:18.559 were supposed to be in public, and ideally, this education 259 00:20:18.680 --> 00:20:20.720 you were getting, you were supposed to use it for 260 00:20:20.799 --> 00:20:26.519 the public good. Humanism is one aspect of the Renaissance, 261 00:20:27.319 --> 00:20:31.960 the self conscious cultural movement begun by Italian intellectuals, artists, 262 00:20:31.960 --> 00:20:36.400 and writers that emphasized a definitive break with the medieval past. 263 00:20:37.640 --> 00:20:42.920 They didn't reject Christian teachings or separation from the Church. Instead, 264 00:20:43.240 --> 00:20:47.480 Renaissance thinkers artists put greater emphasis on the secular and 265 00:20:47.559 --> 00:20:53.240 material world. A new attitude toward artists, writers, composers, and 266 00:20:53.319 --> 00:20:57.200 other creators of culture started to develop which emphasized their 267 00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:03.799 creative genius. Certain type of art, particularly painting, sculpture, and architecture, 268 00:21:04.640 --> 00:21:07.440 began to be viewed as the product of an individual 269 00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:12.400 rather than as a collective workshop. And now we're seeing 270 00:21:12.440 --> 00:21:16.240 the idea of art, rather than just simply a craft 271 00:21:16.720 --> 00:21:19.920 or a product, coming into the vernacular for the first time. 272 00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:25.960 Humanist education and Renaissance art are extremely important if we 273 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:31.000 look at them backwards in hindsight, It's important to remember, though, 274 00:21:31.319 --> 00:21:35.119 that these changes in art and literature, and the way 275 00:21:35.119 --> 00:21:38.400 of thinking about one space in the world, all these 276 00:21:38.440 --> 00:21:42.519 had very very little impact on ordinary, day to day people. 277 00:21:43.720 --> 00:21:48.359 For most people, their cultural world remained one transmitted orally 278 00:21:48.680 --> 00:21:52.240 and visually through stories that were told in the evenings 279 00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:57.640 sermons preached by wandering friars. These oral and visual images 280 00:21:57.920 --> 00:21:59.960 continued to teach them to look forward to a pair 281 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.839 paradise in heaven, rather to seek fame in this world. 282 00:22:06.079 --> 00:22:09.680 Paradise where food would be plentiful, work would be short, 283 00:22:10.039 --> 00:22:14.440 an illness unknown. In other words, a very different world 284 00:22:14.440 --> 00:22:18.079 than the one that they knew. It's worth pointing out 285 00:22:18.160 --> 00:22:22.440 that religiously, Europe was Roman Catholic in fourteen fifty, apart 286 00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:26.160 from the East, which was Orthodox. That was about to change, 287 00:22:26.200 --> 00:22:28.920 of course, we know that, But in fourteen fifty the 288 00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:33.480 church remained dogmatic and hierarchical. It also suffered from a 289 00:22:33.599 --> 00:22:37.160 myriad of problems which I have documented previously in this podcast, 290 00:22:37.200 --> 00:22:38.720 and I'm not going to go over again in great 291 00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:43.680 detail right now. Religion was never simply a matter of institutions. However, 292 00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:48.079 it was also about beliefs, rituals, and practices. It's almost 293 00:22:48.119 --> 00:22:51.559 impossible for us to know the beliefs of ordinary Christians, 294 00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:55.279 because their religious ideas make it into the historical record, 295 00:22:55.640 --> 00:22:59.079 generally only when they come into conflict with the institutional 296 00:22:59.200 --> 00:23:04.839 church during trials for heresy. Beliefs were expressed through rituals 297 00:23:04.839 --> 00:23:08.839 and actions, however, and there is much historical evidence regarding these. 298 00:23:09.920 --> 00:23:12.720 We know that people participated in processions dedicated to the 299 00:23:12.799 --> 00:23:16.359 Virgin Mary or a specific saint to ask for a 300 00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:20.519 good harvest or prosperity in their city. They asked the 301 00:23:20.519 --> 00:23:24.319 assistance of saints to get through childbirth, healed disease, protect 302 00:23:24.319 --> 00:23:27.960 them while traveling. They paid church taxes, and they often 303 00:23:27.960 --> 00:23:31.920 made voluntary donations for the building and maintenance of churches 304 00:23:31.960 --> 00:23:36.680 and cathedrals. At least once a year, sometimes more regularly, 305 00:23:37.119 --> 00:23:40.279 people confess their sins to the village priest, who then 306 00:23:40.359 --> 00:23:44.440 set forth certain actions, such as praying or fasting, as 307 00:23:44.480 --> 00:23:49.319 penance for those sins. By the fifteenth century, every single 308 00:23:49.319 --> 00:23:53.880 major life transition was marked by religious rituals, especially for Christians. 309 00:23:54.720 --> 00:23:58.119 There was baptism shortly after birth, preferably by a priest, 310 00:23:58.160 --> 00:24:02.400 but in an emergency situation by a midwife. On baptized 311 00:24:02.400 --> 00:24:06.400 babies couldn't enter heaven, so baptism was sometimes carried out 312 00:24:06.440 --> 00:24:10.319 even on dead children, even though technically theologically this wasn't acceptable. 313 00:24:11.400 --> 00:24:14.920 Though a church wedding wasn't required, most weddings in Europe 314 00:24:14.920 --> 00:24:17.559 were conducted by a priest, who often then went on 315 00:24:17.640 --> 00:24:20.839 to bless the marital bed. Women who had given birth 316 00:24:20.880 --> 00:24:24.359 went through the ritual that was called churching six days 317 00:24:24.359 --> 00:24:27.440 after childbirth, in which they thanked God for their safe 318 00:24:27.440 --> 00:24:31.720 delivery and then we're welcome back to the congregation. Of course, 319 00:24:31.759 --> 00:24:35.839 there were rituals for dying as well. Not only were 320 00:24:35.880 --> 00:24:39.680 individual life events marked by religious ceremonies, but the calendar 321 00:24:39.839 --> 00:24:44.720 was one hundred percent driven by religious festivals and days. 322 00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:49.359 The life of Christ was reenacted in an annual cycle 323 00:24:49.400 --> 00:24:53.000 of special Holy days, with days also dedicated to the 324 00:24:53.039 --> 00:24:57.839 Virgin Mary and a myriad of saints. All of these 325 00:24:58.079 --> 00:25:03.240 intersected intentionally with the agricultural cycle of planting and harvesting. 326 00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:07.799 By fourteen fifty, as many as fifty days out of 327 00:25:07.799 --> 00:25:10.920 the year were marked off as special Holy days in 328 00:25:10.960 --> 00:25:16.160 addition to every single Sunday, meaning there were over one 329 00:25:16.240 --> 00:25:22.720 hundred and two official holidays throughout the year. Interestingly, enough. 330 00:25:23.039 --> 00:25:26.880 Weekly attendance at church service wasn't always the norm, though 331 00:25:26.920 --> 00:25:30.680 The Church constantly entreated people to confess their sins to 332 00:25:30.759 --> 00:25:35.119 a priest at least once a year, though honestly many didn't. 333 00:25:36.680 --> 00:25:40.359 Now economically, Europe was in a far better position in 334 00:25:40.440 --> 00:25:44.200 fourteen fifty than had been in say, the previous three 335 00:25:44.279 --> 00:25:49.000 hundred years. The Italians, for the moment, continued to be 336 00:25:49.079 --> 00:25:54.920 the dominant players in the European economy. Florentine cloth was 337 00:25:54.960 --> 00:25:58.319 the finest in all of Europe and was exported throughout 338 00:25:58.359 --> 00:26:03.440 the continent. Cloth production in places like England and Ghent 339 00:26:03.920 --> 00:26:09.559 started to take off in the fifteenth century. Making cloth 340 00:26:09.640 --> 00:26:11.599 was one of the first types of production in Europe 341 00:26:11.599 --> 00:26:14.920 to be organized along what we would call capitalist lines, 342 00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:19.519 in which the raw materials, finished product, and sometimes tools 343 00:26:19.559 --> 00:26:22.720 needed for production were owned by someone other than the 344 00:26:22.759 --> 00:26:27.000 person who was doing the actual work. Cloth merchants, called drapers, 345 00:26:27.480 --> 00:26:31.000 purchased raw wool, hired workers for all stages of production, 346 00:26:31.519 --> 00:26:35.240 and then sold the finished product. Some stages of production 347 00:26:35.759 --> 00:26:37.880 might be carried out in the draper's home or in 348 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:41.759 buildings they owned, but more often than not production was 349 00:26:41.799 --> 00:26:44.359 actually done in the houses of the people that they hired. 350 00:26:45.640 --> 00:26:49.240 Drapers in many towns, sometimes in combination with merchants of 351 00:26:49.359 --> 00:26:53.279 other types of products, joined together to form guilds that 352 00:26:53.400 --> 00:26:57.759 prohibited non members from trading in their towns. Mining was 353 00:26:57.799 --> 00:27:02.440 also a capitalist enterprise. Silver mines in Germany and Bohemia, 354 00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:06.599 lead and tin mines in western England, copper mines in 355 00:27:06.680 --> 00:27:10.200 Spain and Sweden, iron mines in England, Poland and eastern France, 356 00:27:10.640 --> 00:27:14.519 and salt mines throughout the Alps all provided opportunity for 357 00:27:14.559 --> 00:27:20.240 investment and for wage employment for workers. This investment paid 358 00:27:20.279 --> 00:27:25.480 for deeper tunnels, more machinery, more complex smelting processes, all 359 00:27:25.559 --> 00:27:28.279 of which increased the volume and the quality of the 360 00:27:28.319 --> 00:27:32.519 metals that Europeans were producing by fourteen fifty, and these 361 00:27:32.559 --> 00:27:36.160 metals were essential to the new techniques of warfare, which 362 00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:40.759 required much larger quantities of metal for armor, cannon balls, 363 00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:46.400 and shot for arquibosis. Most goods were not produced by 364 00:27:46.440 --> 00:27:50.240 wage workers hired by investors, however, but through craft guilds. 365 00:27:51.279 --> 00:27:54.960 Craft guilds had first developed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 366 00:27:55.680 --> 00:27:58.279 Craft guilds were organized around the production or sale of 367 00:27:58.279 --> 00:28:01.599 a particular product. They could regulate the hours that could 368 00:28:01.599 --> 00:28:04.200 be worked, the number of workers in a shop, the 369 00:28:04.200 --> 00:28:07.880 amount of raw materials any shop could maintain, and of course, 370 00:28:07.960 --> 00:28:11.839 the quality of standards required in finished products. These were 371 00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:16.920 set and down in written ordinances stipulating rules. Guilds were 372 00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:21.319 led by master craftsmen, adult heads of household who became 373 00:28:21.400 --> 00:28:26.480 members through producing a product judge acceptable called masterpiece, and 374 00:28:26.559 --> 00:28:30.400 often paying a fee. Each craftsman led his own shop, 375 00:28:30.720 --> 00:28:33.759 which was located within his household, unless his type of 376 00:28:33.799 --> 00:28:36.799 work required that he'd be at a specific location this 377 00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:41.559 is morally just building sites. He could hire an apprentice 378 00:28:41.759 --> 00:28:44.759 or two. The number was often set by guild regulations. 379 00:28:45.319 --> 00:28:48.759 Boys of around ten and whose parents then might sign 380 00:28:48.799 --> 00:28:53.359 an apprenticeship contract. These boys learned the trade while they worked. 381 00:28:54.200 --> 00:28:57.880 Once the apprenticeship was finished the duration, also being set 382 00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:02.359 by guild regulations, became journeymen and either continued to work 383 00:29:02.400 --> 00:29:06.079 in the same shop or traveled around working for various masters. 384 00:29:06.720 --> 00:29:09.920 Some years later, they could have the opportunity to settle down, 385 00:29:10.079 --> 00:29:13.480 make their own masterpiece, get married, open their own shop. 386 00:29:14.880 --> 00:29:19.000 Guilds created norms of masculinity that were very different from nobles. 387 00:29:19.599 --> 00:29:24.119 The ideal guild man was a stable provider for his home. 388 00:29:24.160 --> 00:29:30.279 He wasn't a warrior off fighting. Though women, especially the wives, daughters, 389 00:29:30.279 --> 00:29:33.240 and servants of guild masters, worked in guild shops, they 390 00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:37.440 didn't generally go through a formal training program. And I'm 391 00:29:37.440 --> 00:29:39.680 sure this won't surprise you, but they didn't have any 392 00:29:39.759 --> 00:29:43.240 voice in the running of the shop. Now, if the 393 00:29:43.759 --> 00:29:46.440 master died, the widow of a master might continue to 394 00:29:46.480 --> 00:29:49.000 operate the shop for a period of time after her 395 00:29:49.079 --> 00:29:54.400 husband's death, making her a very attractive marriage partner. Larger 396 00:29:54.440 --> 00:29:58.759 cities in Europe could have quite literally hundreds of different guilds, 397 00:29:59.440 --> 00:30:02.240 each of which which developed its own strong sense of 398 00:30:02.240 --> 00:30:07.720 work identity, and sometimes these groups had distinctive clothing. Guilds 399 00:30:07.720 --> 00:30:10.880 also had a non economic function. They could have special 400 00:30:10.920 --> 00:30:14.640 altars dedicated to patron saints, they could establish funds for 401 00:30:14.839 --> 00:30:18.680