Origin of the Renaissance.

it was Serenisima, the Republic of Venice that became very reach from trade, the waypoint from and to everywhere in the known world. Modern great architecture is patterned on buildings from Venice or Vicenza or Florence. It connected the Orient with the Netherlands and the Rhine valley, which is how modern western civilization begun. 

Some byzantine and Roman texts were already known in the west and reneissance was going on many fields, also on the field of Roman law and its evolution in western Europe.

Good example was evolution from teaching Roman law to comment it and finally to use it in practice - the schools of Glosators and Comentators:

What actually is Byzantium? How do you cut it to fit into the flow of events.The ethymology of the name is not known to me. When the Turks got hold of it, it was merely a city with some folders around it. If it had once been an empire, it was gone long before the Turks made an appearance. The Turks didn't conquer an empire, only the city.

Are we saying it is a combination between events happening outside of Italy and inside which brought about the Renaissance?

Originally posted by Baal Melqart Definitely, because an influx of Byzantine Greek scholars wouldn't have been enough to start a new era unless there were people actively seeking the knowledge they brought with them. I think that the unifying thought that started the movement was the sentiment people had against the oppression of the church and how it was basically an elitism establishment. The average medieval person was unable to read or write and couldn't even procure a bible if they wanted. So consider that sentiment with an added yearning to discover knowledge on their own and the ease of dissemination of information caused by the Gutenberg printing machine, it was only a matter of time before the renaissance would happen.

All the renaissance was copy/paste from past!Byzantine arts also Hellenistic,science and rest of books,in the enlightenment period were collected old works with new names on as authors!Question that deserves answer is:Why did they make it than?Why did not do that earlier?

There have been more than one 'renaissance' in Europe, but the one commonly called Renaissance is most known because it marked the end of the Middle Age as an era dominated by obscurantism and feudal relations.

The Renaissance as a phenomenon characterized by rediscovering of the wisdom of the Past and aspiration to more knowledge was not an isolated phenomenon but rather the result of the 'renaissances' that preceded it:

-The Carolingian Renaissance (8-9th centuries) was the first of the three Western medieval Renaissances. It was followed by the Ottonian Renaissance (10th century) and by Renaissance of the 12th century, a period of significant changes and the first step in rediscovering the Grek and Latin works of Antiquity, first through the Arab translations in libraries from Spain and Sicily.

The Byzantine empire has also had three renaissances: the Macedonian Renaissance in 9-10th century followed by the 12th century Byzantine Renaissance and 13-15th century Palaiologian Renaissance. The Byzantine renaissances contributed to the Western ones, especially the last one, when after the fall of Constantinople many of the Byzantine scholars and artists fled to Italy and other Western countries.

Edited by Menumorut - 18-Aug-2011 at 09:04

Did a change in the way business did accountancy facilitate any changes?

I find it fascinating all this talk about other renaissances. Has anyone got a timeline explaining how all these fit in when considering "The Renaissance"? 

There is a relation between Constantinople and Italy. There was a movement of scholars and learned heads from Greece to Italy, registered both during the early Roman Empire and later at the start of the Italian Renaissance. Italy is indeed known as the cradle of Renaissance while one of important parts of this movement are Greek settlers in Italy. Another point to note is that Greek gave way to Latin at some point, or so it seems, as the language of scribes.

Italian Renaissance was different to anything else, yet i would expect a cultural bridge between Byzantium and Italy, there somewhere in the darkness of the middle ages. Why, then, Byzantium has never been associated with the Renaissance, what cultural entity it was ?