Why Was This Invention So Significant

Renaissance Webquest Teacher Answer Key

1. Why was this invention so significant?

The Gutenberg press with its wooden and later metal movable type printing brought down the price of printed materials and made such materials available for the masses. Literature was readily available. Papermaking technology became readily available from China through the Muslim world. By the 1500 there were about 1500 printing presses all over the continent. Now, the literary world looked to a broader reading public for support igniting a rapid spread of ideas that would carry a new spirit throughout Europe It remained the standard until the 20th century.

1. How could this invention lead to the success of the reformation in the 16th century?

The invention of the movable type printing press by Guttenberg and the subsequent publishing of the Guttenberg bible, would allow widespread distribution, putting the bible into the hands of many. This accessibility to these texts, distribution of opinion pamphlets and the distribution of Luther’s Ninety Five Theses would be on hand to influence public opinion. Media was now able to find its way into the hands of the masses. The ideas for the Reformation movement could be distributed to a massive audience and this simple fact would facilitate sympathy and converts.

1. How could this invention lead to other future intellectual movements?

The Gutenberg press with its wooden and later metal movable type printingthe ability to produce inexpensive documents would lead to wide distribution. This would facilitate the spread of ideas and avoid censure by any body wanting to restrict information. Once theories could be written down and distributed, they could be read, discussed and improved on leading to the growth of an intellectual movement open to all literate members of society.

1. How could this invention influence the future of art

The Gutenberg press would allow a thriving business of art prints. These would be purchased and copied by many artists of the day. From this point on, an aspiring artist in Antwerp would not have to go to the Vatican to see the Sistine chapel, or to Florence to see the Last supper, they could make their own copies from prints that were now readily available. These artists would hone their craft based on the earlier works of the Renaissance masters like Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo.

1. What were Galileo's mostnotable scientific achievements?

Galileo’s most notable scientific achievements were the modification of the Telescope and its use for astronomy, invents a machine for raising water-a pump, the investigation of Pendulum movement and its mathematical principals and his theories of Motion that the speed of falling bodies as Aristotle had predicted is proportional to their density and not their weight.

1. What were Galileo's contributions to the Scientific Method?

Galileo’s idea of creating experiments through an initial hypothesis and creating a testable method based on multiple trials and variables with observation and conclusions based on observable data provided the basis of the scientific method of the enlightenment.

1. Why would you describe Leonardo daVinci as a true Renaissance man?

Leonardo da Vinci was a true Renaissance man in that his curiosity knew no boundaries. He was a student of everything from Botany, mechanics and the investigation of the human body. He was an artist, an inventor, a sculptor, an engineer architect and an inventor

1. What future technological inventions would evolve from Leonardo's inventions?

The tank, the airplane, the submarine, helicopter, machine gun, the parachute, the screw, irrigation machinery, ignition mechanisms and many other machines for war and human usage

1. Who were the discoverers of Linear perspective?

The artist and architect, Brunelleschi was the first to demonstrate the principles of the Linear perspective, but another architect and writer, Leon Battista Alberti was the one who actually wrote them down.

1. How did this knowledge influence Art , Architecture and Mathematics

These principles influenced mathematics, the depiction of three dimensional space depicted on a two dimensional medium and the ability to create new forms of architecture like the supported dome

1. Based on what you have read and seen, describe the elements of Renaissance art.Include the following concepts in your answer: Perspective, Narrative, Form, Figure, Nude, Chiaroscuro, Tenebrism etc. There is an incredible art dictionary you can use here:Art Dictionary

The basic elements of Renaissance art are: use of the Linear perspective in art works creating space and depth, classic styled figures influenced by the classic styles of ancient Rome and Greece, Idealized depictions of the human body, idealized forms of the female form, Nude depiction and adoration and elevation of the physical form, heroism, sweeping narrative, Historical subject matter, portraiture, the use of Sfumato a smoky smudging and softening of the lines of the art work, thus creating depth and shadow, the technique of Chiaroscuro or Tenebrism which creates a dark background while illuminating the figures in the foreground, thus separating the narrative from its background.

1. After you have visited art from the later time periods,can you identify these elements in the later works of the more modern artists?

These artists that followed the Renaissance used all these techniques to create their own styles. Carravagio would elevate the chiaroscuro to a lofty height and an entire school of painters would follow his example, these would be known as the Carravagisti, Goya would use the same style and sweeping narrative. His nudes would be idealized. Rodin would be influenced the sculptured figures of Michelangelo, Rubens would copy and create his own styles based on Raphael, Michelangelo and Titian. Monet, Velasquez would use historic subject matter in his paintings and the Sfumato technique, El Greco would adopt and modify the coloring of Titian, thus creating his own style of palette, the Romantic movement of the 19th century would feed directly from the drama and narrative of the high Renaissance, in the works of David and Delacroix

1. What are the sources that inspire all these authors?

The sources that inspired these authors were the writings of the ancients, those intellectuals from Ancient Rome and Greece.

1. What was the goal of the Humanists?

They sought to understand the causes of human actions through the writings of the ancients and in turn to improve themselves. Petrarch, for example wanted an education that was separated from the church dominated universities which had monopolized learning for centuries. The genres of literature, Philosophy and history would form the core of the ideal Renaissance education which aimed to shape students so they could excel in anything.

1. Based on your previous knowledge, do you think that Humanism played a large role in the creation of the Protestant movement?

With out a doubt, Humanism and its focus on the Individual as the seeker of information and ability would play a key role in the protestant movement. The encouragement of learning and scholarly enquiry into the ancient texts would bring evidence of mistakes that had been made when texts were simply being copied during the Middle Ages, the method of individual enquiry would bring into question the catholic doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope. The idea that any man could seek knowledge and question current dogma would create the schism in the Church which would lead to the creation of Protestantism as a reformed Christian Movement based on the individual and not simply adhering to doctrine handed down by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.

This completes your tour of the Renaissance and Reformation. Now Historius,based on all the information you have gathered on you cyber-temporospatial journey, you now have to prepare a report to hand in to the IntergalacticArchive Committee. This report will take the form of a R.A.F.T assignment. Level 3 (One Draft only) the report will be evaluated on three writing skills: Topic sentences, Grammar and Spelling

R.A.F.T stands for:

Role: You are an Intergallactic Historian

Audience: The Intergalactic Archive Committee

Format: A report

Topic: What artistic, technological, scientific and intellectual contributions from this era have affected disciplines world wide? The report must focus on the enduring understanding that: “Men's actions move history”

To: the Intergallactic Archive Committee

From: Historius

Illustrious members of the I.A.C, My report will focus on the following question: What artistic, technological, scientific and intellectual contributions from this era, The Renaissance and Reformation have affected disciplines world wide? I will also endeavor to show from the evidence presented, that “Men's actions move history.”

The art of the Renaissance period was a radical turning point in how post medieval man saw himself. The horrors of the Black Death that decimated approximately one third of the population and the stifling attitudes of the Catholic Church caused these men to question where do we go from here? The answer was to look back at the classical world of Ancient Rome and Greece, in order to go forward. The texts, artworks and architecture of this ancient world inspired new forms of art, construction and a change in how man saw his place in the natural world. The art of the Renaissance would inspire generations of future painters many hundred years into the future. The principles of Humanism would ignite fervour of learning and individual enquiry which would lead to independent study and thought which would bring out new ideas of elevating the status of the individual and a gradual rise of the secular away from the chokehold of the Church. The Architecture of the renaissance would provide the basis for modern structures so far off into the future that even today, from Washington D.C to Cape Town, South Africa, we can observe domes, arches, pilasters, columns, ceilings all inspired by the architecture of the Renaissance. The study and utilization of Linear perspective, the scientific method of enquiry and the endless quest by men such as Galileo, and Leonardo da Vinci to innovate, provided us with the ideas for mechanics that today we take for granted such as: tanks, airplanes, screws, telescopes, boats and so much more. The ability to print ideas that can be debated and studied at leisure will form the basis not only for academic study and advancement but will lead to the mass communications of the modern era. Newspapers, books and journals, are still the backbone of the modern world. What can we learn from all of this?

The answer is clear; it is the indomitable spirit of man that provided the strength for him to rise up out of the quagmire of despair and destruction which was the Black Death. It was the vision of man that dared to recreate himself in the image of those idealized in the classical world and it was the thirst for knowledge of Renaissance man that set him on the road to enlightenment, Individualism and Humanism. It was precisely man’s need to recreate himself as an heroic figure, during the Renaissance which has allowed him to progress to a point even beyond his own earth. It therefore must be accepted, based on all these facts, that it is the efforts of man that ultimately moves history.