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60 CHAPTER 2 | European Society in the Renaissance 1350–1550

type radically transformed both the private and the by confiscating books, arresting printers and book-
public lives of Europeans by the dawn of the sixteenth sellers, or destroying the presses of printers who dis-
century. Print shops became gathering places for peo- obeyed. None of this was very effective, and books
ple interested in new ideas. Though printers were were printed secretly, with fake title pages, authors,
trained through apprenticeships just as blacksmiths and places of publication, and smuggled all over
or butchers were, they had connections to the world Europe.
of politics, art, and scholarship that other craftsmen Printing also stimulated the literacy of laypeople
did not. and eventually came to have a deep effect on their
Printing gave hundreds or even thousands of peo- private lives. Although most of the earliest books
ple identical books, allowing them to more easily and pamphlets dealt with religious subjects, print-
discuss the ideas that the books contained with one ers produced anything that would sell. They printed
another in person or through letters. Printed materials professional reference sets for lawyers, doctors, and
reached an invisible public, allowing silent individ- students, and historical romances, biographies, and
uals to join causes and groups of individuals widely how-to manuals for the general public. They discov-
separated by geography to form a common identity; ered that illustrations increased a book’s sales, so they
Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample.
this new group consciousness could compete with and published books on a wide range of topics — from
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
transcend older, localized loyalties. history to pornography — full of woodcuts and
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Government and church leaders both used and engravings. Single-page broadsides and fly sheets
worried about printing. They printed laws, declara- allowed great public events and “wonders” such as
tions of war, battle accounts, and propaganda, and comets and two-headed calves to be experienced
For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.
they also attempted to censor books and authors vicariously by a stay-at-home readership. Since books
whose ideas they thought challenged their authority and other printed materials were read aloud to illiter-
or were incorrect. Officials developed lists of prohib- ate listeners, print also bridged the gap between the
ited books and authors, enforcing their prohibitions written and oral cultures.

How did art reflect new Renaissance ideals?

o feature of the Renaissance evokes greater admi- Patrons varied in their level of involvement as
Nration than its artistic masterpieces. The 1400s a work progressed; some simply ordered a specific
(quattrocento) and 1500s (cinquecento) bore witness subject or scene, while others oversaw the work of
to dazzling creativity in painting, architecture, and the artist or architect very closely, suggesting themes
sculpture. In all the arts, the city of Florence led the and styles and demanding changes while the work
way. But Florence was not the only artistic center, for was in progress. For example, Pope Julius II (pontif-
Rome and Venice also became important, and north- icate 1503–1513), who commissioned Michelangelo
ern Europeans perfected their own styles. to paint the ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel
in 1508, demanded that the artist work as fast as he
Patronage and Power could and frequently visited him at his work with sug-
gestions and criticisms. Michelangelo, a Florentine
In early Renaissance Italy, powerful urban groups who had spent his young adulthood at the court of
often flaunted their wealth by commissioning works Lorenzo de’ Medici, complained in person and by let-
of art. In the late fifteenth century, wealthy individ- ter about the pope’s meddling, but his reputation did
uals and rulers, rather than corporate groups, spon- not match the power of the pope, and he kept work-
sored works of art. Patrician merchants and bankers, ing until the chapel was finished in 1512.
popes, and princes spent vast sums on the arts to glo- In addition to power, art reveals changing patterns
rify themselves and their families. Writing in about of consumption among the wealthy elite in European
1470, Florentine ruler Lorenzo de’ Medici declared society. In the rural world of the Middle Ages, society
that his family had spent hundreds of thousands of had been organized for war, and men of wealth spent
gold florins for artistic and architectural commis- their money on military gear. As Italian nobles settled
sions, but commented, “I think it casts a brilliant in towns, they adjusted to an urban culture. Rather
light on our estate [public reputation] and it seems than employing knights for warfare, cities hired mer-
to me that the monies were well spent and I am very cenaries. Accordingly, expenditures on military hard-
pleased with this.” 6 ware by nobles declined. For the noble recently arrived

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