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

historians and other scholars have stressed continuity was no surprise that Queen Isabella and King Ferdi-
as well as change. Families, kin networks, guilds, and nand finally agreed to this in 1492, the very year that
other corporate groups remained important in the Spanish armies conquered Granada — the last act in
Renaissance, and religious belief remained firm. This the centuries-long Reconquista — and Spanish sol-
re-evaluation changes our view of the relationship diers no longer had a mission on the Spanish main-
between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. land. The monarchs also became more interested in
The changes of the sixteenth century, including Columbus’s proposal once he told them he planned
European voyages of expansion and the establish- to use the wealth gained from his trip to recapture
ment of overseas empires, were even more dramatic Jerusalem from the Muslims, continuing a religious
than were those of the Renaissance. But in these, crusade that had begun centuries earlier. Columbus
too, there were continuities. Christopher Columbus may have sailed off into waters that were unknown
was from Genoa, a center of the thriving European to European sailors, but he carried with him firm
luxury trade with the East that began in the Mid- ideas of what he would find, based on reading the
Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample.
dle Ages. He was only one of many Genoese at the accounts of ancient geographers and medieval Euro-
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Spanish court, trying to convince the Spanish mon- pean travelers. These were available to him through
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
archs to finance expeditions that could bring Asian the new technology of the printing press, one of
goods to Europe by sea rather than through land- many Renaissance developments that shaped the
For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.
based trade networks that were in Muslim hands. It world of Columbus and the modern world beyond.

Make Connections
Think about the larger developments and continuities within and across chapters.

1. The word Renaissance, invented to describe the cultural flowering in Italy that began in the
fifteenth century, has often been used for other periods of advances in learning and the
arts. Can you think of other, more recent “Renaissances”? How else is the word used today?
2. The Renaissance was clearly a period of cultural change for educated men. Given what
you have read about women’s lives and ideas about women in this and earlier chapters,
did women have a Renaissance? (This question was posed first by the historian Joan
Kelly in 1977 and remains a topic of great debate.) Why or why not?

2 REVIEW & EXPLORE

Identify Key Terms
Identify and explain the significance of each item below.

Renaissance (p. 46) humanism (p. 51)
patronage (p. 46) virtù (p. 51)
Commercial Revolution (p. 46) Christian humanists (p. 57)
communes (p. 46) debate about women (p. 68)
signori (p. 47) New Christians (p. 73)
courts (p. 47)

Review the Main Ideas

Answer the section heading questions from the chapter.

1. How did political and economic developments in Italy shape the Renaissance? (p. 46)
2. What new ideas were associated with the Renaissance? (p. 50)

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