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Anonymous
Pls gib historical background of Renaissance Italy (minus artists, sort of) 2017-02-20 05:51:21 Post No. 2392471
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Pls gib historical background of Renaissance Italy (minus artists, sort of) 2017-02-20 05:51:21 Post No. 2392471
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Pls gib historical background of Renaissance Italy (minus artists, sort of)
Anonymous
2017-02-20 05:51:21
Post No. 2392471
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Dear /his/,
I am fresh off a second lifetime re-read of The Prince, and now I'm researching Cardano and his relationships with other mathematicians of Italy. I want a good historical sketch to put to all of this.
Please give me basic info regarding the political situation, or "the map" of Italy from about 1400-1900, emphasis on 1400-1600. I have the basic idea that there were several small city-states that constantly warred (per Machiavelli), and that only much later did they unify. Context with names is also welcome; I must admit that I was only reading The Prince for pleasure, and so I allowed myself to gloss over such-and-such names, but now I realize that I might have paid closer attention ,as this stuff is directly pertinent to Cardano's life and times, which is my real interest.
I want to put Cardano in a historical place, is the point. Cardano has very interesting relationships with several people, and possibly ran afoul of the inquisition because he dedicated a later edition of his Ars Magna to Osiander, a German reformer who is further implicated in editorial duties for the big scientific texts of the period.
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1796.
Notice that the Papal States and "The South" look pretty much the same. The north is in flux. How much flux occurred in the intervening three hundred years? What is the HRE doing during all this - how is it implicated or excluded in the case of Italy-ish?
My big question is, /what did the map look like in 1545?/ This is the year of the publication of the Ars Magna, my other central interest.
Now that I check again, versions of The Prince were going around c. 1513-1527 (the latter being Machiavelli's death date), but the proper printed version dropped in 1532. This stuff is thus /extremely/ relevant to Cardano's times, moreso than I had appreciated during my coincidental casual re-read.
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>>2392471
France and Austria were at war for influence in Northern Italy, with a strong Spanish influence in the south. As a result, there were a lot of shifting alliances (e.g. the war of the League of Cambrai). Particular rivalries were Florence under the Medicis and Milan under the Sforzas. Another important aspect of society was the Guelph/Ghibelline split, wherein the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope fought for influence amongst the peoples of Italy.
Because of the recent fall of Constantinople, there was a relatively large flourish in Venice, and in general because of the importance of cities like Venice and Genoa as trading ports wherein ideas and trades from lots of different areas and cultures mixed.
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>>2392471
Read The History of the Renaissance in Italy by Burckhardt
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Read the history of Italy by gucciardini
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