30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Was Renaissance a western-only phenomenon?, March 21, 2005
This review is from: The Renaissance Bazaar: From the Silk Road to Michelangelo (Hardcover)
Between XIV and XVI century a silent revolution changed the landscape of Europe in such a way that nothing after Renaissance looked as before: every field showed the mark of its passage.
Today we still praise the age of Salutati, Petrarca, Boccaccio, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Pico della Mirandola, Erasmus, Montaigne, Copernicus and Galileo, Bacon and Shakespeare. Just to name few of the leading figures.
Europe, for a brief period and for the last time, was able to regain a common universal language and Latin appeared to recover its universal supremacy over all the other languages.
In no period before Enlightenment we observe so many discoveries, a so grand progress in almost every field.
Traditionally this revolution has been described as a only-European achievement.
Mr. Brotton with this excellent study is trying to question this euro-centric thesis and show the - many - points of contact between European Renaissance and those other cultures in the east (Arab, Turkish, Chinese and Indian) - and in the west (the newly discovered native Americans) - that came in contact with it.
The result is fascinating, specially in the many suggestions and in the looming new portrait of the era.
So far, this is the best introduction I have had the chance to read to the argument. And most praiseworthy is the ability to combine all this material into about 200 pages, with a style clear, readable, full of examples and always interesting.
The inquiry can be roughly reduced to three questions:
- was Renaissance the last stage of a slow evolution or a ground-breaking revolution?
- was Renaissance a only-European phenomenon?
- if Renaissance was not confined to the European "enclave", why other cultures were not able to benefit from it?
Espousing a mild evolutive perspective, Mr. Brotton is able to show how many - scattered at first - aspects that we use to associate with Reinassance, were already well present in other cultures and slowly transferred during the period ranging from the XIII and the XIV centuries.
A leading role was played by the huge development of commerce - a first stage of the process we call today globalization.
Not just spices, but also silk, rugs, and goods as disparate as tulip bulbs and home furniture. This expansion of commerce was caused by contingent factors: the Crusades, the decadence of Byzantine Empire, the closing of the silk road due to Tartar invasions in the northern steppes, the expansion of the Turkish empire first in Anatolia and then in the Balkan Peninsula, Spanish Reconquista and the flow of translation from Arab to Latin in Toledo, the rise of Italian maritime republics (not just Venice, but especially Amalfi and also Pisa and Genua)....
So while Latin heritage was autonomously rediscovered from the dust of monastic libraries, for the Greek heritage a leading role was played first by the Arab translations (specially in geography, medicine and philosophy), then by the Greek Byzantine refugees (specially cardinal Bessarion) and lastly - maybe marginally - by the library of Mehmet the conqueror.
But the Arabs are to be praised for numeracy (Fibonacci introduced Arab numbers), business (paper money, double entry, banking) seafaring instruments (sextant) and a wealth of hypotheses (heliocentrism) still to be tested in the west.
So why in the West Renaissance in the end represented such a definite break with the past while other cultures lagged behind ?
Mr. Brotton very consistently explain this difference with the impact of the discovery of the printing press. Gutenberg made the true difference: it permitted the diffusion of literacy, the rediscovery and circulation of classical culture, the infective spreading of heresies and it provided a true arena in which the new science could be debated.
This is so far the most complete and convincing explanation of the singularity of Renaissance. And I appreciated very much the careful investigation of other hypotheses and the unassuming and almost conversational stile in which it is described - not to detriment to precision and accuracy.
We are presented with a multifaceted analysis of contemporary paintings, literature, history to give a pleasant and complete portrait of the period, ranging from the most intellectual achievements up to economic upheaval, social conditions and role the new discoveries in the changing landscape.
Possibly the main deficiency of the book is in its effort to synthesize a so momentous argument in so few pages. As a reader I'd be glad to learn more about the factors that led to the decadence of the Renaissance cultural model at the beginning of XVII century - and the ideal link between renaissance culture and Enlightenment.
If you've been so patient and kind to follow me up to this path, there can be a chance you share some of my passions and could be interested in other books I had the opportunity to read in the past about the same argument:
- Dimitri Obolensky - The Byzantine Commonwealth - interesting survey on the decline of the Byzantine empire and the orthodox legacy
- "Scribes and Scholars" by L.D. Reynold & N.G. Wilson, still unsurpassed introduction to classical philology. One of the few books in which academic and poetical are not incompatible adjectives
- "Greek Thought and Arabic Culture" by Dimitri Gutas, a very interesting survey of the continuous exchanges from East to West and back from the rise of the Persian Empire to the advent of Islamism
- "My Name is Red" by Ohran Pamuk a fabulous novel (a must read for sure) that uses Bellini's portrait of Mehmet the Conqueror to illustrate the clash between the artistic tradition of the West (art like mirror of an ideal reality) and the Eastern tradition (art like symbol and not representation)
You are truly welcome if you want to suggest other readings or just share ideas and comments!
Thanks for reading.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
