15th Century Renaissance Poetry: Themes, Forms, and Key Authors
15th Century Poetry
The ETAPS 2: 1511-1543 songs appear general/1543-1590 diffusion of new poetry.
The themes and motifs of Renaissance poetry come from: the Petrarchan and classical tradition.
Forms of Poetry
- Rhyme sonnet: 2 fixed quartets and 2 variable trios (ABBA-ABBA-CDC-CDC)
- Lira: Hendecasyllable and heptasyllable (aBabB)
- Song: Petrarchan, several stanzas (estancias) with hendecasyllables and heptasyllables
- 3rd chained: ABA BCB CDC (used in elegies, epistles, Eclogues …)
- Octava real: ABABABCC (epic
Pre-Socratic Philosophers: From Thales to Democritus
Pre-Socratics: Monists
Thales of Miletus
Miletus was an island in the Aegean, the world’s largest ancient market. He was the first philosopher and was considered one of the “wise men.” He dedicated himself to public business and then to the study of nature. Many think he was the first to speak about the immortality of the soul. He said that the arche is water, that it is the last and eternal principle of all things.
Anaximenes
He was a disciple of Anaximander. He admitted that there is a unique and
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The Renaissance: A Cultural Rebirth
The Renaissance defines the entire social and cultural period following the Middle Ages. It refers to the rebirth of classical studies and the veneration of Greco-Latin authors. This phenomenon, known as humanism, was used in that epoch to refer to the cultural movement in Italy that began to consider man the center of the universe. Key features of this period include:
- Highlighting the dignity of man as the center of the world, replacing the previous theocentric
European Maritime Expansion and the Americas: 15th and 16th Centuries
The Main Objectives of Travel in the Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages, European commerce with the East was done through Constantinople until the Mediterranean and thence across Central Asia.
Portuguese Expeditions
The Portuguese were the first to venture south along the Atlantic:
- African Route: Sailing west, they reached the islands of Madeira (1418) and the Azores (1431). Later, they followed the African coast to the south and reached the Gulf of Guinea (1460). Further on, Bartolomeu Dias reached the
16th Century Novel: Chivalry, Picaresque, and Cervantes
The Novel in the 16th Century
In the sixteenth century, different types of novels emerged: the chivalric romance, the pastoral novel, and the picaresque novel.
Chivalric Romances
These are stories full of extraordinary events occurring in imaginary places. Knights are the protagonists, and the stories exalt love and adventure. A model for these novels is the story of King Arthur.
Pastoral Novels
With very little action, these novels feature idealized shepherds, usually focused on their feelings, in an
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The Byzantine Empire: A Legacy of Rome
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, emerged as a continuation of Roman civilization. It successfully repelled barbarian invasions and thrived under a new name from the 6th century onward. Emperor Justinian, aiming to restore the Roman Empire’s former glory, initiated territorial expansion, reaching the Western Mediterranean, including the Balearic Islands and southern Hispania. However, from the 11th century, the empire faced decline
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