Renaissance Transformations: Social, Cultural, and Scientific Shifts

Social Transformations in the Modern Age

Before this period, people commonly ate with their hands. In the 16th century, Catherine de' Medici introduced the fashion of eating with a fork in the French court, but this custom took a long time to spread widely.

Hygiene and Health Beliefs

Bathing or washing was often not considered advisable because it was believed that water spread disease. Some people also considered washing impure from a religious perspective. Instead, they rubbed themselves with a piece of cloth or only washed their clothes. Bad smells were neutralized with perfumes.

The Role of Women and Infant Mortality

In the Modern Age, women were often considered less important than men. Their main function was to bear many children, despite the high infant mortality rate. Breastfeeding was not socially acceptable among the nobility and upper bourgeoisie, so these women paid wet nurses to perform this duty for them.

Cultural Shifts and the Dawn of Humanism

At the beginning of the Modern Age, there were significant developments in thinking and science. Ideas spread rapidly due to an extremely important invention: the printing press (invented by Gutenberg around 1450).

The Humanist Philosophy

A new intellectual movement, called Humanism or the Renaissance, emerged in Italy and spread throughout Europe. Humanism was characterized by:

Key Characteristics of Humanism

• A renewed interest in classical culture: A focus on Classical Greek and Roman culture.
• Anthropocentrism: Human beings became the center of philosophical reflection and artistic creation. Although Humanists continued to be Christians, they abandoned the theocentrism of the Middle Ages and attempted to explain reality without relying solely on religion.
• The desire for knowledge: Humanists possessed great intellectual curiosity. They did not limit their knowledge to one special area, striving instead to learn about everything and embody the ideal of the Renaissance Man.
• Critical thinking: This was based on reason, research, and experimentation.
• Use of vernacular languages: While most books were written in Latin, Humanists started to write their works in the languages spoken in their countries. Notable examples include the Italians Dante (Divine Comedy), Petrarch (Canzoniere), and Boccaccio (The Decameron). This allowed more people to access culture and new knowledge.

Important Humanist Thinkers

• Erasmus of Rotterdam (author of The Praise of Folly)
• Niccolò Machiavelli (author of The Prince)
• Thomas More (author of Utopia), who proposed an ideal political system based on justice and equality.

Scientific Advances and Idea Dissemination

The Modern Age saw significant advances in technology and scientific knowledge.

In the 16th century, the astronomer Copernicus proposed a revolutionary theory: the Heliocentric Hypothesis. This stated that the Earth revolved around the Sun, and not vice versa, contradicting the commonly held belief of the time.

New ideas were rapidly disseminated, notably through the printing of the first major book, the Bible.