Earliest possible Renaissance

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Deleted member 67076

What would it take to get the earliest possible Renaissance in Italy, with a POD after 800 AD?
 
What would it take to get the earliest possible Renaissance in Italy, with a POD after 800 AD?

I imagine that if you have Islamic invasions into Italy that actually succeed, even for a short while, that the knowledge preserved and gathered by the Arabs can be transmitted in part to Italy. I think that this could be achieved if there were a fairly long-standing Emirate of Sicily or something of the sort, which was then evicted by a successful crusade. You would have similar amounts of knowledge transmission as was seen in the Reconquista and Crusades. Through this, Italians could experience a classical revival as early as the 11th or 12th centuries, maybe earlier depending on how well the Muslims establish themselves in Italy.

However, the Italians would also need wealthy patrons to sponsor this movement, and I'm not sure where that can come from without fully developed trade across Europe. Perhaps Europe could more effectively resist the invading nomads and maintain greater stability, thus allowing the old infrastructure to be rebuilt more quickly.

Alternatively, depending on your definition of Renaissance, you could just have the Franks conquer all of Italy (or most of it), and have the Carolingian Renaissance take root there. If this leads to the Franks gaining a long-term, stable Hegemony over the territories they've conquered, then I can imagine that a stronger classical revival is very possible.
 
Suppose the Muslims take control of, say, Naples (other cities in Southern Italy could do just as well), but, due to the large Christian population, establish a tolerant state where both Christians and Mulisms are free to live and trade.

Then, this port becomes a key trading center, as Mulism traders from the Middle East and Christian traders from Europe are both free to do business there. This trading activity generates the wealth, and the presence of Christians and Muslims in close proximity generates the cultural exchange.

Although I'm not sure if the Venetians, for example, would still prefer to trade for Eastern goods through Constantinople rather than trading with Muslim merchants in Naples. Maybe Constantinople needs to fall sooner so that trade route gets cut off....
 
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