What is needed for the Renaissance to occur?

From plotting out my Vinlandic timeline, I was confronted by the fact that I can't just have the Renaissance begin at an arbitrary date in the Late Middle Ages without explaining why the timeline acquired the prerequisites for the Renaissance to occur at all earlier than in OTL. Similarly, if I want to have the Renaissance occur later than in OTL, I need to explain why the timeline did not acquire the necessary prerequisites for the Renaissance to occur than until a later date than in OTL.

For this reason, I was interested in trying to assemble a list of events/inventions/discoveries/rediscoveries that was needed for the Renaissance to occur, which other ATL writers may also have use of if they're dealing with the Renaissance (or something similar to it). Consider it something of a game. You can bring up whatever event/invention/discovery/rediscovery that you think is necessary for the Renaissance, add a justification for why you think this played a role in bringing about the Renaissance, and it is added to the list. Multiple entries are more than welcomed.

I'll begin the list with the following entry:


Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the movable type:
The movable type print enabled modern book printing, and it was as such crucial for the explosion of publication of books and the spread of knowledge.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
A major contributing factor to the Renaissance was the Black Death in the 14th Century. The massive loss of life concentrated property into the hands of fewer people, thus creating new patterns of wealth that were increasingly used to patronize artists and intellectuals. It also simply shook up existing social and political structures that had remained essentially unchanged for centuries.
 
The gradual collapse of the Byzantine Empire meant many Greeks headed west, bringing with them Greek and Roman traditions of art, literature, etc. In that same vein, the Fourth Crusade did something similar, as crusaders sacked Byzantium and brought back the art, etc. that they found there.
 
The gradual collapse of the Byzantine Empire meant many Greeks headed west, bringing with them Greek and Roman traditions of art, literature, etc. In that same vein, the Fourth Crusade did something similar, as crusaders sacked Byzantium and brought back the art, etc. that they found there.

Nitpick, but most of the bringing back was by the Venetians, the crusaders proper were more vandals.


Um, I'd say a fairly well fed and secure population. Along the vein of the issue of the Black Death concentrating property in fewer hands, the survivors being able to eat well and worry about other things than fervently hoping they could scratch a living from rock and weeds is important. And having to fend off devastating invasion every year isn't good either.

This isn't a particularly hard element to achieve, but society in general needs to be sufficiently well fed and secure for the kind of developments that happened to be possible instead of having all attention be focused on farming and fighting off raiders. Doesn't mean you need complete peace - just that worrying about the crops can't be the most important thing on people's minds.

If you have that, you can get those actual developments and general prosperity (which is good for progress), if you don't, it'll be delayed until you do.
 
The growth in trade and urbanization that happened during the Middle Ages also contributed quite significantly. The Renaissance in some ways can be viewed not as a break with the period before it, but as a continuation.
 
Adding all of that to the list, along with Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters...


Factors that Contributed to the Renaissance:

Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the movable type:
The movable type print enabled modern book printing, and it was as such crucial for the explosion of publication of books and the spread of knowledge.

The Black Death in the 14th Century:
The massive loss of life concentrated property into the hands of fewer people, thus creating new patterns of wealth that were increasingly used to patronize artists and intellectuals. It also simply shook up existing social and political structures that had remained essentially unchanged for centuries.

The Collapse of the Byzantine Empire:
The gradual collapse of the Byzantine Empire meant many Greeks headed west, bringing with them Greek and Roman traditions of art, literature, etc. In that same vein, the Fourth Crusade did something similar, as crusaders sacked Byzantium and brought back the art, etc. that they found there.

Increased Venetian Trade in
the Eastern Mediterranean Region:
Contributed to Roman and Greek culture coming to Western Europe.

General Improvement of Agriculture:
Society in general needs to be sufficiently well fed and secure for the kind of developments that happened during the Renaissance to be possible, instead of having all attention be focused on farming and fighting off raiders. Doesn't mean you need complete peace - just that worrying about the crops can't be the most important thing on people's minds.

General Trends of Trade and Urbanization:
The growth in trade and urbanization that happened during the Middle Ages also contributed quite significantly. The Renaissance in some ways can be viewed not as a break with the period before it, but as a continuation.

Petrarch's Rediscovery of Cicero's Letters:
Contributed to the reintroduction of Hellenistic philosophical and rhetorical, as well as Roman political traditions.
 
Antiqarianism in Italy/other areas that have lots of roman stuff is important too for the Renaissance style. Artistically, Italy was already very strongly Byzantine in the middle ages and what seems to have kicked off the "Renaissance style" was the combination of French gothic and antiquarianism with a byzantine style that already preserved some classical tendencies. To clarifly this point, here is the Anastasis from St. Saviour in Chora in Istanbul:
/http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Chora_Church_Constantinople_2007_013.jpg
And here is an approximately contemporary work of Giotto from his later period:
File:Giotto_di_Bondone_060.jpg

These works, are in many respects similar in terms of execution-the greater physical realism of the Giotto is to some degree a pushing forward of things that are already present in Byzantine works like the Chora fresco. To get something like the style invented by Massacio in painting and Donatello in sculpture**, you really need a full-on commitment to classical antiquity as it was preserved in Italy, not just what came out of the fall of Constantinople.
**Architecture is kind of different, mainly because Tuscan architecture had a very strongly classical current even before Brunelleschi that was interrupted by the introduction of the gothic. It seems to me that his great innovation was not the re-introduction of classical elements but his ability to organize them in a way that made them usable in the buildings of his day.
Sorry for the over-long art history lecture, but since so much of our idea of the Renaissance involves the art therof, it makes sense to devote some time to it.
 
A important prerequisite would be the key developments of the High Middle Ages (c. 1000-1300).

*The Medieval Warm Period allowed for greater agricultural production in many areas and consequent population booms. Villages and small towns start developing into new urban centers. The increased need for land leads to expansion of agriculture to areas where only forests, marshlands, and grasslands previously existed. In some cases plants are successfully transferred to new areas and cultivated. "Farmers grew wheat well north into Scandinavia, and wine grapes in northern England." This is also an era of innovations in cultural methods.
**The population booms also result in migration movements from heavily-populated areas to those scarcely populated. The German expansion towards the east is partially based on their much larger numbers when compared to their Slavic neighbors.

*Organized states with centralized bureaucracies start emerging. Some are the result of centuries of internal developments (such as England and France), others represent significant transitions from previously tribal societies (such as Hungary or the Scandinavian states). In either case, these regions gain relatively stable systems of government and the foundations are set for future developments.

*A revival of international trade and new demand for luxury goods (such as spices, silk, and certain varieties of cloth) help in the continuing growth of many cities across Europe. From Venice, Genoa, Florence in Italy, to the future members of the Hanseatic League across the Baltic. From London in the west to Novgodod in the east. Merchants, and craftsmen thrive and in some cases gain political influence. Banking rises relatively late in the period, but grows in significance over the following couple of centuries. Family of Florentine bankers such as the Bardi, the Peruzzi, and the Medici start their climb to power.

*Massive religious/ideological movements emerge from both within the Catholic Church and from its opponents. Scholastic philosophers, Cluniac reformers of the monasteries, new monastic orders (such as the Cistercians, Franciscans, Carmelites, Dominicans, and Augustinians), and so called Heretics (such as the Cathars and Waldensians) question every aspect of life and often attempt to redefine and/or reform it. Meanwhile there are revolutionary breakthroughs in the arts and sciences.
 
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