Transcript of Changing Patterns of Life Chapter 14:iii “Only men of noble birth can obtain perfection. The poor,...
Changing Patterns of LifeChapter 14:iii
“Only men of noble birth can obtain perfection. The poor, who work with their hands and have not the time to cultivate their minds, are incapable of it.”
- Lorenzo de’Medici
Early books cost a lot because they were copied by hand.
Europeans learned how to make paper from the Arabs.
Engravers experimented with printing books from wood blocks in the 1300s.
They carved a page on the block, which was then inked and pressed on paper.
German engravers developed moveable type by the 1400s.
Johann Gutenberg of Mainz is the German printer credited with developing moveable type.
There were over 250 presses in Europe turning out books by 1500.
Fewer than fifty original
editions of the Gutenberg
Bible survive.
Because of the use of paper and the advent of the printing press, ideas spread rapidly.
Much of the newly-printed material covered such diverse topics as:
• religion
• mining
• medicine
• philosophy
• politics
The new methods of
printing allowed the
ideas of church
reformers like Martin Luther to circulate.
The writings of the Belgian
Valerius corrected many
of the errors about human anatomy held by physicians of the time.
Social and Economic Changes in Renaissance
Europe
People mostly
lived and worked in extended families during
Medieval times.
During the Renaissance, nuclear families gradually began to emerge in towns and cities.
The Bubonic Plague killed close to one-third of the
population of Western Europe.
Physicians wore bizarre-looking
clothing to avoid being
contaminated by people sick
with the plague.
Women’s occupations changed little during the
Renaissance.
Their main responsibilities were raising the
children and taking care of
the family.
Women and children worked alongside the men in the fields
during sowing and harvesting time.
Some women
worked as household servants.
Many women earned
money as spinners
and weavers.
Women in the merchant class helped
manage family
businesses.
A few women played central roles in
governingcity-states or nations.
Catherine de’Medici, widow of King Henry II of France, acted as regent for her sons until they