Thread 18078906

Did the fall of Constantinople kickstart the Renaissance in Italy? It cannot be a coincidence that when the last bastion of antiquity has fallen then unprecedented artistic and scientific boom followed after centuries of stagnation.

>did the turks somehow make civilization better?
no

> implying renaissance was some kind of switch that got flipped in 1453

Petrarch was reviving classical texts a full century before the fall. Florence already cucking the Medici bank to fund artists and shit. The fall was a feels-bad moment for tradbros, but the Greek scholars fleeing West is a massive cope. Most were already in Italy for the Council of Ferrara-Florence in 1438.

>>18078912
>>18078915
>reading comprehension

>>18078906 (OP)
That’s a big hat.

>>18078906 (OP)
Absolutely.

>The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city was captured on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 55-day siege which had begun on 6 April

>The migration waves of Byzantine scholars and émigrés in the period following the sacking of Constantinople and the fall of Constantinople in 1453 is considered by many scholars key to the revival of Greek and Roman studies that led to the development of the Renaissance humanism and science. These émigrés were grammarians, humanists, poets, writers, printers, lecturers, musicians, astronomers, architects, academics, artists, scribes, philosophers, scientists, politicians and theologians. They brought to Western Europe the far greater preserved and accumulated knowledge of Byzantine civilization. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica: "Many modern scholars also agree that the exodus of Greeks to Italy as a result of this event marked the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance."

>The term rinascita ("rebirth") first appeared in Lives of the Artists (c.1550) by Giorgio Vasari

However it started earlier with the Crusades.

>After the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) and the Sack of Constantinople (1204), scholars such as William of Moerbeke gained access to the original Greek texts of scientists and philosophers, including Aristotle, Archimedes, Hero of Alexandria and Proclus, that had been preserved in the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire, and translated them directly into Latin

>>18079054
>The final decline and collapse of the Byzantine empire in the fifteenth century heightened contact between its scholars and those of the west. Translation into Latin of the full range of Greek classics ensued, including the historians, poets, playwrights and non-Aristotelian philosophers. Manuel Chrysoloras (c. 1355–1415) translated portions of Homer and Plato. Guarino da Verona (1370–1460) translated Strabo and Plutarch. Poggio Bracciolini (1380–1459) translated Xenophon, Diodorus, and Lucian. Francesco Filelfo (1398–1481) translated portions of Plutarch, Xenophon and Lysias. Lorenzo Valla (1407–1457) translated Thucydides and Herodotus. Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) and his Platonic Academy translated Plato. Poliziano (1454–1494) translated Herodian and portions of Epictetus and Plutarch. Regiomontanus and George of Trebizond translated Ptolemy's Almagest. Important patrons were Basilios Bessarion (1403–1472) and Pope Nicholas V (1397–1455)

>Georgios Gemistos Plethon (Greek: Γεώργιος Γεμιστὸς Πλήθων; Latin: Georgius Gemistus Pletho c.1355/1360 – 1452/1454), commonly known as Gemistos Plethon, was a Greek scholar and one of the most renowned philosophers of the Late Byzantine era. He was a chief pioneer of the revival of Greek scholarship in Western Europe. As revealed in his last literary work, the Nomoi or Book of Laws, which he circulated only among close friends, he rejected Christianity in favour of a return to the worship of the classical Hellenic gods, mixed with ancient wisdom based on Zoroaster and the Magi

>In 1438–1439 he reintroduced Plato's ideas to Western Europe during the Council of Florence, in a failed attempt to reconcile the East–West schism. Plethon also formulated his political vision in several speeches throughout his life

>>18078906 (OP)
It kicked off in Constantinople in the 11th century with Michael Psellos

>>18078906 (OP)
this is a question which could be answered by like 20 minutes of surface level research

>>18079054
By the twelfth century, Italy and the West had surpassed Byzantium in nearly every way. Art and architecture had developed along different paths; while there may have been some Roman influence, it stemmed more from a revival of ancient Roman knowledge than from direct continuity. By the fifteenth century, Constantinople had become little more than a cluster of villages and churches. The only thing keeping the city intact was the massive Theodosian Walls.

>>18079059
>The boast in one of the speeches that "We are Hellenes by race and culture" and his proposal of a reborn Byzantine Empire following a utopian Hellenic system of government centered in Mystras, have generated discussion about Byzantine and modern Greek identity. In this regard, Plethon has been labelled both "the last Hellene" and "the first modern Greek"

>During the sessions at Florence of the Council of Ferrara-Florence in 1438–1445, during the failed attempts to heal the schism of the Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Catholic) churches, Cosimo de' Medici and his intellectual circle had made acquaintance with the Neoplatonic philosopher George Gemistos Plethon, whose discourses upon Plato and the Alexandrian mystics so fascinated the humanists of Florence that they named him the second Plato. In 1459 John Argyropoulos was lecturing on Greek language and literature at Florence, and Marsilio Ficino became his pupil

>Marsilio Ficino (Italian: [marˈsiːljo fiˈtʃiːno]; Latin name: Marsilius Ficinus; 19 October 1433 – 1 October 1499) was an Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance. He was an astrologer, a reviver of Neoplatonism in touch with the major academics of his day, and the first translator of Plato's complete extant works into Latin. His Florentine Academy, an attempt to revive Plato's Academy, influenced the direction and tenor of the Italian Renaissance and the development of European philosophy

>>18079116
>Ficino was born at Figline Valdarno. His father, Diotifeci d'Agnolo, was a physician under the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici, who took the young man into his household and became the lifelong patron of Marsilio, who was made tutor to his grandson, Lorenzo de' Medici. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the Italian humanist philosopher and scholar, was another of his students

>Cosimo commissioned Ficino's Latin translation of the complete works of Plato (the first ever complete translation) and collected a vast library that he shared with intellectuals such as Niccolò de' Niccoli and Leonardo Bruni. He also established a Platonic Academy in Florence in 1445. He provided his grandson Lorenzo de' Medici with an education in the studia humanitatis. Cosimo certainly had an influence on Renaissance intellectual life, but it was Lorenzo who would later be deemed to have been the greatest patron

>Giovanni Pico dei conti della Mirandola e della Concordia (/ˈpiːkoʊ ˌdɛlə mJˈrændələ, -ˈrɑːn-/ PEE-koh DEL-ə mirr-A(H)N-də-lə; Italian: [dʒoˈvanni ˈpiːko della miˈrandola]; Latin: Johannes Picus de Mirandula; 24 February 1463 – 17 November 1494), known as Pico della Mirandola, was an Italian Renaissance nobleman and philosopher. He is famed for the events of 1486, when, at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy, and magic against all comers, for which he wrote the Oration on the Dignity of Man, which has been called the "Manifesto of the Renaissance", and a key text of Renaissance humanism and of what has been called the "Hermetic Reformation". He was the founder of the tradition of Christian Kabbalah, a key tenet of early modern Western esotericism. The 900 Theses was the first printed book to be universally banned by the Church. Pico is sometimes seen as a proto-Protestant, because his 900 theses anticipated many Protestant views

>>18078906 (OP)
The Greek exodus wasn't entirely responsible but it made the lion's share of the contribution, I'd say.
>>18078912
The Turks obliterated an obscene amounts of invaluable Hellenic literature that is now lost forever. It is the Greeks who smuggled parts of it to the West that improved civilisation, and also the Italians who actually used and worked through those materials.

>>18079091
The intellectual fall of Byzantium occurred before the fall of its sovereignty.

>The last Greek philosophers of the revived Academy in the 6th century were drawn from various parts of the Hellenistic cultural world and suggest the broad syncretism of the common culture (see koine): Five of the seven Academy philosophers mentioned by Agathias were Syriac in their cultural origin: Hermias and Diogenes (both from Phoenicia), Isidorus of Gaza, Damascius of Syria, Iamblichus of Coele-Syria and perhaps even Simplicius of Cilicia. The emperor Justinian closed the school in 529 A.D.. The last Scholarch of the Academy was Damascius (d. 540). According to the sole witness, the historian Agathias, its remaining members looked for protection under the rule of Sassanid king Khosrau I in his capital at Ctesiphon, carrying with them precious scrolls of literature and philosophy, and to a lesser degree of science. After a peace treaty between the Persian and the Byzantine empire in 532, their personal security (an early document in the history of freedom of religion) was guaranteed

>It has been speculated that the Academy did not altogether disappear. After his exile, Simplicius (and perhaps some others), may have travelled to Harran, near Edessa. From there, the students of an Academy-in-exile could have survived into the 9th century, long enough to facilitate the Arabic revival of the Neoplatonist commentary tradition in Baghdad

>One of the earliest academies established in the east was the 7th century Academy of Gundishapur in Sassanid Persia

>>18079168
Even if they were in a decline Constantinople still had, by far, the biggest libraries and collections of the antiquity.

>>18079214
that's the crazy thing about byzantium, it had absurd amounts of intellectual resources that were simply not used. they were just preserved, copied, and oftentimes truncated. and that was it. it's a pity that we lost those texts prior to the 19th century - if they had lasted until then, no doubt the study and research into the constantinopolitan libraries would have greatly enriched human learning.

>>18079091
Name one thing the West was more advanced at?

>>18078915
>>18079059
reminder that Plethon was one of the few anti-unionists at Florence

>>18079257
It’s not very different in this day and age. From time to time political and economical interests just botlleneck human advancement.

>>18078906 (OP)
>Did the fall of Constantinople kickstart the Renaissance in Italy?
No
>It cannot be a coincidence that when the last bastion of antiquity has fallen then unprecedented artistic and scientific boom followed after centuries of stagnation.
It didn't. Greek scholars only became part of the Italian renaissance in the late 14th century and early 15th. The renaissance itself had been happening since the late 13th century. This is also ignoring every other part of the renaissance which is focused on more than just texts. Art, political theory, architecture, military thinking, economics and many other aspects of Italian society underwent a near total transformation. The renaissance was something that uniquely emerged in Northern Italy, only the very similar Low Counties underwent anything even similar. Greek scholars simply entered a movement which had already been ongoing without them, and they simply never interacted with many aspects of it.

>>18080502
Tuscany and Rome are not Northern Italy sweaty

>>18080502
>The renaissance itself had been happening since the late 13th century
yeah, a few paintings and poems. it was nothing compared to the 15th century boom

>>18078978
>For you!

>>18078906 (OP)
>"Thank you" would be nice.

>>18078906 (OP)
The Renaissance didn't exist.

>>18080502
>Art
>architecture
In fact, the Eastern/Greek influence in this precedes the Renaissance itself.

>In the Archaic phase of ancient Greek art, the Orientalizing period is the cultural and art historical period that began during the later part of the 8th century BC, when there was a heavy influence from the more advanced art of the Ancient Near East. The main sources were Akkadia, Aramea, as well as Phoenicia and Egypt. With the spread of Phoenician civilization by Carthage and Greek colonisation into the Western Mediterranean, these artistic trends also influenced the Etruscans and early Ancient Romans in the Italian peninsula

>Despite the popularity of Ancient Greek culture in the west, Ancient Greek culture is generally seen as having little importance for Indo-European studies due to the heavy influence of Pre-Greek and Near Eastern cultures, which overwhelms what little Indo-European material can be extracted from it

>Greek religious concepts also have absorbed many of the beliefs and practices of earlier, nearby cultures, many influences came from the Near East, especially via Cyprus. Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC, traced many Greek religious practices to Egypt and Phoenicia

gayreeks were already seetghing primitives, falling behind latin christians, whom they genocided out of butthurt since latins made bank off of trade in the agean. Why would refugees contribute while centuries of contacts with the supposedly magical orthocuck gayreek culture didn't? makes zero sense