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Marriage in Renaissance period was mainly to build higher social status and network alliances. In aristocratic families, marriages were a currency of dynastic and diplomatic exchange. Women were normally got married in a very young age with men way older than them. Men is considered immature to get married until they reach the age 30.

Weddings and the arrival of brides naturally occasioned redecorating at the groom’s home, often including installation of spalliere. Long and horizontal, like cassone panels but a bit larger, spallierewere set over chests, beds, or other furnishings, appearing something like backrests.

-Rk

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-Francesco Guicciardini

Renaissance marriages were not simply personal matters; they were crucial to the network of alliances that underlay a family's prosperity and prospects and that, in turn, formed the fabric of loyalties, affection, and obligation that supported civic institutions. Arranging a suitable match involved family, friends, associates, and political allies. In aristocratic families, marriages were a currency of dynastic and diplomatic exchange (as in the case of Bianca Maria Sforza)-and they were not much different among the merchant families of republican cities. In Florence, for example, , de facto leader of the ostensibly-republican state, considered negotiating marriages among supporters a worthwhile use of his

time and energy. Marriage not only reflected order, it was a civilizing influence on which the whole of society depended.

Brides, especially in Florence, were typically much younger than grooms. Women as young as fourteen were often married to men in their thirties, partly to ensure the bride's virginity. The age disparity had a number of consequences. Young men were more or less free to visit prostitutes, who were semi-sanctioned in certain outlying districts. Relations between male youths and older men were regarded as fairly routine, particularly in humanist circles, in which ancient Greece provided a respected model. And, of course, the large number of very young brides corresponded to a large number of widows. Children of men who died remained in the man's home and a part of his extended family; his wife did not. Instead, widows returned to the control of their own families, who now had to reassume their support or scramble to arrange a second dowry sufficient to attract another marriage proposal.

Weddings and Dowries

Marriage customs varied somewhat from one city to another; this account is based primarily on the many descriptions of weddings that survive from Florence, but it reflects general practices elsewhere in Italy. Before 1563, when reforms enacted by the Council of Trent systematized and formalized the process, the only requirement for marriage was the mutual consent of a man and woman not already married to someone else. Priests, ceremonies, and even witnesses were unnecessary. That did not mean, however, that weddings lacked elaborate ritual. Nor did it imply that couples chose their partners themselves.

A likely match was identified many years before a wedding, perhaps suggested by a broker or influential family connection. Negotiations between two families were sometimes sealed until the bride reached puberty and a suitable dowry could be amassed. Dowries, which consisted of goods such as clothing and jewelry as well as money or property, were among the greatest financial obligations that families with female children faced. Parents hoping to elevate their status paid large sums to place their daughters in advantageous unions, but even marriages among social equals required substantial investment. In Florence, a special public fund supported by an annual tax provided dowries for orphaned girls. Wealthy individuals also gave dowries for poor girls as acts of pious charity.

Grooms, too, were expected to provide gifts; among the wealthy, these often included gems and luxurious clothes for the bride to wear during the wedding festivities (see " Wedding preparations for Caterina Strozzi "). Gifts, which served as much to advertise the groom's status as to please his new wife (and her family), remained his property. Some husbands later sold their wives' wedding dresses; elaborate and colorful clothing would have become unsuitable after a few years of marriage, at which point women were expected to adopt more sober dress.

As the date of his wedding approached, a Florentine groom dined at the bride's home and presented gifts. His visit was followed by a larger gathering of relatives from both families-males only-during which the final terms of the match were hammered out: the size of the dowry, a schedule for its payment, and the date of the nuptials. The arrangements were made public, giving outside parties a chance to raise objections. At this juncture, the bride herself was finally, albeit briefly, involved. During the ring ceremony ( anellamento), which took place at her home, male and female relatives from both families looked on as she received a ring from her husband to be. A celebration followed, with more gifts and a festive meal.

Legitimization of the couple's union ( nozze) followed a procession through the streets of the town, as the bride-together with the groom's gifts to her and her dowry goods-was moved from her childhood home to her husband's house. In Rome, but not in Florence, the bridal couple normally stopped in church to attend a mass along the way. Roman brides proceeded astride a white horse, wearing belts their fathers had put around their waists to emphasize their chastity.

The wedding depicted on this panel, which was once part of a wedding chest, is that of the biblical Esther, but the action has been translated in time and place to fifteenth-century Florence.

These elaborate and very public festivities helped defuse any lingering dissatisfaction on the part of the two families whose interests were now joined (disputes over dowry amounts, for example) or any others who might have felt unfairly treated during marriage negotiations. Such resentment must have been somewhat common, given that a statute enacted in Florence prohibited onlookers from throwing stones or garbage at a wedding procession.

Public display encouraged lavish spending and at various times it prompted sumptuary laws designed to hold such spending in check. It also helped create a vogue for specially prepared marriage chests. Usually called cassoni today (but known as forzieri in Renaissance Florence), the chests were used to transport the wedding goods-dowry and groom gifts-during the wedding procession and to store them once the bride and groom had settled into their new home.

Weddings and the arrival of brides naturally occasioned redecorating at the groom's home, often including installation of with narrative scenes. Long and horizontal, like cassone panels but a bit larger, spalliere were set over chests, beds, or other furnishings, appearing something like backrests. Eventually they were incorporated into the wainscoting. Some may have been set higher on the wall than the word " spalliera" (from "shoulder") suggests. Probably one reason they grew more popular than the painted cassoni was that the wall-mounted panels could be seen more easily. A painter's skill in using perspective, for example, would be hard to appreciate in a scene set almost at floor level.

Between the 1370s and about 1470, most cassoni had painted decoration. The outsides often featured heraldic devices and narrative scenes, while the interior of the lid-seen only in the privacy of the home-frequently showed reclining nudes or cavorting putti, or textile-like patterns that mimicked the actual fabrics stored inside. Few cassoni survive intact; their various panels have been separated and are almost always displayed as individual easel paintings now. After about 1470, most cassoni were decorated with heavy wood carving or instead of painted scenes. The subjects once painted on the chests moved to the walls.

The Trebizond cassone

The Trebizond cassone was long thought to have been a rare intact survivor, but conservation work has revealed that it was reconstructed and is not in its original state; still, it gives an indication of how the chest would have looked during the sixteenth century.

The carved cassone is decorated with the crests and emblems of one of Florence's most prominent families. Such carving was often highlighted with gilding.

Both cassoni and spalliere offered spaces for families and artists to explore themes related to love and marriage. Most common were scenes of conquests and triumphs, episodes with suitable moral messages about the duties of husbands and wives from myth and the Bible, or imagery taken from , , , and other ancient or Renaissance authors. The values celebrated in these paintings-in the decoration of almost all objects made for weddings and newly formed households-were those most desired in the bride herself: beauty, virtue, purity, duty, and fertility.

Although a husband and wife would have had little opportunity to know each other before their wedding, most marriages seem to have developed into companionable, if not loving, relationships. Wives had few individual rights, but many exercised considerable power within the family and household. Business took many husbands away for extended periods, necessitating that their spouses play an active role in family affairs.

Leon Battista Alberti

, a humanist and architect who also wrote a manual on family life, signaled that wedding chests were not to be counted as ordinary storage. He teased wives about their appropriate use:
Dear wife, if you put into your marriage chest not only your silken gowns and gold and valuable jewelry, but also the flax to be spun and the little pot of oil, too, and finally the chick, and then locked the whole thing securely with your key, tell me, would you think that you had taken good care of everything because everything was locked up?
A Husband's Absence

A husband's absence could give new importance to his portrait. The identity of the woman who holds her husband's likeness in Licinio's picture is unknown, and her wan expression is a bit wistful and remote. The other picture is quite different. painted his friend, wealthy Florentine banker Bindo Altoviti, in an almost theatrical pose. He turns to fix the eye of the viewer, and Bindo perhaps intended his portrait to connect with one viewer in particular: his wife, Fiammetta Soderini. Bindo's flushed cheeks contribute to the impression of passion, and a ring is prominent on the hand he holds above his heart. Bindo and Fiammetta, the daughter of a prominent Florentine family, were married in 1511, when Bindo would have been about twenty years old. The couple went on to have six children, but Fiammetta continued to live in Florence while Bindo's business with the papal court required his presence in Rome. This portrait, which apparently hung in the couple's home in Florence, would have provided Fiammetta with a vivid reminder of her absent husband. It remained in the Altoviti family for nearly three hundred years.

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Husbands and Wives - Italian Renaissance Learning Resources

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"There is nothing in our civil life that is more difficult than properly marrying off one's daughters." -Francesco Guicciardini2 Renaissance marriages were not simply personal matters; they were crucial to the network of alliances that underlay a family's prosperity and prospects and that, in turn, formed the fabric of loyalties, affection, and obligation that supported ...

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While Galileo was not responsible for the creation of the first telescope, he did create his own that he along with a small group of early astronomers used and refined to examine the solar system. His findings were posted in his collection of observations “Starry Messenger”. JH

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The invention of the telescope played an important role in advancing our understanding of Earth's place in the cosmos. While there is evidence that the principles of telescopes were known in the late 16th century, the first telescopes were created in the Netherlands in 1608. Spectacle makers Hans Lippershey & Zacharias Janssen and Jacob Metius independently created telescopes. The telescope emerged from a tradition of craftsmanship and technical innovation around spectacles and developments in the science of optics traced back through Roger Bacon and a series of Islamic scientists, in particular Al-Kindi (c. 801-873), Ibn Sahl (c. 940-1000) and Ibn al-Haytham (965-1040).

The story of Galileo's telescopic observations illustrates how a tool for seeing and collecting evidence can dramatically change our understanding of the cosmos.

Early telescopes were primarily used for making Earth-bound observations, such as surveying and military tactics. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was part of a small group of astronomers who turned telescopes towards the heavens. After hearing about the "Danish perspective glass" in 1609, Galileo constructed his own telescope. He subsequently demonstrated the telescope in Venice. His demonstration of the telescope earned him a lifetime lectureship.

After his initial success, Galileo focused on refining the instrument. The initial telescope he created (and the Dutch ones it was based on) magnified objects three diameters. That is, it made things look three times larger than they did with the naked eye. Through refining the design of the telescope he developed an instrument that could magnify eight times, and eventually thirty times.

This increased magnification of heavenly objects had a significant and immediate impact. These new observations were by no means exclusive to Galileo. The story of Galileo and the telescope is a powerful example of the key role that technologies play in enabling advances in scientific knowledge. With that said, the telescope isn't the only technology at play in this story. Galileo deftly used the printed book and the design of prints in his books to present his research to the learned community. This is not a story of a lone thinker theorizing and piecing together a new model of the cosmos. Quite the contrary, an array of individuals in the early 17th century took the newly created telescopes and pointed them toward the heavens. Unlike those other observers, however, Galileo rapidly published his findings. In some cases, Galileo understood the significance and importance of these observations more readily than his contemporaries. It was this understanding, and foresight to publish, that made Galileo's ideas stand the test of time.

Starry Messenger, Galileo's Rapidly Published Findings

Shortly after his first telescopic observations of the heavens, Galileo began sketching his observations. He wanted to get his findings out. His observations and interpretations of stars, the moon, Jupiter, the sun and the phases of the planet Venus, were critical in refining our understanding of the cosmos. In March of 1610, Galileo published the initial results of his telescopic observations in Starry Messenger (Sidereus Nuncius), this short astronomical treatise quickly traveled to the corners of learned society.

The Moon is not a Perfect Sphere

The engravings of the Moon, created from Galileo's artfully drawn sketches, presented readers with a radically different perspective on the Moon. Due to Galileo's training in Renaissance art and an understanding of chiaroscuro (a technique for shading light and dark) he quickly understood that the shadows he was seeing were actually mountains and craters. From his sketches, he made estimates of their heights and depths. These observations, only possible by the magnifying power of the telescope, clearly suggested that the Aristotelian idea of the Moon as a translucent perfect sphere (or as Dante had suggested an "eternal pearl") were wrong. The Moon was no longer a perfect heavenly object; it now clearly had features and a topology similar in many ways to the Earth. The notion that the moon had a topology like the Earth led to speculation on what life might be like on the Moon.

It's now understood that English astronomer Thomas Harriot, (1560-1621) made the first recorded observations of the Moon through a telescope, a month before Galileo in July of 1609. Moreover, the map Harriot created of the Moon in 1612 or 1613 is more detailed than Galileo's. Harriot observed the Moon first, and the maps he created included more information, but he did not broadly distribute his work. However, over 500 copies of the Starry Messenger were printed and sold, solidifying Galileo's legacy in astronomy.

Jupiter has its Own Moons

When Galileo turned his telescope to observe Jupiter, he saw what he initially thought to be three previously unobserved fixed stars. After continued observations it became clear that they were not fixed, and in a matter of days he had come to the conclusion that these new stars were in fact orbiting Jupiter. He had discovered three of the largest moons of Jupiter.

The implications of this discovery, of objects orbiting a planet, were part of what pushed Galileo to argue for a sun-centered cosmos. Jupiter's moons countered a key argument against the Earth orbiting the sun. Critics of Copernicus' sun-centered cosmos asked, how could the Earth drag the moon across the heavens? Remember, the idea of the underlying mechanism of gravity wouldn't come until Newton's Principia Mathematica in 1687, which makes this both a reasonable and important question. Since there was wide agreement that Jupiter was already in motion, the fact that Jupiter clearly had its own moons offered a clear refutation of an important critique of the heliocentric system.

In Mundus Jovialis (1614), Simon Marius claimed that he, not Galileo, had first discovered the moons of Jupiter. In his times, Marius was publicly condemned as a plagiarist. Galileo had published his results already in 1610 and was rather well known and powerful in renaissance court. Only in the 19th century, would historians return to examine the evidence. It turns out that Marius had not plagiarized Galileo. Clearly his observations were different; in fact he had more accurately charted the orbits of Jupiter's moons. It's now broadly understood that Marius was an independent observer of Jupiter's moons.

A Spotted Rotating Sun

In observing the sun, Galileo saw a series of "imperfections". He had discovered sunspots. Monitoring these spots on the sun demonstrated that the sun in fact rotated. Furthermore, later observations by Francesco Sizzi in 1612 suggested that the spots on the sun actually changed over time. It would seem that the Sun, like the Moon, was not the perfect sphere that learned Europeans thought of as a key feature of their universe.

These sunspots were also independently observed by the Jesuit priest and astronomer Christoph Scheiner (1575-1650). Scheiner observed sunspots in 1611 and published his results in 1612. Over the course of their careers Galileo and Schiener feuded over who should get credit for the discovery. Unbeknownst to either of them, Thomas Harriot had observed them in 1610 and the German theologian, David Fabricius and his son Johanes likely beat both Scheiner and Galileo to the publication of the discovery with their Apparente earum cum Sole Conversione Narratio in June of 1611. However, their publication was not widely circulated and thus remained obscure in its times. Outside the western tradition of science. Chinese astronomers have long observed sunspots, going back to at least 165 BC.

Galileo's name became synonymous with the telescope. In this frontispiece to Galileo's collected works he is shown presenting the telescope and gesturing toward some of his discoveries in the heavens. The artist has depicted Jupiter and its satellites. The book did not include Galileo's most famous work, his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which had been added to the Index of Forbidden Books. Still, the artist included visual reference to this work. Below the moons of Jupiter, one can clearly see a model of a Sun-centered system. Frontispiece to Opere di Galileo Galilei.1656. Rare Book & Special Collections division.

In Starry Messenger, Galileo shared detailed drawings of different phases of the Moon. The significant magnification provided evidence of the rocky nature of the Moon. Sidereus Nuncius, Image 23 (1610) Rare Book & Special Collections"

Here, Galileo presents a sequence of his observations of the moons of Jupiter (the larger circle) and Jupiter's satellites over subsequent nights. The sequence shows the movement and disappearance of some of the satellites as they move behind Jupiter. Sidereus Nuncius, Image 47. (1610) Rare Book & Special Collections.

Here is Galileo's sketch of the sun, note the spots on it. In his times, it was widely believed that the sun was a perfect sphere, but clearly it had spots. Further, by watching the spots over time it became clear that the sun was actually rotating. Both of these observations seemed to be at odds with interpretations of Aristotelian cosmology. Three Letters on Sunspots. (1613) Rare Book & Special Collections

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Galileo and the Telescope | Modeling the Cosmos | Articles and Essays | Finding Our Place in the Cosmos: From Galileo to Sagan and Beyond | Digital Collections | Library of Congress

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The invention of the telescope played an important role in advancing our understanding of Earth's place in the cosmos. While there is evidence that the principles of telescopes were known in the late 16th century, the first telescopes were created in the Netherlands in 1608.

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The Dulcian was the Renaissance precursor to modern instruments like the bassoon, with the invention of the double bore principle, where an instrument could sound and be perceived as being much lower with two parallel holes drilled into the same piece of wood. Not much is known about the origin point, but most people point to Italy in the 15th century, before it became a staple of town bands during the century after. -DS

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(curtal)

"The common bleting musicke is the drone,
hobuis and curtoll."
-Stephen Batman, 1582
One of the most significant innovations in sixteenth century woodwind instrument building was the development of the double bore principle. Two parallel holes drilled in the same piece of wood and connected at one end by a U-curve allowed aninstrument to sound twice as low for its apparentlength as one with a single bore. Little is known about where the earliest development took place, although some evidence points to Italy. The name dulcian (also dulzian, dulzian, dolzone, delzan, dulcan, dolcan) is from the Latin dulcis (sweet). This instrument was also called the curtal (or curtoll, curtail) from the Latin curtus(short).

By the end of the sixteenth century the dulcian had become a part of the town band. The bass shawm was did not last because it was too cumbersome and heavy. The dulcian could be used not only as an outdoor band instrument, but also in church to double the bass line on motets and masses, and in the courtly chamber for more intimate secular music. To counteract the bottom-heavy sound created by its conical bore, and to allow it to play with softer instruments, a perforated mute or bell cap, looking much like a pepper shaker, may be inserted in the open end. According to Praetorius, this makes the tone considerably softer and more beautiful.

The dulcian was made in several sizes and has a range of about two and one-half octaves ( C to g1). As the name indicates, the tone has a dolce quality when compared to the shawm. The bass size was the one which lasted as the forerunner of the bassoon.

Musica Antiqua's collection includes a cherrywood bass dulcian in C by Gunther Koerber of Germany and a Moeck bass dulcian.

Additional Resources:

T. Albonesi: Introductio in Chaldaicam linguam (Pavia, 1539)

L. Zacconi: Prattica di musica (Venice, 1592/r1967)

M. Praetorius: Syntagma musicum, ii (Wolfenbuttel, 1618/r1958)

M. Mersenne: Harmonie universelle (Paris, 1636/r1963)

H. de Garsault: Notionaire (Paris, 1761)

J. B. de La Borde: Essai sur la musique (Paris, 1780/r1972)

E. Ozi: Methode nouvelle et raisonnee (Paris, 1787)

W. Heckel: Der Fagott (Biebrich, 1899)

F. W. Galpin: 'Romance of the Phagotum', PMA, lxvii (1940-41), 57

B. Klitz: 'A Composition for Dolzaina', JAMS, xxiv (1971), 113

W. Voigt: Untersuchungen zur Formantbildung in Klangen von Fagott und Dulzianen(Regensburg, 1975)

G. Joppig: Die Entwicklung der Doppelrohrblatt-Instrumente (Frankfurt am Main, 1980)

W. Jansen: The Bassoon: its History, Construction, Makers, Players, and Music (Buren, 1984)

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"The common bleting musicke is the drone, hobuis and curtoll." -Stephen Batman, 1582 One of the most significant innovations in sixteenth century woodwind instrument building was the development of the double bore principle. Two parallel holes drilled in the same piece of wood and connected at one end by a U-curve allowed aninstrument to sound twice as low for its apparentlength as one with a single bore.

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During the Renaissance, European countries sent ships all around the globe in search of new resources. In order for this to happen, new ships had to be designed and built. The Spanish Galleon was one for the most popular trading/exploring ships, due to its large size, ability to carry heavy artiliry, and its ability to run on a tack not entirely dependent on the direction of the wind.

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Leonardo Da Vinci invented an instrument that is a combination of an organ, viola, and harpsichord. It took him nearly three years to complete this masterpiece and is decorated with gold leaf.
~SMMC

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Leonardo's organ-viola-harpsichord is an instrument of genius.

Introducing the viola organista, an incredible instrument conceived by Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci. Designs for the instrument were included in Codex Atlanticus, a twelve-volume set of drawings and writings by da Vinci.

The instrument, however, didn't become a reality for centuries. It was only in 2013 when Polish instrument-maker Sławomir Zubrzycki built the very first example (watch video above).

The fascinating instrument is a hybrid of elements from a harpsichord, an organ and a viola da gamba. It looks like a harpsichord and has a set of strings, but rather than being plucked, the strings press against rotating wheels covered in horse hair - the same mechanism that produces sound in string instruments.

"I have no idea what Leonardo da Vinci might think of the instrument I've made, but I'd hope he'd be pleased," Zubrzycki said, at the instrument's unveiling concert in Krakow. He spent three years and more than 5000 hours bringing Da Vinci's instrument to life from his Codex Atlanticus, a 12-volume collection of his manuscripts and designs for everything from weaponry to flight.

As well as its unique sound (somewhere between an organ and a string instrument), the viola organista is ornately decorated with a Latin quote in gold leaf by Hildegard of Bingen, saying, "Holy prophets and scholars immersed in the sea of arts both human and divine, dreamt up a multitude of instruments to delight the soul."

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Leonardo da Vinci invented this musical instrument - and it sounds remarkable

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Leonardo's organ-viola-harpsichord is an instrument of genius. Introducing the viola organista, an incredible instrument conceived by Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci. Designs for the instrument were included in Codex Atlanticus, a twelve-volume set of drawings and writings by da Vinci. The instrument, however, didn't become a reality for centuries.

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As the world moved towards 'refinement', in art, literature, and culture on the whole, people started to move towards "minding their manners" as a response to violent and crude behaviors that were running rampant. One should always be sure to make a show of washing their hands before meals- "whoever dips into the same bowl as you will be certain of your cleanliness."
Any utensils were generally communally used, but respectfully wiped off with a napkin before being returned to the dish.
If dining at a table in the renaissance, you should definitely cough at the same time to distract if you have to fart at the table. They did not support double dipping, though. Fun times at the dinner table!
~ED

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smithsonian.com

Art and culture flourished throughout Europe during the Renaissance. It was the period when Michelangelo wielded his chisel, Galileo defied preconceived notions about the universe and William Shakespeare penned some of the most enduring dramatic works. It was also a period that saw the evolution of manners, as the article "Mind Your Manners" in the Spring 2011 issue of magazine will attest. Manners were a response to the violence and crude behaviors run rampant in burgeoning cities and a means of reinforcing social order and distinguishing the privileged class from everyone else. A first generation of Miss Manners-es-typically men-took up the quill. And the newly defined codes of conduct were especially important at the dinner table.

Italy more or less led the cultural revolution, table manners included. Italian poet Giovanni della Casa advised in " Galateo," his 1558 book on manners: "One should not comb his hair nor wash his hands in public... The exception to this is the washing of the hands when done before sitting down to dinner, for then it should be done in full sight of others, even if you do not need to wash them at all, so that whoever dips into the same bowl as you will be certain of your cleanliness." To the modern reader, these attitudes toward public displays of personal cleanliness might seem a little over the top; however, considering that one's hands were also one's dining utensils, this sort of advice was of utmost importance. In his study on the social customs of this period, sociologist Norbert Elias noted that "In good society one does not put both hands into the dish. It is most refined to use only three fingers of the hand. ... Forks scarcely exist, or at most for taking meat from the dish."

That's right: no forks. They were initially viewed as excessively refined or, in the case of men, a sign of effeminacy. The newfangled fork custom began in Italy and was a hit, but forks were slow to catch on in Northern Europe. The use of forks to get food from plate to mouth didn't didn't gain wide acceptance until the 17th century-and even then, only the well-to-do could afford them.

Utensils such as spoons were communally used-making the etiquette of eating soups a delicate matter. "If what is given is rather fluid," Dutch theologian Erasmus of Rotterdam writes, "take it on a spoon for tasting and return the spoon after wiping it on a napkin."

But in spite of trying to polish social customs, some human behaviors were deemed permissible at the dinner table. On farting, Erasmus writes, "If it is possible to withdraw, it should be done alone. But if not, in accordance with the ancient proverb, let a cough hide the sound." Slick, no? However, lest you follow this example, modern manners maven Miss Conduct says that "civilized folk will protect others from any sounds or smells that may be displeasing."

This is not to say that all Renaissance manners are outdated. On respecting fellow diners' personal space, Giovanni Della Casa says, "It is also an unsuitable habit to put one's nose over someone else's glass of wine or food to smell it." And again, from Erasmus: "It is rude to offer someone what you have half eaten yourself; it is boorish to redip half-eaten bread into the soup." Anyone remember the "did you just double dip that chip" episode of Seinfeld? George Costanza was definitely a couple hundred years behind the etiquette curve. Even modern science shows that re-dipping partially-eaten foods is a great means of spreading bacteria. It certainly gives you an idea of what Renaissance society was trying to improve upon-and how far we've come since.

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Renaissance Table Etiquette and the Origins of Manners

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smithsonian.com Art and culture flourished throughout Europe during the Renaissance. It was the period when Michelangelo wielded his chisel, Galileo defied preconceived notions about the universe and William Shakespeare penned some of the most enduring dramatic works. It was also a period that saw the evolution of manners, as the article "Mind Your Manners" in the Spring 2011 issue of magazine will attest.

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MUSICAL- Early Brass & other Renaissance Instruments 

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MUSICAL- Early Brass & other Renaissance Instruments 

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Instruments used in the Renaissance period were similar to those used during the Middle Ages; however, during this period, early brass instruments were on the rise, such as the cornett, the slide trumpet, the sackbut, and the trumpet.
Other instruments, such as the viol, the bagpipe, and the recorder, were also used in Renaissance music.
-MJ

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Introduction

Many instruments originated during the Renaissance; others were variations of, or improvements upon, instruments that had existed previously. Some have survived to the present day; others have disappeared, only to be recreated in order to perform music of the period on authentic instruments. As in the modern day, instruments may be classified as brass, strings, percussion, and woodwind.

Medieval instruments in Europe had most commonly been used singly, often self accompanied with a drone, or occasionally in parts. From at least as early as the thirteenth century through the fifteenth century there was a division of instruments into haut (loud, shrill, outdoor instruments) and bas (quieter, more intimate instruments). Only two groups of instruments could play freely in both types of ensembles: the cornett and sackbut, and the tabor and tambourine.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, instruments were considered to be less important than voices. They were used for dances and to accompany vocal music. Instrumental music remained subordinated to vocal music, and much of its repertory was in varying ways derived from or dependent on vocal models.

Brass instruments in the Renaissance were traditionally played by professionals. The following are some of the more common brass instruments that were played:

Slide trumpet: similar to the trombone of today except that instead of a section of the body sliding, only a small part of the body near the mouthpiece and the mouthpiece itself is stationary. Also the body was an S-shape so it was rather unwieldy, but was suitable for the slow dance music which it was most commonly used for.

Cornett: made of wood and played like the recorder (discussed at greater length below) but blown like a trumpet. It was commonly made in several sizes; the largest was called the serpent. The serpent became practically the only cornetto used by the early seventeenth century while other ranges were replaced by the violin. It was said to be the closest instrument to the human voice with the ability to use dynamics and expression.

Trumpet: early trumpets had no valves and were limited to the tones present in the overtone series. They were also made in different sizes. Although commonly depicted being used by angels, their use in churches was limited, a prominent exception being the music of the Venetian School. They were most commonly used in the military and for the announcement of royalty. Period trumpets were found to have two rings soldered to them, one near the mouthpiece and another near the bell.

Sackbut (sometimes sackbutt or sagbutt): a different name for the trombone, which replaced the slide trumpet by the middle of the fifteenth century.

As a family, strings were used in many circumstances, both sacred and secular. A few members of this family include:

Viol: this instrument, developed in the fifteenth century, commonly has six strings. It was usually played with a bow. It has structural qualities similar to the Spanish vihuela; its main separating trait is its larger size. This changed the posture of the musician in order to rest it against the floor or between the legs in a manner similar to the cello. Its similarities to the vihuela were sharp waist-cuts, similar frets, a flat back, thin ribs, and identical tuning.

Lyre: its construction is similar to a small harp, although instead of being plucked, it is strummed with a plectrum. Its strings varied in quantity from four, seven, and ten, depending on the era. It was played with the right hand, while the left hand silenced the notes that were not desired. Newer lyres were modified to be played with a bow.

Lute: the lute can refer generally to any string instrument having the strings running in a plane parallel to the sound table (in the Hornbostel-Sachs system), more specifically to any plucked string instrument with a neck (either fretted or unfretted) and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes.

Lira da Braccio: the instrument was shaped essentially like a violin, but with a wider fingerboard and flatter bridge. Generally, it had seven strings, five of them tuned like a violin with a low d added to the bottom (that is, d-g-d'-a'-e") with two strings off the fingerboard which served as drones and were usually tuned in octaves

Irish harp: also called the Clàrsach in Scottish Gaelic, or the Cláirseach in Irish, during the Middle Ages it was the most popular instrument of Ireland and Scotland. Due to its significance on Irish history it is seen even on the Guinness label, and is Ireland's national symbol even to this day. To be played it is usually plucked. Its size can vary greatly from a harp that can be played in one's lap to a full-size harp that is placed on the floor

Hurdy-gurdy: (also known as the wheel fiddle), in which the strings are sounded by a wheel which the strings pass over. Its functionality can be compared to that of a mechanical violin, in that its bow (wheel) is turned by a crank. Its distinctive sound is mainly because of its "drone strings" which provide a constant pitch similar in their sound to that of bagpipes.

Gittern and mandore: these instruments were used throughout Europe. Forerunners of modern instruments including the mandolin and guitar.

Percussion

Some Renaissance percussion instruments include the triangle, the Jew's harp, the tambourine, the bells, the rumble-pot, and various kinds of drums.

Tambourine: the tambourine was originally a frame drum without the jingles attached to the side. This instrument soon evolved and took on the name of the timbrel during the medieval crusades, at which time it acquired the jingles. The tambourine was often found with a single skin, as it made it easy for a dancer to play. The skin that surrounds the frame is called the vellum, and produces the beat by striking the surface with the knuckles, fingertips, or hand. It could also be played by shaking the instrument, allowing the tambourine's jingles to "clank" and "jingle."

Jew's harp: an instrument banned because of its construction of silver, and due to the great demand on silver in nineteenth-century Austria this was another reason for its outlawing. A steel instrument that produces sound using shapes of the mouth and attempting to pronounce different vowels with ones mouth. The loop at the bent end of the tongue of the instrument is plucked in different scales of vibration creating different tones.

Woodwinds (aerophones)

Woodwind instruments (aerophones) produce sound by means of a vibrating column of air within the pipe. Holes along the pipe allow the player to control the length of the column of air, and hence the pitch. There are several ways of making the air column vibrate, and these ways define the subcategories of woodwind instruments. A player may blow across a mouth hole, as in a flute; into a mouthpiece with a single reed, as in a modern-day clarinet or saxophone; or a double reed, as in an oboe or bassoon. All three of these methods of tone production can be found in Renaissance instruments.

Shawm: a typical oriental shawm is keyless and is about a foot long with seven finger holes and a thumb hole. The pipes were also most commonly made of wood and many of them had carvings and decorations on them. It was the most popular double reed instrument of the renaissance period; it was commonly used in the streets with drums and trumpets because of its brilliant, piercing, and often deafening sound. To play the shawm a person puts the entire reed in their mouth, puffs out their cheeks, and blows into the pipe whilst breathing through their nose.

Reed pipe: made from a single short length of cane with a mouthpiece, four or five finger holes, and reed fashioned from it. The reed is made by cutting out a small tongue, but leaving the base attached. It is the predecessor of the saxophone and the clarinet.

Hornpipe: Same as reed pipe but with a bell at the end.

Bagpipe/Bladderpipe: believed to have been invented by herdsmen who thought to use a bag made out of sheep or goat skin and would provide air pressure so that when its player takes a breath, the player only needs to squeeze the bag tucked underneath their arm to continue the tone. The mouth pipe has a simple round piece of leather hinged on to the bag end of the pipe and acts like a non-return valve. The reed is located inside the long metal mouthpiece, known as a bocal.

Panpipe: designed to have sixteen wooden tubes with a stopper at one end and open on the other. Each tube is a different size (thereby producing a different tone), giving it a range of an octave and a half. The player can then place their lips against the desired tube and blow across it.

Transverse flute: the transverse flute is similar to the modern flute with a mouth hole near the stoppered end and finger holes along the body. The player blows in the side and holds the flute to the right side.

Recorder: The recorder is a common instrument still used today, often taught to children in elementary schools. Rather than a reed it uses a whistle mouth piece, which is a beak shaped mouth piece, as its main source of sound production. It is usually made with seven finger holes and a thumb hole.

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Many instruments originated during the Renaissance; others were variations of, or improvements upon, instruments that had existed previously. Some have survived to the present day; others have disappeared, only to be recreated in order to perform music of the period on authentic instruments.

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Childbirth was a comunal event for women only, and rich women could afford the price of an experienced midwife. The midwife had to be a good character, and take a oath forbidding her from taking the placenta or umbilical chord for herself which could be used for witchcraft -RSG

https://ccrenfaire.com/pregnancy-and-childbirth-in-renaissance-england/

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To look beautiful during the Renaissance era, it was not uncommon to have to subject yourself to skin burns and eye infections. Just put a dash of nightshade in your eyes to make your eyes darker and use the blood of your enemies (actually just donkey, owl, and frog blood) to remove unwanted hair.

-nd

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Makeup and female beauty standards in Renaissance Italy

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In Renaissance Italy, the female beauty ideal included features such as blonde hair and a pale skin. Women tried their best to live up to these expectations, but elaborate makeup and beauty routines were not without risk.

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Previously, the church had banned dissection because the populace believed it to be disrespectful of a body, but the Renaissance inspired scholars to study human anatomy further...and they did that by dissecting dead people to study their insides. Great medical advancements, gross methods for it. - JMT

https://explorable.com/renaissance-medicine

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https://www.britannica.com/art/cornett

Not to be confused with the cornet, a modern instrument similar to the trumpet, the cornett is a rennaissance-era instrument similar to the trumpet. It is brass, with a conical bore, and comes in several different shapes, from straight to S-shaped. It has a very ‘clear’ tone quality compared to other contemporary instruments - R

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Cornett, German Zink, wind instrument sounded by lip vibration against a cup mouthpiece; it was one of the leading wind instruments of the period 1500-1670. It is a leather-covered conical wooden pipe about 24 inches (60 centimetres) long, octagonal in cross section, with finger holes and a small horn or ivory mouthpiece. Its compass extends two octaves upward from the G below the treble staff. Other sizes of cornett included the descant; the S-shaped tenor; and straight forms, including the mute cornett, with the mouthpiece cut in the head of the pipe itself.

With the trombones, to which it supplied the treble voice, it was one of the first wind instruments specifically scored for (by the Italian composer Giovanni Gabrieli, 1557-1612). Although obsolescent by 1700, the cornett continued to be played locally in Germany to support treble voices in choirs until about 1750, as well as with trombones in tower music, the religious music played in German church towers, until the 1830s. Its clear tone quality, crucial to the works of the Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) and others, is essentially unmatched by any other instrument, and it began to be revived in the mid-20th century.

Learn More in these related Britannica articles:

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Cornett, wind instrument sounded by lip vibration against a cup mouthpiece; it was one of the leading wind instruments of the period 1500-1670. It is a leather-covered conical wooden pipe about 24 inches (60 centimetres) long, octagonal in cross section, with finger holes and a small horn or i

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Witch Hunts were at like an all time high during the Renaissance, and the main document which was used to judge if someone was a witch was the Malleus Maleficarum, written by James Sprenger and Henry Kramer in 1486. This document has been used in courts to murder thousands of people accused of being witches (mostly women) for over three centuries, for reasons ranging from mental illness, weird birthmarks, or just financial gain from those accusing. -DS

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Sacred-Texts Neo-Paganism

translated by Montague Summers [1928]

This is the best known (i.e., the most infamous) of the witch-hunt manuals. Written in Latin, the Malleus was first submitted to the University of Cologne on May 9th, 1487. The title is translated as "The Hammer of Witches". Written by James Sprenger and Henry Kramer (of which little is known), the Malleus remained in use for three hundred years. It had tremendous influence in the witch trials in England and on the continent. This translation is in the public domain.

The Malleus was used as a judicial case-book for the detection and persecution of witches, specifying rules of evidence and the canonical procedures by which suspected witches were tortured and put to death. Thousands of people (primarily women) were judically murdered as a result of the procedures described in this book, for no reason than a strange birthmark, living alone, mental illness, cultivation of medicinal herbs, or simply because they were falsely accused (often for financial gain by the accuser). The Malleus serves as a horrible warning about what happens when intolerence takes over a society.

Although the Malleus is manifestly a document which displays the cruelty, barbarism, and ignorance of the Inquisition, it has also been interpreted as evidence of a wide-spread subterranean pagan tradition which worshiped a pre-Christian horned deity, particularly by Margaret Murray.
The source version of this text, with notes and additional material, can be found at MalleusMaleficarum.org [External Site].
Question I
Whether the Belief that there are such Beings as Witches is so Essential a Part of the Catholic Faith that Obstinacy to maintain the Opposite Opinion manifestly savours of Heresy. Question I
Of those against whom the Power of Witches availeth not at all. General and Introductory
Who are the Fit and Proper Judges in the Trial of Witches?

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Sacred-Texts Neo-Paganism translated by Montague Summers [1928] This is the best known (i.e., the most infamous) of the witch-hunt manuals. Written in Latin, the Malleus was first submitted to the University of Cologne on May 9th, 1487. The title is translated as "The Hammer of Witches".

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Women would wear these sort of platform shoes, so they could walk in the mud (and who knows what else) of the streets. They represented importance din society and men thought they were quite nice as well, although they needed help walking in them. -BB

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How far would you go to reach the pinnacle of fashion? While the current craze for heel-less, "anti-gravity" shoes might seem avant-garde, or even dangerous, women have worn challenging footwear for centuries. In fact, though most think Lady Gaga's stilted look started the latest anti-gravity trend, the pop star's precarious platforms were actually inspired by elaborate 16th-century chopines.

"They were beyond extravagant, and they weren't for clumping in the mud."

From the Chinese tradition of lotus shoes for bound feet to the 20th-century stiletto, fabulous footwear is often shaped by social convention, and the chopine was no exception. Nearly 500 years ago, these sky-high, geometric platforms were designed to showcase familial wealth in parts of Spain and Italy. (The trend was undone in the 17th century by a new fad for heels inspired by Persian riding boots for men.)

Elizabeth Semmelhack, senior curator at the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, says that chopines developed from ancient platform styles worn at least since the 6th Century BCE. "Platforms had this very long tradition in Europe up through the 17th century, and then they were out until the 20th century. Really, it wasn't until Ferragamo reintroduced them in the 1930s that platforms came back in fashion." In 2009, Semmelhack organized an exhibition and an accompanying catalog on the topic of these elevating shoes, titled "On A Pedestal: From Renaissance Chopines to Baroque Heels."

We spoke with Semmelhack about the chopine's unique place in sartorial history and the lengths (or heights) humans go to showcase their status.

Collectors Weekly: When did women start wearing platforms?

Elizabeth Semmelhack: Although the chopine was a 16th-century form of footwear, it actually has classical antecedents. I traced the wearing of platform shoes back to Greece, and found a very long tradition in antiquity of women wearing this style of footwear. In fact, some images of Aphrodite show her in excessively high platforms. It remains unclear to me whether these images of Aphrodite in really high platforms were simply an artistic expression or if they reflect some kind of lived practice. There is no extant footwear from the Greek Isles or the Italian Peninsula during that era because conditions didn't allowed them to survive.

"Men denounced women for putting on shoes of this height, but they were wearing these shoes to flaunt the wealth of their fathers or their husbands."

The Romans were very influenced by Greek fashion, and Roman women also wore platform footwear of a modest height. When the Romans took over the Iberian Peninsula [where Spain is today], they started a cork shoemaking industry. Later, the Moors invaded the Iberian Peninsula and inherited this industry. So within Moorish Spain, they were making platform footwear that was exported across the Maghreb region. I've argued that this form of Moorish platform shoe became a luxury item that then was worn by Christian women.

Collectors Weekly: Where did chopines originate?

Semmelhack: Most people don't realize that until very recently, the source of everything desirable in Western fashion was coming from the Near East, the Middle East, the Far East. It wasn't intra-European. It was Europeans looking to the East. So these Moorish cork chopines were integrated into the Spanish Christian women's wardrobe, and eventually, they became popular within the Italian peninsula.

The main characteristic that differentiated the two styles was that Spanish chopines were made of cork, while Italian chopines were made of wood. However, I've seen many Italian wooden chopines that have hybrid Spanish elements, suggesting that it really was a Spanish-to-Italian transfer of style. But the way they were worn in Spain and Italy was incredibly different.

Spanish women wore their skirts to the tops of their chopines. Since their chopines were always visible, they tended to be made from luxury materials, such as the highly worked and embossed leatherwork that Spain was famous for. Spanish women also tended to be fully cloaked in long black scarves. I believe the visibility of the chopine heightened interest in what a woman was wearing, suggesting that luxury fashions were hidden underneath her black mantle. In this way, expressions of status and socioeconomic power were given to their shoes, because the rest of a woman's costume was hidden from view. Queen Isabella's confessor famously said, "There's not enough cork in all of Spain to meet the needs of women in regard to their chopines."

In Venice, where the textile trade was the source of their economic power, Venetian women dressed in very tall, wooden chopines that were hidden by their dresses, thereby lengthening their skirts. They were never allowed to show their chopines, so the shoes became a means of displaying more textile wealth. Venetian chopines were worn more like undergarments or support garments. Spanish chopines were worn as actual accessories of dress.

Collectors Weekly: How did one move in chopines?

Semmelhack: It depends on the height of the shoe, but let's imagine that we're talking about Venetian chopines. It's important to remember that Venetian upper-class women were sequestered and hidden from view most of the time, and only put on view certain times of the year. They never dressed themselves. Maybe they put their own clothes on, but they didn't choose what to wear-the representational aspects of their dress were chosen for them.

Sometimes these women were put out like parade floats, mounted on very high chopines in splendid dresses. Their job was to convey the wealth of their families as well as the larger affluence of Venice. They had to walk very slowly and required the aid of two servants to navigate whatever space they were moving through, whether it was out in public or at a private evening with an ambassador from a foreign country, when women might be asked to do this kind of promenading.

There's one rumor that I want to dispel, which is that chopines were worn to keep women up and out of the mud and muck. There is some truth to the fact that, in Spain, some unadorned platform shoes were worn by the peasantry to do exactly that. But the upper-class Spanish chopines were incredibly beautiful and covered in expensive leather or textile work. Sometimes they had diamonds and other fine gems attached to them. They were beyond extravagant, and they weren't for clumping in the mud.

Venetian chopines were worn with a skirt completely covering them, so the shoes weren't lifting a woman's skirts out of anything. Plus, these skirts were so expensive that there's no way they were dragging in the mud.

Collectors Weekly: Were chopines limited to upper-class women?

Semmelhack: This is a complex question. During the 16th century, dowry inflation grew completely out of control, and it became prohibitively expensive to marry off one's daughter. Venice was a republic and the ruling men of Venice all had to dress with a confraternal sameness, like when you go to Bay Street in Toronto [the financial district] and all the men are dressed the same. Because of that, women's dress carried a greater burden of expressing individual family wealth. Marriages were an opportunity to show the wealth not only of the bride's natal family but also of her nuptial family. By the end of the 16th century, the cost of weddings and all this costume became so prohibitive that wealthy families could only afford to marry one daughter per generation.

This resulted in a surplus of girls and boys who couldn't find mates. Many girls were sent off to nunneries, and some boys were also sent off to join the church, but both state and church became concerned that men would turn to sodomy in order to satisfy their natural urges. In response, both church and state sanctioned what was called the " honest courtesan," who behaved as an escort for upper-class men. A courtesan had access to the noble court and moved within that very high social circle. Courtesans were expected to dress like upper-class women, which meant they wore chopines.

But a courtesan was not sequestered at home like true upper-class women: She could walk the streets. When visitors came to Venice and they saw these women walking around in chopines, they began to assume that chopines were only worn by courtesans, as opposed to the fact that courtesans were aping the dress of wealthy women. Were these honest courtesans upper class? They were of a different class. But they were wearing chopines because of this association, because of the particular social conditions from which the shoes emerged.

Collectors Weekly: Did less-affluent prostitutes also adopt chopines?

Semmelhack: Well, there's a famous Caesare Vecellio woodblock print that shows a lower-class prostitute wearing a pair of chopines and her skirts are grazing the top of her shoes in a very Spanish manner. And if you read Vecellio's text, he talks about how she basically cobbled together the classiest outfit she could based on what she could get her hands on, like a pair of discarded chopines and a second-hand skirt from somebody else. I'm still unraveling the relationship between prostitution and chopines, because it's a bit more complex.

Collectors Weekly: In Venice, was it provocative for a woman to reveal her shoes?

Semmelhack: Well, there were certainly texts that explained how women should sit and walk and dance without revealing their chopines. And the images where you do find chopines tend to be bawdy images, or images of women in states of undress. That's one of the reasons I've also argued that they function more like underwear. Seeing any private aspects of female attire was provocative.

Collectors Weekly: Did this impractical footwear inspire any controversy?

Semmelhack: Yes, chopines were criticized in a number of ways. Within Venice, typically these complaints had to do with fabric or textile consumption. People said that these really high chopines were forcing men to buy more fabric for these women's skirts, and they wanted to stop this. That was one very strong criticism.

But the judgements often came from people living outside of Venice. Many critiques of the chopine came from English visitors or tourists from other cultures that didn't wear chopines. They called these chopine-wearing women were "half wood, half woman," and couldn't understand why they would walk around like this.

They completely missed the social nuances-that "respectable" women were being put on view by their families for the expression of textile wealth, or that they were seeing "honest courstesans" who were dressed like upper class women.

The third criticism that you had in Spain as well as in Venice-and this is a very long-standing criticism about women-regarded their irrationality in relation to fashion. Men denounced women for putting on shoes of this height, but they were wearing these shoes to flaunt the wealth of their fathers or their husbands.

Collectors Weekly: Why did chopines go out of style?

Semmelhack: They went out of style due to the impact of world exploration. Venice had been a lynchpin between East and West, meaning that all of the desirable goods from the East had to come through Venice to enter Europe. After Portuguese explorers made it around the Horn of Africa and the Spanish "discovered" the New World, all of a sudden, Venice couldn't hold on to its essential status. As further world exploration continued in the 16th century, there were new ways that gave people access to Near and Far Eastern goods, so Venice's primary source of wealth was challenged.

The Venetian economic well-being loses momentum as you head into the 17th century. The center of fashion moves to France, and the court of Louis XIV set the trends of European fashion. The next form of footwear that came into Western dress was heeled footwear, which was adapted from the Near East at the turn of the 17th century. This style was related to equestrianism and military virility, and men are the first to adopt it.

There's this very clear evidence of heel-wearing for horseback riding throughout the Near East. In Western Europe, heels show up around the same time that Shah Abbas of Persia was courting a number of European powers to rise up against the Ottoman Empire. Shah Abbas had the largest mounted of military in the world. I think it was the rise of Persia that made the heel all of sudden of interest to European men-it had nothing to do with the chopine.

But very soon after that initial adoption, women start wearing heels as well. They were the next big thing, worn by both men and women throughout the rest of the 17th century. The heel only becomes exclusive to women's dress in the 1730s. And the chopine began to fade from view.

( To learn more about chopines, visit the Bata Shoe Museum.)

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These Chopines Weren't Made for Walking: Precarious Platforms for Aristocratic Feet

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How far would you go to reach the pinnacle of fashion? While the current craze for heel-less, "anti-gravity" shoes might seem avant-garde, or even dangerous, women have worn challenging footwear for centuries. In fact, though most think Lady Gaga's stilted look started the latest anti-gravity trend, the pop star's precarious platforms were actually inspired by elaborate 16th-century chopines.

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The Renaissance saw the rise of classicism (that is, a return to Greco-Roman style) in architecture. Columns, domes, you name it. Much of this was inspired by well-preserved ancient structures like the Pantheon and Coliseum which were available for study and measurement. - JMT

https://www.worldhistory.org/Renaissance_Architecture/

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(I don't  know why that's the picture?) In 1517 Martin Luther began the Reformation by nailing his 95 Theses to the doors of a church. LF

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Born in Eisleben, Germany, in 1483, Martin Luther went on to become one of Western history's most significant figures. Luther spent his early years in relative anonymity as a monk and scholar. But in 1517 Luther penned a document attacking the Catholic Church's corrupt practice of selling "indulgences" to absolve sin. His "95 Theses," which propounded two central beliefs-that the Bible is the central religious authority and that humans may reach salvation only by their faith and not by their deeds-was to spark the Protestant Reformation. Although these ideas had been advanced before, Martin Luther codified them at a moment in history ripe for religious reformation. The Catholic Church was ever after divided, and the Protestantism that soon emerged was shaped by Luther's ideas. His writings changed the course of religious and cultural history in the West.

Early Life

Martin Luther (1483-1546) was born in Eisleben, Saxony (now Germany), part of the Holy Roman Empire, to parents Hans and Margaretta. Luther's father was a prosperous businessman, and when Luther was young, his father moved the family of 10 to Mansfeld. At age five, Luther began his education at a local school where he learned reading, writing and Latin. At 13, Luther began to attend a school run by the Brethren of the Common Life in Magdeburg. The Brethren's teachings focused on personal piety, and while there Luther developed an early interest in monastic life.

Did you know? Legend says Martin Luther was inspired to launch the Protestant Reformation while seated comfortably on the chamber pot. That cannot be confirmed, but in 2004 archeologists discovered Luther's lavatory, which was remarkably modern for its day, featuring a heated-floor system and a primitive drain.

Martin Luther Enters the Monastery

But Hans Luther had other plans for young Martin-he wanted him to become a lawyer-so he withdrew him from the school in Magdeburg and sent him to new school in Eisenach. Then, in 1501, Luther enrolled at the University of Erfurt, the premiere university in Germany at the time. There, he studied the typical curriculum of the day: arithmetic, astronomy, geometry and philosophy and he attained a Master's degree from the school in 1505. In July of that year, Luther got caught in a violent thunderstorm, in which a bolt of lightning nearly struck him down. He considered the incident a sign from God and vowed to become a monk if he survived the storm. The storm subsided, Luther emerged unscathed and, true to his promise, Luther turned his back on his study of the law days later on July 17, 1505. Instead, he entered an Augustinian monastery.

Luther began to live the spartan and rigorous life of a monk but did not abandon his studies. Between 1507 and 1510, Luther studied at the University of Erfurt and at a university in Wittenberg. In 1510-1511, he took a break from his education to serve as a representative in Rome for the German Augustinian monasteries. In 1512, Luther received his doctorate and became a professor of biblical studies. Over the next five years Luther's continuing theological studies would lead him to insights that would have implications for Christian thought for centuries to come.

Martin Luther Questions the Catholic Church

In early 16th-century Europe, some theologians and scholars were beginning to question the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. It was also around this time that translations of original texts-namely, the Bible and the writings of the early church philosopher Augustine-became more widely available.

Augustine (340-430) had emphasized the primacy of the Bible rather than Church officials as the ultimate religious authority. He also believed that humans could not reach salvation by their own acts, but that only God could bestow salvation by his divine grace. In the Middle Ages the Catholic Church taught that salvation was possible through "good works," or works of righteousness, that pleased God. Luther came to share Augustine's two central beliefs, which would later form the basis of Protestantism.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Church's practice of granting "indulgences" to provide absolution to sinners became increasingly corrupt. Indulgence-selling had been banned in Germany, but the practice continued unabated. In 1517, a friar named Johann Tetzel began to sell indulgences in Germany to raise funds to renovate St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

The 95 Theses

Committed to the idea that salvation could be reached through faith and by divine grace only, Luther vigorously objected to the corrupt practice of selling indulgences. Acting on this belief, he wrote the "Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences," also known as "The 95 Theses," a list of questions and propositions for debate. Popular legend has it that on October 31, 1517 Luther defiantly nailed a copy of his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle church. The reality was probably not so dramatic; Luther more likely hung the document on the door of the church matter-of-factly to announce the ensuing academic discussion around it that he was organizing.

The 95 Theses, which would later become the foundation of the Protestant Reformation, were written in a remarkably humble and academic tone, questioning rather than accusing. The overall thrust of the document was nonetheless quite provocative. The first two of the theses contained Luther's central idea, that God intended believers to seek repentance and that faith alone, and not deeds, would lead to salvation. The other 93 theses, a number of them directly criticizing the practice of indulgences, supported these first two.

In addition to his criticisms of indulgences, Luther also reflected popular sentiment about the "St. Peter's scandal" in the 95 Theses:
Why does not the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with his own money rather than with the money of poor believers?
The 95 Theses were quickly distributed throughout Germany and then made their way to Rome. In 1518, Luther was summoned to Augsburg, a city in southern Germany, to defend his opinions before an imperial diet (assembly). A debate lasting three days between Luther and Cardinal Thomas Cajetan produced no agreement. Cajetan defended the church's use of indulgences, but Luther refused to recant and returned to Wittenberg.

Luther the Heretic

On November 9, 1518 the pope condemned Luther's writings as conflicting with the teachings of the Church. One year later a series of commissions were convened to examine Luther's teachings. The first papal commission found them to be heretical, but the second merely stated that Luther's writings were "scandalous and offensive to pious ears." Finally, in July 1520 Pope Leo X issued a papal bull (public decree) that concluded that Luther's propositions were heretical and gave Luther 120 days to recant in Rome. Luther refused to recant, and on January 3, 1521 Pope Leo excommunicated Martin Luther from the Catholic Church.

On April 17, 1521 Luther appeared before the Diet of Worms in Germany. Refusing again to recant, Luther concluded his testimony with the defiant statement: "Here I stand. God help me. I can do no other." On May 25, the Holy Roman emperor Charles V signed an edict against Luther, ordering his writings to be burned. Luther hid in the town of Eisenach for the next year, where he began work on one of his major life projects, the translation of the New Testament into German, which took him 10 years to complete.

Martin Luther's Later Years

Luther returned to Wittenberg in 1521, where the reform movement initiated by his writings had grown beyond his influence. It was no longer a purely theological cause; it had become political. Other leaders stepped up to lead the reform, and concurrently, the rebellion known as the Peasants' War was making its way across Germany.

Luther had previously written against the Church's adherence to clerical celibacy, and in 1525 he married Katherine of Bora, a former nun. They had five children. Although Luther's early writings had sparked the Reformation, he was hardly involved in it during his later years. At the end of his life, Luther turned strident in his views, and pronounced the pope the Antichrist, advocated for the expulsion of Jews from the empire and condoned polygamy based on the practice of the patriarchs in the Old Testament.

Luther died on February 18, 1546.

Significance of Martin Luther's Work

Martin Luther is one of the most influential figures in Western history. His writings were responsible for fractionalizing the Catholic Church and sparking the Protestant Reformation. His central teachings, that the Bible is the central source of religious authority and that salvation is reached through faith and not deeds, shaped the core of Protestantism. Although Luther was critical of the Catholic Church, he distanced himself from the radical successors who took up his mantle. Luther is remembered as a controversial figure, not only because his writings led to significant religious reform and division, but also because in later life he took on radical positions on other questions, including his pronouncements against Jews, which some have said may have portended German anti-Semitism; others dismiss them as just one man's vitriol that did not gain a following. Some of Luther's most significant contributions to theological history, however, such as his insistence that as the sole source of religious authority the Bible be translated and made available to everyone, were truly revolutionary in his day.

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Martin Luther was a German theologian who challenged a number of teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. His 1517 document, "95 Theses," sparked the Protestant Reformation. Read a summary of the document, the reasons he wrote it and watch a brief video.