Lecture 4: A Common Culture

History 5 - Spring 2008: The Making of Modern Europe, 1453 to the Present

The Three "P's" of the Renaissance: Printing, Perspective, Portraiture. The European "family pattern" west of the Roman/Cyrillic alphabetic frontier – and its multiple implications for European culture. Explanations for this pattern (a realm of High Speculation) and the demographic situation of Europe today. Culture with a capital "C": Classical (Greco-Roman) continuities; Christian (was the Renaissance a secular society? not yet); the Church and Respublica christiana, with built-in conflicts (secular, spiritual), compromises (with custom and vice), and exceptions (e.g., Jews: vulnerable, but preserved to accord with Biblical prophesy).