History - Rome - page 674

Renaissance - a New Beginning
Bridging the gap between the Middle Ages and the modern age, the Renaissance ( Rinasci-
mento in Italian) was a far-reaching intellectual, artistic and cultural movement. It emerged
in 14th-century Florence but quickly spread to Rome, where it gave rise to one of the
greatest makeovers the city had ever seen.
Humanism & Rebuilding
The movement's intellectual cornerstone was humanism, a philosophy that focused on the
central role of humanity within the universe. This was a major break from the medieval
world view, which had placed God at the centre of everything. It was not antireligious,
though. Many humanist scholars were priests and most of Rome's great works of Renais-
sance art were commissioned by the Church. In fact, it was one of the most celebrated hu-
manist scholars of the 15th century, Pope Nicholas V (r 1447−84), who is generally con-
sidered the harbinger of the Roman Renaissance.
When Nicholas became pope in 1447, Rome was not in a good state. Centuries of medi-
eval feuding had reduced the city to a semideserted battleground, and the city's bedraggled
population lived in constant fear of plague, famine and flooding (the Tiber regularly broke
its banks). In political terms, the papacy was recovering from the trauma of the Great
Schism and attempting to face down Muslim encroachment in the east.
It was against this background that Nicholas decided to rebuild Rome as a showcase of
Church power. To finance his plans, he declared 1450 a Jubilee year, a tried and tested way
of raising funds by attracting hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to the city (in a Jubilee
year anyone who comes to Rome and confesses receives a full papal pardon).
Over the course of the next 80 years or so, Rome underwent a complete overhaul. Pope
Sixtus IV (r 1471−84) had the Sistine Chapel built and, in 1471, gave the people of Rome a
selection of bronzes that became the first exhibits of the Capitoline Museums. Julius II (r
1503−13) laid Via del Corso and Via Giulia, and ordered Bramante to rebuild St Peter's
Basilica. Michelangelo frescoed the Sistine Chapel and designed the dome of St Peter's,
while Raphael inspired a whole generation of painters with his masterful grasp of perspect-
ive.
The Roman Inquisition was set up in the 16th century to counter the threat of Protestantism. It was re-
sponsible for prosecuting people accused of heresy, blasphemy, immorality and witchcraft, and although it
did order executions, it often imposed lighter punishments such as fines and the recital of prayers.