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RENAISSANCE EUROPE THE ORIGINS OF THE MODERN WORLD IN EUROPE
RENAISSANCE EUROPE THE ORIGINS OF THE MODERN WORLD IN EUROPE Author:Neil Grant 48 pages, full color illustration, glossy pages — In the 19th century, scholars began using the term "Renaissance" to explain the great flowering of culture that took place in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. This was the movement that launched the intellectual and artistic traditions of today's world. Yet the conditions in which the Rena... more »issance first flourished were very unpromising. The continent was ravaged by long periods of warfare, the Church was deeply divided, and plague was destroying whole populations. Despite this, Europe made a comeback, mainly as a result of trade. Sea and land routes linked the continent, spreading money, goods and also new ideas. Newly rich city-states in Italy, where the ruins of classical civilisation were still standing, used their wealth to imitate the glory of the Roman Empire itself. Their artists condemned the recent "dark age" and set their minds to revicing the spirit of the classical past.