Jim Roth’s Website

World Literature 271

Web-Based Assignment on the Renaissance

Directions: First, please browse the following Web site to get a sense of the next era we will be exploring. Then, using this Website as a resource, please answer the following questions.

1. Why is the word Renaissance an appropriate title for that era?

2. Why were the people who lived in the cities more susceptible to the Black Plague than others?

3. What changes in the economy did the rise of the Middle Class create?

4. What is an astrolabe? What was its use?

5. Why was sailing a better means of travel for traders than traveling by land?

6. Who invented the first printing press? Why was its invention so profound?

7. What was humanism? How did it differ from what guided most scholars in The Middle Ages?

8. What was the Golden Mean? How was it used?

9. With what Italian city was The Renaissance most closely associated? Why?

10. In what major way would a gallery of Renaissance paintings differ from a gallery of Medieval paintings? (Hint: it has to do with the subjects)