The Renaissance was much more than simply studying the work of ancient savants. It influenced painting, sculpture and architecture. Paintings became more realistic and focused less often on religious topics. Under the atmosphere encouraged by different artists, physiologist, scientists of a new thinking, people become more concentrate on the qualities of their lives.
In the middle Ages, there were very few books. The books that existed nearly all belonged to , or , or to very rich people. They were written by hand and often had beautiful hand-painted pictures. They were so expensive that most people could not own them. The Renaissance was a time of growing knowledge for the poor by applying information to everyone-no matter you are poor or not, which basically have a same idea of Wikipedia -a free place for people to share their thoughts and information.
1.3. Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment is a term used to describe the trends in thought and letters in Europe and the American colonies during the 18th century prior to the French Revolution. The phrase was frequently employed by writers of the period itself, convinced that they were emerging from centuries of darkness and ignorance into a new age enlightened by reason, science, and a respect for humanity. It represented a genesis in the way man viewed himself, the pursuit of knowledge, and the universe.
In this time period, man’s previously held concepts of conduct and thought could now be challenged verbally and in written form. This was the beginning of an open society where individuals were free to pursue individual happiness and liberty. Great changes occurred in scientific thought and exploration. New ideas filled the horizon and man was eager to explore these ideas, freely.
As more and more people began to use reason, some came to disagree with the idea that God created the world. This brought on conflicts and later war. The Enlightenment is held to be the source of important ideas, such as the centrality of freedom, democracy and reason as primary values in society. Thinkers and writers were held to be free to pursue the truth in whatever form, even if the pursuit of truth or the new truth violated established ideas. This is the reason why we chose the Enlightenment, this period of time affected and changed the point of view of the people at that time. It influents today, which there is Wikipedia for everyone feel free to publish their ideas publicly.
- Relationships between two historical periods and 2010 item
2.1. Renaissance and Wikipedia
The Renaissance led to significant results and there are relationships between this period and Wikipedia,
Firstly, the Renaissance weakened the church, which people started to think for themselves and be independent. And there was less church power as monks used to write all the books, so people are not under their control. They were free to present ideas. The Wikipedia is exactly a place to express their thoughts and writing articles. They are written collaboratively by largely anonymous Internet volunteers who write without pay.
Secondly, during this period, not just rich and clever people read, more people could learn and write. This idea is related to Wikipedia, as it is a source open to everyone. People of all ages, cultures and backgrounds can add or edit article prose, references, images and other media there.
Thirdly, the Renaissance brought the beginning of the new spirit of science, reason and experimentation. There are new ideas in arts and science, people had to guess what things (e.g. A lion)looked like as they had never actually seen one. People really try to present a neutral point of view of the subjects. Just like the Wikipedia, Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy makes it an excellent place to gain a quick understanding of controversial topics. Many visitors come to Wikipedia to acquire knowledge, others to share knowledge.
2.2. Enlightenment and Wikipedia
In the Enlightenment, new ideas had also encouraged changes in the habits and beliefs of many ordinary people. Reading clubs and coffeehouses allow many urban businessmen to discuss their ideas. In nowadays, people use the Wikipedia to “talk”, There is talk page(also known as a discussion page)is a page which editors can use to discuss improvements to an article.
Also, as the printing developed in Enlightenment, printing was faster and cheaper than before. Writers and philosophers published books such as the Encyclopedia Britannica, which spread around the won wide audience. The Encyclopedia Britannica let everyone to learn and know more. And Wikipedia is by far the world's largest encyclopedia. It is not only as an encyclopedic reference but also as a frequently updated news resource because of how quickly articles about recent events appear.
Moreover, With the English Wikipedia now having more than three million articles, it is already well over twenty times the size of what was previously seen as the world's largest encyclopedia (the largest edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which contains 65,000 articles). The invention of Encyclopedia Britannica has inspired the Wikipedia and influences it become one of the largest reference website.
2.3. Renaissance and Enlightenment
In Renaissance, people really try to present a neutral point of view of the subjects. And similar in the Enlightenment, people tired to collect information about things human know and published books with reliable source. Both Renaissance and Enlightenment bought out the idea of Wikipedia, about sharing thoughts and representing people’s point of view.
- Wikipedia in Renaissance and Enlightenment
3.1. Renaissance
In the Renaissance, although the worldwide web hasn’t invented, but the printing was invented by Johannes Gutenberg, he is best known for the Gutenberg press, which is an innovative printing press machine that used movable type.
In 1423 the first printed books were made in Europe. The way of printing quickly improved so that large books like the Bible could be made and sold cheaply. The printers then began to print everything that they thought was interesting:- Ancient Greek and Roman writings, poetry, plays, lives of the saints, mathematics textbooks, medical textbooks, Christian stories, naughty stories, books about animals and monsters, advice to princes as to how to rule their people and maps of the world.
Fig 3.1. Renaissance map
This is a map of the Renaissance, Germany is what we call holy roman empire in the past. We can see that it is near the North Sea and a very convenient place for trading and business. The geography helped the invention of printing to spread around the Europe and more people could use the new technology. Printing things was cheaper and faster, people mostly printed books, not just rich and clever people could read and there were more people could learnt to read and write.
3.2. Enlightenment
The Enlightenment was different from its earlier movement, the Renaissance. Renaissance figures helped the rise of arts by using religion (such as the Reformation). During the Enlightenment, its figures started thinking with reason and natural science.
In culture, the science revolution spilled over the Western world. Enlightenment thinkers continued to support scientific advance. Chemists gained new understand of major elements and biologists developed a vital new classification system for the natural species. New ideas had also encouraged changes in the habits and beliefs of many ordinary people.
Reading clubs and coffeehouses allow many urban businessmen to discuss their ideas. Writers and philosophical also published books such as the Encyclopedia Britannica, which spread around the won wide audience. They then became rich and popular. These people and groups also promoted better agricultural and industrial methods, which were directly related to the Enlightenment thinking.
- Timeline (development of the 2010 item)
The technology of printing and paper making was developed long before in China, and at around the 11th century, the enormous encyclopedic work in China of the Four Great Books of Song was compiled during the early Song Dynasty (960–1279), and they were all hand written by men at that time. Paper technology is developed first in the China, it was spread through the world through trading, since the China at that time does not allow large amount of trading, the paper technology wasn’t pass to the European country will the 15th century.
The technology of printing was soon developed at around the early 1400s, in order to have a better use on paper. In the 15th century, the word encyclopedia was coined. In the 17th to the 18th century, the encyclopedia around the world stared to be translated into a few other languages, and information of different country started to travel all around the world. In the Renaissance, the encyclopedia only recorded what the government wants their people to know, and this shows how controlling was the society at that time was.
It wasn’t until the mid 18th century, the encyclopedia no longer only record what the government want the people to know, but with a wider range of information. The encyclopedia was then more like the one we see nowadays. In the 19th century, color printing was developed and the encyclopedia is then with more pictures and photos. The Encyclopedia Britannica is one of the oldest and most famous encyclopedia in the 20th century.
In the late 20th century, internet was transformed into WWW and that internet is more widely used between public. More people get to use the computer, and apply it on the daily usage. In 2001, the Wikipedia was launched and now, it was a famous encyclopedia website that many people use it to search for information.
4.2 Geography aspect
In the past, ships were the only transportation used to travel from a country to another, they need to cross the ocean to reach another country.
Trading brought the cultural exchange with other counties, many different discoveries or inventions were brought to other each other, and the world improved. If it wasn’t for the invention of ships, encyclopedia will need much longer time to spread through the world, the information might also be very little or even none.
The encyclopedia knowledge was introduced to the world through shipping, and through out the journey, people analysis information and add into the encyclopedia, combining many different knowledge from different culture.
The encyclopedia transformed into nowadays’ web based free encyclopedia.
Reasons for Change and Continuity
5.1. Political
In the 16th and 17th centuries, people in Europe were beginning to open their minds to new possibilities and started to question the Catholic Church and the 'divine right of kings'. Monarchs were all-powerful, as was the Church. Anyone who spoke out against either was arrested, tortured or even executed. This harsh treatment brought the people together in their quest for truth, the real truth, not the biblical truth that the Church swore by. However, the enlightenment inspired men to free themselves from king, church, ancestry worship, and eventually from community. This trend lead to today’s Wikipedia. Since, the government does not control everything and people can express their thoughts and ideas freely
On the other hand, the politics had changed from the past to nowadays. Italy was mainly ruled by the church before the Renaissance. Martin Luther wrote 95 essays that against the churches bad practices in 1517. He then posted these essays on a castle in Wittenberg; essays were then copied and copied until it was spread all over Northern Europe. People started to question about the church and think about themselves. It was known as the basis of Humanism, a concept about humans being independent and making their own decisions. People fought for their own rights which leads to the idea of democracy- public can have their own rights to vote and make decisions for their states.. The change of politics has leaded the success of Wikipedia.
5.2. Social
In the Enlightenment, philosophers rose up who where inspired or enlightened, to suggest and infer things which influenced not just Europe but the entire world. Ultimately, these enlightened philosophers helped to suppress the existence and purposes of God by obscuring His message with complex ideas towering in reason and science, right up to this very hour.
Most peers who study this period in history would not think that these events had anything to do with some spiritual agenda. Nonetheless, one will come to see that above everything else that happened, the enlightenment revolution taught society to abandon, eventually, faith in the existence of God. People really try to present a neutral point of view of the subjects. This idea continues, so that we all can share new ideas in art and science in the Wikipedia.
Also, as printing press was being invented in Germany by a man named Johann Gutenberg in 1440 in Mainz. It was then well developed in the Mid-Renaissance. This made books cheaper and easier to afford for the poor, which caused many poor citizens who couldn't read before to learn how to read.
On the other side, Martin Luther wrote essays, which were against churches bad practices in 1517 and spread all over the Northern Europe as it was mentioned before. This causes the reformation of the church and a new branch of Christianity to be formed that called the protestant. Christianity was a religion advocates freedom, promoting to the public to have an independent thinking; freedom to talk, think and acts. Besides freedom, Christianity also regards fair justice as an important idea. Both freedom and fair justice has made public to be more concentrate on their qualities of lives. And back to nowadays, people because of the changes, they will fight for justice and freedom. Just like the freedom publishing in the Wikipedia.
5.3. Economic
Many social and economic changes took place during the Renaissance. Italian cities grew and thrived during the Renaissance as it traded with other cities. Rulers started taxing people to earn money. As trade grew between cities and states, trade in ideas grew as well. Soon Italian cities became important trade centers and profitable centers.
As the printing press techniques became more mature in the Mid-Renaissance, books are being printed and published in a huge number. Many people try to earn money by publishing their own opinions and thoughts, such as the Encyclopedia Britannica. Printing press has started a whole new business opportunity at that time.
And now, people still get profits from publishing books, also making websites to gain money in another way.
5.4. Intellectual
In the Renaissance, the educational assumption of the 15th and 16th centuries weighs in on the side of upper classes, leadership roles should be in the hands of the best. This period of time focused on religious studies and only the basics (reading, writing and math). During the Renaissance the printing press was developed by Johannes Gutenberg
This invention has a great influent on us. Now the United States has made more advancements to the original printing press and produces a mass production of printed books, papers, magazines and flyers. There are also the Intellectual rights to protect things that people published and there’s copyright. But there are some people do not care and copy information to the websites.
- Conclusion
History is very important for us, we learn from history and improve our life. We absorb knowledge from the history in order not to make the same mistake.
From our history, some of the cultures were changed and replaced due to the now-a-days technology was improved. People invented things that can replace the purpose, and so the old invention is useless and will not be used anymore.
Such as we don’t only use books for searching information but we use computer most of the time. The information in books were typed and put into website for people to search online. The trend of searching information using computer is taking over the trend for reading information from books.
There were also some things that were kept from our history and maintain unchanged over time, they might be improved but not replaced. Since they were considered as “useful” to the society, so they can continue their existence and be used by us.
Such as the Christmas and New Year were never affected or disappear from the history since it started, because it is festivals that strongly related to the religion that affected many people. Also, ships were a very ancient transportation, but it was still used now, and like cars, they were improved in the past centuries and many new functions were added to them.
- References
Annenberg , (2006). Learner.org. Retrieved June 21, 2006, from Renaissance Web site: http://www.learner.org/exhibits/renaissance/index.html (2006 Annenberg)
Hodges, M (2002). The Spiritual Pilgrim. Retrieved June 21, 2006, from THE EUROPEAN RENAISSANCE Web site: http://www.newgenevacenter.org/west/renaissance.htm (Hodges 2002)
Craig, Albert M., et.al. (2005). The Heritage of World Civilizations (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. (Pgs 315-321)
Regents of the University of , (2000). Education During the European Renaissance. Retrieved June 21, 2006, Web site: http://education.umn.edu/EdPA/iconics/reading%20room/6.htm (Regents of the University of , 2000)
The Renaissance:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance
- http://www.mrdowling.com/704renaissance.html
- http://www.teacheroz.com/renaissance.htm
Enlightenment:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance
- http://www.mrdowling.com/704renaissance.html
- http://www.teacheroz.com/renaissance.htm
- http://www.brucekelly.com/library/enlightenment.html
- http://www.allabouthistory.org/age-of-reason.htm