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THE BIRTH OF THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE and the european RENAISSANCE
Renaissance," French for "rebirth," perfectly describes the intellectual and economic changes that occurred in Europe from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries. During the era known by this name, Europe emerged from the Middle Ages and experienced a time of financial growth . Also, and perhaps most importantly, the Renaissance was an age in which artistic, social, scientific, and political thought turned in new directions.

The Renaissance period has been regarded as the rebirth of literature and of the other fine arts. The name "Renaissance" usually given the period ushering in this Age of Idealism might mistakenly suggest that after a thousand years Western Europe suddenly awoke with an almost unparalleled burst of activity in every field of human endeavour. That the Renaissance represents a complete break with the past. Its prevalence in our own time is evident in the only too frequent reference to the period before 1400 as the "Dark Ages."

Although navigation was still an imprecise science, sailors were able to go farther than they had before. This was important because as the economy of the Renaissance continued to improve, there were ever-increasing demands for imported goods and new places to export local products. (For traders, sailing proved to be a better option than traveling by land, as the network of roads that crisscrossed Europe was poor, and the few good roads that did exist were pataroled by thieves.) The Renaissance sailor first took to the seas to supply Europeans with the many Asian spices they demanded. Peppercorns, nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon all came from lands to the east. Also from the East came precious gems and fine silk, a fabric especially sought after for women's clothing. These trading voyages were often paid for by investors. When these saliors returned they brought back new ideas and information that helped europe advances and bring new culture.

THE INVENTION OF THE PRINTING PRESS When Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1445, he forever changed the lives of people in Europe and, eventually, all over the world. Previously, bookmaking entailed copying all the words and illustrations by hand. Often the copying had been done onto parchment, animal skin that had been scraped until it was clean, smooth, and thin. The labor that went into creating them made each book very expensive. Books also helped to spread awareness of a new philosophy that emerged when Renaissance scholars known as humanists returned to the works of ancient writers. Previously, during the Middle Ages, scholars had been guided by the teachings of the church, and people had concerned themselves with actions leading to heavenly rewards. The writings of ancient, pagan Greece and Rome, called the "classics," had been greatly ignored. To study the classics, humanists learned to read Greek and ancient Latin, and they sought out manuscripts that had lain undisturbed for nearly 2,000 years. The humanists rediscovered writings on scientific matters, government, rhetoric, philosophy, and art. They were influenced by the knowledge of these ancient civilizations and by the emphasis placed on man, his intellect, and his life on Earth. Renaissance composers also incorporated the classics into their craft. By studying Greek drama, they discovered the art of making their music reflect the lyrics in their songs--making music sound happy for words of joy and sorrowful for words of grief. When they learned that ancient Greek drama (which featured music) brought the audience to tears with its sad music, Renaissance composers tried to re-create that theatrical experience. They didn't succeed, but their efforts resulted in the birth of opera.
 * WHEN THE RENAISSANCE BEGANE MANY ARTS AND MUSIC STYLES CHANGED BRINGING WITH THEM MORE MODERN IDEAS AND CONCEPTS. PEOPLE GOT MORE CREATIVE AND MANY OF THE ARTS AND LITERITURE TECHNUQUIS WERE DEVELOPED AND CHANGED FOR EVER. **
 * music **

Drama During the Renaissance, a churchman named Martin Luther changed Christianity. On October 31, 1517, he went to his church in the town of Wittenburg, Germany, and posted a list of things that worried him about the church. His list included the church's practice of selling indulgences, a means by which people could pay the church to reduce the amount of time their souls must spend in purgatory instead of atoning for their sins via contrition. Luther also requested that, when appropriate, Mass be said in the native language instead of in Latin so that the church's teachings would be more accessible to the people. This request for reform ignited the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation. Many other Christians agreed that the church needed to change, and several new Christian religions were established during this time. The old church became known as Roman Catholic, and new Christian sects were known by their leaders--among them Lutherans (Luther) and Calvinists (John Calvin). The recovery of ancient manuscripts showed the humanists how the Greeks and Romans employed mathematics to give structure to their art. The relationship between these two studies is most evident in architecture, where numerical ratios were used in building design. The Renaissance was a rebirth that occurred throughout most of Europe. However, the changes that we associate with the Renaissance first occurred in the Italian city of Florence and continued to be more pervasive there than anywhere else. The city's economy and its writers, painters, architects, and philosophers all made Florence a model of Renaissance culture. by lucas :p)
 * RELIGION**



MEDICINE IN ELIZABETHAN PERIOD
Medicine in Elizebethan England was heavily influenced by superstition and religion. In Fact many "cures" had no scientific or medical backing and were based on other factors. A good example of this was a cure for a headache. In the cure for a headache, it was advised to get a noose which had been used to hang a criminal (sadly they weren't very hard to find) and to tie it around your head. Just wait a day and hey presto, your cured! Another great example of this is Scrofula (a type of tumor that is found under the skin) which was called "Kings Evil" and was able to be supposedly cured by the touch of a kings hand. Included in these "cures" were often outlandish ingredients, such as powdered armadillo bone and a dead mouse cut in half.

In order to learn about the human body, dead pigs were often used. However some over eager students who usually couldn't wait would go and dig up dead bodies to practice on. Practical lessons were held in rooms where a dead body was put onto a table and then dissected by a "professional doctor" in front of a large group of students.



Dentistry in Shakespeare's time was a crude and very disgusting art and more often than not, teeth were ruined in the effort to keep them clean. Sometimes teeth were rubbed with a mixture of mixture of powdered pumice stone, brick and coral. This not only took off the stain on the teeth it also removed the enamel from the teeth. In some cases going to the dentist could cost you your life. Death by blood loss and pain was sometimes caused by the instruments the dentists used. Keys with claws used to dislocate the tooth from the socket, pliers and pelicans which were used to pull out teeth roots. These instruments often inspired fear in people.



In medicine, It was thought that the body contained four main bile's with each one representing one of the four elements (earth, air, fire and water) with each one having a certain feel. These four bile's are Blood which represented air and felt hot and moist. Phlegm which represented water and felt cold and moist. Melancholy (yellow bile) which represented earth and felt cold and dry. Finally there was cholor which represented fire and felt hot and dry.

THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE
The concept greatly resembles the Bhavacakra, or Wheel of Becoming, depicted throughout Ancient Indian art and literature. In Ancient Rome, the Wheel of the goddess Fortuna has been mentioned at least as early as Ccero. Fortuna eventually became Christianized: the Roman philosopher Boethius was a major source for the medieval view of the Wheel, writing about it in his Consolatio Philosophiae.

Basically, the wheel of fortune was a belief that a man was not completely in charge of his own fate, that it was in charge of some higher being. It reasoned that the events of mans life was like the passing of the seasons and the events went from good to bad and bad to good, from summer to winter and autumn to spring. It was expected that to someone who had great fortune, he would have a bad event in his or her future and similarly it was expected that a person who had suffered recently from bad events to have good events in his or her future.



SCIENCE IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND
Just like medicine, science was heavily influenced by superstition and religion and just like medicine many "scientific facts" was just based on nothing more than superstition and religion

In Shakespeare's time Alchemy was considered normal. While they did practice chemistry in its base form, many alchemists decided to chase the elusive "philosophers stone". They thought that this stone if they did mange to create or find it, could turn normal metals in gold and that it would be a fountain of youth something they could use to stay young forever. Another motive for finding the philosopher's stone was that the creator or finder would achieve great renown and unimaginable riches and would even become part of the queens or kings court.

In Shakespeare's time, many people believed in Astrology and Astronomy was often mocked. The defination of astrolgy is defined as the study of the positions and aspects of celestial bodies in the belief that they have an influence on the course of natural earthly occurrences and human affairs and events and many people believed that events in heaven directly affected earth. An example of this is if a comet was spotted then a king or queen had passed away and was making their way to heaven.

While Elizabethan England is not thought of as an age of technological innovation, some progress did occur. In 1564 Guilliam Boonen came from the Netherlands to be Queen Elizabeth's first coach-builder — thus introducing the new European invention of the spring-suspension coach to England, as a replacement for the litters and carts of an earlier transportation mode. Coaches quickly became as fashionable as sports cars in a later century; social critics, especially [|Puritan] commentators, noted the "diverse great ladies" who rode "up and down the countryside" in their new coaches.