EXPLORATORY PROJECT

Submitted to:
SIR RIZWAN GHANI
Submitted by:
Muqadus Javed
BS English General(S-2)
Roll# F19-BSM-ENG-GE-1002

MOTIVES BEHIND RENAISSANCE

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 AGE
World REBORN in many ways in the 16th century, this started form Italy then
spread in England.

Motives means the reasons why this age have those characteristics and why it is
called renaissance. Renaissance age is also called Elizbethan Period, but
Elizbethan Period is only a short span of renaissance age. Renaissance is a broader
term.

Work of Petrarch:
Petrarch was the first person who invented “SCHOLARSHIPS.” For the first
time, there awoke a great spirit of research and study. When children used to read
and spend time in studying, they were given scholarships at the end of the month.
This step proved much beneficial in spreading the awareness and lust of
knowledge among the children and common people.

Dante and Petrarch used classical Greek and Roman and rediscovered their work
also. Both are considered to start renaissance. So renaissance connects both ancient
and modern civilizations by acting as a bridge.

INVENTION OF THE PRINTING PRESS:

Inventor of Printing Press: Johann Gutenberg (In Germany)

In 1450, Printing Press was invented. Before the invention of printing press, all the
books were hand written. There were only 3 to 4 volumes of any book which were
certainly distributed in the following way.

(i)One copy of that was sent to the king of that time.

(ii)The second was send to the Mare of the city.

(iii)And the third one was left for the author himself.

Only the royal family was able to get that knowledge from that book. Other
Civilians were not able to benefit themselves from those books. But after the

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printing press was invented, open libraries were built where anyone could get
knowledge anytime.

Along with this, the invention of Scholarships by Petrarch proved to be a great

hand for the spread of knowledge.

THE REASON OF START OF RENAISSANCE AGE IN

ENGLAND

In 1455 AD, Wars of Roses (Civil war) started after two years of Hundreds Years
War between the house of York (represented by a white rose) & house of
Lancaster (red rose) for the control of the monarchy of England.

So, due to these political causes, literary work of that time succumbs. Soon
Britain was free from this civil war because in 1485, the Battle of Bosworth, in
which King Richard III killed and the Lancastrian Henry Tudor became King
Henry VII.

Henry married Elizabeth of York thus uniting the two houses, and founded the
Tudor dynasty (actually he desired to annul his first marriage as he has no heir
from his wife. However, polygamy was prohibited under the Catholic Church.
Thus he fell into conflict with Church. So he ended the rule of Catholic Church &
established himself as a head of both State & Church, first time in History of
England). The Tudor Rose includes both red and white roses to symbolize the
uniting of the Houses of York and Lancaster.

So after Henry VII, he abled to maintain peace and renaissance embedded its
place. Before it, renaissance already took place in the Europe, now its turn for
England for renaissance.

THE RULE OF KING HENRY VIII:

He was a very cruel king. He made many changes according to his will. King
henry VIII made changes in the translation of Bible also. These changes created a
great restlessness among people and they were there in front of their king having
many questions about that translation and its changings. Whenever any person
asked any question about god, or asked about the validity of Christianity or
anything about the religion, the cruel king head off at the spot.

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THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE:

This occurred in 1453 when Sultan Muhammad Fateh attacked Constantinople and
took over the charge. Many scholars flee to Italy and there came a great flood of
revoloution in Italy as those scholars brought many printed books and manuscripts
with them. So Italy became a Greek study hub after the attack and also a great
mentor and teacher for the whole Europe in literature, art and classical work.

In this era, there arose a huge disturbance among people. KING HENRY VII was
the ruler at that time. When he was unable to keep people calm, another person
from his own family who was KING HENRY VIII took over the charge by
killing King henry VII.

CONCEPT OF HUMANISM:
Humanists believed that humans were everything. They thought that serving
humans is the foremost task for every individual and they were more
ambitious towards fulfilling human rights.
Father of Humanism: Petrarch was considered the father of this idealogy.
Important Aspects:
1-They focused their interest in the study of mankind.
2-The writers of that time showed deep interest in the human personality
problems.
3-In Elizbethan plays, emphasis was laid on the qualities which distinguish
one human from the other like,individuality and uniqueness.
4-Interest was developed in human personality.
5-They were sensitive towards formal beauty and emotions.
6-Each individual was responsible for his/her own deeds.

CONCEPT OF PATRIOTISM:
Patriotism also existed in human’s heart.They used to love their motherland
and country in which they lived.

DEBATES:

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A person who was good at making a debate on a certain topic was
considered a learner and was considered supreme over the non-debater.
SIR FRANCES BACON (Father of English prose writing) who belonged to
Renaissance age, narrates a story from his life history about two people who
were having a same view and debating on a same matter for the 3
consecutive days that there are certain number of teeth in a horse’s oral
cavity.A third passing by person disagreed from both of them and told them
to go check the teeth themselves. Both the debaters killed that third person
because of the view that he said their information fake and untrustful. Sir
Frances Bacon says that I never participated in any debate.

Renaissance age acted as a bridge between the dark ages and the modern
ages.