Information Renaissance

Renaissance: Imporant to Oxford and to the game of tennis...

I found some more on the Renaissance and Reformation at Oxford University...

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Renaissance and Reformation Humanist ideas began to influence the university in the late Middle Ages. Erasmus and Thomas More were in Oxford in the 1490s. When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries and friaries much of the Oxford property of local religious houses passed sooner or later to colleges. The most notable beneficiary was Christ Church, which was built by Cardinal Wolsey on the site of St Frideswide's, and whose rich endowments included the former possessions of Osney Abbey. In some other respects, however, the Reformation provoked a temporary decline in the university. The stream of undergraduates seconded from religious houses dried up, and numbers were further reduced when Henry VIII abolished the study of canon law. There was an understandable hesitancy over attending university in an age when ideas were dangerous. In the 1550s the Protestant martyrs Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley, all Cambridge men, were brought to trial in the more conservative Oxford, and burned to death in the city ditch (later Broad Street). In that period the university's numbers reached an all-time low, its library was dispersed, and there was even a decision to sell the bookshelves. The citizens, heavily dependent on the university, suffered accordingly. 'Real', or Royal, tennis being played at Merton College. The Merton court, rebuilt in 1798, is the oldest such court still in use in England, except for that at Hampton Court Photograph courtesy of Oxford Archaeological Unit Seventeenth-century tennis balls from Wadham College, one of several colleges with 'real' tennis courts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

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And what about tennis...

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The Two Tennis Courts (Jeu de Paume) in the gardens of Chateau Blois (Du Cerceau, 1576/79) The fact that France was the new playground of the High Renaissance architectural style, must have prompted Sebastiano Serlio to serve King Francis I as his architectural adviser in 1540. But France also played a pioneering role in the development of the game of tennis. Had Scaino not included a plan of the Louvre Jeu à Dedans court, as there was no such a "major" tennis court to be found in Italy?

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More on Oxford and the Renaissance: OCC - Story of Oxford, Renaissance and Reformation
<http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/index/libraries_heritage_countryside/oxfordshire_museums_service
/virtualexhibitions/storyofoxford/renaissance_reformation.htm>
More on France and Tennis in the Renaissance: Jeu de Paume
<http://www.real-tennis.nl/Jeudepaume.html>

Florence -- More info on Duomo

Here is a link that give more information on the Duomo in Florence, Italy.

http://www.arca.net/db/musei/giotto.htm

Here is a look at the gov't building that acted as The Pentagon for Florence during the Renaissance.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.italica.rai.it/rinascimento/iconografia/albert01.htm&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2B%2522Alberti:%2BPalazzo%2BRucellai%2B%2522%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG%26as_qdr%3Dall

Higher Education in the Renaissance

Since CICS Professor and blog innovator Dr. Jay Gillette is bound for Oxford only in weeks, it seemed an appropriate time to investigate that institution as it relates to its Renaissance history...

Oxford and Cambridge, perhaps the two most famous universities of England, are known as Renaissance Universities, as they both rose to prominance in that period. However, even during the Renaissance, neither school was known as a bastion of enlightened thought. From Shakespeare's Life and Times (itself an interesting resource on the Renaissance)...

The seven liberal arts studied in medieval and Renaissance universities were grouped into two disciplines: the "trivium" (grammar, rhetoric, and logic) and the "quadrivium" (astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, and music). A university education was a very conservative affair: the new interest in Greek, in Plato, and in new approaches to medicine were largely ignored in favour of the traditional studies centred on the early theologians of the Church, and (of course) the Bible.

For more on the history of Oxford, visit this resource...

Link Renaissance Woman

Apparently many scientists have had interest in exploring the phenomenom of feminism during the Renaissance...

I have found an intersting course decription, which provides a full list of reference books which specifically deal with the concept of the Renaissance Woman in some way...

The course, as offered at Bryn Mawr College in PA by Roberta Ricci, is entitled:

Love, Beauty and Sexuality: The Construction of Gender in Italian Renaissance

Here is a link to the course syllabus, as mentioned before, with many book references:

http://www.brynmawr.edu/italian/pdf/renaissancesyllabus.pdf

 

The Attributes of the 21st Century Information Renaissance Era

Please note: This serves only as a notepad for my thought as I forgot the key to my brains... It might look totally different tomorrow...

1. From Humanism to OmniPotent Humanism:
Not humans themselves, but creations of humans seem to move into the bull's eye...(Computerization, Automation, GenTechnology)

2. From Secularism to Fanatism or Atheism
Secularism is moving towards two extremes...

2. From Individualism to Collaboration
Bring your friends with EACH individual adding value....

3. From Idealism to Multi-Idealism
For what is ideal to one, is not to another... Values, beliefs and morals have never been more diversed...

4. From Exploration and Discovery to Innovation

5. From Scientific Method

6. From Fragmentation and Nationalism to Internationalism and Gloablism

6.

Versatile Parallel-Processing

2. Collborative Individualism

3. Explorative Innovation

4. Internationalism and Globalism

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. From Diversity to Versatility

2. From Humanism an

3. From Fragmentation and Nationalism to Internationalization and Globalism

4. From Individualism to Collaborative Individualism

5.From Exploration and Discovery to Innovation

6. From Scientific Method to

Sofonisba Anguissola- The First Great Woman Artist of the Renaissance

Towards the end of the Renaissance, Italian noblewoman Sofonisba Anguissola (1532 - 1625) became the first female artist to reach international fame. She came from a family of five sisters, all of whom were painters. Sofonisba's father believed in the Renaissance ideal, that "all aristocrats, male and female, should be highly trained in the social arts." Among all off the sisters, only Sofonisba enjoyed such success and reknown, even receiving paintings from the elderly Michaelangelo in respect of her efforts.

He sent her some drawings, which she copied and sent back to him for criticism.

 

Sofonisba Anguissola's paintings are realistic and appealing.

Her innovative portraits are best noted for their warm colors, crisp details, and the highly expressive eyes.

Sources:

http://d.whyville.net/smmk/whytimes/article?id=30

 

http://www.mystudios.com/women/abcde/s_anguissola.html

 

 

Great Renaissance Link

As I was researching on the origin of the expression "Renaissance Woman", I have come across a great Student link which provides a great overview with small profiles about personalities from the Age of the Renaissance...

The personalities are divided into categories such as scholars, partrons, scientists, artists or politicians. Just a few personalities are selected for each category, and thererfore this list kind of presents a "creme-de-la-creme" of the Renaissance Age....

Enough talks, here is the link: Enjoy

http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/renaissance/index.shtml

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Also interesting, I have found a description on a book entitled "The invention of the Reanissance Woman" by P. Benson, and published by Penn State Press. This book identifies two Renaissance works as the origin for the concept of Renaissance femalism: Orlando furioso and The Faerie Queene.

Interestingly I have never heard about these works, so I feel inspired to research on them for my next entry....