| Word |
Definition
|
| Balance of power
|
a distribution of power among several states such that no single
nation can dominate or interfere with the interests of another.
|
| Civic humanism
|
an intellectual movement of the Italian Renaissance that saw Cicero,
who was both an intellectual and a statesman, as the ideal and held that humanists should
be involved in government and use their rhetorical training in the service of the state.
|
| Condottieri
|
leaders of bands of mercenary soldiers in Renaissance Italy who sold their
services to the highest bidder.
|
| Hermeticism
|
an intellectual movement beginning in the fifteenth century that taught
that divinity is embodied in all aspects of nature; included works on alchemy and magic
as well as theology and philosophy. The tradition continued into the seventeenth century
and influenced many of the leading figures of the Scientific Revolution.
|
| Humanism
|
an intellectual movement in Renaissance Italy based upon the study of the
Greek and Roman classics.
|
| Neoplatonism
|
a revival of Platonic philosophy. In the third century a.d., a revival
associated with Plotinus; in the Italian Renaissance, a revival associated with Marsilio
Ficino who attempted to synthesize Christianity and Platonism.
|
| Nepotism
|
showing favoritism to relatives; common practice among the Renaissance
popes.
|
| New monarchies
|
the governments of France, England, and Spain at the end of the
fifteenth century, where the rulers were successful in reestablishing or extending
centralized royal authority, suppressing the nobility, controlling the church, and insisting
upon the loyalty of all peoples living in their territories.
|
| Patricians
|
economic elites who derived their incomes for capitalistic ventures and
dominated urban communities during the Renaissance.
|
| Renaissance
|
the “rebirth” of classical culture that occurred in Italy between c. 1350 and
c. 1550; also, the earlier revivals of classical culture that occurred under Charlemagne and
in the twelfth century.
|