Changing Cultural Traditions

Town life expanded across Europe

Town life expanded across Europe, and towns became centres of art, learning, trade, and new social attitudes. Townspeople began to think of themselves

A nineteenth

A nineteenth-century term meaning rebirth, used to describe the cultural changes in Europe from the fourteenth century onwards. Jacob Burckhardt stron

A new educational and cultural approach

A new educational and cultural approach that valued grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, and moral philosophy. It stressed that the individual could ma

Florence and Venice were republics

Florence and Venice were republics, while many other Italian towns were court-cities ruled by princes. In Venice and Genoa, merchants and bankers were

Gutenberg’s printing with movable type made

Gutenberg’s printing with movable type made books cheaper and more available. By 1500 many classical texts had been printed in Italy, and printed book