Weell, there's a reason the Renaissance is called "renaissance" and not something else.

That reason is self-hype. The Renaissance was dreadful in comparison to the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period in much of Europe.

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anthk 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Go read the Book of the Games from the 1200's and now you'll learn something. The Middle ages were centuries wide. The last centuries had nothing to do, say, with the 5th century.

	▲	Sharlin 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		I should have clarified that I meant there are reasons why the people who branded the Renaissance branded it like that.

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lo_zamoyski 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

The Renaissance is really the tail end of the Middle Ages historically, and the name is a bit of propaganda, just like "Enlightenment".

People flatter themselves.

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anthk 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

This: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libro_de_los_juegos

13th century. Not just the art, but for the content. Truly ahead of its time.

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IAmBroom 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> The Renaissance is really the tail end of the Middle Ages historically

And the Space Age is really the tail end of the Steam Age. Human history doesn't have any sharp divisors, aside from total genocides or the even rare natural disasters on the scale of Pompeii's demise.

The admittedly artificial definition of the start of the Renaissance, however, does help frame an explosive growth of useful new tools in art (and other endeavors), like perspective, oil paints, and so on.

	▲	lo_zamoyski 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		You're missing the point. Obviously, there is no sharp line. That is too trivial to mention. But the distinction is made, because it captures something about the characteristic spirit of an age. In the received black legends of whig history, the Renaissance is typically presented as some kind of enlightened rift with and rebellion against the supposedly dark and evil Middle Ages, but in some sense, it is more accurate to view it as a culmination of the Middle Ages or something continuous with it. You will find great rifts later on with the rise of modernism.