Saint Ignatius of Loyola and the Renaissance

Saint Ignatius and the Renaissance

1. Welcome to First-Year Seminar (Writing our History, Ignatian Style) with Prof A! Dr. Maria Americo 9/4/24 Nota bene: This is an interactive presentation! Questions I’d like you to help me answer will appear in red !

2. The Renaissance Today we’re going to learn a bit about the guy who founded the Jesuits (because, as you know, Saint Peter’s is a Jesuit school…), Saint Ignatius of Loyola. We’ll start with some historical background, since I am a historian and all, and when you come to my classroom, you’re a historian too. Yay. Saint Ignatius lived during a period of history known as the Renaissance. And some of the things going on culturally and linguistically during the Renaissance would have an impact on Saint Ignatius’s life. So let’s give ourselves a little background. At the end of class today, we’ll also be watching a video about a talking olive. Stay tuned.

3. The Renaissance But first… I know you know way more about the Renaissance than you think you do!! Class, what is the Renaissance? When and where did it occur? What about the world was undergoing a “renaissance” during this period? What language is the word “renaissance”? Why? Why do we use that word instead of translating it? What does the word mean? Where did you first learn about the Renaissance? Where do you most often hear about it?

4. “Experts” on the Renaissance Thanks for sharing your expertise with me, class. Now let’s turn to one of my other favorite resources for finding out what something means… the Oxford English Dictionary . Here it is. We’ll read together & interpret the buzzwords! “The revival of the arts and high culture under the influence of classical models , which began in Italy in the 14th cent. and spread throughout most of Europe by the end of the 16 th … The Renaissance is generally regarded as… part of the developing culture of humanism, with classical motifs and models being revived in the arts, literature, and architecture. Over the course of the 15th cent. the movement spread to other Italian centres , such as Rome and Venice, culminating in the decades around 1500 when Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo were active (commonly known as the High Renaissance), and to other parts of Europe…

5. “…Alongside this classicism , the period was also characterized by innovations such as, in literature, the emergence of the vernacular as a widely accepted medium for poetic expression and, in the fine arts, the development of perspective and other techniques, and a greater emphasis on depicting human character. Developments in music included an increased respect for the rhythm and the sense of the words in text-setting, as exemplified by… at the end of the 16th cent., the invention of opera .” “Experts” on the Renaissance

6. The Lucky Renaissance By the 14 th century , the world looked quite different than it had in ancient times. In short, Europe was beginning to take the shape that’s familiar to us today: nation states with their own state religions and identities, geopolitical borders approaching the ones we still have today. Also, things were a bit calmer politically, religiously, and socially than they had been during the Late Antique and medieval periods, so people turned their attention to something else… A new generation of scholars in Europe was hungry for something new… which, of course, meant something old…

7. What place names are familiar? Which places have the same names in 1500 that they do today? Which places have different names than the ones they have today? Do you know what their “old” names mean? Can you figure out what countries the “old” regions correspond to?

8. For a bunch of reasons, these new “humanists” of the 14 th century wanted to reclaim “Europe’s classical heritage”! Let’s talk about why.. What do you think, class? When searching for something new to be “reborn,” why did the European humanists turn to the ancient Greeks and Romans? Keep in mind, of course, that they (1) didn’t really know the ancient languages, (2) weren’t really ethnically related to Aristotle etc. (though they wanted to be), and (3) had trouble getting access to the texts. But no matter! They would find a way to get their hands on these ancient texts to “reclaim” them! But… how? The Lucky Renaissance

9. The fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453, while yet another example of our world’s history of violent “civilizational” takeover, was a lucky thing for our humanists’ desire for classical texts. Suddenly, a huge wave of Greek speakers from the Byzantine empire flooded into western Europe, bringing with them their knowledge of (Modern) Greek and their collections of classical manuscripts! All right! We’ve got manuscripts back in Europe! On top of that, a tradition of “retranslating” Greek-and-Latin-but-now-Arabic versions of classical texts into western languages (especially Latin) had also begun during Late Antiquity. ( Do you all remember these historical events & conditions?  ) So Europe now had a respectable number of classical manuscripts, and let the Renaissance begin! The Lucky Renaissance

10. Vernacular vs. Ancient Languages Suddenly, it was fashionable again to know classical languages—especially Latin! Greek was still a little bit tricky (…I am happy to talk about why!), but there is plenty of evidence that people learned ancient Greek too. Latin experienced a huge rise in popularity, to the point that it became the lingua franca of science in a very important period during the history of science: for example, the works of Copernicus and Newton were composed in Latin (we’ll be meeting them again very soon!). But nothing could stop the rise of the vernaculars, or of nationalism. People spoke “their own languages,” wanted them respected as legitimate scholarly languages, and pushed to conduct science and other intellectual pursuits in them.

11. Yes, including English—even American English. In the 19 th century, Noah Webster began to feel that American English was a legitimate language, distinct from British English, and deserved its very own dictionary. …enter Webster’s Dictionary, which survives to this day (as Merriam-Webster’s). Teaching and intellectual pursuits in the vernaculars sped on, and ancient texts began to be translated, alongside the rise of modern archaeology in the 19 th century, into every vernacular. Countries even began to develop their own traditions of history (studying history in Germany is different from studying it here, for example!). …until we find ourselves here, in the US, studying our own brand of history in our own language. How Did We Get Here?

12. As promised, a talking olive The Olive - YouTube