Renaissance Culture and Literature
1.4. Culture in the Renaissance
Renaissance
There was a change in the conception of man in God’s dealings with us and with nature. Endowed with freedom, dignity, and the capacity of deciding about himself, man stood in the center of the world (anthropocentrism).
The base transformation of Renaissance culture was to evaluate the education and recovery of the classics performed by humans.
Humanism
A school of thought was based on the studia humanitatis (‘human studies’), which imposes the usage of learning classics, allowing direct access to the works of antiquity. It was believed that this permitted the development of training capabilities and also provided philosophical ideas to cope with life.
The reading of ancient authors led in poetic creation to imitation, intended as knowledge of various texts and personal recreation.
In humanistic works, together with the assessment of the possibilities of man and their ability building, the exaltation of nature and pleasure predominates as well as an optimistic and confident view of the world.
Humanists were much appreciated and actively participated in the development of urban life: educated nobles and burghers, employed in important positions, participated in the political and economic life of the cities and enjoyed the protection of the powerful.
Humanism and Renaissance in Spain
In Spain, humanism came to prominence in the late fifteenth century. In the early sixteenth century, the work of Cardinal Cisneros is emphasized, a driver of spiritual reforms that promoted the edition of the Polyglot Bible (in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin) and founded the University of Alcalá de Henares.
Humanism included the claim and study of the national tongue (which was also present in Italy). The Spanish won the literature and science, and translated Latin works (e.g., versions made by Horace and Fray Luis). Elio Antonio de Nebrija released Gramática castellana, and Juan de Valdés, Diálogo de la lengua.
Likewise, in some respects during the Renaissance, there was a revival of chivalry, merged in this case with the culture. The imperial policy of Carlos I, that brought to their land many servers, caused the emergence of the ideal courtier, the poet who participates in military campaigns and diplomatic missions.
The prototype of the Renaissance gentleman, noble, military, and poet, played mainly in Spain in the figure of Garcilaso de la Vega and was portrayed by Baldassare Castiglione in The Courtier (1528), a work translated by the Spanish poet Juan Boscán.
2. The Renaissance Lyric
The renewal of poetry occurred because of the spread of humanism, which allowed a better understanding of classical and Italian Renaissance literature. One of its most exemplary speakers was Francesco Petrarca, who influenced fifteenth-century Spanish poets such as the Marquis of Santillana, Juan de Mena, and subsequently Juan Boscán and Garcilaso de la Vega.
Petrarca managed to harmonize the legacy of Provençal lyric with cultured classical literature and with that of the Italian poets of his generation.
2.1. Formal Aspects
Italian poetry contributed two rhythmic innovations: the hendecasyllable and enjambment, which gives a softer sound. While in the previous century the octosyllable was used, it was Juan Boscán who introduced the hendecasyllable and who recommended his practice to Garcilaso de la Vega.
Similarly, the Renaissance lyric joined usual types of compositions and stanzas in the Italian lyric:
- The triplets chains, similar to Castilian poetry by Juan Boscán and then by Garcilaso in Eclogue II.
- The lira, whose name is from the Castilian initial stanza of the Ode to the Flower of Knidos, by Garcilaso de la Vega.
- The eighth real, also known as an eighth rhyme. It was introduced by Juan Boscán in the Eighth Rhyme Poem.
- The stanza, used in the Petrarchan or Italian song. It was used by Garcilaso in the Eclogue I.
- The sonnet, of Italian origin and perfected by Petrarch, had already been cultivated in previous centuries by the Marquis of Santillana, but it was Boscán and Garcilaso who implanted it permanently.
- The Sapphic stanza, also of Italian origin, consisting of three hendecasyllables verses and a pentasyllable.
In style, in the first half of the sixteenth century, a poetry that responds to the ideal of simplicity and naturalness of expression was cultivated.
In the Renaissance poetry, a change in style is also seen: the adjectives become significant, especially the employment of the epithet to describe the outside world (the beauty of the landscape), and the use of metaphors to characterize the physical features of the lady. The use of hyperbaton is emphasized.