The Renaissance Times

In this episode, we explore the dramatic collapse of papal power in 14th-century Italy, tracing how Pope Clement V — a Frenchman installed by the ruthless King Philip IV after the arrest and death of Boniface VIII — relocated the entire papacy to Avignon in 1309, effectively making it a puppet of the French crown. […]

The post #35 The Avignon Popes – Part I appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

BTW – in 1421, Bruno was awarded the world’s first ever patent for invention. The patent describes Bruno as “a man of the most perspicacious intellect, industry and invention,” And this document granted him a patent of monopoly for “some machine or kind of ship, by means of which he thinks he can easily, at any […]

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So what was the magic solution that Bruno brought to the Dome on August 7, 1420? How do you build a dome out of bricks, that curves upwards, with no support, that won’t fall down? Well he actually invented not one, not two, but a handful of new tricks. And this is even BEFORE he […]

The post #33 Brunelleschi & The Dome IV appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

It’s thought that Bruno returned to Florence probably in 1416 or 1417 Which means he was in Rome for 15 years. How did he earn a living? Vasari says he didn’t have to at first. Before he left Florence he sold a small farm that he owned. So he lived off that money for a […]

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When Bruno – or Pippo was he was known to his friends (short for Filippo) went to Rome, after the embarrassment of the Baptistery doors competition, it wasn’t the Rome of Augustus. At its height, Rome’s population was one million people. When Bruno arrived there, it was less than 20,000, thanks to the Black Death of 1348. […]

The post #31 Brunelleschi & The Dome II appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

After he finished the first set of doors, he was commissioned to make a huge bronze statue of John The Baptist by the same guild – by the cloth merchant’s guild, the Arte di Calimala. –  for the outside wall of Orsanmichele (Orsan-mikele) – (or “Kitchen Garden of St. Michael”) –  another church in Florence. […]

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Anyway – governors of Florence may have had a more immediate reason for selecting this story. The climax of the story emphasizes divine intervention, and we must remember that the Florentines were facing a series of threats from outside forces – we’ll discuss them in later episodes – and had just had another dose of […]

The post #29 Ghiberti & The Doors II appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

If you’ve ever been to Florence, you’ve no doubt paid a visit to the Duomo, the Florence Cathedral, formally the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. Known as the Duomo. Well we’re NOT going to be talking about that today. Instead we’re going to be talking about the building right next to it – the Baptistery of St […]

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So let’s talk about The Decameron. The book’s primary title exemplifies Boccaccio’s fondness for Greek philology: Decameron combines two Greek words, δέκα, déka (“ten”) and ἡμέρα, hēméra (“day”), to form a term that means “ten-day [event]”. Ten days is the period in which the characters of the frame story tell their tales. It was set […]

The post #27 – Boccaccio Part Three appeared first on The Renaissance Times.

Let’s talk about the Filocolo The title means “the one struck down by love”. It is considered to be the first novel of Italian literature written in prose. Florio, son of the King of Spain, and Biancifiore, an orphan. They grow up together, get separated, have a lot of adventures, then he searches for her […]

The post #26 – Boccaccio Part Two appeared first on The Renaissance Times.