The Northern Renaissance began around 1450 as influences from Italy spread outside its borders following periods of war and plague. A major proponent was French King Francis I from 1515-1547, who embraced humanism and sponsored the arts. He lured Leonardo da Vinci to France and greatly expanded the royal library. Printing presses, invented by Johann Gutenberg, mass-produced texts and spread Renaissance ideas more widely. Literature took on a Christian humanist bent, emphasizing human freedom within Christianity. Art emulated Italian techniques like perspective and realism as seen in the works of artists like Durer, van Eyck, and Holbein.

1. The Northern Renaissance

2. By about 1450, the Renaissance is finally starting to
move outside of Italy.
• The plague has passed.
• The Hundred Years War is over.
• More money to be had for other goods.

3. Learning Goals
• Explain the origins and characteristics of
the Northern Renaissance
• Profile Key Renaissance writers
• Explain how printing spread Renaissance
ideas

4. A big mover and shaker was France’s King Francis I, who
reigned from 1515-1547.
• Francis became known as
the Father and Restorer
of Letters. He was quite
the humanist.
• The two previous French
kings had warred with
(and therefore interacted
with) Italy, but Francis
was the first one to really
embrace the new ideas.

5. • He sponsored a lot of art, and even lured Leonardo de
Vinci to France.
• It was near the end of de Vinci’s life and he wasn’t
that productive, but he brought his stuff with him –
including such pieces as the Mona Lisa, which is
France has it and not Italy.
• He was a great reader, a good poet, and greatly
expanded the royal library. He even opened it up to all
scholars.
• He did a lot with architecture.

6. The Chateau de Chambord

7. Chateau de St. Germain-en-Laye

8. Château de Fontainebleau

9. Rebuilt the Louvre

10. Art
• Art followed the Italian techniques and used a lot of
perspective and realism.
• Some of the bigger names:

11. • Albrecht Durer

12. • Hans Holbein (the Younger)

13. Look at
the detail:

14. • Jan van Eyck

16. Literature
• Writing also goes humanist, but, like with the rest, with
a Christian bent, giving rise to Christian Humanism.
• Human freedom and individualism are compatible
with Christianity.
• Human existence isn’t valued merely in itself.
• You see this a lot with Erasmus.

18. Guttenberg and the printing press
• The printing press is one of the greatest inventions in
history.
• It was invented by Johann Gutenberg.
• Previously, literary works had to be transcribed by
hand, usually by monks.
• It was tedious, time-consuming
work and made books very
expensive.
• The printing press allowed works
to be cheaply mass-produced.
Suddenly the written word could
be accessible to the masses.
• In three years, a monk could
produce one Bible… Gutenberg,

20. • The press actually derived from a modified olive press.
• It’s big thing was the durable types used and the
ability to easily move around the letters.
• One of the first projects Gutenberg undertook was
printing 200 copies of the Bible with 42 lines per page.
Some were on vellum.
• There are currently 11 complete copies on vellum
and 48 relatively intact copies on paper. They can
be sold for millions (but aren’t sold that often).