Linkage: Renaissance Once and Again

Compiled by Michael Nicolella

The relationships among governments, merchants, artists, scholars and religion in Renaissance Europe created an enduring pattern for civic life throughout the world. It would be difficult to give you a website for every aspect and idea about any era of rebirth and change. These websites have been chosen for their quality and their breadth of interest. I've organized this page with no particular scheme. Politics, Religion, Art, Music, Technology, Architecture, Literature and History commingle in these pages; if you wish to pursue a certain renaissance, each of these pages will be a good portal.

The Harlem Renaissance
http://www.nku.edu/~diesmanj/harlem.html

Poetry and Prose by African-American authors from the Jazz Age to the Depression, many of whom have been lost to posterity. From the page:
There are many reasons for the existence of this web page; I will list just a few. I want the chance (and want to give others the chance) to learn something I wasn't taught in school. I want to appreciate and celebrate the incredible treasure left us by the Harlem Renaissance. I want to show that the music, literature, and art produced and/or inspired by the Harlem Renaissance are an incredible gift, and are no less significant or magnificent than any other 'great work' admired by American society.

English Renaissance Literature
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/ren.html

Voluminous information about William Shakespeare: Primary and Secondary Sources; Course Material; Annotated Texts; the Authorship Controversy (personally I'm an Oxfordian); and Discussion Groups. There are many other texts as well, and scholarly groups in non-English languages, history about the Gunpowder Plot, information about all of the important English authors of the time, course syllabi from universities nationwide, and a guide to rhetoric.

European Renaissance and Baroque Architecture
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/dic/colls/arh102/index.html

Architectural Images, the majority of them taken in Italy, with England and France getting some attention as well. Some photos are elevations of a structure, while many depict detail. There could be many uses for this image bank since so many significant buildings are depicted.

Medieval and Renaissance Instruments
http://www.s-hamilton.k12.ia.us/antiqua/instrumt.html

A quite interesting page for anyone interested in music or Renaissance technology. Thirty-two instruments are pictured, most with sound samples; the Lute, the Harp, and the Bagpipe mingle with the Rauschpfeife, Psaltery, and Hurdy-Gurdy. Many of these became prominent in Appalachian music in later iterations.

Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library & Renaissance Culture
http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/vatican/toc.html

The online version of the Rome Reborn exhibit at the Library of Congress. Covers the Vatican Library, Archaeology, Humanism, Mathematics, Music, Medicine, Nature, Orient to Rome, and Rome to China. Thick on detail, history, and context, drawing an erudite picture of Renaissance thought and life. Many images are original reproductions of manuscripts and drawings from the Vatican Library. There is much for casual historians and focused researchers alike.

Renaissance European Art
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks2.html

Images and resources for European Art from the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. This site is maintained by an art history professor and the main table of contents lists most areas of interest. Links go off-site to a variety of organizations and the presentations are generally good, although the sizes of most images suit them better for reference and enjoyment than for brushstroke studies.

Italian Renaissance Art
http://www.uml.edu/Dept/History/ArtHistory/Italian_Renaissance/index.html

Brief, intelligent descriptions of the Historical, Political, and Literary background of the Renaissance in Italy. This site, maintained by a professor, consists mostly of writing, describing in contemporary terms the situation of the culture and civic life of the era.

Italian History and Culture
http://humanities.byu.edu/classes/ital420/Renaissance/index.html

Much about the Renaissance. This site is well-organized and thoroughly descriptive about the links it shows, offering pro's and con's about each site, and covering from the Paleolithic Era to the present. Its links feature everything from music to the Vatican to contemporary cuisine and fashion. While it offers no thumbnail images and the design seems a bit outdated it is hardly the taut academic site that one might initially think.

The Michigan Opera Theater
http://www.motopera.org/

Its mission is to present a broad repertoire of the highest standards, while making its work accessible to all segments of the population. I include this on a sort of whim, as being representative of our nation's "rustbelt" cities. Many cities like Detroit are investing in their cultural organizations, as well as their major-league sports facilities, in order to create healthy civic life, attract newcomers, and bridge racial and economic divides. The Local or City Guides of various search engines feature much about the arts in American cities coast-to-coast, revealing an impressive movement in contemporary American life. This particular Opera House was the subject of a New York Times article on Thursday, 28 October 1999, titled A Horn of Plenty for Opera in Detroit, that reveals many of the dynamics involved in growing organizations such as this. The article may be downloaded for $2.50 at http://www.nytimes.com.