GREAT DISCOVERIES AND INVENTIONS. inquirers dared not revile, or rebel against the long-established Ch. 1. guides and rulers of the world, still there burned in secret an A. D. intense spirit of hostility and contempt. The existence of an 1400 anti-christian power was proclaimed; feudalism was suppressed to liberty. in cities; and a revival was attempted of the republican 1500. glories of antiquity. In the Italian towns, popular liberty revived with the arts and literature of ancient Rome. Dante, Petrarch, Rienzi, Savanarola, Michael Angelo, in different ways sought to disperse the gloom and ignorance of the dark Birth of ages, while Marco Polo, a traveller of the thirteenth century, popular and Christopher Columbus turned the attention of mankind to new worlds and unknown sources of wealth and power. Architecture changed its character. The old Gothic edifice, so venerable and so majestic, gave place to new structures on Grecian models. Pagan Rome had, in the eyes of the great men of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, more attractions than Christian Rome, enriched by the contributions of the whole Catholic Church. Even popes aspired to be the restorers and patrons of arts and ideas which ArchiGregory I. and the most celebrated of the fathers had tectura changes. spurned and condemned. To this period we refer the three most important discoveries of modern times-discoveries which have done more to revolutionize the thoughts and institutions of civilized nations, as well as to increase their material prosperity, than any events that have occurred in the whole history of mankind, with the exception alone of the establishment of Christianity. The first in date, though not, perhaps, in importance, was the use of gunpowder on the field of battle.* This eventually Invenchanged the whole art of caused war, and battle-axes, spears, and defensive armour to be laid aside, rendered feudal for- powder. tresses useless, gave strength to masses of plebeian soldiers, and King Edward the Third of England first made use of gunpowder at the battle of Cressy in 1346, although Roger Bacon, in a treatise written about the year 1280, notices its explosive character, and proposes to apply it to the destruction of armies. tion of gun A. D. to INVENTION OF PRINTING, Ch. 1. created the necessity for science in battle, as well as tactics and valour. It made success to depend more on mechanical 1400 forces than individual heroism, and took from war much of its chivalrous and romantic character. It consequently raised 1500. the importance of commercial nations, and gave them, in fortifications and ships of war, armed with thunderbolts and terrors more potent than the weapons of the fabled Olympian deities, better defences than the shields and helmets of aristocratic warriors. And yet gunpowder, though so dreadful a means of destruction, has lessened the chances, and mitigated the evils of war, and caused it to be more reluctantly undertaken than formerly. Invertion of printing Discovery of America. The discovery of moveable types, ascribed to a German of Mentz, named Gutenberg, in 1441, and to Peter Schoeffer in 1444, was doubtless still more important in relation to the ultimate destinies of the human race. We can neither enlarge here on the immeasurable benefits which the art of printing has conferred upon mankind, nor upon the evils which the perversion of so noble an invention has occasioned. The change effected in the whole system of book-making; the amazing and indefinite diffusion of literature in all nations, and among all classes of people; the increased facilities for the circulation of the Scriptures in all languages, living and dead; the immense impulse given to human intelligence; the increase of popular education; and the countless varieties of intellectual pleasures which have been furnished to millions, are among the obvious and substantial blessings which this providential discovery has furnished, and promises to perpetuate through successive generations, to the human race. And who can estimate the results of the third great discovery, the polarity of the magnet, especially in its application to the mariner's compass (1403), which led to the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, in 1492? Who can predict the full growth of a new civilization in a continent once inhabited by ignorant and untutored savages -the new states and empires which will arise both in North GROWTH OF ITALIAN CITIES. 5 and South America-the new forms of social and civil life, Ch. 1. destined to react on the nations of the old world, and to A. D. change the whole intellectual, material, and moral aspects 1400 of Christendom? to But not only did this discovery reveal a new world in the 1500. West, it also opened ancient empires in the East, bringing Japan and China, with all their adjacent islands and kingdoms, within the influence of Europeans, exhibiting new and boundless sources of material wealth, and ensuring ultimately the extension of civilization and Christianity to the utmost bounds of the earth. In addition to these three noble discoveries, which are of sufficient importance to make any age an epoch, the period at which we are glancing was fruitful in a great variety of enterprises, and improvements in every department of life. Men Rise of of genius arose, who appear as prodigies even after the lapse of three centuries, and to whom, in some respects, the world has furnished no parallels. men of genius. To this new era we trace the rising importance of the commercial cities of Italy, to which the Crusades had given the first great impulse. Genoa, Pisa, Florence, Venice, had become new capitals, centres of wealth, refinement, and art. Their merchants were princes, and their palaces are still the admiration of all travellers. The marble staircases, the lofty stories, the gilded and painted ceilings, and the varied ornaments of those gorgeous palaces, are memorials of pride and power which have passed away, probably, for ever. The churches became enriched with the spoils of the Eastern world, as well as ornamented with the proudest monuments of modern art. Beautiful mosaics, exquisite paintings, costly Promarbles, precious stones, and vessels of silver and gold, in gress of luxury. almost incredible profusion, were at once the glory and the shame of the ecclesiastical edifices of this period. The broken and prostrated statues and columns of antiquity were restored, and placed in public squares and buildings. Private houses became more comfortable, and glass windows and stone and A. D. to ST. PETER'S CHURCH. Ch. 1. brick chimneys were introduced. Clocks were invented,* utensils of husbandry and cookery were improved, and linen 1400 and woollen manufactures supplanted the coarser fabrics of the dark ages. Music became more elaborate, and the present system of notation was generally introduced. Spices, silks, and drugs were imported from the East, and diffused among the Teutonic nations. A taste was created for luxury; and mercantile wealth assumed a new importance. 1500. Sculp ture and ing. But the most wonderful development of genius was in paint sculpture and painting. The great masters of that time have never since been equalled. All travellers in Italy are astonished at the richness and variety of those glorious productions, upon which modern artists gaze with admiration and hopeless envy. Florence, Bologna, Venice, and Rome became seats of various schools, of which Michael Angelo,† the Caracci, Titian, § and Raphael|| are among the most distinguished representatives. Pages might be filled with the names of men who will ever rank high in the catalogue of fame, and whose delineations, both of ideal loveliness and sensual beauty, defy imitation. In the midst of these painters and sculptors, whose creations are, to this day, the chief attractions of the cities which gave them birth, rose the palaces of their patrons, containing all that was rare in the memorials of ancient civilization, and all that was choice in modern art. But grander than all these, and gradually towering above them, until it almost reached the colossal proportions and majestic altitude of the old St. Assyrian and Egyptian monuments, arose the Church of Church St. Peter,¶ far exceeding in magnificence the noblest Gothic at Rome. cathedrals of medieval Europe, and surpassing the most Peter's famous temples of antiquity, whether at Athens or Ephesus. This Christian church, built from the contributions of Chris The first public clock was fixed at Bologna in the year 1356. † Michael Angelo, 1474-1564. § Titian, 1480-1576. Caracci, 1555-1619. Raphael, 1483-1520. St. Peter's, commenced in 1506, was not completed until 1614. POETS AND PHILOSOPHERS. tendom, and filled with all that was most precious in Italy, Ch. 1. still one of the wonders of the world, remains, and will A. D. remain for centuries, the proudest monument of the age under 1400 review. to covery dects. Not only was this period marked by a grand impulse given 1500. to art, material wealth, and commercial enterprise, but the intellectual horizon was illuminated by stars of extraordinary brilliancy and magnitude. Italy led the way in poetry and philosophy, as well as in the arts and liberty. The discovery Disof the Pandects of Justinian, at Amalfi (1416), led to the most of the celebrated school in Europe for teaching civil law, the pro- Panfessors of which, at Bologna, drew enthusiastic students from every country in Christendom. Dante had already given to the world his "Divine Comedy," a masterpiece of poetic genius. Petrarch† (who also gave a great impulse to literature by his labours in collating and collecting manuscripts) had followed in his steps-unequalled as an "enthusiastic songster of ideal love." And Boccaccio, delighting the age by his witty, though immoral stories, had created a class of literature which has found, in modern times, more admirers than it has been the fortune of any other kind to obtain. and scholars. But though Italy was in advance of the rest of Europe in civilization, she had no monopoly of learning. Great men Poets began to appear in Germany, France, Spain, Holland, and England, all of whom, in different ways, gave an impulse to thought. Chaucer § had written his "Canterbury Tales," and Froissart his "Chronicles." Reuchlin and Erasmus, T by their classical labours, were preparing the way for the study of the original Greek and Hebrew Scriptures. Wickliffe** had long before instituted doubts among his countrymen as to the infallibility of the pope, and had sowed the seeds of reformation. The mortal remains of Bernard †† and Abe Dante, 1265-1321. † Petrarch, 1304-1374. Erasmus, 1467-1536. |