Daily life of Renaissance Citizens
The people of Renaissance Florence were organized into five social classes. -Royal rulers -Nobles -Merchants -Workers/Tradesman -Peasants/Unskilled workers The Renaissance Italy was divided into numerous city-states. The most important and popular city-states of Renaissance Italy were Florence, Milan, Venice and Rome.[1] Rulers in Florence and other city-states were influenced by powerful and wealthy families, many city-states were competitive and wars among the city-states were common. There were around 20 city-states and each city-state had its own functioning government. Each city-state had there own issued currency. [1] The nobles lived on large estates outside of the city wall. The nobles owned most of the lands of the city. Nobles during the Renaissance occupied high positions in the government as military officers, royal advisers or politicians. [2,3] Merchants also gained wealth like nobles by working in industries producing wool and ships, many of other merchants would also be working in banking. The merchants would protect and maintain their wealth by marrying to a noble person that carries a wealthy family. Merchants, by the end of the 14th century had established the wool industry. Wealthy merchant families began investing their money in the banking sector to increase the profit they were gaining, when trading. Many merchant families become the new 'rich class' and also taking power and wealth from certain nobles. [4] The tradesman and workers main job was to craft daily equipments or hold the position of being a shopkeeper, they had set rules of membership. They also had less freedom, when they had finished working for the day.[4,5] Peasants, slaves and unskilled workers were the lowest class of the social structure during Renaissance. They were very dependent with the jobs they held because they had no job protection. If unskilled workers invaded the rules their payment salary will be cut or they would be discharged from their jobs.[3,4,5] Peasants and slaves or poor farmers would usually have a house with one room, although wealthier merchants would live in houses with much more rooms and better quality of furniture than the peasants and slaves.[3,4,5] The Renaissance changed how children lived. Before the Renaissance children were treated like as small adults. They were expected to dress, talk and act like adults, they also had to begin working. When citizens of Renaissance Italy gained free time and wealth they started to treat their children how children should be treated. [5,6] Clothing/Food Fashion and clothing was a important aspect, of many individuals during the Renaissance. Clothing and fashion would represent the people during the daily life of the Renaissance Italy. Wealthy families would have a variety of clothes made from different sorts of materials such as furs and silks, however, peasants had only 1 or 2 sets of clothing.[7] Men in the Renaissance Italy would wear colorful tights or stockings with a shirt, coat and often wore hats. This coats was generally called a doublet. [7] Woman in the Renaissance usually wore long dresses that had high waists, with puff sleeves and shoulders. Gold and other jewellery were attached to their clothes. Although wealthy women would apply themselves with jewellery made out of gold and other jewels that contained pearls and sapphires.[7] Food was not equally distributed to every person who lived during the Renaissance Italy. They also would not give the same type of different food products for families or people who lived during the Renaissance. Your place in society determined the type of food you could access. An average peasant would eat a soup, mush or black bread for every meal of their day. The soup would be made out of food scraps, carrots and eggs, mush was a kind of grain, oats or wheat.[8,9] Peasants had a lack of meat to eat mainly because the meat was expensive and not widely available. Meat was a highly demanded commodity, so they needed salt to prevent the meat getting rotten. Peasants who lived near the coast would get to eat more fish than other peasants who lived away from the coast.[8,9] Wealthy people who lived during the Renaissance obviously ate much better than the peasants. They enjoyed having their meals by having huge feasts and festivals with variety of fancy dishes.[8,9] The Wealthy people also had roasts of beef, stag or ham and applied rose water to add in flavor. Wealthy people during the Renaissance did not drink as much water as we do today they would normally have wine with every meal they had.[8,9] Summary (The way of life during Renaissance Italy) No social class except (workers/tradesman and peasants) had their own method of becoming wealthy such as working in big industries e.g boat-making or producing wool. Merchants would become even more wealthier when marrying a noble during the Renaissance Italy. Hamed Jadeer |
Social and economic changes during Renaissance Italy
As time past by in the Renaissance Italy, rulers and kings have learned to tax citizens of Renaissance Italy. Trading techniques grew between different city states of Renaissance Italy. Many people today believe that the Renaissance has first occurred in Italy, due to where the country was perfectly positioned between Western Europe and the Eastern shore of the Mediterranean. [10,11] The main techniques when trading was using river routes to move goods or objects so that towns (houses) that lived close by the river would grow as an important trade center. The Danube, Rhone and Rhine rivers all became an important routes when trading during the Renaissance Italy.[10,11] Florence became a wealthy city due to its inland location away from the trade routes, Florence also became the banking center of Italy during the 14th century.[10,11] Societies during Renaissance Italy had to be really rich to support artists, elaborate buildings projects, many of the Italian city states were a industrial powerhouses, such as Florence produced cloths, Milan had created armory weapons. Although two city-states in Italy Venice and Genoa were extremely rich due to trading. But it has been examined that the city-state 'Venice' was one of the richest state out of the whole of Italy. Venetians were expert crew sailors, shipbuilders and merchants. The Venetians had figured out a techniques to trade with Islamic Empires, including the biggest economic empire of the region 'The Ottomans'. Without the Islamic world, Venice would not have enough money to pay for the painters, paint, clothing and food.[16] Summary: (Social and economic changes during Renaissance Italy) Mainly the most powerful city state during Renaissance Italy was Florence due to its trading techniques with the Ottomans. Although each city state also was rich and wealthy. Hamed Jadeer |