What started the Renaissance?

Answer 1

Most people today have absolutely no idea about the real source of the advanced knowledge and sciences that helped drag Europe out of the Dark Ages and into the light of civilization and literacy.

The Renaissance (literally "the rebirth") traces its earliest beginnings to Al Andalus, also known as "Moorish Spain," a part of Spain which fell under Islamic rule for nearly eight hundred years. During the early centuries of Islamic expansion, one of the things that Islam stressed above all others was literacy; as Islam spread, so too did literacy, and Al Andalus was no exception. (It bears noting that Islam of that time bears very little resemblance to the Islam of today; back then, most Muslims were much more tolerant of others, and tended to be much less fervent in their beliefs.)

During the Dark Ages, the Catholic church destroyed hundreds of thousands of books throughout Europe under the premise that, "if it repeats what's in The Bible, it's redundant; if it says things that aren't in the bible, it's heresy." This approach caused a devastating loss of the combined ancient knowledge as handed down by the Greeks and Romans.

While most of Europe languished in the Dark Ages, and very few Europeans could read and write, Moorish Spain was a beacon of both civilization and literacy; the great cities of Al Andalus had miles of well lit streets and hundreds of public libraries, containing millions of books and scrolls. At a time when a European nobleman might brag that his personal library contained "a dozen books, " the libraries of Al Andalus contained the collective knowledge and wisdom of the ancients, and shared it freely with anyone who wanted to study.

During the 11th, 12th and 13th Centuries, European scholars like Abelard came to Al Andalus to study at the public libraries, where they learned things like algebra, alchemy, medicine, philosophy and various other disciplines and sciences; this was also where Europeans re-learned many of the lost secrets of the ancient Romans and Greeks, such as geometry, astronomy, and mechanical/hydraulic engineering, of which the Arab rulers of Spain were accomplished masters. (For example, the aqueducts and fountains of the Alhambra palace still work perfectly, many centuries after they were built.)

During the golden age of Al Andalus, literally hundreds of thousands of Greek, Latin and Arabic texts were translated into several European languages. The works of Averroes (a brilliant Spanish Muslim polymath of the 12th Century, who invented safe and effective cataract surgery, among many other things) Archimedes, Pythagoras, Aristotle, Plato and many others were translated into French, German, English and Italian.

After spending several years studying in Al Andalus, Abelard and other founders of European universities brought wagon loads of such translations home to help establish universities, and university libraries. These university libraries then formed the basis of the earliest stages of the Renaissance.

It was Al Andalus' massive repositories of knowledge, open to anyone who wished to learn, which finally enabled Europe to lift itself out of the darkness and illiteracy of the Dark Ages and give birth to the Renaissance.

IMPROVED ANSWER:

The Renaissance, was a great cultural movement that began in Italy during the late 1300's. It spread to England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and other countries in the late 1400's, and ended about 1600.

During the Renaissance, many European scholars and artists, especially in Italy, studied the learning and art of ancient Greece and Rome. They wanted to recapture the spirit of the Greek and Roman cultures in their own artistic, literary, and philosophic works.