The Renaissance is a time of cultural flourishing, the heyday of all the arts, but the fine arts were the most fully expressing the spirit of their time.

Renaissance, or Renaissance(French "again" + "born") had global importance in European cultural history. The Renaissance replaced the Middle Ages and preceded the Enlightenment.
The main features of the Renaissance- the secular nature of culture, humanism and anthropocentrism (interest in a person and his activities). During the Renaissance, interest in ancient culture and there is a kind of “rebirth” of it.
The revival arose in Italy - its first signs appeared as early as the 13th-14th centuries. (Tony Paramoni, Pisano, Giotto, Orcagna and others). But it was firmly established from the 20s of the 15th century, and by the end of the 15th century. reached its highest peak.
In other countries, the Renaissance began much later. In the XVI century. the crisis of the ideas of the Renaissance begins, the consequence of this crisis is the emergence of mannerism and baroque.

Renaissance periods

The Renaissance is divided into 4 periods:

1. Proto-Renaissance (2nd half of the XIII century - XIV century)
2. Early Renaissance (beginning of the XV-end of the XV century)
3. High Renaissance(late 15th - first 20 years of the 16th century)
4. Late Renaissance (mid-16th-90s of the 16th century)

The fall played a role in the formation of the Renaissance Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines who moved to Europe brought with them their libraries and works of art, unknown to medieval Europe. In Byzantium, they never broke with ancient culture either.
Appearance humanism(social-philosophical movement, which considered a person as highest value) was due to the absence of feudal relations in the Italian city-republics.
Secular centers of science and art began to appear in the cities, which were not controlled by the church. whose activities were outside the control of the Church. In the middle of the XV century. typography was invented, which played important role in the dissemination of new views throughout Europe.

Brief characteristics of the Renaissance periods

Proto-Renaissance

Proto-Renaissance is the forerunner of the Renaissance. It is still closely connected with the Middle Ages, with Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic traditions. It is associated with the names of Giotto, Arnolfo di Cambio, the Pisano brothers, Andrea Pisano.

Andrea Pisano. Bas-relief "Creation of Adam". Opera del Duomo (Florence)

Proto-Renaissance painting is represented by two art schools: Florence (Cimabue, Giotto) and Siena (Duccio, Simone Martini). central figure painting was Giotto. He was considered a reformer of painting: he filled religious forms with secular content, made a gradual transition from planar images to three-dimensional and relief images, turned to realism, introduced the plastic volume of figures into painting, depicted the interior in painting.

Early Renaissance

This is the period from 1420 to 1500. Artists Early Renaissance Italy drew motives from life, filled traditional religious plots with earthly content. In sculpture, these were L. Ghiberti, Donatello, Jacopo della Quercia, the della Robbia family, A. Rossellino, Desiderio da Settignano, B. da Maiano, A. Verrocchio. In their creativity begin to develop freely standing statue, picturesque relief, portrait bust, equestrian monument.
IN Italian painting 15th century (Masaccio, Filippo Lippi, A. del Castagno, P. Uccello, Fra Angelico, D. Ghirlandaio, A. Pollaiolo, Verrocchio, Piero della Francesca, A. Mantegna, P. Perugino, etc.) are characterized by a sense of the harmonious ordering of the world, conversion to the ethical and civic ideals of humanism, joyful perception of the beauty and diversity of the real world.
The ancestor of Italian Renaissance architecture was Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), an architect, sculptor and scientist, one of the creators of the scientific theory of perspective.

A special place in the history of Italian architecture is occupied by Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472). This Italian scholar, architect, writer and musician of the Early Renaissance was educated in Padua, studied law in Bologna, and later lived in Florence and Rome. He created theoretical treatises On the Statue (1435), On Painting (1435–1436), On Architecture (published in 1485). He defended the "folk" (Italian) language as a literary language, in the ethical treatise "On the Family" (1737-1441) he developed the ideal of a harmoniously developed personality. In architectural work, Alberti gravitated towards bold experimental solutions. He was one of the pioneers of the new European architecture.

Palazzo Rucellai

Leon Battista Alberti designed new type a palazzo with a facade treated with rustication to its full height and dissected by three tiers of pilasters, which look like the structural basis of the building (Palazzo Rucellai in Florence, built by B. Rossellino according to Alberti's plans).
Opposite the Palazzo stands the Rucellai Loggia, where receptions and banquets for trading partners were held, weddings were celebrated.

Loggia Rucellai

High Renaissance

This is the time of the most magnificent development of the Renaissance style. In Italy it lasted approximately from 1500 to 1527. Now the center Italian art from Florence moves to Rome, thanks to the accession to the papacy Julia II, an ambitious, courageous, enterprising person who attracted to his court best artists Italy.

Raphael Santi "Portrait of Pope Julius II"

Many are being built in Rome monumental buildings, magnificent sculptures are created, frescoes and paintings are painted, which are still considered masterpieces of painting. Antiquity is still highly valued and carefully studied. But imitation of the ancients does not stifle the independence of artists.
The pinnacle of the Renaissance is the work of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) and Raphael Santi (1483-1520).

Late Renaissance

In Italy, this is the period from the 1530s to the 1590s-1620s. The art and culture of this time is very diverse. Some believe (for example, British scientists) that "Renaissance as a holistic historical period ended with the fall of Rome in 1527. The art of the late Renaissance is a very complex picture of the struggle of various currents. Many artists did not seek to study nature and its laws, but only outwardly tried to assimilate the "manner" of the great masters: Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo. On this occasion, the aged Michelangelo once said, looking at how artists copy his "Last Judgment": "My art will make many fools."
In Southern Europe, the Counter-Reformation triumphed, which did not welcome any free thought, including the chanting human body and the resurrection of the ideals of antiquity.
Famous artists of this period were Giorgione (1477/1478-1510), Paolo Veronese (1528-1588), Caravaggio (1571-1610) and others. Caravaggio considered the founder of the Baroque style.

The philosophy of the Renaissance - the most important thing briefly. This is the topic for this article in the continuation of a series of articles on philosophy. The article also has a list of books on the philosophy of the Renaissance and a video with brief description the main representatives and main ideas of the philosophy of the Renaissance.

Approximately from the 14th century Western Europe Renaissance begins, which had a huge impact on the entire development of human civilization and the formation of cultural and social life society. The main feature of that time was a sharp decline in the influence of the church on all political and social processes in society. The Renaissance is associated with the return of thinkers to the ideas of antiquity, with the revival of Roman and ancient Greek philosophy.

Stages of Renaissance philosophy

• Humanistic stage- mid-14th century - 1st half of the 15th century. It is characterized by a transition to anthropocentrism from theocentrism.
• Neoplatonic stage- 2nd half of the 15th century - 1st half of the 16th century. It is characterized by a change in worldview.
• Natural Philosophical Stage- 2nd half of the 16th century - 1st half of the 17th century. It is characterized by attempts to make changes in the picture of the world.

Historical prerequisites for the emergence of the philosophy of the Renaissance

• Feudal relations had become obsolete by the 14th century. Cities and self-government began to grow rapidly in them. Especially in Italy, where the traditions of autonomy of big cities, such as Venice, Rome, Naples, Florence, have not been lost. Italy was a model for other European countries.
• By the 14th century monarchs began to be weighed down by the influence Catholic Church in many areas of life. Citizens and peasants are also tired of the taxes of the clergy. This led to a struggle for reform of the Church and to a split between Protestantism and Catholicism.
• 14th-16th century marked by great geographical discoveries. Needed systematization naturally scientific knowledge. Scientists have become bolder and bolder in declaring that the world is rational.

Anthropocentrism and Humanism in Renaissance Philosophy

Everything was based on anthropocentrism and humanism. According to anthropocentrism, man is the most important thing, the center of the entire universe. According to humanism, as an offshoot of anthropocentrism, every person has the right to their freedom and development.

Against the asceticism and rigid dictates of the church, a life full of pleasure and a person's own interests were put forward. Many writers and philosophers of that time devoted their works to this.

Representatives of the philosophy of the Renaissance

petrarch in his sonnets, he called on everyone in his country to be healed of anger and forget about the enmity among the townspeople.

Boccaccio he very sharply criticized church ministers who did nothing for enlightenment, but only grew rich, denounced the nobles who were incapable of creation, and put forward the human mind and the intention to get as much joy and pleasure from life as possible.

Erasmus of Rotterdam in his deeply Christian philosophical works, he showed that humanism should be the basis of everything and the old ideology of feudalism can give nothing to a person.

Leonardo da Vinci made a significant contribution to the development of humanism in his works and scientific works.

Giordano Bruno and Galileo Galilei, Nicolaus Copernicus in their writings on natural sciences and philosophy, they began to identify God not just with nature, but with the infinite Cosmos and the Universe.

We can say that almost all the literature and philosophy of that time were concentrated on the recognition of the right of a person to his life, to development and creative self-expression.

Philosophy was filled with the recognition of a person's right to happiness, his own self-determination and opportunities for his development. The individual has become more important than anything, including the state as such.

The main directions of the philosophy of the Renaissance

• heliocentrism- This is the heliocentric system of the world, representing the Sun as the center around which the Earth revolves. Heliocentrism comes from antiquity and became widespread in the 16th and 17th centuries.
• Humanism derived from Latin word humanus (human) and means an ethical position about the right of people to freely determine the form and meaning of their own lives.
• Neoplatonism is a branch of philosophy that originated in ancient philosophy in the 3rd century and was based on the ideas of Plato: the transcendental single origin, the cosmic hierarchy, the ascent of the soul to the primary source.
• Secularism- the assertion that the rule of law and government should be separated from religions.

Characteristic features of the philosophy of the Renaissance

• Freedom of expression against meaningless religious scholasticism and the dominance of the church in all spheres.
• Literature and philosophy are increasingly pay attention to human values.
• New trends in culture and philosophy began to penetrate more and more European countries and gradually became the basis of all philosophy at that time.
• Most characteristic features this era can be called complete rejection of useless book disputes, which lead to nothing, but only confuse the human mind.
• In addition, in philosophy everything more dominated by the ideas of natural science knowledge of the world and man. Emphasis was placed on the works of philosophers of ancient times, who preferred materialism.
• philosophy gradually began to nominate a person as the main driving force and the foundation of the entire world.

Philosophy of Machiavelli briefly

Niccolo Machiavelli was the first philosopher of that time who completely rejected theocracy as the basis of the whole system. He believed that it was necessary to build a country only according to the secular principle and according to his worldview, the basis of all human life is exclusively selfishness and the desire to get rich. In order to curb the bad nature of the human essence, it is necessary to use the power that can only be provided by the state.

Order in society can only be created by jurisprudence and the corresponding worldview of each member of society, and all this can be done exclusively by the state machine, and not by the church with its prejudices. Machiavelli studied a lot of issues that concerned the structure of the state and power, the interaction of man and power, methods of countering violence and corruption in the country, and so on.

Books on Renaissance Philosophy

• Gorfunkel A. Philosophy of the Renaissance.
• Perevezentsev S. Anthology of Philosophy of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

VIDEO Renaissance philosophy in 15 minutes

Summary

The stage of philosophy in the Renaissance can be briefly described as awakening from ignorance, recognition each person's values. Renaissance representatives are philosophers and naturalists such as Giordano Bruno, Galileo Galilei, Nicolaus Copernicus. They became in their works identify God not just with nature, but with the infinite cosmos and the universe. They fixed their eyes on the sky.

Renaissance philosophy includes not only natural philosophical ideas and ideas of pantheism, but also humanistic views. The philosophy of this period requires a person to constantly self-improvement, courage in the search for the meaning of earthly existence, the divine principle in everything that exists.

I wish you all an unquenchable thirst for knowledge of yourself and the world around you, inspiration in all your affairs!

Renaissance(Renaissance)

Renaissance (Renaissance) (Renaissance), the era of intellectual and artistic heyday, which began in Italy in the 14th century, peaked in the 16th century and had a significant impact on European culture. The term "Renaissance", meaning a return to values ancient world(although interest in the Roman classics arose as early as the 12th century), appeared in the 15th century and received a theoretical justification in the 16th century in the works of Vasari, dedicated to the work of famous artists, sculptors and architects. At this time, an idea was formed about the harmony reigning in nature and about man as the crown of her creation. Prominent representatives of this era include the painter Alberti; architect, artist, scientist, poet and mathematician Leonardo da Vinci.

The architect Brunelleschi, innovatively using Hellenistic (antique) traditions, created several buildings that were not inferior in beauty to the best ancient examples. Very interesting are the works of Bramante, whom contemporaries considered the most talented architect of the High Renaissance, and Palladio, who created large architectural ensembles, distinguished by their integrity. artistic intent and diversity compositional solutions. Theater buildings and scenery were built on the basis of the architectural work of Vitruvius (about 15 BC) in accordance with the principles of the Roman theater. The playwrights followed strict classical canons. The auditorium, as a rule, resembled a horseshoe in shape, in front of it there was an elevation with a proscenium, separated from the main space by an arch. This was taken as a model of a theater building for everything Western world for the next five centuries.

Renaissance painters created a whole concept of the world with internal unity, filled traditional religious subjects with earthly content (Nicola Pisano, late 14th century; Donatello, early 15th century). realistic image man became the main goal of the artists of the Early Renaissance, as evidenced by the works of Giotto and Masaccio. The invention of a way to convey perspective contributed to a more truthful display of reality. One of the main themes of the paintings of the Renaissance (Gilbert, Michelangelo) was the tragic intransigence of conflicts, the struggle and death of the hero.

Around 1425, Florence became the center of the Renaissance (Florentine art), but by the beginning of the 16th century (High Renaissance), Venice (Venetian art) and Rome took the lead. Cultural centers were the courts of the Dukes of Mantua, Urbino and Ferrada. The main patrons were the Medici and the popes, especially Julius II and Leo X. The largest representatives"Northern Renaissance" were Dürer, Cranach the Elder, Holbein. northern artists they mostly imitated the best Italian examples, and only a few, such as Jan van Scorel, managed to create their own style, which was distinguished by a special elegance and grace, later called mannerism.

Renaissance artists:

Famous paintings by artists of the Renaissance (Renaissance)

Mona Lisa

The content of the article

RENAISSANCE, period in the history of Western and Central Europe 14-16 centuries, the main content of which was the formation of a new, "earthly", inherently secular picture of the world, radically different from the medieval one. New painting of the world found expression in humanism, the leading ideological current of the era, and natural philosophy, manifested itself in art and science, which underwent revolutionary changes. building material for the original building of the new culture, antiquity served, which was turned through the head of the Middle Ages and which, as it were, was “reborn” to a new life - hence the name of the era - “Renaissance”, or “Renaissance” (in the French manner), given to it later. Born in Italy new culture at the end of the 15th century. passes through the Alps, where, as a result of the synthesis of Italian and local national traditions culture is born Northern Renaissance. During the Renaissance, the new Renaissance culture coexisted with the culture late Middle Ages, which is especially characteristic of the countries lying north of Italy.

Art.

Under theocentrism and asceticism medieval painting world art in the Middle Ages served primarily religion, conveying the world and man in their relationship to God, in conditional forms, was concentrated in the space of the temple. Neither visible world nor man could be self-valuable objects of art. In the 13th century V medieval culture new trends are observed (the cheerful teaching of St. Francis, the work of Dante, the forerunners of humanism). In the second half of the 13th c. the beginning of a transitional era in the development of Italian art - the Proto-Renaissance (lasted until the beginning of the 15th century), which prepared the Renaissance. The work of some artists of this time (G. Fabriano, Cimabue, S. Martini, etc.), quite medieval in iconography, is imbued with a more cheerful and secular beginning, the figures acquire a relative volume. In sculpture, the Gothic incorporeality of figures is overcome, Gothic emotionality is reduced (N. Pisano). For the first time, a clear break with medieval traditions manifested itself at the end of the 13th - the first third of the 14th century. in the frescoes of Giotto di Bondone, who introduced a sense of three-dimensional space into painting, painted more voluminous figures, paid more attention to the setting and, most importantly, showed a special, alien to exalted Gothic, realism in depicting human experiences.

On the soil cultivated by the masters of the Proto-Renaissance, the Italian Renaissance arose, which passed through several phases in its evolution (Early, High, Late). Associated with a new, in fact, secular worldview, expressed by humanists, it loses inseparable bond with religion, painting and statue spread outside the temple. With the help of painting, the artist mastered the world and man, as they were seen by the eye, applying a new artistic method(transfer of three-dimensional space using perspective (linear, aerial, color), creating the illusion of plastic volume, maintaining the proportionality of figures). Interest in the individual individual traits combined with the idealization of man, the search for "perfect beauty". Plots sacred history did not leave art, but from now on their image was inextricably linked with the task of mastering the world and embodying the earthly ideal (hence Bacchus and John the Baptist Leonardo, Venus and Our Lady of Botticelli are so similar). Renaissance architecture loses its gothic aspiration to the sky, acquires a "classical" balance and proportionality, proportionality to the human body. The ancient order system is being revived, but the elements of the order were not parts of the structure, but decor that adorned both traditional (temple, palace of authorities) and new types of buildings (city palace, country villa).

The ancestor of the Early Renaissance is considered the Florentine painter Masaccio, who picked up the tradition of Giotto, achieved an almost sculptural tangibility of figures, using the principles linear perspective, gone from the conventionality of the image of the situation. Further development painting in the 15th century. went in the schools of Florence, Umbria, Padua, Venice (F. Lippi, D. Veneziano, P. dela Francesco, A. Pallayolo, A. Mantegna, K. Criveli, S. Botticelli and many others). In the 15th century Renaissance sculpture is born and develops (L. Ghiberti, Donatello, J. della Quercia, L. della Robbia, Verrocchio and others, Donatello was the first to create a self-standing, not connected with architecture round statue, he was the first to depict a naked body with an expression of sensuality) and architecture (F. Brunelleschi, L. B. Alberti and others). Masters of the 15th century (primarily L. B. Alberti, P. della Francesco) created the theory fine arts and architecture.

The Northern Renaissance was prepared by the emergence in the 1420s - 1430s on the basis of the late Gothic (not without the indirect influence of the Jott tradition) of a new style in painting, the so-called "ars nova" - "new art" (E. Panofsky's term). Its spiritual basis, according to researchers, was primarily the so-called "New Piety" of the northern mystics of the 15th century, which presupposed specific individualism and pantheistic acceptance of the world. The origins of the new style were the Dutch painters Jan van Eyck, who also improved oil paints, and the Master from Flemall, followed by G. van der Goes, R. van der Weyden, D. Boats, G. tot Sint Jans, I. Bosch and others (mid-second half of the 15th century). New Netherlandish painting received a wide response in Europe: already in the 1430s–1450s, the first samples appeared new painting in Germany (L. Moser, G. Mulcher, especially K. Witz), in France (Master of the Annunciation from Aix and, of course, J. Fouquet). The new style was characterized by a special realism: the transmission of three-dimensional space through perspective (although, as a rule, approximately), the desire for three-dimensionality. "New Art", deeply religious, was interested in individual experiences, the character of a person, appreciating in him, above all, humility, piety. His aesthetics is alien to the Italian pathos of the perfect in man, the passion for classical forms(the faces of the characters are not perfectly proportioned, gothic angular). With special love, nature, life were depicted in detail, carefully written out things, as a rule, had a religious and symbolic meaning.

Actually, the art of the Northern Renaissance was born at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries. as a result of the interaction of the national artistic and spiritual traditions of the trans-Alpine countries with the Renaissance art and humanism of Italy, with the development of northern humanism. The first artist of the Renaissance type can be considered the outstanding German master A. Dürer, who involuntarily, however, retained Gothic spirituality. A complete break with Gothic was made by G. Holbein the Younger with his "objectivity" of the painting style. M. Grunewald's painting, on the contrary, was imbued with religious exaltation. German Renaissance was the work of one generation of artists and dwindled in the 1540s. in the Netherlands in the first third of the 16th century. currents oriented towards the High Renaissance and the mannerism of Italy began to spread (J. Gossart, J. Scorel, B. van Orley, etc.). The most interesting thing in Dutch painting 16th century is the development of genres easel painting, domestic and landscape (K. Masseys, Patinir, Luke of Leiden). The most nationally original artist of the 1550s–1560s was P. Brueghel the Elder, who owned paintings of everyday life and landscape genres, as well as parable paintings, usually associated with folklore and a bitterly ironic look at the life of the artist himself. The Renaissance in the Netherlands ends in the 1560s. French Renaissance, which was entirely court in nature (in the Netherlands and Germany, art was more associated with the burghers) was perhaps the most classic in the Northern Renaissance. The new Renaissance art, gradually gaining strength under the influence of Italy, reaches maturity in the middle - second half of the century in the work of architects P. Lesko, the creator of the Louvre, F. Delorme, sculptors J. Goujon and J. Pilon, painters F. Clouet, J. Cousin Senior. The “Fontainebleau School”, founded in France, had a great influence on the above painters and sculptors. by Italian artists Rosso and Primaticcio, who worked in the Mannerist style, but french masters did not become mannerists, having accepted the classical ideal hidden under the mannerist guise. renaissance during french art ends in the 1580s. In the second half of the 16th century Renaissance art of Italy and others European countries gradually gives way to mannerism and early baroque.

The science.

The most important condition for the scale and revolutionary achievements of the science of the Renaissance was the humanistic worldview, in which the activity of mastering the world was understood as a component of the earthly destiny of man. To this must be added the revival ancient science. a significant role the development was played by the needs of navigation, the use of artillery, the creation of hydraulic structures, etc. The dissemination of scientific knowledge, their exchange between scientists would not have been possible without the invention of printing ca. 1445.

The first advances in mathematics and astronomy date back to the middle of the 15th century. and are connected in many respects with the names of G. Peyerbach (Purbach) and I. Muller (Regiomontan). Müller created new, more advanced astronomical tables (to replace the Alfonsian tables of the 13th century) - "Ephemerides" (published in 1492), which were used in their travels by Columbus, Vasco da Gama and other navigators. A significant contribution to the development of algebra and geometry was made by the Italian mathematician of the turn of the century L. Pacioli. In the 16th century The Italians N. Tartaglia and J. Cardano discovered new ways to solve equations of the third and fourth degree.

The most important scientific event of the 16th century. was the Copernican revolution in astronomy. Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus in his treatise About the appeal celestial spheres (1543) rejected the dominant geocentric Ptolemaic-Aristotelian picture of the world and not only postulated rotation celestial bodies around the Sun, and the Earth still around its axis, but also for the first time showed in detail (geocentrism as a guess was born back in Ancient Greece) how, based on such a system, one can explain - much better than before - all the data of astronomical observations. In the 16th century new system the world, as a whole, has not received support in the scientific community. Convincing proof of the truth of the theory of Copernicus was brought only by Galileo.

Based on experience, some scientists of the 16th century (among them Leonardo, B. Varki) expressed doubts about the laws of Aristotelian mechanics, which had reigned supreme until that time, but did not offer their own solution to the problems (later Galileo would do this). The practice of using artillery contributed to the formulation and solution of new scientific problems: Tartaglia in a treatise new science considered ballistics. The theory of levers and weights was studied by Cardano. Leonardo da Vinci was the founder of hydraulics. His theoretical research was connected with the installation of hydraulic structures, land reclamation, the construction of canals, and the improvement of locks. The English physician W. Gilbert laid the foundation for the study of electromagnetic phenomena by publishing an essay About magnet(1600), where he described its properties.

A critical attitude towards authorities and reliance on experience were clearly manifested in medicine and anatomy. Fleming A. Vesalius in his famous work About the structure of the human body(1543) described the human body in detail, relying on his numerous observations during the anatomy of corpses, criticizing Galen and other authorities. At the beginning of the 16th century along with alchemy, iatrochemistry arises - medical chemistry, which developed new medicinal preparations. One of its founders was F. von Hohenheim (Paracelsus). Rejecting the achievements of his predecessors, he, in fact, did not go far from them in theory, but as a practitioner he introduced a number of new drugs.

In the 16th century mineralogy, botany, and zoology were developed (Georg Bauer Agricola, K. Gesner, Cesalpino, Rondela, Belona), which in the Renaissance were at the stage of collecting facts. Big role in the development of these sciences played the reports of explorers of new countries, containing descriptions of flora and fauna.

In the 15th century Cartography and geography were actively developed, Ptolemy's mistakes were corrected, based on medieval and modern data. In 1490 M. Behaim creates the first globe. At the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries. search for Europeans sea ​​route India and China, advances in cartography and geography, astronomy and shipbuilding were crowned with the discovery of the coast of Central America by Columbus, who believed that he had reached India (the continent called America first appeared on Waldseemüller's map in 1507). In 1498 the Portuguese Vasco da Gama reached India by circumnavigating Africa. The idea to reach India and China by the western route was implemented by the Spanish expedition of Magellan - El Cano (1519-1522), which went around South America and made the first trip around the world(in practice, the sphericity of the Earth was proved!). In the 16th century Europeans were sure that "the world today is completely open and the whole human race is known." The great discoveries transformed geography and stimulated the development of cartography.

Renaissance science had little impact on the productive forces that developed along the path of gradual improvement of tradition. At the same time, the successes of astronomy, geography, cartography served as the most important prerequisite for the Great geographical discoveries, which led to fundamental changes in world trade, to colonial expansion and a price revolution in Europe. Achievements of science of the Renaissance steel necessary condition for the genesis of classical science of modern times.

Dmitry Samotovinsky