Life and Times in the Renaissance Period

1. The Renaissance

Daily Life In The Renaissance

https://sites.google.com/a/mycsla.org/renaissance-quest/renaissance-stuff/daily-life-in-the-renaissance

By Dell Zimmermon and Emily Fisher    Life during the Renaissance (1450-1600) was interesting.  The Black Death influenced the development of the Renaissance. 80% of the population died because of it. It hit during 1350 and ended in 1450.  After it, people thought that they had rediscovered the culture of the Roman Empire.  And that caused the Renaissance or “rebirth”.   The social classes were government, citizens, and poor people. Your class was determined by your job, money, and if you had government power. Also your class determined the food and fashion available.    The poor people worked on farms.  They could not leave the land that they farmed.  They dressed and ate simply.  They ate a lot of bread and other simple foods.  Their houses were really small with a maximum of four rooms.     Citizens were everyone who was not a farmer. They had lots of free time and enjoyed telling stories. They could eat more expensive things, and liked to travel.  They ate a lot of bread, and if you were a French citizen you ate a lot of soup.  Hoods, roughs, and wigs were popular in the fifteenth century with middle class and upper class.  They had medium or large houses.  In their free time, they could watch jousting or sword play. Jousting was a form of military training. Knights got rich from sword events. Sword play was a gentler form of jousting.     The government was composed of rich citizens. Their houses were small palaces or villas.  They would go to banquets and eat things like soup, wine and meat. Soups were really expensive.  There were 70 French types of soups.    Trade was important because it let goods like spices or silk move around.  This enabled exotic goods to appear all over.  Trade increased during the Renaissance. Some important trade centers were Florence, Venice, and Asia.  There were ports all over.  Bills were used more than coins.  Merchant’s houses were their shops.  They did this to protect goods from theft. Some imports changed the world during the Renaissance.  Examples include the sweet potato and turkey. The sweet potato and the turkey came from the Americas in 1492.  That is what trade was like in the Renaissance.Dell Zimmerman and Emily Fisher’s blended report on the Daily Life in the Renaissance