[Gocamino] Spain and the Renaissance: Comment to Maura Santangelo et al.

[Charles O'Brien]

Amen!


On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 16:33:01 -0800, Eldor Pederson <eopederson at msn.com> wrote:
> "I could have indeed become miffed , however without Spanish money from
> the Americas I am not sure how much Renaissance art would ahve been
> commissioned.  It certainly would have taken a different slant."
> 
> Actually, the Renaissance was well underway in Northern Italy, and to a lesser extent in Flanders, long before the first bar of gold came to Spain from Mexico or Peru. Many of the revolutionary ideas in art and culture had emerged well before 1492 when "Columbus sailed the ocean blue," and substantial quantities of wealth did not come to Spain until after the effective conquests of Mexico and Peru more than a decade later. That is not to deny a Spanish role in the Renaissance. Much of what is now Italy was under Hapsburg and Aragonese control, flows of wealth in the Mediterranean were crucial for the finance of the cultural efflorescence, and there were close political, cultural, and economic ties between Spain and Italy as well as between Spain and Flanders in the later Middle Ages. Wealth expropriated from the Americas played a very important role in the emergence of modern Europe, but it really cannot be given credit for the Renaissance in Italy.
> 
> One element of the linkage between Spain and the Renaissance was the Spanish near-monopoly on the production of high quality fleece (wool staple) essential to the emerging textile industries of Italy and Flanders in the late Middle Ages. There is a column I recently posted on the American Pilgrims on the Camino website (www.AmericanPilgrims.com<http://www.americanpilgrims.com/>) discussing the relationships between "Sheep and the Camino" that you might find of interest.
> 
> E. O. Pederson
> _______________________________________________
> Gocamino mailing list
> Gocamino at oakapple.net
> http://mailman.oakapple.net/mailman/listinfo/gocamino
>