Venetian Renaissance Quiz Questions 1 2 3 4



I'm running a little history course on 2/22 and there will be a cumulative prize pack to be won. Just for fun.
Here are the first three questions in the quiz! With answers.

Day 1
I'm watching a little Swedish mini-series at the moment called The Library Thief (2011). (It's nerve-wracking!)

You probably know that the technology for the mass printing press was first produced in Germany (though the inventor did much of his tinkering with the idea while in another country -- Bonus point: anyone know which country (1 point) and who that was? (another point)).
So, the library thief is taking his first book to try to fence on the black market... But what language would the book be in, if it was one of the first mass-printed books of Renaissance Europe? 
I think a lot of people will get this one half-right (1 point), but there's a more right answer, too (3 points). 

 The most extensive answer & winner was from Editor Bernadette Kearns. 
Something of an answer key is available in this blog post. https://cbphilosophy.blogspot.com/.../the-story-of...
Venetians were the first mass literate (nonreligious) public, and that was before Dante made the Florentine dialect the lingua franc of the larger country, so the most new books in the beginning (nonreligious ones, anyway) were printed in Venetian. And Gutenberg did much of his thinking while abroad in Strasbourg.

Misti Moyer won on the HHRW thread (she was the only entrant, but did have great answers!)

Day 2
Who was the first mass-produced writer/sketcher of printed pornography books (nothing too bad by modern standards!)

And what was his other favourite way to earn money?
Answers: Pietro Aretino (his story is worth looking up!!)

He was a blackmailer, and never made much money out of his writing (darn publishers!)

He died supposedly after falling over laughing from an obscene joke. He banged his head and died.


 Day 3

 Orphanages in England tend to be famous for poverty and overwork.

In stunning contrast, What did orphanages in Renaissance Venice tend to be famous for?

 Answers:

 It seems they were famous for their female musicians. People would travel to hear them play. Not all orphans or abandoned children were girls, but those that were, seem to have been trained in music. They even competed amongst the famous musicians of their day. Each group was comprised of 30-40 musicians.


 Day 4's question:

 Why were the effects of the Inquisition different in Venice, to what they were in Rome?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lesson 5: Beyond Dusty Books: Researching Characters and Plots through Crafting

A real boon of researching by doing hand work   is that you find a rhythm when you're using your hands, and that can spin out nicely for    pacing a scene.  For example, you can have some grandmothers sewing a quilt of family events and discussing various family members, maybe relating personality characteristics or events to colours on the quilt. Or you could have a heroine weaving a blanket and thinking about all the threads in her life, the warp and weft of people and events and places. Or you can have a man making barrels in the back yard and have the heroine admiring his hands and the ease with which he shapes his barrels, and maybe think about how he has molded and shaped his children into beautiful works of art, too.  You get the idea. I would love if some other people pitched in with some ideas on this! As I mentioned at the beginning of this course, I spent a few years farm volunteering around Europe, and I've done this a little in Canada too. I know t
Read more

Living and Writing with Less Money and More Passion in Europe

Image
Rocket yourself back into the past: Go WWOOFing to research your next historical novel! Table of contents:  Out-of-the-Box Solution   1             How It Works   2              Other sample experiences   5 Writing schedule:   14                     But . . .   14                      Other Organizations   15 by Christa Bedwin I have been  writer and editor for twenty years. (I now write time-travel magical realism adventures with my characters exploring various cool time periods and places in the past, mostly but not completely placed in Europe.) Even ten years ago I realized a big problem with the writing/editing career – too much time with the bum in the chair just isn’t healthy. An editing colleague died of an aneurysm at her desk, working on a late deadline, and I vowed to make my health a priority. (Sometimes I do better, sometimes I do worse, but the intention is always there!) As a single mom, though, budget matters. I pulled years of working all night on editi
Read more

My Writing Companion

Image
My writing companion is an 18-year-old black cat. She's our philosopher cat (we also have a military cat who defends us and keeps us in order, but that's my son's cat -- another story). I never meant to have a black cat, but about when I finally accepted that I seemed to be a sad and lonely spinster and that I might as well get a cat, I decided I should go to the humane society. But I procrastinated. Instead of going to the humane society that day, I walked up a hill in the town where I lived at the time and down the hill were coming Ashley, Leanna, and Ashley, and they were carrying this wee black kitten, the last of her litter, and they sorrowfully told me if they couldn't give this little cat named Zipper away, their parents were going to force them to take her to the humane society. So then I had a cat. No collar or litter or cat knowledge or anything but I took her home and the first thing she ever napped on was a stack of manuscript
Read more