Essential Question
What was 'reborn' in the Renaissance, and how did the printing press change everything?
This week the student enters the Renaissance — the 'rebirth' of classical learning and confidence that began in the wealthy city-states of Italy. They meet humanism and its love of the ancient Greeks and Romans, the banking dynasty of the Medici who bankrolled Florence's golden age, the Northern Renaissance scholar Erasmus, and above all Gutenberg's printing press, the invention that put books — and ideas — into the hands of ordinary people for the first time.
Liturgical note: Ordinary Time (January/February).
Threads at a Glance
Humanism and the rebirth of classical learning; Florence and the Medici; Gutenberg's printing press and its revolution; the Northern Renaissance (Erasmus)
Jacksonian democracy, Bank War, Indian Removal and Trail of Tears
Leonardo da Vinci
Renaissance Italy; the city-states — Florence, Venice, Milan, Rome, Naples
Early Renaissance — Brunelleschi's dome, Donatello, Masaccio and linear perspective, Botticelli
Franco-Flemish polyphony — Josquin des Prez; the madrigal; the start of music printing (Petrucci)
St. Catherine of Siena (Doctor of the Church)
Magnanimity (greatness of soul, rightly ordered)
YOUCAT — human dignity, freedom, conscience, sin and grace (Q280-Q302)
Punctuation I — the comma (the major rules)
Biographical sketch (a Renaissance figure)
Weekly Writing Assignment
Write a biographical sketch of one Renaissance figure: Leonardo da Vinci, Cosimo or Lorenzo de' Medici, Filippo Brunelleschi, Sandro Botticelli, Erasmus, or St. Catherine of Siena. Do not list every fact. Instead, open with a hook, then organize your sketch around what made this person remarkable — their gifts, their key achievements, and their character — ending with why they still matter. Aim to make a reader who has never heard of them care.
The Week
Close the Week
Add each date to your running timeline notebook — one color for World History, another for US History.
Unit Reading · Renaissance, Exploration & Reformation
by E. L. Konigsburg
A witty, surprising novel that imagines the friendship between Leonardo da Vinci, his mischievous servant boy Salai, and the duchess Beatrice — and the mystery behind the Mona Lisa's smile.
by Robert Bolt
The acclaimed play about St. Thomas More, who would not betray his conscience even when the king demanded it — and paid with his life. A gripping portrait of integrity in the storm of the Reformation.
by Louis de Wohl
A sweeping novel of St. Francis Xavier, the friend of St. Ignatius who carried the Gospel across the seas to India and Japan during the Catholic Reformation. Adventure and holiness on a global stage.
by William Shakespeare
Shakespeare's most famous play: two teenagers from feuding families fall headlong in love, with tragic results. The classic introduction to Shakespeare for ninth graders, full of dazzling language about love, family, and rash choices. (Mature themes — young love and the lovers' suicides — make for rich discussion with a parent.)
by Miguel de Cervantes
An old gentleman reads so many tales of chivalry that he sets off to be a knight himself — tilting at windmills with his loyal squire Sancho Panza. The first modern novel: hilarious, tender, and wise. Best met in a good abridgment at this age. On the Cardinal Newman Society reading list.
by Elizabeth Borton de Treviño
The true-life story of Juan de Pareja, an enslaved man in the household of the great Spanish painter Velázquez, who secretly learns to paint and eventually wins his freedom and friendship. A quiet, beautiful novel about art, dignity, and faith. Listed on the Cardinal Newman Society reading list.