Y305: the Renaissance C.1400-c.1600 | OCR A-Level History A (H505)

Y305: the Renaissance C.1400-c.1600

135 questions
14 subtopics
Thematic study and historical interpretations, one of twenty-one
Y301 to Y321

The Renaissance C.1400–c.1600 is unit Y305 of OCR History A, one of the twenty-one options in unit group 3, the thematic study and historical interpretations; a student sits one of them.

Its four key topics and three depth studies are artistic and cultural development, the role of the individual, religion and religious change, the Impact of War, the Venetian Renaissance, Savonarola, the French Renaissance. 135 recall questions across 14 subtopics.

Sample questions from Y305: the Renaissance C.1400-c.1600

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

Artistic and cultural development: cultural conditions in western Europe c.1400

What was linear perspective and who first demonstrated it?

Show the answer
Linear perspective was a mathematical method of showing depth on a flat surface using a single vanishing point, demonstrated by Brunelleschi in Florence around 1413 and set out in writing by Alberti.
Artistic and cultural development: High Renaissance and continuity with the Middle Ages

How did printing change the spread of Renaissance ideas?

Show the answer
Printing with movable type, established in Italy from the 1460s and above all in Venice, made classical and humanist texts cheap, plentiful and textually standardised, so ideas reached far beyond a small scholarly elite.
The role of the individual: humanist writers and artists from Brunelleschi to Dürer

Why is Alberti a characteristic Renaissance figure?

Show the answer
He was an architect, mathematician, athlete and theorist who wrote On Painting and On the Art of Building, gave perspective and classical proportion a written theory, and personified the ideal of the universal man.
Religion and religious change: condition of the Church, Christianity and the Renaissance

Give three criticisms made of the Renaissance popes.

Show the answer
Nepotism in appointing relatives to offices, simony in selling church posts and dispensations, and worldliness in warfare, luxury and open immorality.
The Impact of War: the condottieri and the invasion of 1494

How did Montefeltro embody the ideal of the soldier-scholar?

Show the answer
He earned a fortune as a mercenary captain and spent it on the palace at Urbino, one of the finest libraries in Italy and a court of artists and humanists, presenting himself as equally at home in arms and letters.
The Impact of War: the Sack of Rome, new warfare and Machiavelli

What is The Prince and when was it written?

Show the answer
It is Machiavelli's short treatise on how a ruler gains, holds and loses power, written in 1513 after his fall from office and published in 1532.
Depth study: The Venetian Renaissance — artistic development in Venice and impact of war on Venice

What was the achievement of Aldus Manutius?

Show the answer
His Aldine Press printed accurate editions of the Greek classics, introduced italic type and produced small, affordable octavo volumes that could be carried and read outside the study.
Depth study: Savonarola — Savonarola as a preacher and Florence under Savonarola

Name two reforms, apart from the Great Council, introduced in Florence during Savonarola's ascendancy.

Show the answer
A law of appeal against death sentences imposed by the Signoria, and the Monte di Pietà, a public pawn bank offering cheap loans to the poor as an alternative to usury.

The 14 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Artistic and cultural development: cultural conditions in western Europe c.1400	Recall questions on the cultural conditions in western Europe c.1400, the origins and causes of the Renaissance, social, political, economic and cultural factors, the development of, and changes in, artistic and literary styles and techniques, regional variations in art.	8
Artistic and cultural development: High Renaissance and continuity with the Middle Ages	Recall questions on the High Renaissance, the role of trade, the impact of republicanism and the Italian communes, the influence of humanism, the impact of Florence, Rome and Venice on artistic and cultural development, the influence of Neo-Platonism.	12
The role of the individual: contributions to the Renaissance	Recall questions on the contributions to the Renaissance of individual patrons, artists and scholars.	8
The role of the individual: humanist writers and artists from Brunelleschi to Dürer	Recall questions on the contributions of Castiglione, Erasmus, More and Colet as humanist writers, and of Brunelleschi, Alberti, Donatello, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Bramante, Titian and Dürer as architects and artists.	12
Religion and religious change: condition of the Church, Christianity and the Renaissance	Recall questions on the condition of the Church and religious institutions, the Council of Florence, Rome and the importance of the Papacy and international links, the Renaissance Papacy and its condition and attitude to the Renaissance.	9
Religion and religious change: anti-clericalism and impact of the Renaissance on church music	Recall questions on anti-clericalism, clerical advocates of the new learning, the role of Papal patronage, the impact of the Renaissance on church music, including Pallestrina and Monteverdi.	9
The Impact of War: the condottieri and the invasion of 1494	Recall questions on the condottieri and reliance on mercenaries, soldier-rulers such as Montefeltro, humanist criticism, Machiavelli’s militia, the French invasion of 1494, its effect on Florence and the damage war did to the Renaissance ideal.	10
The Impact of War: the Sack of Rome, new warfare and Machiavelli	Recall questions on the Sack of Rome, changes in artillery and infantry, the trace italienne, artists’ military work, The Prince and its conflict with Christian morality, and war and the universal man.	8
Depth study: The Venetian Renaissance — condition of Venice in c.1400	Recall questions on the condition of Venice in c.1400, the social, economic and political conditions that encouraged the development of the Renaissance, the impact of the Greek East and the fall of Constantinople.	8
Depth study: The Venetian Renaissance — artistic development in Venice and impact of war on Venice	Recall questions on artistic development in Venice, the importance of printing and education, the impact of the Doge, the myth of Venice, the church in Venice and reform, the impact of war on Venice.	12
Depth study: Savonarola — Savonarola as a preacher and Florence under Savonarola	Recall questions on Savonarola as a preacher, the impact of the French invasion and the fall of Piero de’ Medici, Florence under Savonarola, political change, moral reform, the Bonfire of the Vanities.	10
Depth study: Savonarola — fall of Savonarola	Recall questions on the fall of Savonarola.	9
Depth study: The French Renaissance — Reasons for the development of the Renaissance	Recall questions on reasons for the development of the Renaissance in France, Renaissance monarchy in France under Louis XII, Francis I and Henry II, the monarchs as patrons of art, literature and architecture, including Chambord and Blois.	10
Depth study: The French Renaissance — impact of da Vinci and impact of the Italian Wars	Recall questions on the impact of da Vinci, del Sarto, Cellini, Rabelais and the impact of the Italian Wars.	10

Y305: the Renaissance C.1400-c.1600 is 135 of the 6,240 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.