Talk:Periodization

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A great discussion of periodization. I think the only other thing that could do with being mentioned is that the same name can refer to slightly different time intervals depending on the 'type' of historian using it - thus economic historians will have slightly different notions of the Enlightenment to cultural historians, who will have slightly different notions to that of an historian of science. Of course, these will all overlap to a certain extent; but the historian of science may describe the Enlightenment as beginning with the publication of Newton's Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica in 1687, while an economic historian may view the stock market crash of 1720 as the event defining the 'start' of the Enlightenment.

I am not sure that the 1960s in Spain is a good example. Maybe it should be "the 1960s arrived to Spain in the 1970s". -- Error

I am not sure where to put a history/background on the origins of periodization in the western tradition. Ive just tacked it on to the end rather than break the narrative by putting it up front. --Stbalbach 01:57, 30 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I made one change of a sentence that's been here since 62.30.0.2 wrote it in 2002. See edit description. Universitytruth 22:57, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Who coined the term "renaissance"?

It seems odd that the "The word 'Renaissance', meaning rebirth in French" was "created by an Italian poet...". Wikipedia's article, Renaissance, states that "Renaissance is a French word coined by French historian Jules Michelet..." in the 19th century. Do we have a source for the claim that Petrarch created the term? If so, perhaps Renaissance needs to be corrected. --Sergio1 08:03, 19 Apr 2005

He uses the word 'rebirth', but the did not claim to have identified a historical period called 'the rebirth' period. Likewises, Giorgio Vasari describes the 'rebirth' of the arts from Giotto to Michelangelo. He means that this happened over a distinct period of time, obviously, but it is not a period label as such. That label came about in the nineteenth century, as the "Renaissance" article says. People prior to the nineteenth century did not speak of a "Renaissance period", though they do talk about the rebirth, or revival of the arts. Paul B 15:40, 19 Apr 2005


According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it first appears in English in 1840 as an architectual term, supporting the Jules Michelet claim:

1840 T. A. TROLLOPE Summer in Brittany II. 234 That heaviest and least graceful of all possible styles, the ‘renaissance’ as the French choose to term it.

However the Online Etymology Dictionary entry seems to support an "Old French" origin, but again, first appearence is 1840. I don't believe Petrarch coined the term (on Preview, what Paul B said), he created the concept, and thus is seen as the breakpoint when one can reasonably say the seeds or start of the Renaissance began, although his conception was limited to rebirth of Latin texts than the wider conception we know today. Stbalbach 15:43, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)