What is a Ren Fair?

[John_Carrick]

I always thought that the irony is that Scotland did not impact on the renaissance that much, but became a cultural and intellectual superpower in later centuries.

[Peter Crowe]

I always thought that the irony is that Scotland did not impact on the renaissance that much, but became a cultural and intellectual superpower in later centuries.

Not to get too off-topic but the Court of James IV from the 1490's until Flodden in 1513 would belie that assumption (some historians claim with authority that James IV was the quintessential Renaissance Prince due to his patronage of Arts, Letters, and Science). In the middle decades of the 16th century, George Buchanan was a Humanist scholar and poet of European renown. I would add that the Scottish Renaissance was more known for literature than visual art, "Sir David Lindsay's 'Ane Satyre o' the Thrie Estatis", and Buchanan's "De Jure Regni apud Scotos," being the most outstanding but by no means the only examples. Buchanan and John Major (Mair) also being noted for philosophy, the former as a Humanist the latter as a Scholastic.

The Ancient Scottish Universities, bookend the European Renaissance in their timelines of establishment with the foundation of St Andrews in 1411, Glasgow 1451, King's College, Aberdeen in 1495, Edinburgh in 1582, and Marischal College, Aberdeen in 1593 (King's and Marischal Colleges since combined into the University of Aberdeen).

For a small kingdom on Europe's north-west periphery, the Renaissance was very much a part of Scotland's story and was a necessary precurser to the more widely known Scottish Reformation of 1559/60, which paradoxically was both a product of and a reaction against the Humanist scholarship and culture of the Renaissance.

As to Jock's original question I think it has been fully answered by others, my only comment about Ren Faires is that they seem to be harmless fun dressing up. I have no problem with the concept although as a historian I believe the Renaissance is an important period in the history of Western Civilisation (European and American).

[derosa]

I live on the same road as the Sterling, NY ren fair, back when I was a lot younger and in high school/early college I worked there for a number of years. It's just a great place to have a good time; there's lots of bad acting, bad historicity, and worse accents all mixed with good food, good drink, plenty of entertainment and a strong sense of fun.

[John_Carrick]

Thank you very much for this Peter. Really interesting and informative. John

Not to get too off-topic but the Court of James IV from the 1490's until Flodden in 1513 would belie that assumption (some historians claim with authority that James IV was the quintessential Renaissance Prince due to his patronage of Arts, Letters, and Science). In the middle decades of the 16th century, George Buchanan was a Humanist scholar and poet of European renown. I would add that the Scottish Renaissance was more known for literature than visual art, "Sir David Lindsay's 'Ane Satyre o' the Thrie Estatis", and Buchanan's "De Jure Regni apud Scotos," being the most outstanding but by no means the only examples. Buchanan and John Major (Mair) also being noted for philosophy, the former as a Humanist the latter as a Scholastic.

The Ancient Scottish Universities, bookend the European Renaissance in their timelines of establishment with the foundation of St Andrew's in 1411, Glasgow 1451, King's College, Aberdeen in 1495, Edinburgh in 1582, and Marischal College, Aberdeen in 1593 (King's and Marischal Colleges since combined into the University of Aberdeen).

For a small kingdom on Europe's north-west periphery, the Renaissance was very much a part of Scotland's story and was a necessary precurser to the more widely known Scottish Reformation of 1559/60, which paradoxically was both a product of and a reaction against the Humanist scholarship and culture of the Renaissance.

As to Jock's original question I think it has been fully answered by others, my only comment about Ren Faires is that they seem to be harmless fun dressing up. I have no problem with the concept although as a historian I believe the Renaissance is an important period in the history of Western Civilisation (European and American).