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Jul 20, 1304
Francesco Petrarch
He was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest Renaissance humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism". His sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and became a modle for lyrical poetry. One of the first poets to refer to The Dark Ages. -
Apr 15, 1452
Leonardo da Vinci
Italian polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination".He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived. -
Oct 28, 1466
Desiderius Erasmus
Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, and a theologian. Erasmus was a classical scholar who wrote in a "pure" Latin style and enjoyed the sobriquet "Prince of the Humanists." He has been called "the crowning glory of the Christian humanists." Using humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament. -
May 3, 1469
Niccolo Machiavelli
Italian philosopher, humanist, and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance. He is one of the main founders of modern political science.He was a diplomat, political philosopher, playwright, and a civil servant of the Florentine Republic. He also wrote comedies, carnival songs, poetry, and some of the most well-known personal correspondence in the Italian language. -
May 18, 1474
Isabella d'Este
The court of Isabella d'Este was one of the most brilliant of the Italian Renaissance. Isabella used her wealth to support artists and scholars. She housed many writers, sculptors, and painters in her own court and hired famous architects to design parts of her palace. -
Mar 6, 1475
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni: an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer. Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatility in the disciplines he took up was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with fellow Italian Leonardo da Vinci. -
Apr 26, 1564
William Shakespeare
English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. -
Thomas Moore
Irish poet, singer, songwriter, and entertainer, now best remembered for the lyrics of The Minstrel Boy and The Last Rose of Summer. He was responsible, with John Murray, for burning Lord Byron's memoirs after his death. In his lifetime he was often referred to as Anacreon Moore. -
Johannes Gutenberg
Born: Unkown expect for year. German goldsmith, printer and publisher who introduced modern book printing. His invention of mechanical movable type printing started the Printing Revolution and is widely regarded as the most important event of the modern period.It played a key role in the development of the Renaissance, Reformation. Gutenberg was the first European to use movable type printing, in around 1439, and the global inventor of the printing press -
Flood enters museums, cathedrals, and libraries.
On November 4, 1966, the Arno River in northern Italy flooded its banks and sent a torrent of water into the museums, catherdrals, and libraries of the city in Florence. Florence contained the world's greatest store of Renaissance art and literature.
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