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During the Renaissance, the humanism movement began in Italy, and spread throughout Western Europe. Humanism was a mmovement in art marked by new techniques and characteristics in humans (emotion on faces, etc), a decrease in religious aspects, as well as use of linear perspective and chiaroscuro and inspiration drawn from nature.
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Francesco Petrarch was an Italian scholar and poet in Renaissance Italy. He was one of the earliest humanists, and he is commonly reffered to as the Father of Humanism. His rediscovery of Cicero's letters often credited for beginning the 14th-century Renaissance.
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Divine Comedy is an epic poem by Dante Alighieri, which he started in 1308 and completed in 1320 before his death in 1321.
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The Renaissance in Italy was the earliest manifestation of the European Renaissance, which was period of cultural change and achievement that began in Italy during the 14th century and lasted until the 16th century. The Renaissance acted like a transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe.
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An Insulgence is a remission by the pope of punishment in purgatory due to sins during life. In 1476, Pope Sixtus IV extended indulgences to the unrepented sins of all Christions in purgatory, meaning indulgences could be granted even after a person had died. Pope Clement VI proclaimed "treasury of merit", an infinite reservoir of good works in the church's possession that could be used at the pope's wishes. On this basis, the church sold "letters of indulgence".
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The Great Schism was a split within the Roman Catholic Church, during which several men simolteneously claimed to be the true pope. These popes were Boniface IX (in 1389), Innocent VII (in 1404), and Gregory XII (in 1406).
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Cosimo de Medici was the first of the Medici political dynasty during the Florence Italian Renaissance. He was also known as "Cosimo the Elder" and "Cosimo Pater Patriae". He made a fortune through banking, and was a large patron of art, education and architecture.
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Henry the Navigator was an important figure in portuguese politics and early days of the Portuguese Empire, as well as the main initiator of the Age of Discoveries. Henry's father was King John I of Portugal, his mother, Philippia of Lancaster, was a sister of King Henry IV of England.
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Johann Guternberg was a Roman Catholic German blacksmith, goldsmith, printer, and publisher, as well as the inventor of the printing press. He effectively introduced printing to Europe, revolutionizing education and the spread of information forever.
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The Cunning Folk in England practitioners of folk medicine, folk magic, and divination based on various traditions of folklore.
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The Florentine Platonic Academy was a 15th Century discussion group in Florence, Italy sponsored by Cosimo de' Medici, led by Marsilio Ficino and supported by Medici until the death of Lorenzo Medici. The group translated all of Plato's works, and others into Latin. The Academy dissolved after Lorenzo's death in 1492.
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The Milan branch of Sforza was founded by Muzio Attendolo in 1447, after the death of Filippo Maria Visconti. It's final ruler was Francesco II in 1535.
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Lorenzo de Medici, referred to as Lorenzo the Magnificent, was an Italiam statesman and effective ruler of the Florentine Republic, as well as a magnate, diplomat, and politician. He was one of the most powerful and influential people in the Renaissance. He, like most members of the Medici family, was an enthusiastic patron of the arts - he is welll known for sponsoring artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo.
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Christopher Columbos was an Italian explorer, navigator, colonizer. He was a citizen of the Republic of Genoa, but was sponsored by Spain, under whose sponsorship he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. During his life, he made efforts to establish permanent settlements on Hispaniola. He initiated the Spanish colonization of the New World.
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Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath,inventor, painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, musician, mathematician and engineer. He was interested in literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography. Often he is called the father of paleontology, ichnology, and architecture, considered one of the greatest painters of all time.
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Ludovico Sforza was the second son of Francesco I Sforza, and Duke of Milan from 1494 to 1499. He was a patron of Leonardo da Vinci and several other famous artists - he commisioned da Vinci's painting 'The Last Supper'.
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Girolamo Savonarola was an Italian Dominican Friar and Preacher who was known for his prophecies of civic glory, destruction of secular art and culture and calls for Christian renewal. His books include The Triumph of the Cross, Apologetic Writings, and Selected Writings of Girolamo Savonarola.
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Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer who was the first to demonstrate that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia's eastern outskirts.This discovery eventually resulted in the indentification of America as a landmass, the name deriven from Americus, the Latin version of Amerigo.
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The Treaty of Lodi, also known as Peace of Lodi, was a peace agreement signed at Lodi in Lombardi between Milan, Naples and Florence that ended a long power struggle between Italian states. It confirmed Francesco Sforza as the duke of Milan. It established a balance of power among Italian states, excluding the ambitions of smaller states (Republic of Genoa, House of Savoy, Gonzaga, Este).
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Desiderius Erasmus was a Dutch Renaissance Humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, theologian and classical scholar. He wrote in a pure Latin style and called for reform of the Catholic Church.
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Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance mathematician and astronomer who is responsible for the heliocentric model of the universe. His work contributed immensly to the Scientific Revolution.
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Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer, as well as an enormous influence on the development of Western art. He is regarded as a prime example of a Renaissance man.
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Thomas More was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist, as well as the author of Utopia. He was a chancellor to Henry VII and Lord High Chancellor of England from 1529-1532.
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Ferdinand Magellan was a skilled sailor and naval officer. He sailed south through the Atlantic Ocean to Patagonia, passing through the Strait of Magellan into a body of water he named the "peaceful sea" (Pacific Ocean), and reached the Spice Islands in 1521.
Magellanic penguin names after him
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Raphael was an Italian painter and architect, whose work was admired for clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the ideal human body. For a painter at the time, Rahpael was extremley productive; he ran a large workshop and left a large collection of work. Along with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the trinity of great masters of the Renaissance period.
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Martin Luther was a German friar, priest, professor of theology, and an influential figure in the Protestant Reformation. He is most well known for his 95 Theses, as well as his teachings against the Catholic Church, protesting the belief that God's forgiveness could be bought with money. His translation of the Bible into the vernacular made it more accessible to common people.
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Ulrich Zwingli was a pastor and a theologian, as well as the leader of the Reformation in Switzerland. Zwingli clashed with the Anabaptists, resulting in their persecution.
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The Age of Discovery is an informal period in which many geographical discoveries were made. naval expeditions across the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans, and land expeditions in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Australia. It ended with the exploration of the polar regions in the 20th century.
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The League of Venice, or the Holy League, was an alliance of several opponents of French leadership in Italy, arranged by Pope Alexander VI during the Italian War of 1494-1489.
During the war, the League threatened to shut off King Charles's land route back to France. Not wanting to be trapped in Naples, Charles marched north to Lombardy on May 20, 1495, where he met the League in the Battle of Fornovo. Though both sides claimed victory, the League suffered twice the casualties the French did. -
John Calvin was a French theologian and pastor who was influential during the Protestant Reformation. Calvinism advocated the doctrine of predestination and the absolute sovereignty of God.
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Chiaroscuro uses strong contrasts between light and dark for emphasis. It originated with drawing, though the date of its emergence is questionable.
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Linear perspective was achieved through observation of nature, especially anatomical dissections. This technique presents space, and depicts spacial reality, which made it revolutionary in the 16th century.
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Catherine de' Medici was the daughter of Lorenzo II de' Medici and Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne, as well as Italian noblewoman, and Queen of France as the wife of Henry II. As the mother of three sons who became king, she ruled France for a while as regent.
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Philip II of Spain, at different times, was King of Spain and Portugal, Naples and Sicily, England and Ireland as well as Duke of Milan.
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Baldassare Castiglione started writing Book of the courtier in 1508. It was published in 1528 by the Aldine Press in Venice. It addresses the perfect courtier, and in its last section, a perfect lady.
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Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry VIII of England and Anne Boleyn, as well as Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death.
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Tycho Brahe was a Danish nobleman known for his astonishingly accurate astronomical and planetary observations.
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Henry IV of France was King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first French monarch of the House of Bourbon.
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Francis Bacon was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, essayist and author. Bacon is often referred to as the father of empiricism (the theory that all knowledge is derived from sense-experience). He strongly advocated the idea of scientific discovery based on observation of nature.
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The date above is the year Huguenot population in Europe peaked, populations which were concentrated mainly in the southern and central parts of France. Huguenots were French Protestants (Calvinists) inspired by the writings of John Calvin.
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Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, philosopher, and mathematician who was influential in the Scientific Revolution. He is often referred to as the father of observational astronomy, the father of modern physics, and the father of science. He advocated heliocentrism and Copernicanism, and contributed to observational astronomy by studying phases of Venus, discovering the four largest satellites of Jupiter, and studying sunspots.
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The Battle of Lepanto was between Pope Pius V and the Ottoman Empire. The battle prevented the Ottoman Empire from expanding further along the European side of the Mediterranean.
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The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre was a targeted assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence directed against the Huguenots during the French Wars of Religion. The violence is believed to have been instigated by Catherine de' Medici (mother of King Charles IX).
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The Peace of Beaulieu, or the Edict of Beaulieu gave Huguenots the right of public worship for their religion in France, except in Paris.
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The Pacification of Ghent was an alliance of the provinces of the Habsburg Netherlands to drive Spanish mercenary troops out of the country and promoting a peace treaty with Holland and Zeeland.
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Mary Stuart was Queen of Scotland and Queen consort of France. Her last words were, "In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum" ("Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit"). It took several blows to behead Mary.
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Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy. Hobbes' interests included philosophy, history, ethics and geometry.
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The Spanish Armada was a Spanish fleet of 130 ships that sailed under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia to escort and army from Flanders to invade England.
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René Descartes was a French Roman Catholic philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. He is referred to as the father of modern philosophy.
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Charles was the second son of King James VI of Scotland. After his father inherited the English throne in 1603, he moved to England. He became heir to the English, Irish and Scottish thrones upon the death of his older brother. In 1625, he married he married Henrietta Maria of France, a Bourbon princess .
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The Enclosure Acts were a series of Acts of UK Parliament which enclosed open fields and common land, creating legal rights to property. Between 1604 and 1914, over 5,200 individual Enclosure Acts were put into place, enclosing about 11,000 sq miles of land.
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The Twelve Years Truce was the end of hostilities between the Habsburg rulers of Spain and the Southern Netherlands and the Dutch Republic.
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Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Christian philosopher.
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Charles II of England was King of England, Scotland and Ireland.
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John Locke was an English philosopher and physician, who is often regarded one of the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment. He is referred to as the "Father of Classical Liberalism/
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The Peace of Prague was a treaty between the Hapsburgs Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. It brought an end to the Thirty Years War.
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The Grand Remonstrance was a list of grievances written by the English Parliment and given to King Charles I of England.
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Isaac Newton was an English physicist and mathematician, as well as an extremley influential in the Scientific Revolution. Newton is responsible fot the formulation of the the laws of motion and universal gravitation. His work demonstrated the fact that basic laws of motion could be applied to celestial bodies as well.
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The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties that ended the Thiry Years War.
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James II of England was King of England, Ireland and Scotland.
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The War of Jenkin's Ear was a conflict between Britain and Spain. The war was named for the severed ear of Robert Jenkins (captain of a British merchant ship, smuggler). The ear was presented to the British Parliament.
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The War of the Austrian Succession was fought over Maria Theresa's succession to the realms of the House of Habsburg. The war included the War of Jenkin's Ear.
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The Diplomatic Revolution of 1756 was the reversal of alliances between the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War.
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During the Boston Massacre, British Army soldiers killed five male civilians and injured six others. In following year, the incident was used by leading Patriots, such as Paul Revere and Samuel Adams to fuel hostility against the British.
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The Kingdom of Prussia and the Hapsburg Austrian Empire was threatened by the rapid growth of the Russian Empire's power, issues which were the primary motive behind this first partition.
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Pugachev's Rebellion was the main revolt in a series of rebellions that took place in Russia after Catherine II seized power in 1762.
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The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston. The protestors, disguised as Native Americans, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company, as an act of resistance to the Tea Act of May 10, 1773.
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The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military confrontations of the Revolutionary War.
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The Siege of Yorktown was a battle between American Continental Army troops led by General George Washington and French Army troops led by the Comte de Rochambeau and a British Army commanded by British lord and Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis, with the Americans and French as the victors.
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The Chapelier Law was passed by the National Assembly during the first phase of the French Revolution. It banned guilds as the early version of trade unions, chompagnonnage and the right to strike, and proclaiming free enterprise as the norm.
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The Treaty of Amiens, signed in Amiens in 1802 temporarily ended hostilities between the French Republic and Great Britain during the French Revolutionary War.
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The Holy Alliance was signed in Paris in 1815 by Russia, Austria and Prussia to restrain republicanism and secularism in Europe after the French Revolutionary Wars.
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Italian Unification began when nationalists began to hope for unification, but Italians disagreed on how to accomplish it. Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi led insurrections in the 1830's through the 1850's, which greatly progressed the cause.
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The Belgian Revolution was a series of riots and conflicts that led to the secession of the southern provinces from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and established an independent Kingdom of Belgium.
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German Unification transformed the balance of power throughout Europe, in the sense that it instituted German as a European power.
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The coup d'état of 1851 was staged by Napoleon Bonaparte. It effectively dissolved the French National Assembly. Napoleon staged the coup to stay in office and implement his reform programs.
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Russia's desire to control the Ottoman Empire led to the Crimean War. In 1854, France and Britan joined the Ottomans. Austria and Prussia remained neutral. The war was concluded by the Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris in 1856.
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In 1855, Piedmont sent 10,000 troops to help France and Britan capture Sebastopol.
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In 1860, the Italian penninsula was transformed into a nation-state under constitutional monarchy.
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The Convention of Gastein was a treaty signed by the German Confederation, Prussia and Austria, over the governing of Schleswig, Holstein and Saxe-Lauenburg.
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The Seven Weeks War was fought in1866 between the German Confederation (under the leadership of the Austrian Empire, plus German allies) the Kingdom of Prussia (plus German allies and Italy). The war resulted in Prussian dominance over German states. In terms of Italian unification proccess, this war is reffered to as theThird Independence War. As a result of the war, Germany became a military monarchy, crushing Prussian liberalism
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The Franco-Prussian War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation (led by Kingdom of Prussia). The war was caused by Prussia's desire to extend German Unification. On the French side was Napoleon and his Prime Minister, Émile Ollivier - on the German side Otto von Bismarck. At the end of the war, the an states proclaimed themselvesthe German Empire under Prussian King Wilhelm.
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The Unification of Germany was a long process, which ended in 1871 with The Treaty of Versailles signed by Adolphe Thiers, of the French Third Republic, and Otto von Bismarck, of the German Empire at Versailles in 1871. This treaty ended the Franco-Prussian War.
