Renaissance/Reformation/Scientific Revolution Timeline

Perspective started in the Renaissance Art, when Filipo Brunelleschi develops this technique, as a way to make the painting look 3D. Parallel lines were used to converge into a "vanishing point" to help create realism within a scene. Although Brunelleschi created the technique, Giotto di Bondone was considered the father of perspective. it was found that it was very rare for perspective to be seen in paintings during the Renaissance. This was mostly because they painted realistic portraits.

When Gutenberg had created the printing press the literacy rate had gone up because of how much cheaper the books had become. When the printing press came out it had expanded to more than 200 cities in Europe by 1500. The increase in the literacy rate had increased the educated citizens, which the rulers in church and state now had to deal with. With the increase in education more people started to rebel against the church because they ended up interpreting the Bible differently than the church.

Johann Gutenberg was born in the city of Mainz. Gutenberg had thought that is was such a pity that everyone couldn't afford books of their own. Later on when Gutenberg had grown up he had created the printing press as a way to make books more affordable and easier to print. This raised the school's demand for books, also increasing the rate of literacy within Europe. His invention of the print and press made for the invention of cheaper paper.

Leonardo da Vinci was a painter, architect, inventor, psychologist, advisor to kings, a botanist, and etc. He was the perfect representation of a “Renaissance man.” Today he remains best known for his art, especially his Mona Lisa and The Last Supper paintings.

Raphael was a leading figure of Italian High Renaissance classicism, Raphael is best known for the Sistine Madonna. From 1504 through 1507, Raphael produced multiple "Madonnas," which extended on Leonardo da Vinci's works. Raphael's experimentation with this theme started in 1507 with his painting, La belle jardinière. Raphael also created his most ambitious work in Florence, the Entombment, which was evocative of the ideas that Michelangelo had recently expressed in his Battle of Cascina.

Machiavelli was an Italian diplomat, politician, historian, philosopher, humanist, and writer of the Renaissance period. Machiavelli became exiled so, he wrote the book "The Prince," dedicated to the Medici family, which recommends temporary use of fraud and brutality to achieve Italian unity. He had hoped for strong rulers from the Medici family. This book gave him hope that he might win back his political career, but he was wrong, and he remained an exile for the rest of his life.

He became proficient in painting, printmaking, engraving and mathematics, he was also a theorist, a prolific writer on perspective and the proportions of the human body. Durer mostly became famous for his engravings, he applied Renaissance painting techniques to engravings. His paintings and engravings often times portrayed religious upheaval or were quite realistic.

Copernicus had created the Heliocentric Theory. Basically this meant that the center of the universe was the sun, and everything else had rotated around the sun. Since there wasn't much research put into this theory during the time period due to the lack of scientific works, there was little to no attention brought upon this topic. Heliocentrism is the opposite of genocentrism, which is where the Earth was the center of the universe.

Thomas More was an English Humanist that pushed for social reforms. He wrote a book called "Utopia" which he describes an ideal society where all are educated and justice is achieved for all. He was also known for his untimely death in 1535, after refusing to acknowledge King Henry VIII as head of the Church of England. Before his death he was canonized by the Catholic Church as a saint in 1935.

Erasmus or Erasmus of Rotterdam, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian. Erasmus was one of the major religious scholars of the age. He wrote texts on many subjects, including a new Greek edition of the Bible. He had translated the Bible into the vernacular, and was also distributed by corruption in the church and sought religious reforms.

Copernicus had challenged the theory that Earth was the center of the universe. He had proposed the idea of a heliocentric or sun-centered model of the universe. He had claimed that the Earth was just one of the number of planets revolving around the sun. His theories though, had been rejected, but many other scientist had kept going with his theories and done more research.

The German Monk and professor, Martin Luther, sparked a revolt in 1517. He was angered by the sale of indulgences in Wittenburg, Germany, so he wrote of the 95 Theses. He had argued that the indulgences had no place in the bible, and Christians could only be saved by faith. The 95 Theses somehow got public and the Christian church asked him to recant his argument and he will be left alone, but Luther refused and he rejected the authority of Rome. Luther had many people follow him in the end.

King Henry VIII had created the English Reformation, not the reformers. Since Henry couldn't divorce his wife in the Catholic church, he decided to create his own religion, taking over the English Church. While he was king he married 6 wives and divorced 5 of them, he had 3 kids and the last one happened to be a boy, finally. When Henry died his son became king at 9 years old. Henry died due to his diet, medical issues and lack of medicinal cures.

Pope Paul III was born Alessandro Farnese and was Pope from October 13th, 1534 to his death in 1549. He was the fourth pope during the period of the Protestant Reformation. Paul III became the first to take active reform measures in response to Protestantism. Paul III had a son named Francis I of France in 1515.

Thomas Cranmer was the advisor of King Henry VIII, but was later on appointed to archbishop by King Henry VIII. Archbishop Cranmer had annulled or divorced Henry's first wife and married him to Anne Boleyn. When the English or "Anglican" Church was created Thomas Cranmer had drew up the Book of Common Prayer, which had became required to be read of all Anglican services. Mary Tudor, when she became queen had beheaded Thomas and went on to rule without him.

Michelangelo was a sculptor, painter and architect widely considered to be one of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance period. Michelangelo received commissions from some of the most wealthy and powerful men of his day, including popes and others affiliated with the Catholic Church. He created an 18 ft. sculpture of David, and he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel Frescos, which happened to be 10,000 square feet, with 343 figures and had taken a little over 4 years to complete.

John Calvin was a French-born priest and lawyer, and was strongly influenced by the past Reformation ideas. Calvin had broke away from the Catholic Church and created his own religion called Calvinism. He has preached that God had long ago determined who was, and was not, going to gain external salvation. Calvinists attempted to live saintly lives to demonstrate that they were among those God had chosen. He ended up creating a theocracy.

At age 25 Elizabeth took the throne after, Henry VIII's son, Edward died. She had united England and avoided future religious wars, by the compromise between Catholics and Protestants. She did not allow herself to be put at the head of the Anglican Church, and she made sure no future king or queen could do so either.

Shakespeare was considered to be the towering figure of Northern Renaissance literature. Between 1590 and 1613 he wrote 37 plays and added over 1,700 words to the English language. He explored Renaissance ideals such as the complexity of the individual. Within his books and plays he used the vernacular, which was the common language everyone understood.

Francis Bacon had also challenged the medieval scholarship that sought only to make the world to fit into the teachings of the Church. He was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author. Bacon had created the Baconian Method, formally known as the Scientific Method today. His method was put in Bacon's book "Novum Organum" and was supposed to replace the Aristotle's method from long ago.

With the research done by Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler, Galileo had decided to create a telescope in Italy to observe several moons in orbit about Jupiter. He had said these movements were the same as those of the planets around the sun. Since this contradicted the Church doctrine Galileo was forced to recant his observations. When he was released after the recant, he went home and continued to study the universe behind closed doors.

During the Renaissance the Scientific Method had been further developed. Francis Bacon, Galileo, Rene Descartes, and Isaac Newton helped develop this method during the Renaissance. Galileo had used controlled experiments and analyzed data to prove or disapprove his theories. It was first to be believed Earth was the center of the universe, but with more research done by these 4 scientists it was founded that the Sun was the center of the universe, and Earth rotates around the Sun.

Humanism is the scholarly study of Greek and Latin classics and ancient church Fathers, in hopes of reviving worthy ancient values. The advanced studio humanists would study grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, politics, and philosophy. The Italian humanists searched out manuscript collections, making volumes of Greek and Latin learning available to scholars. Humanism was known as the revival of Greek studies.

Rene Descartes challenged medieval scholarship that sought only to make the world to fit into the teachings of the Church. Descartes believed that all truths were ultimately linked. So he sought to uncover the meaning of the natural world through science and mathematics. He introduced Cartesian geometry through his laws of refraction, he developed an understanding of rainbows, and he proposed a possible formation of the solar system

The Church had been running out of money so they had to come up with another idea to gain some money. They decided to start selling indulgences to the richer people, the poor one's couldn't afford these indulgences. Indulgences basically said if you commit a crime, and you purchase this you could still go to Heaven. The sale of indulgences was also a way for the Catholic Church to gain followers.