Renaissance/Reformation/Scientific Revolution Timeline Project

Petrarch

Jul 20, 1304

Petrarch was a writer and was called the Father of Humanism. He wrote poems about different things in his life. The first poem was about the death of his mother, and the one he is most famous is a love poem to someone named Laura. He really captured human emotion into his poems and was the first sign of humanism.

Johan Gutenberg

1398

Johan Gutenberg was an inventor who invented the printing press. He invented the printing press because he fell into poverty and needed a way out. The first thing he printed with the printing press is The Bible. He helped spread literature and knowledge throughout the world.

Humanism

1400

Humanism is how the Renaissance people portrayed to look at each other. Petrarch was classified as the one of the first humanist. This was very different from the Dark Ages, because they focused more on what happens in the afterlife, meanwhile Renaissance people were focused on their living style.

Printing Revolution

1436

The Printing Revolution happened because Johan Gutenberg created the printing press. When he first printed the Bible for everyone to read, people had discovered that they could print any writing a lot quicker. This made people's opinions more accessible with reading, and now books were available for everyone and not just prestige colleges.

Lorenzo de' Medici

1449

Lorenzo de' Medici was the ruler of Florence. He was very supportive of arts and sculptors of his time. He supported such people as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael. He used the royalty money to help support different artists.

Leonardo da Vinci

Apr 15, 1452

Leonardo was a painter that is probably most known for the Mona Lisa. He was pictured as the "Renaissance Man" where he exceled at most things. He put great effort and technique to his paintings even studying human anatomy to put realism in his paintings. He was also an inventor of such things like the Flying Machine.

Pope Paul III

Feb 29, 1468

Pope Paul III was the last pope of the renaissance and the first pope of the counter-reformation. He was a very successful diplomat for the Catholic Church. He was even the one who called upon the Council of Trent to try to get more members into the Catholic Church.

Machiavelli

May 3, 1469

Machiavelli was a writer and a diplomat. He wrote The Prince which were instructions of how a prince should rule his country. In the book he said how a prince should be feared by his people. He also said that emotions shouldn't be with the prince.

Copernicus

Feb 19, 1473

Copernicus was an astronomer who had thought the Earth orbited the sun. He wrote an unpublished book on his theories with everyone kind of shrugging it off with little to no attention. He then wrote a second book on more findings but the Church got wind of this and banned the book. He died of a stroke clutching his second book.

Michelangelo

Mar 6, 1475

Michelangelo was a sculptor, painter, and architect. He is most famous of his works like the Sistine Chapel painting and the statue of David. His creations brought faith into the people that were surrounded by multiple enemies in their country. He even worked with the Pope at the time to create the Sistine Chapel.

Thomas More

Feb 7, 1478

Thomas More was a saint, that became a saint because he refused to accept King Henry VIII as the head of the Church of England. He wrote a book called Utopia that told of a perfect place of a reasoned government. He was tried for treason and beheaded, then the Catholic Church made him a saint.

Raphael

Apr 6, 1483

Raphael was an architect and a painter, most notable for his works with the Vatican. He was an apprentice who moved on and worked on paintings for the Vatican for the Pope at the time. His work was fantastic and moved on eventually to being an architect. He died unexpectedly without finishing his work for the Pope.

Martin Luther

Nov 10, 1483

Martin Luther was a monk who was one of the first people to separate himself from the church. Martin Luther didn't agree with the ways of the church selling indulgences. He wrote down his "95 Thesis" which talked about the things the church did wrong. The church didn't like this so they excommunicated him so he formed his own type of religion and had some followers.

Thomas Cranmer

Jul 2, 1489

Thomas Cranmer was an archbishop for Canterbury. He was appointed by Henry VIII to be the archbishop, who had to have everyone in the country change religions to Protestants. When Mary took over she wanted the country to be Catholic again, and jailed Thomas for being Protestant. Later, Thomas was burned at the stake for not converting to being a Catholic again.

Henry VIII

Jun 28, 1491

Henry VIII was the King of England, most famous for marrying six different wives. He also broke away from the Catholic Church and made his own Church of England, and killed anyone who didn't follow him. He did all that just so he could have a divorce with his first wife. He was a tyrannical king and was very short tempered since he didn't have a son to give the throne to.

John Calvin

Jul 10, 1509

John Calvin was a priest and a lawyer that wanted to separate himself from the Catholic Church. He followed in the footsteps of Martin Luther and created his own religion that called themselves Calvinists. John Calvin believed that everyone was predetermined to go to Heaven or Hell, but everyone should live like a saint. He had to move to Switzerland to have his ideas accepted with the public.

Sale of Indulgences

1517

The Sales of Indulgences happened, when the Church said that people could buy indulgences to lessen their time in purgatory. The people could also buy them for other dead family members. This was a spark for Martin Luther to write out his 95 Thesis about the church. These sales was the tipping point of Martin Luther.

Elizabeth I

Sep 7, 1533

Elizabeth I took over the throne after her older half-sister Mary had died. When Elizabeth took over she had ended the turmoil between the religions of Protestants and Catholics. She never married anyone because she didn't want anyone else to rule. She had her own era named after her for her help in ending religious turmoil.

Heliocentric Theory

1543

Back during the Dark Ages people believed that the Earth was the center of the universe and the Sun orbited around it. Copernicus was the first person to publicly argue that the Earth orbited the sun, but the church did not like that so they banned all his books. Galileo then also picked up on this idea as well, but the church made him recant his studies. It took a century after Copernicus to say this that it was widely accepted.

Council of Trent

1545

The Council of Trent was a huge meeting of the Pope and all the bishops. They held this meeting and was a huge part of the Counter-Reformation. They held this meeting to try to get people back into the church so they could be financially stable, but it didn't work.

Francis Bacon

Jan 26, 1561

Francis Bacon was an English philosopher who had created the scientific method. He was a political man who's career crushed under itself. He began to think about science and thought deeply about it. He created the scientific method that we use to this day, because he wanted to uncover mysteries of the universe.

Galileo

Feb 15, 1564

Galileo was an Italian scholar who had believed that Copernicus was correct with the Earth going around the sun. He used mathematics to better understand our universe. He made his findings public with the Earth orbiting the sun, which the church didn't like. He had to recant his findings so he wasn't executed by the church.

William Shakespeare

Apr 23, 1564

William Shakespeare is a playwright, that is considered the greatest playwright in history. He made plays for the everyday person and not just for nobles. He also wrote his plays in a lot of languages that were the common languages in that day and age. He also wrote plays based on everyday people that every person could relate to.

Scientific Method

1621

Francis Bacon was the first to bring up the scientific method, but he didn't exactly invent it. He was very influenced in the work of Copernicus and Galileo. When Galileo died Isaac Newton stepped in and made the scientific method public. This made new discovers easier to find.

Isaac Newton

Jan 4, 1643

Isaac Newton was a very influential physicist that made modern physics what it is today. He made many discoveries of things like the laws of motion and the theory of gravity. Isaac Newton's discoveries were so grand that he was even knighted by the queen.