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Francesco Petrarch, considered by any to be the "Father of the Renaissance" and the "Father of Humanism" is crowned Poet Laureate, marking what many historians believe to be the start of the Renaissance.
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The Black Death wiped out a third of Europe's population. The resulting labour shortage increased wages and the reduced population was therefore much wealthier, better fed, and, significantly, had more surplus money to spend on luxury goods.
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Giovanni de Medici, the papal banker, headquarters his business in Florence and becomes involved in Florentine public life and patronage of the arts, laying the groundwork for the rise of his son Cosimo de Medici to power.
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The Papacy, having been located in Avignon in France since 1305, returns to Rome, bringing with it the prestige and wealth necessary to rebuild the city.
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Cosimo de Medici becomes head of the bank after his father dies, using his economic power to consolidate political power.
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Pope Nicholas V takes the first steps toward turning Rome into a Renaissance city, undertaking many construction projects and strongly encouraging the arts.
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Francesco Sforza came to power in Milan and rapidly transformed the still medieval city into a major centre of art and learning that drew Leone Battista Alberti.
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The center of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople falls to the Ottoman Turks, provoking an exodus of Greek people and works of art and literature into the Italian city-states.
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Gutenberg is credited with the invention of the printing press in Europe, and ushers in the age of printed books, making literature more accessible to all Europeans.
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The humanist scholar Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini became Pope Pius II in 1458
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After Cosimo's death in 1464, his son Piero rules until his death in 1469, when power falls into the hands of Lorenzo, who rules until 1491, raising Florence to its greatest heights of the Renaissance.
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With this election, the Papacy began a plunge toward moral degradation while Rome itself ascended to the greatest splendor it had achieved since Roman times. The morally corrupt model for papal rule was followed throughout the Renaissance, undermining papal moral authority, but allowing the Papacy to grow politically and economically strong.
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One of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts.
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A series of foreign invasions of Italy that begins when Charles XIII of France invaded North Italy, that would continue for several decades. This caused instability in many Italian city states, and Italy as a whole. The Church also suffered. This instablilty was a large factor in the downfall of the Italian Renaissance.
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Supporters of the Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola collected and publicly burned thousands of objects like cosmetics, art, and books in Florence, Italy, on the Mardi Gras festival.
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The period denoting the apogee of the visual arts in the Italian Renaissance.
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Often considered one of the most influential political books of all time, The Prince outlines the argument that it is better for a ruler to be feared than loved.
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The second son of Lorenzo de Medici, Leo X gave Rome the final push towards Renaissance glory. He encouraged scholarly learning, and supported the theatre, an art form considered to be of ambiguous morality until then. Most prominently, he supported the visual arts of painting and sculpture.
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Martin Luther posts the ninety-five theses, which he had composed in Latin, on the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg, arguably beginning the Protestant Reformation in Europe.
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The conquest of Rome by troops of the Holy Roman emperor Charles V. Many artists and architects, including Rosso Fiorentino (Giovanni Battista di Jacopo, 1494–1540) and Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1554), sought safety and patronage elsewhere, and in so doing promoted the diffusion of High Renaissance Roman culture.
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Officially established the Roman Inquisition, in which climate, humanism was akin to heresy. Many consider this to mark the end of the Italian Renaissance.
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Signed by Spain and France, this treaty ended the Italian Wars and sealed Spanish primacy in Italy. Under high taxes and tight restrictions by the Spanish, the Italian economy crumbled and intellectual and artistic production declined.
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The first professional commedia troupe is formed.
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Never to return.
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