The Renaissance

Bubonic Plague begins

Jan 1, 1347

The Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death, was one of the most devastating pandemics of the 14th century. The oputbreak peaked between 1348 and 1350 in Europe. It is thouht to have originated in China from the fleas that rats carried. It is estimated it reduced the population from 450 million to between 350 and 375 million. The results of the black death were the Reformation, and the peasant revolts in 1381.

Renaissance begins

Jan 1, 1350

The Renaissance was a cultural and intellectual movement that began around the 14th century and spanned to around the 17th century. It began in Italy and later spread to the rest of Europe transforming from the Middle Ages. It encompassed innovative Latin literature, the developement of perspective and great improvement in art with a more natural reality of paintings and sculptures, and gradual educational reform.

Brunelleschi creates Linear Perspective

Jan 1, 1413

In 1413, Brunelleschi invented optical linear perspective which revolutionized painting and allowed for naturalistic styles to develop as the Renaissance digressed from the stylized figures of medieval art. This let artists paint their images as three-dimensional structures rather than the flat two-dimentional shapes. Linear perspective as an artistic tool spread not only through Italy but throughout western Europe, and quickly became the standard studio practice up to present time.

Joan of Arc and the Siege of Orleans

Apr 28, 1429

Joan of Arc was a national heroine of France and a Roman Catholic saint. She was a peasant girl born in France and led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War. Joan of Arc arrived with the relief army on the outskirts of Orléans on April 28, 1429. This was Joan's first major military victory and the first major French success to follow the crushing defeat at Agincourt in 1415.

Johann Gutenberg invents the Printing Press

Jan 1, 1439

Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press with replaceable/moveable wooden or metal letters in 1436. This method of printing can be credited not only for a revolution in the production of books, but also for fostering rapid development in the sciences, arts and religion through the transmission of texts. The printing press brought down the price of printed materials and made such materials available for the masses. It remained the standard until the 20th century.

Cosimo de Medici dies

Aug 1, 1464

Cosimo de Medici was born September 27th, 1389. He was the first of the Medici political dynasty and de facto rulers of Florence during much of the Italian Renaissance. He was the founder of one of the main lines of the Medici family that ruled Florence from 1434 to 1537. His power over Florence stemmed from his wealth. As Florence was proud of its 'democracy', he pretended to have little political ambition, and did not often hold public office. Cosimo de Medici died on August 1st, 1464.

Spanish Inquisition begins

Sep 27, 1478

The Spanish Inquisition, was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval Inquisition which was under Papal control. The body was under the direct control of the Spanish monarchy. It was not abolished until 1834, during the reign of Isabella II, though it had ceased effective operation sometime earlier after a long decline.

Sandro Botecelli paints Birth of Venus

Jan 1, 1486

Sandro Botticelli, born in 1445, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century; since then his work has been seen to represent the linear grace of Early Renaissance painting. He painted The Birth of Venus in 1486. It depicts the goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea as a fully grown woman, arriving at the sea-shore.

Columbus discovers the America's

Oct 12, 1492

Christopher Columbus, born 31 October 1451, was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in what is today northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere. Columbus discovered the America's on the 12th of October, 1492.

Leonardo da Vinci paints The Last Supper

Jan 1, 1495

Leonardo da Vinci, born April 15, 1452, was an Italian Renaissance painter and sculptor amoung many other things. His genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. He painted The Last Supper in 1495, and it was mural painted in Milan created for his patron Duke Ludovico Sforza and his duchess Beatrice d'Este. It represents the scene of The Last Supper from the final days of Jesus when he announces that one of his Twelve Apostles would betray him.

Raphael paints The School of Athens

Jan 1, 1510

Raphael, born in 1483, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. His painting, The School of Athens, is one of the most famous frescoes. It was painted as a part of Raphael's commission to decorate with frescoes the rooms now known as the Stanze di Raffaello, in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.

Michelangelo paints the Sistine Chapel

Jan 1, 1512

Michelangelo, born 6 March 1475, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. The Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted between 1508 and 1512, at the commission of Pope Julius II, is a cornerstone work of High Renaissance art. There was a total of 343 figures painted on the ceiling.

Machiavelli writes the Prince

Jan 1, 1514

Niccolò Machiavelli, born May 3, 1469, was an Italian historian, philosopher, humanist, and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance. His book The Prince, is a political treatise. The Prince is sometimes claimed to be one of the first works of modern philosophy, especially modern political philosophy. Although it is relatively short, the treatise is the most remembered of his works and the one most responsible for bringing the word "Machiavellian" into wide usage as a pejorative term.

Thomas More writes 'Utopia'

Jan 1, 1514

Thomas More was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. More coined the word "utopia" – a name he gave to the ideal and imaginary island nation, the political system of which he described in Utopia published in 1516. Utopia is a work of fiction and political philosophy. The book, written in Latin, is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs.

Martin Luther 95 Theses

Jan 1, 1517

The Ninety-Five Theses was written by Martin Luther, 1517 and is widely regarded as the primary catalyst for the Protestant Reformation. The disputation protests against clerical abuses, especially the sale of indulgences.

Start of European Wars of Religion

Jan 1, 1524

The European wars of religion were a series of wars waged in Europe from 1524 to 1648, following the onset of the Protestant Reformation in Western and Northern Europe. Although sometimes unconnected, all of these wars were strongly influenced by the religious change of the period, and the conflict and rivalry that it produced.

Henry VIII of England is excommunicated

Jul 11, 1533

Henry VIII, born 28 June 149, was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France. The Pope, who had previously sent to Henry more than one monition upon his desertion of Catherine, issued a Bull of excommunication on July 11, and Henry was excommunicated in 1533.

Ivan the Terrible is born

Aug 25, 1533

Ivan the Terrible was born on the 25th of August, 1533. Ivan was Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 until his death. His long reign saw the conquest of the Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia, transforming Russia into a multiethnic and multiconfessional state spanning almost one billion acres. Ivan managed countless changes in the progression from a medieval state to an empire and emerging regional power, and became the first ruler to be crowned as Tsar of All Russia.

Jesuit Order founded by Ignatius Loyola

Aug 15, 1534

Ignatius of Loyola, born in 1491, was a Spanish knight from a Basque noble family, hermit, priest since 1537, and theologian, who founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and was its first Superior General. The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church, and was founded on August 15, 1534.

Desiderius Erasmus dies

Jul 12, 1536

Desiderius Erasmus, born in October 28, 1466, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian. Erasmus was a classical scholar who wrote in a pure Latin style. He was an early proponent of religious toleration, and enjoyed the sobriquet "Prince of the Humanists"; he has been called "the crowning glory of the Christian humanists." Desiderius Erasmus died on July 12, 1536.

Scientific Revolution / Copernicus

Jan 1, 1543

Nicolaus Copernicus, born 19 February 1473, was a Renaissance astronomer. Copernicus' epochal book, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, is often regarded as the starting point of modern astronomy and the defining epiphany that began the scientific revolution. The scientific revolution is an era which new ideas and knowledge in physics, astronomy, biology, medicine and chemistry transformed medieval and ancient views of nature and laid the foundations for modern science.

Spain declares bankruptcy for the 1st time

Jan 1, 1557

King Philip II of Spain declared bankruptcy for the first time in 1557. Charles V left Philip with a debt of about 36 million ducats and an annual deficit of 1 million ducats. This debt was caused by Phillip II defaulting on loans in 1557, 1560, 1575, and 1596. This happened because the lenders had no power of the king and could not force him to repay his loans. These defaults were just the beginning of Spain's economic troubles as Spain's kings would default 6 more times in the next 65 years.

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth I

Jan 15, 1559

Elizabeth I, born 7 September 1533, was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Her coronation was in 1559. As her triumphal progress wound through the city on the eve of the coronation ceremony, she was welcomed wholeheartedly by the citizens and greeted by orations and pageants, most with a strong Protestant flavour.

Saint Bartholomew's Massacre

Aug 23, 1572

The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations, followed by a wave of Roman Catholic mob violence, both directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants), during the French Wars of Religion. Modern estimates for the number of dead vary widely, from 5,000 to 30,000. The massacre also marked a turning point in the French Wars of Religion.

Edict of Nantes

Apr 13, 1598

The Edict of Nantes, issued on 13 April 1598, by Henry IV of France, granted the Calvinist Protestants of France (Huguenots) substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. In the Edict, Henry aimed primarily to promote civil unity. The Edict separated civil from religious unity, treated some Protestants for the first time as more than mere schismatics and heretics, and opened a path for secularism and tolerance.