Figures
This figure was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet known best for their sculpture of David and painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Who was Michaelangelo?
Invented in 1440 in Germany, this technology was invented by Johannes Gutenberg and helped mass produce books, which was a quicker and cheaper process than doing it by hand.
What is the Printing Press?
The invention of this drastically increased literacy rates and access to education for common people, also spreading new humanist ideas in science, religion, and philosophy, enabling the Protestant Reformation and vernaculars.
What is the Printing Press?
Many key classical Greek and Roman texts that fueled these ideas of the Renaissance were preserved and translated in Islamic centers before being introduced to Europe via the Mediterranean trade networks and the Crusades. These ideas considered the welfare of humans rather than the welfare of God.
What is Humanism?
This was mainly for men, while some elite women received them in private for classical subjects. This was primarily to make them more accomplished wives, not to prepare them for professional careers or public intellectual life.
What is education?
Known best as the “father of modern science,” this Italian philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician was the first scientist to use a telescope to study the sky.
Who was Galileo Galilei?
Invented in 1560 by the Italian couple Simonio and Lyndiana Bernacotti, this technology has made literacy and drawing more accessible, and is still used today. It also even stopped Britain's graphite monopoly by being mass produced and cheap.
What is the pencil?
The scarcity of peasant and artisan labor following this led to the ability of workers to demand and often receive significantly higher wages, better food, and improved living conditions, empowering the surviving lower classes.
What is the Plague/Black Death?
The Renaissance emphasis on scientific inquiry, cartography, and navigation directly enabled this period. This period and new age led to the establishment of the first truly global trade networks connecting Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia.
What is the Age of Exploration/Discovery?
This was a medieval system of land-for-service, but declining during the Renaissance. While strong in some areas like Southern Italy, the Renaissance's focus on learning, individual achievement, and new economic structures caused this system to be fully abolished later on.
What is feudalism?
This Italian family, who is arguably the most important family of the Renaissance, became powerful and wealthy through banking and politics, and were patrons for many art, science, and architecture during the time.
Who were the Medici Family?
Invented in 1608 in the Netherlands, this technology was invented by Hans Lippershey and played a large part in the Scientific Revolution. This invention allowed scientists, most notably Galileo, to observe celestial bodies in the sky, and impacted humanity’s view of our world
What is the telescope?
Expanding this through Mediterranean ports, like Genoa and Venice, increased the availability of scarce luxury items, like spices and silk, which impacted the wealth and exploration of the Renaissance. This also helped influence economic and artistic development through sea and land.
What are trade routes?
The emphasis on original sources promoted by Humanism directly contributed to this. This movement shattered the religious unity of Western Europe and challenged the authority and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, leading to new forms of Christianity that spread globally through colonization and religious freedom.
What is the Protestant Reformation?
The wealthy merchant class gained social prestige due to their this of the arts, effectively using their wealth to participate in cultural life and exert influence, a role previously reserved for the nobility and Church. This was a type of financial support given by the wealthy, mainly to artists.
What is patronage?
This figure was an English playwright, poet, writer, and actor, and is commonly called “the greatest writer in the English language.” One of his most notable works is “A Midsummer Night's Dream.”
Who is William Shakespeare?
Invented in around 1600, this technology was invented by the Dutch spectacle makers Hans and Zacharias Janssen. This invention helped advance medicine and allow humans to see micro-organisms through increased magnification.
What is the microscope?
Leading to the rise of powerful banking families like the Medicis and Fuggers, whose wealth fundamentally shifted the balance of power, this was centered in Italian city-states like Florence and revolutionized commerce with innovations like bills of exchange, letters of credit, and double-entry bookkeeping, which laid foundations for managing complex finance and currency exchange.
What is banking?
A philosophical shift focusing on human potential and earthly life challenged this. Renaissance humanism's focus on individual reason and experience, combined with the Reformation's emphasis on personal faith, contributed to a more questioning attitude towards this.
What is religion?
The wealthy merchant families of this held political power and owned most of the land and wealth. Their participation in the Renaissance was defined by involvement of the arts, literature, and philosophy, which served to display their power. This social class was highly ranked and had special privileges.
What is nobility/nobles?
This figure was a German priest, author, hymnwriter, and professor who sparked the Protestant Reformation with his Ninety-five Theses.
Who was Martin Luther?
Invented in 1620 by the Dutch inventor Cornelis Drebbel, this technology was also conceptualized by Leonardo da Vinci in the 1500s. This invention impacted naval warfare, undersea stealth, and marine exploration.
What is the submarine?
Renaissance this wasn't about factories, but the skilled artisanal production of textiles, metalwork, and books driven by innovation, trade, and demand, fueled by discoveries like the printing press and new trade routes. City-states like Florence specialized in this, increasing their regional economic dominance and creating a wealthy class of specialized artisans and guild members.
What is manufacturing/production?
The Humanist focus on observation and a break from tradition and beliefs laid the groundwork for these events. The push for direct observation and mathematical reasoning, boosted by figures like Leonardo da Vinci and Copernicus, established a new, global method and spark for studying nature and science that transcended geographical and religious boundaries.
What is the Scientific Revolution?
Women were generally considered legally and physically inferior to men and were expected to be confined by their duties as a mother and wife, due to the lack of this. Their primary roles were responsible for managing the household and bearing children. Women of the Renaissance experienced little to no social liberation or this.
What is freedom?