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This article is about the European Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries. For the
earlier European Renaissance, see Renaissance of the 12th century. For other uses, see
Renaissance (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Reconnaissance.

The Renaissance (UK: /rɪˈneɪsəns/ rin-AY-sənss,

ⓘ REN-ə-sahnss)[1][2][a]
Renaissance
US: /ˈrɛnəsɑːns/ is a
period of history and a European cultural
movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries.
It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to
modernity and was characterized by an effort to
revive and surpass the ideas and achievements
of classical antiquity. Associated with great social
The Birth of Venus (c. 1484–1486) by
change in most fields and disciplines, including Botticelli
art, architecture, politics, literature, exploration Aspects
and science, the Renaissance was first centered Architecture · Dance · Fine arts ·
in the Republic of Florence, then spread to the Greek scholars · Humanism · Literature ·
Magic · Music · Philosophy · Science ·
rest of Italy and later throughout Europe. The Technology · Warfare
term rinascita ("rebirth") first appeared in Lives of
Regions
the Artists (c. 1550) by Giorgio Vasari, while the England · France · Germany · Italy · Poland ·
corresponding French word renaissance was Portugal · Spain · Scotland · Northern Europe ·
Low Countries
adopted into English as the term for this period
History and study
during the 1830s.[4][b]
Age of Discovery · Continuity thesis ·
High Renaissance
The Renaissance's intellectual basis was
v·t·e
founded in its version of humanism, derived from
the concept of Roman humanitas and the
rediscovery of classical Greek philosophy, such as that of Protagoras, who said that "man is
the measure of all things". Although the invention of metal movable type sped the
dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century, the changes of the Renaissance were not
uniform across Europe: the first traces appear in Italy as early as the late 13th century, in
particular with the writings of Dante and the paintings of Giotto.
As a cultural movement, the Renaissance encompassed innovative flowering of literary Latin
and an explosion of vernacular literatures, beginning with the 14th-century resurgence of
learning based on classical sources, which contemporaries credited to Petrarch; the
development of linear perspective and other techniques of rendering a more natural reality in
painting; and gradual but widespread educational reform. It saw myriad artistic developments
and contributions from such polymaths as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, who inspired
the term "Renaissance man".[5][6] In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development
of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, and in science to an increased reliance on
observation and inductive reasoning. The period also saw revolutions in other intellectual and
social scientific pursuits, as well as the introduction of modern banking and the field of
accounting.[7]

Period
The Renaissance period started during the crisis of the Late Middle Ages and conventionally
ends with the waning of humanism, and the advents of the Reformation and Counter-
Reformation, and in art, the Baroque period. It had a different period and characteristics in
different regions, such as the Italian Renaissance, the Northern Renaissance, the Spanish
Renaissance, etc.

In addition to the standard periodization, proponents of a "long Renaissance" may put its
beginning in the 14th century and its end in the 17th century.[c]

The traditional view focuses more on the Renaissance's early modern aspects and argues that
it was a break from the past, but many historians today focus more on its medieval aspects
and argue that it was an extension of the Middle Ages.[11][12]

Italian Renaissance
The beginnings of the period—the early Renaissance of the 15th century and the Italian Proto-
Renaissance from around 1250 or 1300—overlap considerably with the Late Middle Ages,
conventionally dated to c. 1350–1500, and the Middle Ages themselves were a long period
filled with gradual changes, like the modern age; as a transitional period between both, the
Renaissance has close similarities to both, especially the late and early sub-periods of either.

The Renaissance began in Florence, one of the many states of Italy.[13] The Italian
Renaissance concluded in 1527 when Holy Roman Emperor Charles V launched an assault on
Rome during the war of the League of Cognac. Nevertheless, its impact endured in the art of
renowned Italian painters like Tintoretto, Sofonisba Anguissola, and Paolo Veronese, who
continued their work during the mid-to-late 16th century.[14]
Various theories have been proposed to account for its origins and characteristics, focusing on
a variety of factors, including Florence's social and civic peculiarities at the time: its political
structure, the patronage of its dominant family, the Medici,[15] and the migration of Greek
scholars and their texts to Italy following the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman
Empire.[16][17][18] Other major centers were Venice, Genoa, Milan, Rome during the
Renaissance Papacy, and Naples. From Italy, the Renaissance spread throughout Europe and
also to American, African and Asian territories ruled by the European colonial powers of the
time or where Christian missionaries were active.

The Renaissance has a long and complex historiography, and in line with general skepticism of
discrete periodizations, there has been much debate among historians reacting to the 19th-
century glorification of the "Renaissance" and individual cultural heroes as "Renaissance men",
questioning the usefulness of Renaissance as a term and as a historical delineation.[19]

Some observers have questioned whether the Renaissance was a cultural "advance" from the
Middle Ages, instead seeing it as a period of pessimism and nostalgia for classical antiquity,[20]
while social and economic historians, especially of the longue durée, have instead focused on
the continuity between the two eras,[21] which are linked, as Panofsky observed, "by a
thousand ties".[22][d]

The word has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the
Carolingian Renaissance (8th and 9th centuries), Ottonian Renaissance (10th and 11th
century), and the Renaissance of the 12th century.[24]

Overview
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life
in the early modern period. Beginning in Italy, and spreading to the rest of Europe by the 16th
century, its influence was felt in art, architecture, philosophy, literature, music, science,
technology, politics, religion, and other aspects of intellectual inquiry. Renaissance scholars
employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism and human emotion in
art.[25]

Renaissance humanists such as Poggio Bracciolini sought out in Europe's monastic libraries
the Latin literary, historical, and oratorical texts of antiquity, while the fall of Constantinople
(1453) generated a wave of émigré Greek scholars bringing precious manuscripts in ancient
Greek, many of which had fallen into obscurity in the West. It was in their new focus on literary
and historical texts that Renaissance scholars differed so markedly from the medieval scholars
of the Renaissance of the 12th century, who had focused on studying Greek and Arabic works
of natural sciences, philosophy, and mathematics, rather than on such cultural texts.
[citation needed]

In the revival of neoplatonism, Renaissance humanists did not

reject Christianity; on the contrary, many of the Renaissance's
greatest works were devoted to it, and the Church patronized
many works of Renaissance art.[citation needed] But a subtle shift
took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that
was reflected in many other areas of cultural life.[26]
[better source needed] In addition, many Greek Christian works,
including the Greek New Testament, were brought back from
Byzantium to Western Europe and engaged Western scholars
for the first time since late antiquity. This new engagement with
Greek Christian works, and particularly the return to the original
Greek of the New Testament promoted by humanists Lorenzo
Portrait of a Young
Woman (c. 1480–85)
Valla and Erasmus, helped pave the way for the Reformation.
[citation needed]
(Simonetta Vespucci) by
Sandro Botticelli
Well after the first artistic return to classicism had been
exemplified in the sculpture of Nicola Pisano, Florentine
painters led by Masaccio strove to portray the human form realistically, developing techniques
to render perspective and light more naturally. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò
Machiavelli, sought to describe political life as it really was, that is to understand it rationally. A
critical contribution to Italian Renaissance humanism, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola wrote De
hominis dignitate (Oration on the Dignity of Man, 1486), a series of theses on philosophy,
natural thought, faith, and magic defended against any opponent on the grounds of reason. In
addition to studying classical Latin and Greek, Renaissance authors also began increasingly to
use vernacular languages; combined with the introduction of the printing press, this allowed
many more people access to books, especially the Bible.[27]

In all, the Renaissance can be viewed as an attempt by intellectuals to study and improve the
secular and worldly, both through the revival of ideas from antiquity and through novel
approaches to thought. Political philosopher Hans Kohn describes it as an age where "Men
looked for new foundations"; some like Erasmus and Thomas More envisioned new reformed
spiritual foundations, others. in the words of Machiavelli, una lunga sperienza delle cose
moderne ed una continua lezione delle antiche (a long experience with modern life and a
continuous learning from antiquity).[28]

Sociologist Rodney Stark plays down the Renaissance in favor of the earlier innovations of the
Italian city-states in the High Middle Ages, which married responsive government, Christianity
and the birth of capitalism.[29] This analysis argues that, whereas the great European states
(France and Spain) were absolute monarchies, and others were under direct Church control,
the independent city-republics of Italy took over the principles of capitalism invented on
monastic estates and set off a vast unprecedented Commercial Revolution that preceded and
financed the Renaissance.[citation needed]

Historian Leon Poliakov offers a critical view in his seminal study of European racist thought:
The Aryan Myth. According to Poliakov, the use of ethnic origin myths are first used by
Renaissance humanists "in the service of a new born chauvinism".[30][31]

Origins
Main article: Italian Renaissance

Many argue that the ideas characterizing the

Renaissance had their origin in Florence at the turn of
the 13th and 14th centuries, in particular with the
writings of Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) and Petrarch
(1304–1374), as well as the paintings of Giotto di
Bondone (1267–1337). Some writers date the
Renaissance quite precisely; one proposed starting
point is 1401, when the rival geniuses Lorenzo Ghiberti View of Florence, birthplace of the
Renaissance
and Filippo Brunelleschi competed for the contract to
build the bronze doors for the Baptistery of the
Florence Cathedral (Ghiberti won).[32] Others see more general competition between artists
and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic
commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance.

Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, and why it began when it
did. Accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. Peter Rietbergen
posits that various influential Proto-Renaissance movements started from roughly 1300
onwards across many regions of Europe.[33]

Latin and Greek phases of Renaissance humanism

See also: Greek scholars in the Renaissance and Transmission of the Greek Classics

In stark contrast to the High Middle Ages, when Latin scholars

focused almost entirely on studying Greek and Arabic works of
natural science, philosophy and mathematics,[e] Renaissance
scholars were most interested in recovering and studying Latin
and Greek literary, historical, and oratorical texts. Broadly
speaking, this began in the 14th century with a Latin phase,
 when Renaissance scholars such as Petrarch, Coluccio
Salutati (1331–1406), Niccolò de' Niccoli (1364–1437), and
Poggio Bracciolini (1380–1459) scoured the libraries of Europe
in search of works by such Latin authors as Cicero, Lucretius,
Livy, and Seneca.[34] By the early 15th century, the bulk of the
surviving such Latin literature had been recovered; the Greek
Coluccio Salutati phase of Renaissance humanism was under way, as Western
European scholars turned to recovering ancient Greek literary,
historical, oratorical and theological texts.[35]

Unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late
antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe.
Ancient Greek works on science, mathematics, and philosophy had been studied since the
High Middle Ages in Western Europe and in the Islamic Golden Age (normally in translation),
but Greek literary, oratorical and historical works (such as Homer, the Greek dramatists,
Demosthenes and Thucydides) were not studied in either the Latin or medieval Islamic worlds;
in the Middle Ages these sorts of texts were only studied by Byzantine scholars. Some argue
that the Timurid Renaissance in Samarkand and Herat, whose magnificence toned with
Florence as the center of a cultural rebirth,[36][37] were linked to the Ottoman Empire, whose
conquests led to the migration of Greek scholars to Italian cities.[16][38] One of the greatest
achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works
back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity.

Muslim logicians, most notably Avicenna and Averroes, had inherited Greek ideas after they
had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on
these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Iberia and Sicily, which became
important centers for this transmission of ideas. Between the 11th and 13th centuries, many
schools dedicated to the translation of philosophical and scientific works from Classical Arabic
to Medieval Latin were established in Iberia, most notably the Toledo School of Translators.
This work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized,
constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history.[39]

The movement to reintegrate the regular study of Greek literary, historical, oratorical, and
theological texts back into the Western European curriculum is usually dated to the 1396
invitation from Coluccio Salutati to the Byzantine diplomat and scholar Manuel Chrysoloras (c.
1355–1415) to teach Greek in Florence.[40] This legacy was continued by a number of
expatriate Greek scholars, from Basilios Bessarion to Leo Allatius.

Social and political structures in Italy

The unique political structures of Italy during the Late
Middle Ages have led some to theorize that its unusual
social climate allowed the emergence of a rare cultural
efflorescence. Italy did not exist as a political entity in
the early modern period. Instead, it was divided into
smaller city-states and territories: the Neapolitans
controlled the south, the Florentines and the Romans
at the center, the Milanese and the Genoese to the
north and west respectively, and the Venetians to the
north east. 15th-century Italy was one of the most
urbanized areas in Europe.[41] Many of its cities stood
among the ruins of ancient Roman buildings; it seems
likely that the classical nature of the Renaissance was
linked to its origin in the Roman Empire's heartland.[42]
A political map of the Italian
Historian and political philosopher Quentin Skinner Peninsula c. 1494
points out that Otto of Freising (c. 1114–1158), a
German bishop visiting north Italy during the 12th
century, noticed a widespread new form of political and social organization, observing that Italy
appeared to have exited from feudalism so that its society was based on merchants and
commerce. Linked to this was anti-monarchical thinking, represented in the famous early
Renaissance fresco cycle The Allegory of Good and Bad Government by Ambrogio Lorenzetti
(painted 1338–1340), whose strong message is about the virtues of fairness, justice,
republicanism and good administration. Holding both Church and Empire at bay, these city
republics were devoted to notions of liberty. Skinner reports that there were many defences of
liberty such as the Matteo Palmieri (1406–1475) celebration of Florentine genius not only in
art, sculpture and architecture, but "the remarkable efflorescence of moral, social and political
philosophy that occurred in Florence at the same time".[43]

Even cities and states beyond central Italy, such as the Republic of Florence at this time, were
also notable for their merchant republics, especially the Republic of Venice. Although in
practice these were oligarchical, and bore little resemblance to a modern democracy, they did
have democratic features and were responsive states, with forms of participation in
governance and belief in liberty.[43][44][45] The relative political freedom they afforded was
conducive to academic and artistic advancement.[46] Likewise, the position of Italian cities such
as Venice as great trading centres made them intellectual crossroads. Merchants brought with
them ideas from far corners of the globe, particularly the Levant. Venice was Europe's gateway
to trade with the East, and a producer of fine glass, while Florence was a capital of textiles.
The wealth such business brought to Italy meant large public and private artistic projects could
be commissioned and individuals had more leisure time for study.[46]
Black Death
Main article: Black Death

One theory that has been advanced is that the

devastation in Florence caused by the Black Death,
which hit Europe between 1348 and 1350, resulted in
a shift in the world view of people in 14th century Italy.
Italy was particularly badly hit by the plague, and it has
been speculated that the resulting familiarity with death
caused thinkers to dwell more on their lives on Earth,
rather than on spirituality and the afterlife.[47] It has
Pieter Bruegel's The Triumph of
also been argued that the Black Death prompted a Death (c. 1562) reflects the social
new wave of piety, manifested in the sponsorship of upheaval and terror that followed the
plague that devastated medieval
religious works of art.[48] However, this does not fully
Europe.
explain why the Renaissance occurred specifically in
Italy in the 14th century. The Black Death was a
pandemic that affected all of Europe in the ways described, not only Italy. The Renaissance's
emergence in Italy was most likely the result of the complex interaction of the above factors.[19]

The plague was carried by fleas on sailing vessels returning from the ports of Asia, spreading
quickly due to lack of proper sanitation: the population of England, then about 4.2 million, lost
1.4 million people to the bubonic plague. Florence's population was nearly halved in the year
1348. As a result of the decimation in the populace the value of the working class increased,
and commoners came to enjoy more freedom. To answer the increased need for labor,
workers traveled in search of the most favorable position economically.[49]

The demographic decline due to the plague had economic consequences: the prices of food
dropped and land values declined by 30–40% in most parts of Europe between 1350 and
1400.[50] Landholders faced a great loss, but for ordinary men and women it was a windfall.
The survivors of the plague found not only that the prices of food were cheaper but also that
lands were more abundant, and many of them inherited property from their dead relatives.

The spread of disease was significantly more rampant in areas of poverty. Epidemics ravaged
cities, particularly children. Plagues were easily spread by lice, unsanitary drinking water,
armies, or by poor sanitation. Children were hit the hardest because many diseases, such as
typhus and congenital syphilis, target the immune system, leaving young children without a
fighting chance. Children in city dwellings were more affected by the spread of disease than
the children of the wealthy.[51]

The Black Death caused greater upheaval to Florence's social and political structure than later
epidemics. Despite a significant number of deaths among members of the ruling classes, the
government of Florence continued to function during this period. Formal meetings of elected
representatives were suspended during the height of the epidemic due to the chaotic
conditions in the city, but a small group of officials was appointed to conduct the affairs of the
city, which ensured continuity of government.[52]

Cultural conditions in Florence

See also: Florentine Renaissance art

It has long been a matter of debate why the Renaissance

began in Florence, and not elsewhere in Italy. Scholars have
noted several features unique to Florentine cultural life that
may have caused such a cultural movement. Many have
emphasized the role played by the Medici, a banking family
and later ducal ruling house, in patronizing and stimulating the
arts. Some historians have postulated that Florence was the
birthplace of the Renaissance as a result of luck, i.e., because
"Great Men" were born there by chance:[53] Leonardo, Botticelli
and Michelangelo were all born in Tuscany. Arguing that such
Lorenzo de' Medici, ruler
chance seems improbable, other historians have contended
of Florence and patron of arts
that these "Great Men" were only able to rise to prominence (portrait by Vasari)
because of the prevailing cultural conditions at the time.[54]

Lorenzo de' Medici (1449–1492) was the catalyst for an enormous amount of arts patronage,
encouraging his countrymen to commission works from the leading artists of Florence,
including Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Michelangelo Buonarroti.[15] Works by Neri
di Bicci, Botticelli, Leonardo, and Filippino Lippi had been commissioned additionally by the
Convent of San Donato in Scopeto in Florence.[55]

The Renaissance was certainly underway before Lorenzo de' Medici came to power – indeed,
before the Medici family itself achieved hegemony in Florentine society.

Characteristics

Humanism
Main articles: Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanism in Northern Europe, and
List of Renaissance humanists

In some ways, Renaissance humanism was not a philosophy but a method of learning. In
contrast to the medieval scholastic mode, which focused on resolving contradictions between
authors, Renaissance humanists would study ancient texts in their original languages and
appraise them through a combination of reasoning and empirical evidence. Humanist
education was based on the programme of Studia Humanitatis, the study of five humanities:
poetry, grammar, history, moral philosophy, and rhetoric. Although historians have sometimes
struggled to define humanism precisely, most have settled on "a middle of the road definition...
the movement to recover, interpret, and assimilate the language, literature, learning and values
of ancient Greece and Rome".[56] Above all, humanists asserted "the genius of man ... the
unique and extraordinary ability of the human mind".[57]

Humanist scholars shaped the intellectual landscape

throughout the early modern period. Political philosophers such
as Niccolò Machiavelli and Thomas More revived the ideas of
Greek and Roman thinkers and applied them in critiques of
contemporary government, following the Islamic steps of Ibn
Khaldun.[59][60] Pico della Mirandola wrote the "manifesto" of
the Renaissance, the Oration on the Dignity of Man, a vibrant
defence of thinking.[citation needed] Matteo Palmieri (1406–1475),
another humanist, is most known for his work Della vita civile
("On Civic Life"; printed 1528), which advocated civic
humanism, and for his influence in refining the Tuscan Giovanni Pico della
vernacular to the same level as Latin. Palmieri drew on Roman Mirandola, writer of the
famous Oration on the
philosophers and theorists, especially Cicero, who, like
Dignity of Man, which has
Palmieri, lived an active public life as a citizen and official, as been called the "Manifesto of
well as a theorist and philosopher and also Quintilian. Perhaps the Renaissance"[58]

the most succinct expression of his perspective on humanism

is in a 1465 poetic work La città di vita, but an earlier work, Della vita civile, is more wide-
ranging. Composed as a series of dialogues set in a country house in the Mugello countryside
outside Florence during the plague of 1430, Palmieri expounds on the qualities of the ideal
citizen. The dialogues include ideas about how children develop mentally and physically, how
citizens can conduct themselves morally, how citizens and states can ensure probity in public
life, and an important debate on the difference between that which is pragmatically useful and
that which is honest.[citation needed]

The humanists believed that it is important to transcend to the afterlife with a perfect mind and
body, which could be attained with education. The purpose of humanism was to create a
universal man whose person combined intellectual and physical excellence and who was
capable of functioning honorably in virtually any situation.[61] This ideology was referred to as
the uomo universale, an ancient Greco-Roman ideal. Education during the Renaissance was
mainly composed of ancient literature and history as it was thought that the classics provided
moral instruction and an intensive understanding of human behavior.
Humanism and libraries
A unique characteristic of some Renaissance libraries is that they were open to the public.
These libraries were places where ideas were exchanged and where scholarship and reading
were considered both pleasurable and beneficial to the mind and soul. As freethinking was a
hallmark of the age, many libraries contained a wide range of writers. Classical texts could be
found alongside humanist writings. These informal associations of intellectuals profoundly
influenced Renaissance culture. An essential tool of Renaissance librarianship was the catalog
that listed, described, and classified a library's books.[62] Some of the richest "bibliophiles" built
libraries as temples to books and knowledge. A number of libraries appeared as manifestations
of immense wealth joined with a love of books. In some cases, cultivated library builders were
also committed to offering others the opportunity to use their collections. Prominent aristocrats
and princes of the Church created great libraries for the use of their courts, called "court
libraries", and were housed in lavishly designed monumental buildings decorated with ornate
woodwork, and the walls adorned with frescoes (Murray, Stuart A.P.).

Art
Main article: Renaissance art

Renaissance art marks a cultural rebirth at the close of the Middle Ages and rise of the Modern
world. One of the distinguishing features of Renaissance art was its development of highly
realistic linear perspective. Giotto di Bondone (1267–1337) is credited with first treating a
painting as a window into space, but it was not until the demonstrations of architect Filippo
Brunelleschi (1377–1446) and the subsequent writings of Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472)
that perspective was formalized as an artistic technique.[63]

The development of perspective was part of a wider

trend toward realism in the arts.[64] Painters developed
other techniques, studying light, shadow, and,
famously in the case of Leonardo da Vinci, human
anatomy. Underlying these changes in artistic method
was a renewed desire to depict the beauty of nature
and to unravel the axioms of aesthetics, with the works
of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael representing
artistic pinnacles that were much imitated by other
artists.[65] Other notable artists include Sandro
Botticelli, working for the Medici in Florence, Donatello,
another Florentine, and Titian in Venice, among others.

In the Low Countries, a particularly vibrant artistic

Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man culture developed. The work of Hugo van der Goes
 (c. 1490) demonstrates the effect
and Jan van Eyck was particularly influential on the
writers of Antiquity had on
Renaissance thinkers. Based on the development of painting in Italy, both technically with
specifications in Vitruvius' De the introduction of oil paint and canvas, and stylistically
architectura (1st century BC), in terms of naturalism in representation. Later, the
Leonardo tried to draw the perfectly
proportioned man. (Gallerie work of Pieter Brueghel the Elder would inspire artists
dell'Accademia, Venice) to depict themes of everyday life.[66]

In architecture, Filippo Brunelleschi was foremost in

studying the remains of ancient classical buildings. With rediscovered knowledge from the 1st-
century writer Vitruvius and the flourishing discipline of mathematics, Brunelleschi formulated
the Renaissance style that emulated and improved on classical forms. His major feat of
engineering was building the dome of Florence Cathedral.[67] Another building demonstrating
this style is the Basilica of Sant'Andrea, Mantua, built by Alberti. The outstanding architectural
work of the High Renaissance was the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica, combining the skills of
Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael, Sangallo and Maderno.

During the Renaissance, architects aimed to use columns, pilasters, and entablatures as an
integrated system. The Roman orders types of columns are used: Tuscan and Composite.
These can either be structural, supporting an arcade or architrave, or purely decorative, set
against a wall in the form of pilasters. One of the first buildings to use pilasters as an integrated
system was in the Old Sacristy (1421–1440) by Brunelleschi.[68] Arches, semi-circular or (in
the Mannerist style) segmental, are often used in arcades, supported on piers or columns with
capitals. There may be a section of entablature between the capital and the springing of the
arch. Alberti was one of the first to use the arch on a monumental. Renaissance vaults do not
have ribs; they are semi-circular or segmental and on a square plan, unlike the Gothic vault,
which is frequently rectangular.

Renaissance artists were not pagans, although they admired antiquity and kept some ideas
and symbols of the medieval past. Nicola Pisano (c. 1220 – c. 1278) imitated classical forms
by portraying scenes from the Bible. His Annunciation, from the Pisa Baptistry, demonstrates
that classical models influenced Italian art before the Renaissance took root as a literary
movement.[69]

Science
Main articles: History of science in the Renaissance and Renaissance technology
See also: Medical Renaissance

Applied innovation extended to commerce. At the end

of the 15th century, Luca Pacioli published the first
work on bookkeeping, making him the founder of
accounting.[7]

The rediscovery of ancient texts and the invention of

the printing press in about 1440 democratized learning
and allowed a faster propagation of more widely
distributed ideas. In the first period of the Italian
Renaissance, humanists favored the study of
humanities over natural philosophy or applied Anonymous portrait of Nicolaus
mathematics, and their reverence for classical sources Copernicus (c. 1580)
further enshrined the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic views
of the universe. Writing around 1450, Nicholas of Cusa
anticipated the heliocentric worldview of Copernicus,
but in a philosophical fashion.

Science and art were intermingled in the early

Renaissance, with polymath artists such as Leonardo
da Vinci making observational drawings of anatomy
and nature. Leonardo set up controlled experiments in
water flow, medical dissection, and systematic study of
movement and aerodynamics, and he devised Portrait of Luca Pacioli, father of
accounting, painted by Jacopo de'
principles of research method that led Fritjof Capra to
Barbari,[f] 1495 (Museo di
classify him as the "father of modern science".[g] Other Capodimonte)
examples of Da Vinci's contribution during this period
include machines designed to saw marbles and lift
monoliths, and new discoveries in acoustics, botany, geology, anatomy, and mechanics.[72]

A suitable environment had developed to question classical scientific doctrine. The discovery in
1492 of the New World by Christopher Columbus challenged the classical worldview. The
works of Ptolemy (in geography) and Galen (in medicine) were found to not always match
everyday observations. As the Reformation and Counter-Reformation clashed, the Northern
Renaissance showed a decisive shift in focus from Aristotelean natural philosophy to chemistry
and the biological sciences (botany, anatomy, and medicine).[73] The willingness to question
previously held truths and search for new answers resulted in a period of major scientific
advancements.

Some view this as a "Scientific Revolution", heralding the beginning of the modern age,[74]
others as an acceleration of a continuous process stretching from the ancient world to the
present day.[75] Significant scientific advances were made during this time by Galileo Galilei,
Tycho Brahe, and Johannes Kepler.[76] Copernicus, in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
(On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), posited that the Earth moved around the Sun.
De humani corporis fabrica (On the Workings of the Human Body) by Andreas Vesalius, gave
a new confidence to the role of dissection, observation, and the mechanistic view of
anatomy.[77]

Another important development was in the process for discovery, the scientific method,[77]
focusing on empirical evidence and the importance of mathematics, while discarding much of
Aristotelian science. Early and influential proponents of these ideas included Copernicus,
Galileo, and Francis Bacon.[78][79] The new scientific method led to great contributions in the
fields of astronomy, physics, biology, and anatomy.[h][80]

Navigation and geography

Further information: Age of Discovery

During the Renaissance, extending from 1450 to

1650,[81] every continent was visited and mostly
mapped by Europeans, except the south polar
continent now known as Antarctica. This development
is depicted in the large world map Nova Totius
Terrarum Orbis Tabula made by the Dutch The Cantino planisphere (1502), the
cartographer Joan Blaeu in 1648 to commemorate the earliest world map detailing
Portuguese maritime exploration
Peace of Westphalia.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain seeking a direct
route to India of the Delhi Sultanate. He accidentally stumbled upon the Americas, but believed
he had reached the East Indies.

In 1606, the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon sailed from the East Indies in the Dutch East
India Company ship Duyfken and landed in Australia. He charted about 300 km of the west
coast of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. More than thirty Dutch expeditions followed,
mapping sections of the north, west, and south coasts. In 1642–1643, Abel Tasman
circumnavigated the continent, proving that it was not joined to the imagined south polar
continent.

By 1650, Dutch cartographers had mapped most of the coastline of the continent, which they
named New Holland, except the east coast which was charted in 1770 by James Cook.

The long-imagined south polar continent was eventually sighted in 1820. Throughout the
Renaissance it had been known as Terra Australis, or 'Australia' for short. However, after that
name was transferred to New Holland in the nineteenth century, the new name of 'Antarctica'
was bestowed on the south polar continent.[82]
Music
Main article: Renaissance music
See also: Renaissance dance and List of Renaissance composers

From this changing society emerged a common, unifying musical language, in particular the
polyphonic style of the Franco-Flemish school. The development of printing made distribution
of music possible on a wide scale. Demand for music as entertainment and as an activity for
educated amateurs increased with the emergence of a bourgeois class. Dissemination of
chansons, motets, and masses throughout Europe coincided with the unification of polyphonic
practice into the fluid style that culminated in the second half of the sixteenth century in the
work of composers such as Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Orlande de Lassus, Tomás Luis
de Victoria, and William Byrd.

Religion
Further information: Renaissance Papacy, Reformation, and Counter-Reformation

The new ideals of humanism, although more secular in some

aspects, developed against a Christian backdrop, especially in
the Northern Renaissance. Much, if not most, of the new art
was commissioned by or in dedication to the Roman Catholic
Church.[26] However, the Renaissance had a profound effect
on contemporary theology, particularly in the way people
perceived the relationship between man and God.[26] Many of
the period's foremost theologians were followers of the
humanist method, including Erasmus, Huldrych Zwingli,
Thomas More, Martin Luther, and John Calvin.
Alexander VI, a Borgia
Pope infamous for his
The Renaissance
corruption began in times of
religious turmoil. The
Late Middle Ages was
a period of political intrigue surrounding the Papacy,
culminating in the Western Schism, in which three men
simultaneously claimed to be true Bishop of Rome.[83]
While the schism was resolved by the Council of
Constance (1414), a resulting reform movement Adoration of the Magi and Solomon
known as Conciliarism sought to limit the power of the adored by the Queen of Sheba from
pope. Although the papacy eventually emerged the Farnese Hours (1546) by Giulio
Clovio marks the end of the Italian
supreme in ecclesiastical matters by the Fifth Council Renaissance of illuminated manuscript
of the Lateran (1511), it was dogged by continued together with the Index Librorum
accusations of corruption, most famously in the person Prohibitorum.

of Pope Alexander VI, who was accused variously of

simony, nepotism, and fathering children (most of whom were married off, presumably for the
consolidation of power) while a cardinal.[84]

Churchmen such as Erasmus and Luther proposed reform to the Church, often based on
humanist textual criticism of the New Testament.[26] In October 1517, Luther published the
Ninety-five Theses, challenging papal authority and criticizing its perceived corruption,
particularly with regard to instances of sold indulgences.[i] The 95 Theses led to the
Reformation, a break with the Roman Catholic Church that previously claimed hegemony in
Western Europe. Humanism and the Renaissance therefore played a direct role in sparking
the Reformation, as well as in many other contemporaneous religious debates and conflicts.

Pope Paul III came to the papal throne (1534–1549) after the sack of Rome in 1527, with
uncertainties prevalent in the Catholic Church following the Reformation. Nicolaus Copernicus
dedicated De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres)
to Paul III, who became the grandfather of Alessandro Farnese, who had paintings by Titian,
Michelangelo, and Raphael, as well as an important collection of drawings, and who
commissioned the masterpiece of Giulio Clovio, arguably the last major illuminated manuscript,
the Farnese Hours.

Self-awareness
By the 15th century, writers, artists, and architects in Italy were
well aware of the transformations that were taking place and
were using phrases such as modi antichi (in the antique
manner) or alle romana et alla antica (in the manner of the
Romans and the ancients) to describe their work. In the 1330s
Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua (ancient)
and to the Christian period as nova (new).[85] From Petrarch's
Italian perspective, this new period (which included his own
time) was an age of national eclipse.[85] Leonardo Bruni was
the first to use tripartite periodization in his History of the
Florentine People (1442).[86] Bruni's first two periods were Leonardo Bruni
based on those of Petrarch, but he added a third period
because he believed that Italy was no longer in a state of
decline. Flavio Biondo used a similar framework in Decades of History from the Deterioration
of the Roman Empire (1439–1453).

Humanist historians argued that contemporary scholarship restored direct links to the classical
period, thus bypassing the Medieval period, which they then named for the first time the
"Middle Ages". The term first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas (middle times).[87]
The term rinascita (rebirth) first appeared, however, in its broad sense in Giorgio Vasari's Lives
of the Artists, 1550, revised 1568.[88][89] Vasari divides the age into three phases: the first
phase contains Cimabue, Giotto, and Arnolfo di Cambio; the second phase contains Masaccio,
Brunelleschi, and Donatello; the third centers on Leonardo da Vinci and culminates with
Michelangelo. It was not just the growing awareness of classical antiquity that drove this
development, according to Vasari, but also the growing desire to study and imitate nature.[90]

Spread
In the 15th century, the Renaissance spread rapidly from its birthplace in Florence to the rest
of Italy and soon to the rest of Europe. The invention of the printing press by German printer
Johannes Gutenberg allowed the rapid transmission of these new ideas. As it spread, its ideas
diversified and changed, being adapted to local culture. In the 20th century, scholars began to
break the Renaissance into regional and national movements.

England
Main article: English Renaissance

The Elizabethan era in the second half of the 16th century is

usually regarded as the height of the English Renaissance.
Many scholars see its beginnings in the early 16th century
during the reign of Henry VIII.[91]

The English Renaissance is different from the Italian

Renaissance in several ways. The dominant art forms of the
English Renaissance were literature and music, which had a
rich flowering.[92] Visual arts in the English Renaissance were
much less significant than in the Italian Renaissance. The
English Renaissance period in art began far later than the
Italian, which had moved into Mannerism by the 1530s.[93]
"What a piece of work is a
man, how noble in reason,
In literature the later part of the 16th century saw the flowering how infinite in faculties, in
of Elizabethan literature, with poetry heavily influenced by form and moving how
Italian Renaissance literature but Elizabethan theatre a express and admirable, in
action how like an angel, in
distinctive native style. Writers include William Shakespeare apprehension how like a
(1564–1616), Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), Edmund god!" – from William
Spenser (1552–1599), Sir Thomas More (1478–1535), and Sir Shakespeare's Hamlet

Philip Sidney (1554–1586). English Renaissance music

competed with that in Europe with composers such as Thomas Tallis (1505–1585), John
Taverner (1490–1545), and William Byrd (1540–1623). Elizabethan architecture produced the
large prodigy houses of courtiers, and in the next century Inigo Jones (1573–1652), who
introduced Palladian architecture to England.[94]

Elsewhere, Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626) was the pioneer of modern scientific thought, and
is commonly regarded as one of the founders of the Scientific Revolution.[95][96]

France
Main articles: French Renaissance and French Renaissance architecture

The word "Renaissance" is borrowed from the French

language, where it means "re-birth". It was first used in
the eighteenth century and was later popularized by
French historian Jules Michelet (1798–1874) in his
1855 work, Histoire de France (History of
France).[97][98]

In 1495 the Italian Renaissance arrived in France,

Château de Chambord (1519– imported by King Charles VIII after his invasion of Italy.
1547), one of the most famous A factor that promoted the spread of secularism was
examples of Renaissance architecture
the inability of the Church to offer assistance against
the Black Death. Francis I imported Italian art and
artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, Primaticcio, Rosso Fiorentino, Niccolò dell'Abbate and
Benvenuto Cellini and built ornate palaces at great expense, like the Palace of Fontainebleau
and the castle of Chambord. Writers such as François Rabelais, Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim
du Bellay, and Michel de Montaigne, painters such as Jean Clouet and François Clouet, and
musicians such as Jean Mouton also borrowed from the spirit of the Renaissance. French
Renaissance sculptors include Michel Colombe, Jean Goujon, Pierre Bontemps, Ligier Richier
and Germain Pilon while important architects of the time were Pierre Lescot, who built the
Henri II aisle of the Louvre, Philibert Delorme and Jacques I Androuet du Cerceau.

In 1533, a fourteen-year-old Catherine de' Medici (1519–1589), born in Florence to Lorenzo

de' Medici, Duke of Urbino and Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne, married Henry II of France,
second son of King Francis I and Queen Claude. Though she became famous and infamous
for her role in the French Wars of Religion, she made a direct contribution in bringing arts,
sciences, and music (including the origins of ballet) to the French court from her native
Florence.

Germany
Main articles: German Renaissance and Weser Renaissance
In the second half of the 15th century, the Renaissance spirit
spread to Germany and the Low Countries, where the
development of the printing press (ca. 1450) and Renaissance
artists such as Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) predated the
influence from Italy. In the early Protestant areas of the country
humanism became closely linked to the turmoil of the
Reformation, and the art and writing of the German
Renaissance frequently reflected this dispute.[99] However, the
Gothic style and medieval scholastic philosophy remained
exclusively until the turn of the 16th century. Emperor
Maximilian I of Habsburg (ruling 1493–1519) was the first truly Portrait of Emperor
Renaissance monarch of the Holy Roman Empire. Maximilian I, by Albrecht
Dürer, 1519

Hungarian trecento and quattrocento

Further information: Renaissance architecture in Central and Eastern Europe

After Italy, Hungary was the first European country where the Renaissance appeared.[100] The
Renaissance style came directly from Italy during the Quattrocento (1400s) to Hungary first in
the Central European region, thanks to the development of early Hungarian-Italian
relationships — not only in dynastic connections, but also in cultural, humanistic and
commercial relations – growing in strength from the 14th century. The relationship between
Hungarian and Italian Gothic styles was a second reason – exaggerated breakthrough of walls
is avoided, preferring clean and light structures. Large-scale building schemes provided ample
and long term work for the artists, for example, the building of the Friss (New) Castle in Buda,
the castles of Visegrád, Tata, and Várpalota. In Sigismund's court there were patrons such as
Pippo Spano, a descendant of the Scolari family of Florence, who invited Manetto Ammanatini
and Masolino da Pannicale to Hungary.[101]

The new Italian trend combined with existing national traditions to create a particular local
Renaissance art. Acceptance of Renaissance art was furthered by the continuous arrival of
humanist thought in the country. Many young Hungarians studying at Italian universities came
closer to the Florentine humanist center, so a direct connection with Florence evolved. The
growing number of Italian traders moving to Hungary, specially to Buda, helped this process.
New thoughts were carried by the humanist prelates, among them Vitéz János, archbishop of
Esztergom, one of the founders of Hungarian humanism.[102] During the long reign of Emperor
Sigismund of Luxemburg the Royal Castle of Buda became probably the largest Gothic palace
of the late Middle Ages. King Matthias Corvinus (r. 1458–1490) rebuilt the palace in early
Renaissance style and further expanded it.[103][104]

After the marriage in 1476 of King Matthias to Beatrice of Naples, Buda became one of the
most important artistic centers of the Renaissance north of the Alps.[105] The most important
humanists living in Matthias' court were Antonio Bonfini and the famous Hungarian poet Janus
Pannonius.[105] András Hess set up a printing press in Buda in 1472. Matthias Corvinus's
library, the Bibliotheca Corviniana, was Europe's greatest collections of secular books:
historical chronicles, philosophic and scientific works in the 15th century. His library was
second only in size to the Vatican Library. (However, the Vatican Library mainly contained
Bibles and religious materials.)[106] In 1489, Bartolomeo della Fonte of Florence wrote that
Lorenzo de' Medici founded his own Greek-Latin library encouraged by the example of the
Hungarian king. Corvinus's library is part of UNESCO World Heritage.[107]

Matthias started at least two major building projects.[108] The works in Buda and Visegrád
began in about 1479.[109] Two new wings and a hanging garden were built at the royal castle
of Buda, and the palace at Visegrád was rebuilt in Renaissance style.[109][110] Matthias
appointed the Italian Chimenti Camicia and the Dalmatian Giovanni Dalmata to direct these
projects.[109] Matthias commissioned the leading Italian artists of his age to embellish his
palaces: for instance, the sculptor Benedetto da Majano and the painters Filippino Lippi and
Andrea Mantegna worked for him.[111] A copy of Mantegna's portrait of Matthias survived.[112]
Matthias also hired the Italian military engineer Aristotele Fioravanti to direct the rebuilding of
the forts along the southern frontier.[113] He had new monasteries built in Late Gothic style for
the Franciscans in Kolozsvár, Szeged and Hunyad, and for the Paulines in
Fejéregyháza.[114][115] In the spring of 1485, Leonardo da Vinci travelled to Hungary on behalf
of Sforza to meet King Matthias Corvinus, and was commissioned by him to paint a
Madonna.[116]

Matthias enjoyed the company of Humanists and had lively discussions on various topics with
them.[117] The fame of his magnanimity encouraged many scholars—mostly Italian—to settle in
Buda.[118] Antonio Bonfini, Pietro Ranzano, Bartolomeo Fonzio, and Francesco Bandini spent
many years in Matthias's court.[119][117] This circle of educated men introduced the ideas of
Neoplatonism to Hungary.[120][121] Like all intellectuals of his age, Matthias was convinced that
the movements and combinations of the stars and planets exercised influence on individuals'
life and on the history of nations.[122] Martius Galeotti described him as "king and astrologer",
and Antonio Bonfini said Matthias "never did anything without consulting the stars".[123] Upon
his request, the famous astronomers of the age, Johannes Regiomontanus and Marcin Bylica,
set up an observatory in Buda and installed it with astrolabes and celestial globes.[124]
Regiomontanus dedicated his book on navigation that was used by Christopher Columbus to
Matthias.[118]

Other important figures of Hungarian Renaissance include Bálint Balassi (poet), Sebestyén
Tinódi Lantos (poet), Bálint Bakfark (composer and lutenist), and Master MS (fresco painter).
Renaissance in the Low Countries
Main articles: Renaissance in the Netherlands and Dutch and Flemish Renaissance
painting

Culture in the Netherlands at the end of the 15th century was

influenced by the Italian Renaissance through trade via Bruges,
which made Flanders wealthy. Its nobles commissioned artists
who became known across Europe.[125] In science, the
anatomist Andreas Vesalius led the way; in cartography,
Gerardus Mercator's map assisted explorers and navigators. In
art, Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting ranged from the
strange work of Hieronymus Bosch[126] to the everyday life
depictions of Pieter Brueghel the Elder.[125]

Erasmus was arguably the Netherlands' best known humanist

and Catholic intellectual during the Renaissance.[33] Erasmus of Rotterdam in
1523, as depicted by Hans
Holbein the Younger
Northern Europe
Main article: Northern Renaissance

The Renaissance in Northern Europe has been termed the "Northern Renaissance". While
Renaissance ideas were moving north from Italy, there was a simultaneous southward spread
of some areas of innovation, particularly in music.[127] The music of the 15th-century
Burgundian School defined the beginning of the Renaissance in music, and the polyphony of
the Netherlanders, as it moved with the musicians themselves into Italy, formed the core of the
first true international style in music since the standardization of Gregorian Chant in the 9th
century.[127] The culmination of the Netherlandish school was in the music of the Italian
composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. At the end of the 16th century Italy again became a
center of musical innovation, with the development of the polychoral style of the Venetian
School, which spread northward into Germany around 1600. In Denmark, the Renaissance
sparked the translation of the works of Saxo Grammaticus into Danish as well as Frederick II
and Christian IV ordering the redecoration or construction of several important works of
architecture, i.e. Kronborg, Rosenborg and Børsen.[128] Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe
greatly contributed to turn astronomy into the first modern science and also helped launch the
Scientific Revolution.[129][130]

The paintings of the Italian Renaissance differed from those of the Northern Renaissance.
Italian Renaissance artists were among the first to paint secular scenes, breaking away from
the purely religious art of medieval painters. Northern Renaissance artists initially remained
focused on religious subjects, such as the contemporary religious upheaval portrayed by
Albrecht Dürer. Later, the works of Pieter Bruegel the Elder influenced artists to paint scenes of
daily life rather than religious or classical themes. It was also during the Northern Renaissance
that Flemish brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck perfected the oil painting technique, which
enabled artists to produce strong colors on a hard surface that could survive for centuries.[131]
A feature of the Northern Renaissance was its use of the vernacular in place of Latin or Greek,
which allowed greater freedom of expression. This movement had started in Italy with the
decisive influence of Dante Alighieri on the development of vernacular languages; in fact the
focus on writing in Italian has neglected a major source of Florentine ideas expressed in
Latin.[132] The spread of the printing press technology boosted the Renaissance in Northern
Europe as elsewhere, with Venice becoming a world center of printing.

Poland
Main article: Renaissance in Poland

A 16th-century Renaissance tombstone of Polish kings within the Sigismund Chapel in Kraków,
Poland. The golden-domed chapel was designed by Bartolommeo Berrecci.

The Polish Renaissance lasted from the late 15th to the late 16th century and was the Golden
Age of Polish culture. Ruled by the Jagiellonian dynasty, the Kingdom of Poland (from 1569
known as the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) actively participated in the broad European
Renaissance. An early Italian humanist who came to Poland in the mid-15th century was
Filippo Buonaccorsi, who was employed as royal advisor and councillor. The tomb of John I
Albert, completed in 1505 by Francesco Fiorentino, is the first example of a Renaissance
composition in the country.[133][134] Many Italian artists subsequently came to Poland with
Bona Sforza of Milan, when she married King Sigismund I in 1518.[135] This was supported by
temporarily strengthened monarchies in both areas, as well as by newly established
universities.[136]

The Renaissance was a period when the multi-national Polish state experienced a substantial
period of cultural growth thanks in part to a century without major wars, aside from conflicts in
the sparsely populated eastern and southern borderlands. Architecture became more refined
and decorative. Mannerism played an important part in shaping what is now considered to be
the truly Polish architectural style – high attics above the cornice with pinnacles and
pilasters.[137] It was also the time when the first major works of Polish literature were
published, particularly those of Mikołaj Rey and Jan Kochanowski, and the Polish language
became the lingua franca of East-Central Europe.[138] The Jagiellonian University transformed
into a major institution of higher education for the region and hosted many notable scholars,
chiefly Nicolaus Copernicus and Conrad Celtes. Three more academies were founded at
Königsberg (1544), Vilnius (1579), and Zamość (1594). The Reformation spread peacefully
throughout the country, giving rise to the Nontrinitarian Polish Brethren.[139] Living conditions
improved, cities grew, and exports of agricultural products enriched the population, especially
the nobility (szlachta) and magnates. The nobles gained dominance in the new political system
of Golden Liberty, a counterweight to monarchical absolutism.[140]

Portugal
Main article: Portuguese Renaissance

Although Italian Renaissance had a modest impact in

Portuguese arts, Portugal was influential in broadening the
European worldview,[141] stimulating humanist inquiry.
Renaissance arrived through the influence of wealthy Italian
and Flemish merchants who invested in the profitable
commerce overseas. As the pioneer headquarters of European
exploration, Lisbon flourished in the late 15th century, attracting
experts who made several breakthroughs in mathematics,
astronomy and naval technology, including Pedro Nunes, João
Luís de Camões, and his
de Castro, Abraham Zacuto, and Martin Behaim.
seminal work Os Lusíadas,
are considered the greatest Cartographers Pedro Reinel, Lopo Homem, Estêvão Gomes,
poet of the Portuguese and Diogo Ribeiro made crucial advances in mapping the
language and the pinnacle of
world. Apothecary Tomé Pires and physicians Garcia de Orta
Portuguese literature,
respectively. and Cristóvão da Costa collected and published works on
plants and medicines, soon translated by Flemish pioneer
botanist Carolus Clusius.

In architecture, the huge profits of the spice trade financed a sumptuous composite style in the
first decades of the 16th century, the Manueline, incorporating maritime elements.[142] The
primary painters were Nuno Gonçalves, Gregório Lopes, and Vasco Fernandes. In music,
Pedro de Escobar and Duarte Lobo produced four songbooks, including the Cancioneiro de
Elvas.

In literature, Luís de Camões inscribed the Portuguese

feats overseas in the epic poem Os Lusíadas. Sá de
Miranda introduced Italian forms of verse and
Bernardim Ribeiro developed pastoral romance, while
plays by Gil Vicente fused it with popular culture,
reporting the changing times. Travel literature
especially flourished: João de Barros, Fernão Lopes
de Castanheda, António Galvão, Gaspar Correia,
The renaissance cloister at the
Duarte Barbosa, and Fernão Mendes Pinto, among
Convent of Christ in Tomar
others, described new lands and were translated and
spread with the new printing press.[141] After joining
the Portuguese exploration of Brazil in 1500, Amerigo Vespucci coined the term New
World,[143] in his letters to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici.

The intense international exchange produced several cosmopolitan humanist scholars,

including Francisco de Holanda, André de Resende, and Damião de Góis, a friend of Erasmus
who wrote with rare independence on the reign of King Manuel I. Diogo de Gouveia and André
de Gouveia made relevant teaching reforms via France. Foreign news and products in the
Portuguese factory in Antwerp attracted the interest of Thomas More[144] and Albrecht Dürer to
the wider world.[145] There, profits and know-how helped nurture the Dutch Renaissance and
Golden Age, especially after the arrival of the wealthy cultured Jewish community expelled
from Portugal.

Spain
Main article: Spanish Renaissance
See also: Spanish Renaissance architecture

The Renaissance arrived in the Iberian peninsula

through the Mediterranean possessions of the Crown
of Aragon and the city of Valencia. Many early Spanish
Renaissance writers come from the Crown of Aragon,
including Ausiàs March and Joanot Martorell. In the
Crown of Castile, the early Renaissance was heavily
influenced by the Italian humanism, starting with
writers and poets such as Íñigo López de Mendoza, The Royal Monastery of San
Lorenzo del Escorial, by Juan de
marqués de Santillana, who introduced the new Italian
Herrera and Juan Bautista de Toledo
poetry to Spain in the early 15th century. Other writers,
such as Jorge Manrique, Fernando de Rojas, Juan del
Encina, Juan Boscán Almogáver, and Garcilaso de la Vega, kept a close resemblance to the
Italian canon. Miguel de Cervantes's masterpiece Don Quixote is credited as the first Western
novel. Renaissance humanism flourished in the early 16th century, with influential writers such
as philosopher Juan Luis Vives, grammarian Antonio de Nebrija and natural historian Pedro de
Mexía. The poet and philosopher Luisa de Medrano, celebrated among her Renaissance
contemporaries as one of the puellae doctae ("learned girls"), was the first female professor in
Europe at the University of Salamanca.

Later Spanish Renaissance tended toward religious themes and mysticism, with poets such as
Luis de León, Teresa of Ávila, and John of the Cross, and treated issues related to the
exploration of the New World, with chroniclers and writers such as Inca Garcilaso de la Vega
and Bartolomé de las Casas, giving rise to a body of work, now known as Spanish
Renaissance literature. The late Renaissance in Spain produced political and religious authors
such as Tomás Fernández de Medrano and artists such as El Greco and composers such as
Tomás Luis de Victoria and Antonio de Cabezón.

Further countries
Renaissance in Croatia
Renaissance in Scotland

Historiography

Conception
The Italian artist and critic Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574)
first used the term rinascita in his book The Lives of
the Artists (published 1550). In the book Vasari
attempted to define what he described as a break with
the barbarities of Gothic art: the arts (he held) had
fallen into decay with the collapse of the Roman
Empire and only the Tuscan artists, beginning with
Cimabue (1240–1301) and Giotto (1267–1337) began
to reverse this decline in the arts. Vasari saw ancient
art as central to the rebirth of Italian art.[146]

However, only in the 19th century did the French word

renaissance achieve popularity in describing the self-
conscious cultural movement based on revival of
A cover of the Lives of the Artists by
Roman models that began in the late 13th century.
Giorgio Vasari
French historian Jules Michelet (1798–1874) defined
"The Renaissance" in his 1855 work Histoire de
France as an entire historical period, whereas previously it had been used in a more limited
sense.[24] For Michelet, the Renaissance was more a development in science than in art and
culture. He asserted that it spanned the period from Columbus to Copernicus to Galileo; that
is, from the end of the 15th century to the middle of the 17th century.[97] Moreover, Michelet
distinguished between what he called, "the bizarre and monstrous" quality of the Middle Ages
and the democratic values that he, as a vocal Republican, chose to see in its character.[19] A
French nationalist, Michelet also sought to claim the Renaissance as a French movement.[19]

The Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt (1818–1897) in his The Civilization of the Renaissance
in Italy (1860), by contrast, defined the Renaissance as the period between Giotto and
Michelangelo in Italy, that is, the 14th to mid-16th centuries. He saw in the Renaissance the
emergence of the modern spirit of individuality, which the Middle Ages had stifled.[147] His book
was widely read and became influential in the development of the modern interpretation of the
Italian Renaissance.[148]

More recently, some historians have been much less keen to define the Renaissance as a
historical age, or even as a coherent cultural movement. The historian Randolph Starn, of the
University of California Berkeley, stated in 1998:

Rather than a period with definitive beginnings and endings and consistent content in
between, the Renaissance can be (and occasionally has been) seen as a movement
of practices and ideas to which specific groups and identifiable persons variously
responded in different times and places. It would be in this sense a network of
diverse, sometimes converging, sometimes conflicting cultures, not a single, time-
bound culture.[21]

Debates about progress

See also: Continuity thesis

There is debate about the extent to which the Renaissance improved on the culture of the
Middle Ages. Both Michelet and Burckhardt were keen to describe the progress made in the
Renaissance toward the modern age. Burckhardt likened the change to a veil being removed
from man's eyes, allowing him to see clearly.[53]

In the Middle Ages both sides of human consciousness – that which was turned within
as that which was turned without – lay dreaming or half awake beneath a common
veil. The veil was woven of faith, illusion, and childish prepossession, through which
the world and history were seen clad in strange hues.[149]

— Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy

On the other hand, many historians now point out that

most of the negative social factors popularly
associated with the medieval period – poverty, warfare,
religious and political persecution, for example – seem
 to have worsened in this era, which saw the rise of
Machiavellian politics, the Wars of Religion, the corrupt
Borgia Popes, and the intensified witch-hunts of the
Painting of the St. Bartholomew's
Day Massacre, an event in the French 16th century. Many people who lived during the
Wars of Religion, by François Dubois Renaissance did not view it as the "golden age"
imagined by certain 19th-century authors, but were
concerned by these social maladies.[150] Significantly, though, the artists, writers, and patrons
involved in the cultural movements in question believed they were living in a new era that was
a clean break from the Middle Ages.[88] Some Marxist historians prefer to describe the
Renaissance in material terms, holding the view that the changes in art, literature, and
philosophy were part of a general economic trend from feudalism toward capitalism, resulting
in a bourgeois class with leisure time to devote to the arts.[151]

Johan Huizinga (1872–1945) acknowledged the existence of the Renaissance but questioned
whether it was a positive change. In his book The Autumn of the Middle Ages, he argued that
the Renaissance was a period of decline from the High Middle Ages, destroying much that was
important.[20] The Medieval Latin language, for instance, had evolved greatly from the classical
period and was still a living language used in the church and elsewhere. The Renaissance
obsession with classical purity halted its further evolution and saw Latin revert to its classical
form. This view is however somewhat contested by recent studies. Robert S. Lopez has
contended that it was a period of deep economic recession.[152] Meanwhile, George Sarton
and Lynn Thorndike have both argued that scientific progress was perhaps less original than
has traditionally been supposed.[153] Finally, Joan Kelly argued that the Renaissance led to
greater gender dichotomy, lessening the agency women had had during the Middle Ages.[154]

Some historians have begun to consider the word Renaissance to be unnecessarily loaded,
implying an unambiguously positive rebirth from the supposedly more primitive "Dark Ages",
the Middle Ages. Most political and economic historians now prefer to use the term "early
modern" for this period (and a considerable period afterwards), a designation intended to
highlight the period as a transitional one between the Middle Ages and the modern era.[155]
Others such as Roger Osborne have come to consider the Italian Renaissance as a repository
of the myths and ideals of western history in general, and instead of rebirth of ancient ideas as
a period of great innovation.[156]

The art historian Erwin Panofsky observed of this resistance to the concept of "Renaissance":

It is perhaps no accident that the factuality of the Italian Renaissance has been most
vigorously questioned by those who are not obliged to take a professional interest in
the aesthetic aspects of civilization – historians of economic and social developments,
political and religious situations, and, most particularly, natural science – but only
 exceptionally by students of literature and hardly ever by historians of Art.[157]

Other Renaissances
The term Renaissance has also been used to define periods outside of the 15th and 16th
centuries in the earlier Medieval period. Charles H. Haskins (1870–1937), for example, made a
case for a Renaissance of the 12th century.[158] Other historians have argued for a Carolingian
Renaissance in the 8th and 9th centuries, Ottonian Renaissance in the 10th century and for
the Timurid Renaissance of the 14th century. The Islamic Golden Age has been also
sometimes termed with the Islamic Renaissance.[159] The Macedonian Renaissance is a term
used for a period in the Roman Empire in the 9th-11th centuries CE.

Other periods of cultural rebirth in Modern times have also been termed "renaissances", such
as the Bengal Renaissance, Tamil Renaissance, Nepal Bhasa renaissance, al-Nahda or the
Harlem Renaissance. The term can also be used in cinema. In animation, the Disney
Renaissance is a period that spanned the years from 1989 to 1999 which saw the studio return
to the level of quality not witnessed since their Golden Age of Animation. The San Francisco
Renaissance was a vibrant period of exploratory poetry and fiction writing in San Francisco in
the mid-20th century.

See also
Index of Renaissance articles
Society portal
Outline of the Renaissance
Arts portal
List of Renaissance figures
List of Renaissance structures
Roman Renaissance
Venetian Renaissance

References

Explanatory notes
ⓘ
a. ^ French: [ʁənɛsɑ̃s] , meaning 'rebirth', from renaître 'to be born again'; Italian: Rinascimento
[rinaʃʃiˈmento], from rinascere, with the same meanings.[3]
b. ^ The Oxford English Dictionary cites W Dyce and C H Wilson's Letter to Lord Meadowbank
(1837): "A style possessing many points of rude resemblance with the more elegant and refined
character of the art of the renaissance in Italy." And the following year in Civil Engineer &
Architect's Journal: "Not that we consider the style of the Renaissance to be either pure or good
per se." See Oxford English Dictionary, "Renaissance"
c. ^ "Historians of different kinds will often make some choice between a long Renaissance (say,
 1300–1600), a short one (1453–1527), or somewhere in between (the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, as is commonly adopted in music histories)."[8] Or between Petrarch and Jonathan
Swift, an even longer period.[9] Another source dates it from 1350 to 1620.[10]
d. ^ Some scholars have called for an end to the use of the term, which they see as a product of
presentism – the use of history to validate and glorify modern ideals.[23]
e. ^ For information on this earlier, very different approach to a different set of ancient texts (scientific
texts rather than cultural texts) see Latin translations of the 12th century, and Islamic contributions
to Medieval Europe.
f. ^ It is thought that Leonardo da Vinci may have painted the rhombicuboctahedron.[70]
g. ^ Exhaustive 2007 study by Fritjof Capra shows that Leonardo was a much greater scientist than
previously thought, and not just an inventor. Leonardo was innovative in science theory and in
conducting actual science practice. In Capra's detailed assessment of many surviving
manuscripts, Leonardo's science in tune with holistic non-mechanistic and non-reductive
approaches to science, which are becoming popular today.[71]
h. ^ Joseph Ben-David wrote:

Rapid accumulation of knowledge, which has characterized the development of science

since the 17th century, had never occurred before that time. The new kind of scientific
activity emerged only in a few countries of Western Europe, and it was restricted to that
small area for about two hundred years. (Since the 19th century, scientific knowledge
has been assimilated by the rest of the world).

i. ^ It is sometimes thought that the Church, as an institution, formally sold indulgences at the time.
This, however, was not the practice. Donations were often received, but only mandated by
individuals that were condemned.

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134. ^ Suchodolski, Bogdan (1973). Poland, the Land of Copernicus. Wrocław: Ossolineum, Polska
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137. ^ "HISTORIA ARCHITEKTURY EUROPEJSKIEJ TYLKO DLA ORŁÓW - SKRÓT" .
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138. ^ Koyama, Satoshi (2007). "Chapter 8: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a Political
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139. ^ Phillip Hewett, Racovia: An Early Liberal Religious Community, Providence, Blackstone
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143. ^ Bergin, Thomas G.; Speake, Jennifer (2004). Encyclopedia of the Renaissance and the
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144. ^ Bietenholz, Peter G.; Deutscher, Thomas Brian (2003). Contemporaries of Erasmus: a
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148. ^ Gay, Peter, Style in History, New York: Basic Books, 1974.
149. ^ Burckhardt, Jacob. "The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy" . Archived from the original
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150. ^ Girolamo Savonarola's popularity is a prime example of the manifestation of such concerns.
Other examples include Philip II of Spain's censorship of Florentine paintings, noted by Edward L.
Goldberg, "Spanish Values and Tuscan Painting", Renaissance Quarterly (1998) p. 914
151. ^ Renaissance Forum Archived 14 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine at Hull University,
Autumn 1997 (Retrieved 10 May 2007)
152. ^ Lopez, Robert S. & Miskimin, Harry A. (1962). "The Economic Depression of the Renaissance".
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153. ^ Thorndike, Lynn; Johnson, F.R.; Kristeller, P. O.; Lockwood, D.P.; Thorndike, L. (1943). "Some
Remarks on the Question of the Originality of the Renaissance". Journal of the History of Ideas. 4
(1): 49–74. doi:10.2307/2707236 . JSTOR 2707236 .
154. ^ Kelly-Gadol, Joan. "Did Women Have a Renaissance?" Becoming Visible: Women in European
History. Edited by Renate Bridenthal and Claudia Koonz. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977.
155. ^ Stephen Greenblatt Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare, University of
Chicago Press, 1980.
156. ^ Osborne, Roger (2006). Civilization: a new history of the Western world . Pegasus Books.
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157. ^ Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art 1969:38; Panofsky's chapter
"'Renaissance – self-definition or self-deception?" succinctly introduces the historiographical
debate, with copious footnotes to the literature.
158. ^ Haskins, Charles Homer, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1927 ISBN 0674760751.
159. ^ Hubert, Jean, L'Empire carolingien (English: The Carolingian Renaissance, translated by James
Emmons, New York: G. Braziller, 1970).

General sources
Burckhardt, Jacob, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860), a famous classic; excerpt and
text search 2007 edition ; also complete text online .
Cartledge, Bryan (2011). The Will to Survive: A History of Hungary. C. Hurst & Co. ISBN 978-
1849041126.
E. Kovács, Péter (1990). Matthias Corvinus (in Hungarian). Officina Nova. ISBN 9637835490.
Engel, Pál (2001). The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895–1526. I.B. Tauris
Publishers. ISBN 1860640613.
Hendrix, Scott E. (2013). "Astrological forecasting and the Turkish menace in the Renaissance
Balkans" (PDF). Anthropology. 13 (2). Universitatis Miskolciensis: 57–72. ISSN 1452-7243 .
Klaniczay, Tibor (1992). "The age of Matthias Corvinus" . In Porter, Roy; Teich, Mikuláš (eds.). The
Renaissance in National Context. Cambridge University Press. pp. 164–179 . ISBN 0521369703.
Kubinyi, András (2008). Matthias Rex. Balassi Kiadó. ISBN 978-9635067671.
Reynolds, L. D.; Wilson, Nigel (1974). Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek
and Latin Literature. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0199686339. OL 26919731M .
Tanner, Marcus (2009). The Raven King: Matthias Corvinus and the Fate of his Lost Library. Yale
University Press. ISBN 978-0300158281.

Further reading
Cronin, Vincent (1969), The Flowering of the Renaissance, ISBN 0712698841
Cronin, Vincent (1992), The Renaissance, ISBN 0002154110
Campbell, Gordon. The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance. (2003). 862 pp. online at OUP
Davis, Robert C. and Beth Lindsmith. Renaissance People: Lives that Shaped the Modern Age.
 (2011). ISBN 978-1606060780
Ergang, Robert (1967), The Renaissance, ISBN 0442023197
Ferguson, Wallace K. (1962), [Europe in Transition, 1300–1500], ISBN 0049400088
Fisher, Celia. Flowers of the Renaissance. (2011). ISBN 978-1606060629
Fletcher, Stella. The Longman Companion to Renaissance Europe, 1390–1530. (2000). 347 pp.
Grendler, Paul F., ed. The Renaissance: An Encyclopedia for Students. (2003). 970 pp.
Hale, John. The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance. (1994). 648 pp.; a magistral survey,
heavily illustrated; excerpt and text search
Hall, Bert S. Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe: Gunpowder, Technology, and Tactics
(2001); excerpt and text search
Hattaway, Michael, ed. A Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture. (2000). 747 pp.
Jensen, De Lamar (1992), Renaissance Europe, ISBN 0395889472
Johnson, Paul. The Renaissance: A Short History. (2000). 197 pp. excerpt and text search ; also
online free
Keene, Bryan C. Gardens of the Renaissance. (2013). ISBN 978-1606061435
King, Margaret L. Women of the Renaissance (1991) excerpt and text search
Kristeller, Paul Oskar, and Michael Mooney. Renaissance Thought and its Sources (1979); excerpt
and text search
Nauert, Charles G. Historical Dictionary of the Renaissance. (2004). 541 pp.
Patrick, James A., ed. Renaissance and Reformation (5 vol 2007), 1584 pages; comprehensive
encyclopedia
Plumb, J.H. The Italian Renaissance (2001); excerpt and text search
Paoletti, John T. and Gary M. Radke. Art in Renaissance Italy (4th ed. 2011)
Potter, G.R. ed. The New Cambridge Modern History: Volume 1: The Renaissance, 1493–1520
(1957) online ; major essays by multiple scholars. Summarizes the viewpoint of the 1950s.
Robin, Diana; Larsen, Anne R.; and Levin, Carole, eds. Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance:
Italy, France, and England (2007) 459 pp.
Rowse, A.L. The Elizabethan Renaissance: The Life of the Society (2000); excerpt and text search
Ruggiero, Guido. The Renaissance in Italy: A Social and Cultural History of the Rinascimento
(Cambridge University Press, 2015). 648 pp. online review
Rundle, David, ed. The Hutchinson Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. (1999). 434 pp.; numerous
brief articles online edition
Turner, Richard N. Renaissance Florence (2005); excerpt and text search
Ward, A. The Cambridge Modern History. Vol 1: The Renaissance (1902) ; older essays by
scholars; emphasis on politics

Historiography
Bouwsma, William J. "The Renaissance and the drama of Western history." American Historical
Review (1979): 1–15. in JSTOR
Caferro, William. Contesting the Renaissance (2010); excerpt and text search
Ferguson, Wallace K. "The Interpretation of the Renaissance: Suggestions for a Synthesis." Journal
 of the History of Ideas (1951): 483–495. online in JSTOR
Ferguson, Wallace K. "Recent trends in the economic historiography of the Renaissance." Studies in
the Renaissance (1960): 7–26.
Ferguson, Wallace Klippert. The Renaissance in historical thought (AMS Press, 1981)
Grendler, Paul F. "The Future of Sixteenth Century Studies: Renaissance and Reformation
Scholarship in the Next Forty Years", Sixteenth Century Journal Spring 2009, Vol. 40 Issue 1,
pp. 182+
Murray, Stuart A.P. The Library: An Illustrated History. American Library Association, Chicago, 2012.
Ruggiero, Guido, ed. A Companion to the Worlds of the Renaissance. (2002). 561 pp.
Starn, Randolph. "A Postmodern Renaissance?" Renaissance Quarterly 2007 60(1): 1–24 in Project
MUSE
Summit, Jennifer. "Renaissance Humanism and the Future of the Humanities". Literature Compass
(2012) 9#10 pp: 665–678.
Trivellato, Francesca. "Renaissance Italy and the Muslim Mediterranean in Recent Historical Work",
Journal of Modern History (March 2010), 82#1 pp: 127–155.
Woolfson, Jonathan, ed. Palgrave advances in Renaissance historiography (Palgrave Macmillan,
2005)

Primary sources
Bartlett, Kenneth, ed. The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance: A Sourcebook (2nd ed., 2011)
Ross, James Bruce, and Mary M. McLaughlin, eds. The Portable Renaissance Reader (1977);
excerpt and text search

External links
"The Renaissance" episode of In Our Time, a BBC Wikimedia Commons has
Radio 4 discussion with Francis Ames-Lewis, Peter media related to
Renaissance.
Burke and Evelyn Welch (8 June 2000).
Symonds, John Addington (1911). "Renaissance, English Wikisource has
original text related to
The" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). this article:
pp. 83–93. The Civilization of the
Renaissance in Italy
Renaissance Philosophy entry in the Internet
Encyclopedia of Philosophy Wikiquote has quotations
related to Renaissance.
Official website of the Society for Renaissance
Studies Look up Renaissance in
Wiktionary, the free
dictionary.

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Categories: Renaissance 14th century in Europe 15th century in Europe

16th century in Europe 17th century in Europe Christendom Early modern period
Historical eras History of Europe by period Medieval philosophy Western culture

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