Renaissance, Reformation, and Revolution Timeline

Petrarch

Jul 20, 1304

Petrarch was a renaissance poet and philosopher. He is considered the father of modern Italian language. His philosophy work led to the beginning of Humanism in the renaissance. He is also known for his book of love poems to Laura.

Inquisition

1350

The Inquisition began during the early Renaissance when the Catholic Church began searching for heretics. They would often torture people until they admitted to heresy even if they were not truly heretics, they just could not handle the torture anymore. The main target of the church were the new scientists and mathematicians who were teaching things that were against the churches beliefs. They also targeted those who supported the protestant reformation.

Johan Gutenberg

1395

Johan Gutenberg helped spread the renaissance, scientific revolution, and the protestant reformation more than anyone- he invented the printing press with movable type and a casting system. This means that now instead of painstakingly copying each document you could print hundreds in a day and spread the documents that much faster. This also led to an increase in literacy in Europe do to the decreased prices of books making them available to the masses.

Humanism

1400

Humanism saw a great increase during the renaissance. People began to be more interested in studying the classic Greeks and Romans. It began in Italy and spread throughout Europe during the 1400's and 1500's. It included studies of grammar, rhetoric, history, philosophy, and poetry that began in response to the lack of learning and questioning in medieval times.

Perspective

1423

Perspective began as renaissance artists tried to achieve more realism and focal points in their works. Some famous examples of this are Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" and Brunelleschi's architecture. The use of perspective allowed artists to draw attention to specific parts of the art and to add more depth (figurative and literal) to their works.

Printing Revolution

1440

The printing revolution began with the invention of Gutenberg's printing press with movable type. It allowed information to spread throughout Europe much faster than before. It also helped improve literacy in Europe by making reading materials cheaper and more widely available. It mainly had an influence on spreading the protestant reformation.

Lorenzo de' Medici

1449

Lorenzo de Medici was a member of a rich family in Italy who un-officially ruled Florence. Lorenzo ruled along with his brother (until his brother's assassination), and was a patron of the arts. He supported some of the most famous figures of the renaissance like Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci

Apr 15, 1452

Leonardo da Vinci was a leader in the Renaissance best known for his paintings. He was also an inventor, scientist, sculptor, and many more things that made him known as the "true renaissance man." He studied the laws of science and nature which led to greatly informed research which launched forward his career and helped to develop the renaissance.

Erasmus

Oct 27, 1466

Erasmus was a dominant figure in early renaissance humanism. He came from small beginnings, and spent time as a catholic monk. Then, when a bishop was impressed by his Latin skills he was sent to France to study classical literature where he was introduced to humanism. He later wrote a satirical examination of the corrupt church, but still rejected Protestantism.

Pope Paul III

Feb 29, 1468

Pope Paul III was the last of the Renaissance Popes and the first of the Counter- Reformation. He called the Council of Trent to eradicate the corruption within the Papacy and the rest of the church. Some of the things he did included ending the sale of indulgences and defining the Catholic religion.

Albrecht Durer

1471

Durer was a Northern European painter, draftsman, and writer, but he did his most famous works in another medium- printmaking. Throughout his life he created a series of woodcuts, mostly with religious themes that showed raw, foreboding outlooks. Some of his most famous works include Melancholia and The Apocalypse. He was clearly a renaissance artist because of his attention to detail and focus on proportionality and realism in all of his mediums of work.

Copernicus

Feb 19, 1473

He is best know for introducing the idea that the sun is the center of the universe, not the earth. This is known as heliocentric instead of geocentric. He was labeled a heretic for his work and only published his second work on his deathbed. He was later proven correct and is often applauded for his willingness to think outside of the accepted societal beliefs.

Michelangelo

Mar 6, 1475

Michelangelo is a Renaissance artist best known for his sculptures and paintings. His most famous works are the David and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Many of his works were sponsored by the Medici family. He helped to develop the new ideas of perspective and realism that were so important to the Renaissance.

Thomas More

Feb 7, 1478

Thomas More is known for writing his book Utopia, which was the beginning of the genre. He reached an untimely death after refusing to accept the Church of England and the king had him beheaded for treason. The premise of his book was finding an ideal political system governed by reason.

Martin Luther

Nov 10, 1483

Martin Luther was a Catholic monk in search of understanding of his religion and how to best achieve salvation. Because of this he developed a list of problems he had with the church called the 95 Theses. When the church rejected these ideas and he would not back down, he began to gain a following of "Lutherans" who broke off and created their own Catholic religion. This was the start of the protestant reformation in Europe.

Henry VIII

1491

Henry VIII is known for many things, namely his poor health and many wives. He also had a big impact on the protestant reformation. In search of a divorce, he split his country from the Catholic Church and formed the first protestant nation.

John Calvin

Jul 10, 1509

John Calvin left the church after the protestant reformation and began his religion of Calvinism. He became a spiritual and political leader in Geneva. Calvinist were required to be very spiritual and take no pleasure in earthly things. He also believed in predetermined fate of whether or not you achieved salvation.

Elizabeth I

Sep 7, 1533

Elizabeth I is one of the longest ruling monarchs in England. Her era brought religious peace and stability to the country. She never married in order to keep the crown within English blood and never had kids. She had a big impact because instead of persecuting people for what religion they practiced, she allowed more religious freedom than Henry VIII or her sister "bloody Mary" who both slaughtered people for their religions. Her 44 years ruling is known as the "Elizabethan Era".

Heliocentric Theory

1543

A heliocentric universe was originally proposed by Nicholas Copernicus. He said that the sun was in the middle at a standstill and the rest of the planets orbited around it in circular speeds. This idea was built on by Galileo who studied the movement of Jupiter's moons around Jupiter and compared it to our universe.

Scientific Method

1561

The Scientific Method we know today was developed by many renaissance scientists. It improved the results gained from experiments and made them able to be quantitatively measured. It is made up of a set of steps that can be cycled and repeated as needed: observation, hypothesis, experiment, and conclusion.

Francis Bacon

Jan 22, 1561

Bacon is a renaissance philosopher best known for his development of the scientific method. He was also a statesman for almost 40 years. He was eventually kicked out because of corruption, but still continued working on science and perfecting the scientific method which is similar to the one we use today.

Galileo

Feb 15, 1564

Galileo was a huge contributor to the scientific revolution with discoveries and inventions that lay the foundation for modern astronomy and physics. Some of his major contributions include making a better telescope that supported the theory of a sun centered universe and explaining why objects float. He also developed the law of acceleration. Many of his discoveries are still used today.

William Shakespeare

Apr 26, 1564

William Shakespeare is one of the most well known renaissance writers, as many of his works are still preformed and read today. He is known for inventing many new words and writing his works in the vernacular to make them more available to everyone. In the span of two decades he wrote thirty seven works including "Romeo and Juliet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Rene Descartes

Mar 31, 1596

Rene Descartes was a philosopher and mathematician. He is famously quoted with saying "I think, therefore I am." He defined thee idea of dualism- matter meeting non matter. He also had an extensive education in many other subjects, beginning boarding school at age 8 and finishing his first degree at 22.

Issac Newton

Jan 4, 1643

Newton was another of the great minds of the scientific revolution. He made many discoveries explaining light as a spectrum and explained gravity along with other laws of motion. He invented the reflecting telescope and published his book Principia which explained the laws of motion.