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1400
Humanism
Humanism is the scholarly study of Greek and Latin classics and the ancient Church fathers, in hopes of reviving worthy ancient values. Humanism led to new attitudes towards art, philosophy, and government after the Middle Ages. Renaissance art was really focused around humanism until artists began to use new techniques, leading to greater realism. -
Jan 1, 1449
Lorenzo de' Medici
Lorenzo de' Medici was an Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic. He ruled Florence with his younger brother Giuliano, and after the latter’s assassination, became sole ruler. Him and his family were the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of the Renaissance. -
Apr 15, 1452
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was a painter, advisor to kings, engineer, studied physiology, and was a botanist. All of these traits made him an "ideal man" during the Renaissance. He created the famous Mona Lisa painting. -
1466
Desiderius Erasmus
Erasmus was one of the major religious scholars during the Renaissance. He wrote texts on many subjects, including a new Greek edition of the Bible. Erasmus was disturbed by corruption in the church and sought religious reforms. This is what led him to translate the Bible into the vernacular. -
Feb 3, 1468
Johan Gutenberg
Gutenberg was a German blacksmith, goldsmith, printer, and publisher who introduced printing to Europe. This caused a rise of schools and literacy. By the 1500s, the printing press was in more than 200 cities in Europe. Rulers in churches and states now had to deal with more educated, critical public. It also became a powerful tool of religious propaganda. -
1469
Niccolo Machiavelli
Machiavelli was an Italian diplomat, politician, historian, philosopher, humanist, and writer of the Renaissance period. He concluded a strongman could impose order on a divided and selfish people. This led to him writing The Prince, a book about how to properly rule as a prince. This book recommends temporary use of fraud and brutality to achieve Italian unity. -
May 21, 1471
Albrecht Durer
Durer was a painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance. He applied his Renaissance painting techniques to engravings. His engravings and paintings often portrayed religious upheaval or were quite realistic. -
Feb 19, 1473
Copernicus
Copernicus was a Polish astronomer during the Renaissance and Reformation era who formulated a heliocentric or sun-centered model of the universe. His views challenged the beliefs of Aristotle and Ptolemy. This became the Copernicus Revolutionary Theory. -
Mar 6, 1475
Michelangelo
Michelangelo was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of during the Renaissance. He was born in the Republic of Florence. He created the famous 18-foot sculpture of David. -
Feb 7, 1478
Thomas More
Thomas More was an English humanist who pushed for social reform. In Utopia, he described an ideal society where all are educated and justice is achieved for all. More was killed by the hand of his own friend, King Henry VIII, for opposing separation from the Catholic Church and refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England. -
1483
Raphael
Raphael was an Italian painter and architect during the Renaissance. He created the large Vatican fresco. This is commonly known as The School Of Athens. -
Nov 10, 1483
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German monk and professor and a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation. He was angered by the corruption going on in the Catholic church, so he wrote complaints about the church and their teachings, called the 95 theses. Overnight, copies of Luther's theses spread and sparked debate across Europe. He was eventually excommunicated from the church and started his own religion called Lutheran. -
Jul 2, 1489
Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer was the appointed archbishop of England. Cranmer drew up The Book of Common Prayer, which became required reading at all Anglican services. During the rule of Mary Tudor, he was killed for not switching from Protestant to Catholic. -
Jun 28, 1491
Henry VIII
Henry the VIII was king of England in 1509 up until his death. He is know from having married six times and played a critical role in the English Reformation. He turned his country into a Protestant nation. -
1500
Printing Revolution
The biggest role of the printing press was that it was able to spread knowledge quickly. Humanist ideas for social reform grew in popularity because of the printing revolution. Increasingly, people began to question the central force in their lives - the church. -
Jul 10, 1509
John Calvin
John Calvin was a French-born priest and lawyer who was strongly influenced by the Reformation ideas. He accepted most of the Lutheran beliefs, but added his own belief in predestination. Calvin moved to Switzerland and established a theocracy there, called Calvinism. -
1517
Sale of Indulgences
An indulgence is what the Catholic church sold to the people in order to lessen the time one spent in purgatory before going to Heaven. Some clergy sold indulgences that only the rich could afford to buy. This act caused a lot of reformers to complain about the Catholic Church and go against their teachings. -
Sep 7, 1533
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth took the throne of England at 25 years old in 1558. The "Elizabeth Era" would unite England and avoid future religious wars. She compromised between Catholics and Protestants. -
1543
Heliocentric Theory
The heliocentric theory is based around a sun-centered model of the universe proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus. It states that the Earth was just one of a number of planets revolving around the sun. This theory was rejected because if the classic scholars were questioned, then all knowledge might be called into question. -
1545
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent was an ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. Lead by the Protestant Reformation, it has been described as the representation of the Counter-Reformation. The Council of Trent was highly important for its order on self-reform. The Council declared that salvation comes through both faith and good works. -
1561
Scientific Method
During the scientific revolution, perceptions began to change about the role of scientists. This was in respect to nature, the value of evidence, experimental or observed. This concept of scientific method was formalized by Francis Bacon, with the influence of Copernicus and Galileo. -
Jan 22, 1561
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon challenged medieval scholarship that sought only to make the world fit into the teachings of the church. Bacon took up Aristotelian ideas. He argued for an empirical, inductive approach, known as the scientific method, which is the foundation of modern scientific inquiry. -
1564
William Shakespeare
Shakespeare was the towering figure of northern Renaissance literature. Between 1590 and 1613, he wrote 37 plays, many of which are still performed today. He explored Renaissance ideals such as complexity of the individual. He used common language understood by all, and added 1700 words to the English language. -
Feb 15, 1564
Galileo
Galileo was an Italian astronomer, mathematician, physicist, philosopher and professor. He was a central figure in the transition from natural philosophy to modern science. He was a big influence on the transformation of the scientific Renaissance into a scientific revolution. -
Issac Newton
Newton was a physicist and mathematician who developed the principles of modern physics. This includes the laws of gravitation. He is credited as one of the great minds of the 17th century Scientific Revolution.
