Renaissance Timeline

Roman Catholic Church

1 CE

Pre-reformation all Christians were members of the Roman Catholic Church, otherwise, you are a heretic. This was all led by the Pope from Rome, where the headquarters of the Church was located, and he would decide on things to build and decisions like that. There was no going against the Church during this time, if you tried then you would be tried for heresy and probably killed as a result. For the year I thought maybe when Jesus came along?

Eyeglasses are made

1284

There aren't clear records of who made the eyeglasses, but a man named Salvino D'Armato degli Armati from Italy is the guy credited with making them. Nothing big happened until the 15th century when they were made for conditions like hyperopia, myopia, and presbyopia. During the 13th century, there was a man named Roger Bacon who had a scientific theory about how we could use eyeglasses to help people but there aren't any records on it.
https://historyplex.com/renaissance-inventions

The Divine Comedy, Dante's Inferno

1320

Inferno is the first part of a story written by Dante Alighieri during the 14th century, there are two other parts as well, Purgatorio and Paradiso. The story follows Dante's journey through Hell guided by a Roman Poet named Virgil, also this is all in Italian. A cool note about this is that Dante wrote it during his exile from Florence between 1302 and him dying in 1321.
http://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-dantes-divine-comedy-84603

Cosimo is Born

Sep 27, 1389

Cosimo represented the Medici Bank as he was introduced to high amounts of money at a young age, he ended up managing the Papacy's money for them. Cosimo was said to have a passion for building as he had plans for a structure called a cupola, completed by Brunelleschi at the time of Cosimo's return in 1434. Along with architects Cosimo was surrounded by famous sculptors and painters of the time, Donatello and Benozzo Gozzoli to name some https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cosimo-de-Medici

First Mariner's Compass

1405

The time is a rough time when it was used by a Chinese voyager named Zheng He, over the time between 1405 and 1433. Which could mean that it could have existed earlier just not been discovered yet, it is said to be invented during the Qin Dynasty between 221 and 206 BC. There was a special ore used to give it the magnet value called lodestone, this would always point southwards and thus people began to use them as compass'.
https://historyplex.com/renaissance-inventions

Lorenzo is Born

Jan 1, 1449

After his father's death, Lorenzo made it very clear that he had plans to follow in their footsteps. According to a historian, Francesco Guicciardini, his reign was a tyranny that involved festivals and balls that the people of Florence loved. He married an Orsini, high Roman nobility, his daughter married the son of Pope Innocent VIII, and his oldest son married another Orsini. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lorenzo-de-Medici

Leonardo da Vinci is Born

Apr 15, 1452

Leonardo da Vinci was a Renaissance inventor/ artist who had many great ideas and paintings during his lifetime. Some of his designs included a double hull for ships, tanks, a helicopter, and many more that were far ahead of his time. Also a scientist he did a lot in the fields of anatomy, civil engineering, and optics, which led to telescopes, skyscrapers, and our knowledge of the human body in the long run.
https://www.leonardoda-vinci.org/

Michelangelo is born

Mar 6, 1475

Michelangelo was born in Italy and was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet who had a huge influence on the art and architecture. Him being a part of so many different arts was normal but his work became famous, his paintings are famous along with his sculptures, he had incredible architecture skills, and he was able to design many new ideas. One of his most famous feats of art is his work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Michelangelo

Martin Luther is born

Nov 10, 1483

Martin Luther was a German theologist and was the start of the major event called the Protestant Reformation. Luther was originally going to pursue higher education in law, however, during a violent thunderstorm, he got so scared that he vowed to become a monk if he survived. This came out to be the case as after the storm he joined a monastery and started in the ways of becoming a monk.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Luther

Guests and Houses

1490

It was normal for people's hospitality to be offering wine and chestnuts to people who are there. Houses were usually decent in size but not comfortable by today's means, but having a bigger house was good because of the patriarchal system that was common in most households. When a son would get married he would bring his wife to his parent's house to live at, and opposite if a daughter gets married she would go to live with her husband.
http://www.renaissance-spell.com/Renaissance-Life.html

Wine

1490

The wine was a huge part of life during the Renaissance, it was almost like water to them, since the water that was available may not have been the best thing to drink. Wine was the water of the time, also it was pretty easy to buy 2 years worth of wine for yourself so why not have it. Also being in a location where Bacchus was worshipped for a long time, wine is important for that reason, since he is the Roman god of wine and theatre.
http://www.renaissance-spell.com/Renaissance-Life.html

Children Engagement

1490

Marriage festivals were a pretty big deal during this time, young girls were closed off from society so if they did not have a prearranged marriage then this would be their first time being out somewhere with men. This would lead to more marriages for a family, more marriages more wealth, more wealth more power. The children though would sometimes be arranged marriage from a young age so that both families would benefit from the marriage.
http://www.renaissance-spell.com/Renaissance-Life.html

The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci

1495

The famous painting, The Last Supper was painted between the times of 1495 and 1498, considering it also took da Vinci two years to draw the painting. It shows Jesus and his disciples gathered at a table with a bunch of food and drink, this is supposed to represent the meal that was shared between Jesus and his disciples before he was crucified. This is one of the most widely recognizable paintings in the west as religion is prevalent in the art of the time.

Indulgences are sold

1500

During the 16th century, the church started to sell these pieces of paper called indulgences. They were said to get a dead person out of purgatory and into heaven, this is shown also in the movie Luther, that people were able to buy one for someone who is still living. This led to people spending their money on these to secure a good life for themselves once they have to go through that.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/indulgence

The Church's power at the time

1500

At the time, pre-reformation, the church had a huge amount of power over how people acted and what they were able to know. The church could say that the bible said something and the people would believe it because they could not read the bible at all. This gave the Church as much power as wanted, Indulgences get you into heaven, Martin Luther is wrong, People couldn't read the bible to understand these things.
https://www.whitehorseinn.org/article/the-state-of-the-church-before-the-reformation/

Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci

1503

The Mona Lisa was painted in 1503 by Leonardo da Vinci and is today one of the most famous paintings, it is currently located at the Louvre Museum and has been since 1797. The painting is of a woman from the waist upwards in a black dress, which looks like maybe a farm background. The painting is called the most talked about, sung about, most written about, the most visited, and the most parodied work of art.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mona-Lisa-painting

David, Michelangelo

1503

David is a sculpture made of marble created by the sculptor Michelangelo sometime between 1501 and 1504, the name David comes from the Biblical figure David. David was an important figure in the art in Florence, and he is usually shown in different poses after his victory over Goliath. Michelangelo was only 26 years old when he made this and was the best paid and most famous artist when he alive, maybe even more famous after his death.

Luther's 95 Theses

1517

Martin Luther's 95 Theses, were a sort of call to reform or purify the church since selling tickets to heaven is clearly corrupt. Luther believed that the Pope should be doing all the things he can do out of love, than for money, this led to a divide between the church and Luther as they both believed things should be a certain way. Martin Luther's 95 theses were also able to be spread around due to the invention of the printing press.
https://www.history.com/topics/reformation/reformation

Heliocentric Solar System

1543

Nicolas Copernicus chose to believe that the sun was the center of the solar system, rather than the earth being the center of the solar system. This was shown in his book "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres", where he stated that the sun is in the center and we revolve around it. Well even though few in any people believed him about, he turned out to be right which was a huge advance in astronomy.
https://blogs.umass.edu/p139ell/2012/11/19/the-renaissance-and-the-scientific-revolution/

Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare

1595

Romeo and Juliet is a play written by William Shakespeare in 1595, roughly, the story is about two lovers who can't see each other because of family differences. This leads them to try to get married in secret and end up messing their family plans up leading to all of Juliet's family trying to kill Romeo. This makes Romeo get a plan to fake Juliet's death and sneak her out because everyone will think she is dead.
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/romeo_juliet/full.html

Hamlet, Play by William Shakespeare

1600

This is one of Shakespeare's works that is a tragedy about the Prince of Denmark, set in Denmark around the times of 1599-1602. The play is all about how Prince Hamlet is told to get revenge on his Uncle Claudius by the ghost of his dad King Hamlet. This is also one of his more well known plays from what I have seen, instead of being a lesser-known play this is known as one of the greats.
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/full.html

The 30 Years War

1618

The 30 years war was a religious war that all started because Emperor Ferdinand ll decided to try and take away peoples religious freedom. The war dragged on for, 30 years (shocker) until 1648, during this time it became less about who is right and more about who would rule. The people were willing to go to war over their religious freedom and they got it, but at a cost of around 8 million casualties due to violence, plague, and famine.
https://www.history.com/topics/reformation/thirty-years-war

The Submarine is Created

1624

The first submarine was designed by Leonardo Da Vinci but was built by a guy named Cornelius Van Drebbel in 1624. It was first tested in the River Thames and could stay underwater for about three hours total. The first militarized one was built by David Bushnell in 1776, but the first modern one was 1890's.
https://historyplex.com/renaissance-inventions

Alchemy

1624

Alchemy during the Renaissance was more different than ever before as a result of people publishing works that seemed to disprove everything it stood for. Alchemy was about the relation between the physical and the spiritual aspects of life, and how all things can be created from one source material. This led to many of the people who practiced this try and become rich by making gold.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/alchemy-renaissance-alchemy

Sir Issac Newton

Jan 4, 1643

Sir Isaac Newton gave us a lot of research, theories and philosophy about our world and about how the universe worked. Newton gave us an extremely important thing that is still used today called the Scientific Method, the act of doing things in certain steps to ensure results are accurate. If he hadn't developed the scientific method we may not have many of the advances we have today, maybe even not have advanced much in science at all.
https://explorable.com/isaac-newton