Sheehan

The Bubonic Plague

Oct 18, 1340

The Bubonic Plague or the "Black death" was a significant illness that wiped out a third of Europe. Without the Black death then the Renaissance wouldn't have happened, and the world would be totally different.

Francesco Petrarch Is Crowned Poet Laureate

Apr 6, 1341

Petrarch's writing was greatly admired during his lifetime, and he was crowned Rome's poet laureate in 1341. Many historians think this day was the start of the renaissance.

Sheehan

Period: Jan 1, 1350 to Dec 31, 1600

Giavonni de Medici moves to Florence

May 15, 1397

In 1397, de Medici headquartered his business in Florence and gets more involved in Florentine public life. This lays out the ground work for his son Cosmo.

Ghiberti Wins The Right To Sculpt The Northern Doors Of The Baptistry

Jan 1, 1401

Ghiberti is commissioned and takes 28 years to sculpt the bronze doors of the Florentine church. The doors remain one of the most valued treasures of the Renaissance

Dick Whittington is elected Lord Mayor of London.

Sep 21, 1406

He became a magistrate in 1393, but in 1397 the mayor Adam Bamme died in office, so the king chose Whittington

Invention of pocket clocks

Mar 20, 1410

Pocket clocks were invented in 1410 for normal people to tell the time. Only the rich had actual clocks in there house.

Brunelleschi creates linear perspective

Jan 1, 1420

Brunelleschi is famous for his two paintings that involved linear perspective. This way of art later became very popular and much used.

Masaccio is commissioned to paint The Pisa Polyptych.

Feb 19, 1426

The altar Masaccio painted for Santa Maria del Carmine, the Carmelite church in Pisa, is his best-documented work. All payments were recorded and his patron is known.

Cosimo de' Medici inherits Medici Bank

Feb 20, 1429

In February of 1429, Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici passed away making his eldest son, Cosimo, inherit the bank he owned. Cosimo was a phenomenal businessman who went on to make a fortune out of his father's bank.

Siege of Orleans

May 8, 1429

It was a turning point in the Hundred years' war between France and England. This was Joan of Arcs first major victory.

Joan of Arc is burned at stake.

May 30, 1431

On May 29th, the tribunal annouced Joan of Arc was guilty of heresy. On the morning of May 30 she was taken to a marketplace and burned at stake.

Jan Van Eyck paints The Arnolfini Portrait.

Jan 1, 1434

The Arnolfini portrait is a 1434 oil painting on oak panel. The painting was bought by the National Gallery in London in 1842.

The Ottoman Empire captures the city of Constantinople

May 29, 1453

The Conquest of Constantinople led by Sultan Mehmed the 2nd signaled the end of the Byzantine Empire. When the Ottoman's besieged Constantinople for 55 days, they finally surrendered.

The war of the roses.

May 22, 1455

The Wars of the Roses were a series of English civil wars for control of the throne of England. They were fought between two rival cadets branches of the royal house of Plantagenet.

Gutenberg creates the printing press

Oct 22, 1455

Johannes Gutenberg was a political exile and a Goldsmith from Mainz, Germany and he started experimenting with printing in France in 1440. He returned to Mainz a few years later and by 1450 he had made the press and it was ready to use commercially.

Lorenzo de Medici takes power in Florence.

Dec 2, 1469

Lorenzo il Magnifico, or Lorenzo the Magnificent, ruled the Italian city of Florence as a patron of artists, writers, and humanists. During his reign, the city saw a rebirth of the arts and scholarship that is known as the Renaissance.

Botticelli paints the Birth of Venus

Jan 1, 1486

It depicts the goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea as a fully grown woman. The painting is now held in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Pico Publishes His Collection Of 900 Treatises

Feb 24, 1486

Pico's philosophy often conflicts with that of the Catholic Church and he is declared a heretic. He is saved from demise by the intervention of Lorenzo de Medici.

Michelangelo Buonarroti is apprenticed to Domenico Ghirlandaio.

Jan 1, 1488

Michelangelo was apprenticed to the painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. He then lived in the household of Lorenzo de' Medici, the leading patron of the arts in Florence.

Rodrigo Borgia Becomes Pope Alexander VI

Aug 18, 1492

Alexander VI is widely known as a corrupt and manipulative pope, scheming for his family's benefit. Many claim that the Papacy reaches its greatest moral decline of the Renaissance during his pontificate.

Columbus reaches the Bahamas.

Oct 12, 1492

Columbus was preparing for his sail across the Atlantic, but he thought he was going to India because he didn't know there was the Americas. When he sailed to the Bahamas, he enslaved the Native Americans and called them Indians because he thought he was in India.

Ludovico Sforza Permits The French Invasion Of Italy

Apr 1, 1494

Attempting to weaken his enemy, Ludovico invited the French to invade Italy. It was free passage through Milan, and though the invasion failed, The French return in 1499 opening an era of foreign competition for Italian land.

Treaty of Tordesillas

Jun 7, 1494

Agreement between Spain and Portugal aimed at settling conflicts over lands newly discovered or explored by Christopher Columbus and other late 15th-century voyagers.

The Medici Are Ousted From Florence By Girolamo Savonarola

Sep 21, 1494

Savonarola, preaching a return to simple faith, leads a popular uprising against the Medici, who are forced to flee. Savonarola's rule is short-lived, and he is burned as a heretic in 1495.

Vasco Da Gama arrives in India.

May 20, 1498

Da Gama arrives in India after sailing around the southern tip of South Africa from Portugal. It was his first of 3 rough trips.

Mona Lisa

Apr 21, 1505

The Mona Lisa was a very iconic paintings of the Renaissance era and it still one of the most famous if not the most painting in the world. It has affected variations of art to this day.

Michelangelo started painting the sistine chapel

Sep 25, 1508

Julius II asked Michelangelo to decorate the ceiling of the chapel. Then he persuaded the Pope to adopt his plan instead of Julius II idea.

Raphael paints The School of Athens

Jan 1, 1510

Many consider this to be Raphael's masterpiece because it captures the classical spirit of the Renaissance. Many famous artists and philosophers are put in the painting.

Pope Leo X Succeeds Julius II

Mar 9, 1513

Pope Leo X, the son of Lorenzo de Medici, continues the trend of the Golden Age, proving himself a gifted administrator and intelligent patron of the arts. Rome prospers.

Marten Luther Nails the 95 theses on the door of the Wittenburg Church

Oct 31, 1517

Martin Luther challenges the traditional practices of the church and Pope Leo X. Luther believed that a person's wealth should not impact their status in the afterlife.

Spanish land in Mexico to conquer the Aztec empire

Feb 1, 1519

The Spanish were out to conquer the Aztec's for wealth and power. After they succeeded the war they gained lots of prestige.

Leonardo Da Vinci dies

May 2, 1519

Da Vinci was said to be one of the most remarkable men that was part of the Renaissance. He died being known as a sculptor, painter, an engineer, and a scientist.

Spanish take over the Aztec Empire

Aug 13, 1521

The Spaniards conquered the Aztecs in a long battle that they outsmarted them even with less people. They won because disease, superior weapons, and technology.

Spanish expedition to East Indies

Sep 6, 1522

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer who organized the Spanish expedition to the East Indies from 1519 to 1522, resulting in the first circumnavigation of the Earth, completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano.

The Sack Of Rome

May 6, 1527

After Pope Clement VII refuses to grant the imperial army a ransom, it attacks the city of Rome, taking the city in just over twelve hours. The sack of Rome symbolizes the downfall of Renaissance Italy, much of which is subjugated to Imperial-Spanish rule by the settlement of Bologna in 1530.

The Protestantism

Nov 1, 1529

King Henry started the English reformation when he went to the pope seeking a divorce. He wanted a divorce because he wanted a dynasty with his son's as kings, but him and his wife could only have girls and a boy that died.

Ivan the Terrible is born

Aug 25, 1530

Ivan conquered large amounts of territory transforming Russia into a multienthnic country. He became the first Tsar of Russia.

Machiavelli publishes "The prince"

Oct 16, 1532

Niccolo Machiavelli wrote "The Prince" in 1513, but it wasn't published until about 20 years later and 5 years after his death.

Desiderius Erasmus dies

Jul 12, 1536

Desiderius Erasmus was a classic scholar who wrote in a pure Latin language. He was an early proponent of religious toleration

Jesuit Order founded by Ignatius Loyola

Aug 1, 1543

Ignatius was a religious leader in during the reformation. He created the Jesuit order was used to spread the word of god.

The Lives of the Artists by Vasari is published.

Jan 1, 1550

In his Lives of the Artists of the Italian Renaissance, Vasari demonstrated a literary talent that outshone even his outstanding abilities as a painter and architect.

Spain declares bankruptcy for the 1st time

Jul 26, 1557

Spain's bankruptcy was caused by Kings defaulting on their loans and a dependence on precious metals and jewels for income.

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth 1

Nov 17, 1559

Queen Elizabeth was the 5th and last monarch in the Tudor dynasty. Her father was King Henry the VIII, she is remembered for establishing the English Protestant church and the defeat of the Spainish Armada.

Naples bans kissing in public under pain of death.

Mar 9, 1562

Kissing in public was banned in Naples, Italy because they thought it could stop the spread of disease. If authorities caught philandering couples kissing in public, the act was punishable by death.

First modern atlas is created

May 20, 1570

Gilles Coppens de Diest at Antwerp published 53 maps created by Abraham Ortelius.

Saint Bartholomew 's Massacre

Aug 24, 1572

Mobs of French Catholics killed Protestants during the French Religious Wars. It is presumed that the Massacre started because of King Charles the IX's sister Margret married the Protestant King Henry the IV (the future king of France).

Spanish soldiers sack Antwerp.

Nov 4, 1576

Mutinous troops of the Army of Flanders ransack the Grote Markt during the Sack of Antwerp, in a Dutch engraving of 1576 by Franc Hogenburg. The Sack of Antwerp, often known as the Spanish Fury at Antwerp, was an episode of the Eighty Years' War.

The Spanish "Invincible Armada" is defeated by the English.

Jul 31, 1588

Off the coast of Gravelines, France, Spain's so-called “Invincible Armada” is defeated by an English naval force under the command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake.

Shakespeare started working at the London theater

Jan 1, 1594

Shakespeare wrote many world famous plays that are still being produced or have been made into movies. Shakespeare has a great influence culture throughout the world.

Edict of Nantes

Apr 13, 1598

Issued by King Henry the IV of France, it gave non catholics in France civil rights. This marked the end of the religious wars in France during the second half of the 16th century