-
1434
The Medici family begins to rule Florence.
The history of the republic is full of fights between factions. The Medici gained control of the city in 1434, after the coup d'état of Cosimo de' Medici against the faction that had exiled him the previous year. -
1450
Johannes Gutenberg invents the printing press
Gutenberg had established the basics of his printing press including the use of a mobile, reusable set of type, and within ten years he had constructed a working prototype of the press -
1466
Leonardo da Vinci begins making art in Florence.
Leonardo's family moved to Florence, which at the time was the center of Christian humanist thought and culture. Around the age of fourteen, he became a garzone (student) in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, the leading Florentine painter and sculptor of his time. -
1500
The height of the Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance reached its peak in the mid-sixteenth century when internal disputes and foreign invasions plunged the region into the turmoil of the Italian Wars.