Renaissance Timeline

By tony_edwards
  • Jan 1, 1449

    Birth of Lorenzo de’ Medici

    Birth of Lorenzo de’ Medici
    when Lorenzo de' Medici was bornborn
  • Jan 1, 1449

    Birth of Lorenzo de’ Medici

    Birth of Lorenzo de’ Medici
    Lorenzo de' Medici's birthday
  • 1455

    Gutenberg prints the first Bible

    Gutenberg prints the first Bible
    Johann Gutenberg holds the distinction of being the inventor of the movable-type printing press. In 1455, Gutenberg produced what is considered to be the first book ever printed. It was a Latin language Bible, printed in Mainz, Germany.
  • Period: 1501 to 1504

    Michelangelo completes the sculpture David

    a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created in marble between 1501 and 1504 by artist Michelangelo.
  • Period: 1503 to 1506

    Leonardo da Vinci completes his painting the Mona Lisa

    The painting is thought by many to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, and is in oil on a white Lombardy poplar panel.
  • 1508

    Nicholas Copernicus publishes On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres

    Nicholas Copernicus publishes On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres
    placed the sun at the center of the universe and argued that the Earth moved across the heavens as one of the planets.
  • 1513

    Thomas More publishes Utopia

    Thomas More publishes Utopia
    In 1516 the statesman and scholar Thomas More published a work describing an ideal island state – he called it Utopia. The name derives from the Greek but has a double meaning 'eutopia' (good place) or 'outopia' (no place).
  • Oct 31, 1517

    Martin Luther posts 95 theses

    Martin Luther posts 95 theses
    legend has it that the priest and scholar Martin Luther approaches the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nails a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the Protestant Reformation.
  • 1533

    King Henry VIII begins Protestant Anglican church

    King Henry VIII begins Protestant Anglican church
    The English Reformation was initially driven by the dynastic goals of Henry VIII, who, in his quest for a consort who would bear him a male heir, found it expedient to replace papal authority with the supremacy of the English crown.
  • 1564

    William Shakespeare is born

    William Shakespeare is born
    William Shakespeare's birthday

  • Galileo invents a thermometer

    Galileo invents a thermometer
    Galileo Galilei invented a rudimentary water thermoscope, which for the first time, allowed temperature variations to be measured