The Renaissance is a period in the history of Europe beginning in about 1400, and following the Medieval period.

“Renaissance” is a French word meaning “rebirth”. The period is called by this name because at that time, people started taking an interest in the learning of ancient times, in particular the learning of Ancient Greece and Rome. The Renaissance was seen as a “rebirth” of that learning. The Renaissance is often said to be the start of the “modern age”.

During the Renaissance, there were many famous artists, many writers and many philosophers. Many people studied mathematics and different sciences. A person who is clever at a great number of things is sometimes called a “Renaissance man”. Leonardo da Vinci, who was a painter, a scientist, a musician and a philosopher, is the most famous Renaissance Man.

The Renaissance started in Italy but soon spread across the whole of Europe.

Causes of the Renaissance

Reading and printing

In the Middle Ages, there were very few books. Most books at that time were written in Latin and only understood by priests and well-educated people. People were forbidden by law from copying the Bible into Italian, English, German, French or other “local” languages.

In 1423 the first printed books were made in Europe. The way of printing quickly improved so that large books like the Bible could be made and sold cheaply. The printers then began to print everything that they thought was interesting. Suddenly, all this wonderful knowledge was available to thousands of people who never had it before.

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  Portrait of a young woman (c. 1480-85) (Simonetta Vespucci) by Sandro Botticelli

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  View of Florence, birthplace of the Renaissance

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  Coluccio Salutati

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  A political map of the Italian Peninsula circa 1494

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  Lorenzo de’ Medici, ruler of Florence and patron of arts (Portrait by Girolamo Macchietti)

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  Pico della Mirandola wrote the famous Oration on the Dignity of Man, which has been called the “Manifesto of the Renaissance”.

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  The tomb of Michelangelo in the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence

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  Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man(c. 1490) demonstrates the effect writers of Antiquity had on Renaissance thinkers. Based on the specifications in Vitruvius’ De architectura (1st century BC), Leonardo tried to draw the perfectly proportioned man.

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  Portrait of Luca Pacioli, father of accounting, painted by Jacopo de’ Barbari, 1495, (Museo di Capodimonte).

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  1543′ Vesalius’ studies inspired interest in human anatomy.

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  Galileo Galilei. Portrait in ink by Renaissance sculptor Leone Leoni

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  Alexander VI, a Borgia Pope infamous for his corruption

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  Leonardo Bruni

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  Château de Chambord (1519–1547), one of the most famous examples of Renaissance architecture

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  The Arnolfini Portrait, by Jan van Eyck, 1434

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  Erasmus of Rotterdam in 1523, as depicted by Hans Holbein the Younger

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  São Pedro Papa, 1530-1535, by Grão Vasco Fernandes. A pinnacle piece from when the Portuguese Renaissance had considerable external influence.

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  Poznań Town Hall rebuilt from the Gothic style by Giovanni Batista di Quadro (1550–1555)

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  The Palace of Facets on the Cathedral Square of the Moscow Kremlin

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  Theotokos and The Child, the late 17th century Russian icon by Karp Zolotaryov, with notably realistic depiction of faces and clothing.

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  A cover of the Lives of the Artistsby Giorgio Vasari

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