Renaissance people

English writer considered the greatest poet and playwright of all times

Plays employed superb dramatic technique to probe historical events and human character

Wrote in the vernacular

English writer influenced by Dante and Boccaccio

Used English in his writings

Canterbury Tales: a link between Anglo-Saxon and modern English

Describes people on pilgrimage and describes virtues and vices of real people

Father of English poetry

English humanist

Utopia: Portrayed an ideal country free from war, injustice, poverty, and ignorance

Indirectly attacked the evils of 16th century English

Spaniard who ridiculed feudal society in Don Quixote

Florentine diplomat who gathered first hand political experience

The prince was a guidebook for rulers

Observed how real people thought and acted

Leaders should be "feared and not loved"

"The ends justify the means"

Printing press

Output of books produced and its accuracy increased

Prices decreased

Affordable printed materials increased literacy and learning

Encouraged talented people to write

Helped to spread humanist ideas

Considered the first writer with Renaissance characteristics

Divine comedy

Utilizes classical heroes, poets, and philosophers

Written in Latin

Credited for saving classical works and bringing them to his fellow scholars

Italian who studied the classics and wrote in both Italian and Latin

Wrote love poems expressing romantic love and appreciation to nature

Imitated the style of classical writers

Dutch humanist scholar

Praise of Folly - ridiculed superstition, prejudice, upper class privileges and Church abuses

His satires encouraged people to thing about reforms. Impact on the Reformation

Florentine humanist, poet, and writer

The Decameron were short stories about ten men and women who move the country to escape the Black Death. They amuse themselves by making fun of medieval customs

Controversial in its content for the time period

Painter, sculptor, engineer, and inventor

Produced a large number of studies on tanks, catapults, portable bridges, flying machines, and weapons centuries before the invention of planes and submarines

Studied the human anatomy

Most famous masterpieces are "The Last Supper" and the "Mona Lisa"

Interested in the ideas of humanism and nature. 

David was the first nude sculpture he produced

Belgium portraitist

Examined the human face to try to show the thoughts of the person he was painting

Enjoyed the homeliness and would sometimes add more moles wrinkles to a person's face than was realistic

Best known for his use of color and light

Thought of himself mainly as a sculptor

A painter, poet, and architect

Sculpted the biblical character of David

Painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

Painted Last Judgement

Studied the works of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci

Painted portraits of Pope Julius II and Baldssare Castiglione

Famous for his paintings of angels and Madonna's

Made Madonna appear greater than mortal mothers

Considered the leading Flemish artist of the 1500s

Used vibrant colors to portray lively scenes of peasant life

Most famous artworks are The Peasant Wedding and Children Games

German artist

Traveled to Italy to study the techniques of the Italian painters

Stressed geometry and measurements as the key to understanding the art of the Italian Renaissance

Sometimes referred to as the "German Leonardo"

Designed and built some of the most beautiful architecture in all of Italy

Rediscovered the lost Greek and Roman rules of perspective

Greatest architectural achievement is the dome to the top of the Florence Cathedral

Developed the heliocentric model of the universe. This new model of the universe was completely opposite from the church's belief.

Discovered evidence that supported the Copernicus' Heliocentric model, by observing the sky and identifying how the stars moved

Contributed to the ideas of Copernicus by calculatiung that the planets did not move in perfect circles but rather they orbited in ellipses

Developed the first telescope. He had enough evidence that the earth was not the center of the universe that he confronted the church with his findins. The church reacted by excommunicating him.

While watching an apple fall from a tree, Newton became interested in the way force acts on objects. He thought that the same force that made the apple fall to the ground caused the planets to move. He called this force gravity.