Leonardo da Vinci was born April 15, 1452 and lived
until May 2, 1519. He was born to a poor family in
Vinci, Italy, but became a renown scientist,
mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter,
sculptor, architect, musician, and writer. He became the
model of “the Renaissance man,” someone brilliant in
many things. He is best known for his two paintings,
The Last Supper, and the Mona Lisa. He sketched the
human body, based on dissections, which contributed
greatly to the scientific knowledge. He was very ahead
of his time and even came up with ideas about a
helicopter, military tank, solar power, and a calculator.
When people today think about the Renaissance, they
think about Leonardo da Vinci.
Johannes Gutenberg was born in 1398 and died
on February 3, 1468 in Germany. He is one of the
most important men in all of history because of his
invention of moveable metal type. His design of the
printing press could be mass produced and used by
anyone with a little training. Before his invention, all
manuscripts had to be handwritten, but he
revolutionized bookmaking in Europe. The first
book he printed was the Bible in 1455, the
Gutenberg Bible,, which is on display in a
temperature-controlled, vacuum sealed vault in
Mainz, Germany. Throughout Europe, printing
presses were producing volumes of books on every
subject. By 1500, there were over 6 million printed
books.
Niccolo Machiavelli, was born May 3, 1469, and
died on June 21, 1527. Working out of Florence,
Italy, he was a political philosopher, musician, poet,
and playwright. Machiavelli is Best known for his
book, The Prince, a secular work that explained his
political ideas. In it, he described how leaders could
create stable kingdoms. He justified rule by force,
not necessarily by the law, and stated that it was
better for a ruler to be feared than loved. His book
was so controversial, that it wasn’t until 5 years
after his death that it was published. It was placed
on the Index of Prohibited Books by the Catholic
Church.
Miguel de Cervantes was born on September
29, 1547, and died on April 23, 1616. One of 7
children, he moved from town to town in Spain,
but eventually settled in Madrid. He is one of the
most important and celebrated figures in
Renaissance literature, and contributed to the
cultural flowering of Europe at the time. He wrote
the novel, Don Quixote, considered a founding
classic of Western literature, and is considered
one of the best novels ever written. It has been
translated into more than 60 languages and has
been in print ever since it was written in 1605.
During the last nine years of his life, he wrote
three more works that solidified his place in the
literary world.
Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on March 6, 1475,
and died on February 18, 1564. He rivaled Leonardo da
Vinci for honors as “Renaissance man,” and created
works that changed the art world as it was known. He
was an Italian painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and
engineer. Michelangelo, as he is known, is the bestdocumented artist of the 1500s. He is best known for his
painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which is part
of the Vatican in Rome. It took him almost five years to
complete this task, which illustrates the story of the
Creation, and of Noah. As a scultptor, he created the
Pieta and the David, which were almost perfect
renditions of the human figure, although larger than life.
It was his passionate, personal style that resulted in the
next major movement in Western art. Today, millions of
people flock to Italy to see his masterpieces.
William Shakespeare, April 26, 1564 to April 23,
1616, was an English poet and playwright,
thought of as the greatest writer of all the English
language. He wrote over 38 comedies,
tragedies, histories, and 154 sonnets, poems
that are fourteen lines and have a fixed rhyming
pattern. He showed a deep understanding of
humanity which crosses all cultural boundaries.
His most famous works include Othello,
Macbeth, Hamlet, and of course, Romeo and
Juliet. His works have been translated into every
major living language in the world and is
probably the most quoted writer in all of history.
Sir Thomas More, February 7, 1478 to July, 6,
1535, was an English Lawyer, author, and reformer.
In his book, Utopia, he depicts his perfect world, one
in which everyone receives a free education and
there is no private property. He also revealed the
corruption of the church and governments of the
day. Eventually, he was executed as a traitor for not
recognizing King Henry VIII’s claim to be the
supreme head of the Church of England. For this,
he became a martyr. In 1935, Pope Pius XI of the
Catholic church declared him to be the patron saint
of lawyers and statesmen.
Lorenzo de’ Medici, was born on January
1, 1449 and lived until April 9, 1492. He
was an Italian statesman and ruler of the
Florentine Republic in Florence during the
Italian renaissance. He was known as
Lorenzo the Magnificent and was the most
remarkable public figure of the time. His
family was the most powerful banking
family in Florence and were patrons of the
arts. He sponsored great art works of art
and learning, which led to the Golden Age
of Florence. His second son was Pope Leo
X, known for his fight with Martin Luther.
Dante Alighieri, or just “Dante,” lived from May
14, 1265 to September 13, 1321, and was born
to a prominent family in Florence. Though Dante,
an Italian writer and poet, lived during the end of
the Middle Ages, he was a breakthrough artist
who led the way for Renaissance artists who
followed him. He is best known for his greatest
work, the Divine Comedy, which is considered
one of the greatest masterpieces of all world
literature. In it, he describes an imaginary
journey through heaven, hell, and purgatory. He
wrote in the vernacular, the everyday language
spoken by the people, which helped shape
Italian as a written language.
Desiderius, Erasmus, October 27, 1466 to July
12, 1536, was born in Rotterdam, Holland. He was
a Dutch humanist, theologian, and reformer.
Erasmus was a Catholic scholar, but was critical
of the excesses of the Roman Catholic Church. At
the time, he was the center of the literary
movement. He wrote The Praise of Folly, which
used satire, the use of ridicule and sarcasm, to
criticize the behavior of the church. He dedicated
this to his friend, Sir Thomas More. In The
Handbook of the Christian Soldier, he explained
how Christians should live a normal life. Many
historians believe that Erasmus made
Renaissance humanism an international
movement.