Renaissance ZAP! Questions
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List the three reasons for the Renaissance.
What does the word Renaissance literally mean?
Why was the Renaissance given this title?
When did the Renaissance occur?
What types of changes occurred during the Renaissance (what was the period defined
by?)
6. What was the importance of the Silk Road?
7. What was the major advancement China had that Europe envied?
8. Why was Marco Polo significant to the Renaissance?
9. What are 3 reasons the Renaissance began in Italy?
10. Who was the ruling family in Florence and what was their contribution to the
Renaissance?
11. What was the most important invention of the Renaissance and why was it so huge?
12. The study of man’s ability to improve the quality of life on Earth through studying the
classics is known as this.
13. Concerning education, men’s main goal was to try and become this.
14. Concerning family structure, what type of society did the Renaissance have?
15. What is vernacular literature?
16. Why was writing books in the vernacular so important for the Renaissance?
17. Who was Dante?
18. Who was Chaucer?
19. Who was William Shakespeare?
20. What book is Niccolo Machiavelli known for writing, and what was that book about?
21. List 3 ways that art changed during the Renaissance.
22. What is a frescoe?
23. What is Michelangelo most known for?
24. What is Leonardo Da Vinci most known for?
Renaissance ZAP! Answers
1. The Black Death left Europeans with a feeling of depression; The failure of the Christians
to win the Crusades added to it; Constantinople, the main Christian city, fell to the
Muslims in 1453
2. Rebirth
3. The people saw all of the bad things happening around them during the Dark Ages as a
wake-up call; a chance to start over; They wanted to return Europe to its former glory
when the Roman Empire had ruled a majority of the world
4. 1400-1700 AD
5. It was a time when people focused on Roman and Greek classics; It was a time of great
discoveries in literature, art, science, and geography
6. It was the trade route Europeans took to China where they saw all of the technological
advances China had that they didn’t.
7. Gunpowder
8. He was first European to go to China and come back: he wrote down what he saw there
and shocked Europeans with what the Chinese had, making them want advancements
like that.
9. Had roads and architecture left over from Roman empire; Sat on major trade routes;
Italy was located on the sea which meant it had many travelers and traders
10. The Medici’s; paid artists and authors to make new works which started the Renaissance
11. The printing press: Spread reading to the masses since books became much cheaper, The
Church lost its control of knowledge being spread
12. Humanism
13. A “Renaissance Man”
14. A patriarchal society, where the man was in charge of the family
15. Books written in the native language rather than in Latin (ex: French author writes in
French, Italian author writes in Italian)
16. More people were able to read books because only the wealthy could afford to go to
school to learn Latin; spread ideas other than religion more quickly
17. Vernacular author that wrote The Divine Comedy in Italian.
18. Vernacular author who wrote The Canterbury Tales in English.
19. Most famous playwright: known for Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet.
20. The Prince; talked about how a ruler can stay in power even if that means he has to be
immoral; “the ends justify the means”
21. Perspective, More realistic, Use of shading
22. A painting that uses plaster to make the painting look even more 3-dimensional.
23. Painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
24. The painting of the Mona Lisa