2: The Renaissance

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“The” Renaissance was the “rebirth” of culture, art, and learning that started in Italy and spread to various other parts of western Europe, and lasted from about 1300 to 1500. It "ended" when the northern Italian heartland declined in economic importance and the pace of change and progress in the arts and learning slowed. The timing of the Renaissance coincided with some of the crises of the Middle Ages described in the last chapter. Most of Europe remained resolutely “medieval”. The ways of life, forms of technology, and political structure did not suddenly change with the flowering of the Renaissance. Likewise, in Italy itself, the lives of most people (especially outside of the major cities) were all but identical in 1500 to what they would have been centuries earlier.

Thumbanil: Lorenzo de' Medici was the de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic and the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. (Public Domain; via Wikipedia).