CHAPTER 3 RENAISSANCE THOUGHT 42 MaChiavelli and The Prince 44 the doMinanCe of florenCe 46 assessinG Machiavelli 48 guiCCiardini and The hisTory of iTaly 53 CHAPTER 4 THE NORTHERN RENAISSANCE 57 the italian wars 58 Centralized MonarChies and eConoMiC growth 62 northern huManisM 68 christian Mystics 71 the growth of vernaCular literature 72
CHAPTER 5 RENAISSANCE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 77 sCienCe in Medieval tiMes 79 the helioCentriC systeM 81 MatheMatiCs 83 renaissance Man 84 warfare 87 the printing press 89 CONCLUSION 92 GLOSSARY 94 BIBLIOGRAPHY 96 INDEX 102
Introduction the modern period of history is often considered to have begun with the Renaissance one of the rare periods of genius in the world’s history It immediately followed the period in Europe known as the Middle Ages The Renaissance began in Italy during the late 13th and early 14th centuries and reached its height in the 15th In the 16th and 17th centuries it spread to the rest of Europe The word renaissance means rebirth It refers to the rediscovery by scholars primarily grouped under the heading of humanists of the cultural cultural heritage of the ancient Greeks and Romans In fact however the Renaissance was a period of discovery in many fields of new scientific laws new forms of art and literature new religious and political ideas and new lands including America The term Middle Ages was coined by scholars in the 15th century 8
In his fresco The School of Philosophy the Renaissance painter Raphael depicts an imaginary meeting of Plato and Aristotle framed by the small arch centre with other philosophers from all periods of history 9
