1450- 1485 - The War of the Roses was a civil war that broke out between English ducal houses. The house of Lancaster, whose symbol was a red rose, and the house of York, adopting the white rose. In the 1450's many aristocratic families were pitted against one another. Later, in …

Raphael painted School of Athens after he arrived in Rome, 1510- 1511. The School of Athens depicts a gathering of ancient philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, and Pythagoras. This work illustrates the revival of classical thought, especially pertaining to harmony and order, during the Italian Renaissance.

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Gutenberg is the famous inventor of movable type machines. Around 1455 Gutenberg produced a practical and inexpensive copy of the Bible. In the next century the technology exploded across Europe, from 1 to 100, to 1000 printers across Europe. In the sixteenth century, Gutenberg's movable type apparatus, also coined …

1469- 1527 - Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian politician who's ideas have come to embody an ideal of political power. Machiavelli served as a secretary to the Florentine Council of Ten, and as a diplomat. When the Medici regained control of Florence in 1512, Machiavelli was forced into exile where his …

Civic humanism was an ideal that emerged in the Italian Renaissance, 1400.Many people believed that the only way to truly mature as an individual was to participate in the life of the state. They believed that the study of humanities could be used to ensure the overall wellbeing of …

1304- 1374 - Petrarch was a Florentine, though he primarily lived outside of Florence. Petrarch is attributed in the revival of the classics, and the foundation of Italian Renaissance humanism. He is considered one of the greatest lyric poets of the time, and many of his sonnets are inspired by his …