The Renaissance
The Renaissance was an influential cultural movement which brought about a period of scientific revolution and artistic transformation, at the dawn of modern European history. It marks the period between the end of the Middle Ages and the start of the Modern Age. The Renaissance is usually considered to have begun in the 14th century in Italy and the 16th century in northern Europe. Renaissance is a French word that literally means rebirth. Rebirth is used in two ways. First, it means rediscovery of ancient classical texts and ideas and their use in the arts and sciences. Second, it means that the results of these intellectual activities created a revitalization of European culture.
Most historians believe that the Renaissance of the 15th century in Italy, which spread through the rest of Europe, represented a reconnection of the west with classical antiquity, the absorption of knowledge—particularly mathematics—from Arabic world, the return of experimentalism, an explosion of the spread of knowledge brought on by printing and the creation of new techniques in art, poetry and architecture. This period shows Europe emerging from a long period as a backwater part of the world, and the rise of commerce and exploration. The Italian Renaissance is often labelled as the beginning of the "modern" age.
The Renaissance has no set starting point or place. It happened gradually at different places at different times and there are no defined dates or places for when the Middle Ages ended. The starting place of the Renaissance is almost universally believed to be in Northern Italy, especially the city of Florence. One early Renaissance figure from the city of Florence, is the poet Dante, the first writer to embody the spirit of the Renaissance.
The author Petrarch is another early Renaissance figure. He concluded that the height of human accomplishment had