The Renaissance - 3 November

 Hello!

After 7 days of polling the results are a tie. I chose the renaissance as the topic. The word Renaissance typically refers to a cultural period of prosperity and innovation in Europe between 1400-1600, with several definitions, especially about its start and end times.

It ended the Middle Ages that began with the end of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD. It laid the foundations for the early modern and modern eras. Many things changed, especially academic or artistic things.

It began with the city of Florence in the top of the Italian peninsula. Florence is still a well known city today and the renaissance's morning star was found with the works of Dante and others in the 1200s and 1300s. But it really took off in Florence in the 1400s. Artists and polymaths began to compete with each other. 

The Florentines (people of Florence) began to study Latin and Greek texts about science, philosophy, and history. A  prominent cause was the escape of Greek scholars to Italy because of Ottoman expansion. The Byzantine Romans moved to Italy, and because of that more Latin and Greek texts were studied.

Italy during the 1400s was prosperous, though divided into several people groups. There were the Papal States, the Kingdom of Naples, Republic of Florence, Venice, Savoy, and the Duchy of Milan. Italy advanced from feudalism, a medieval system, to more flexible systems for trade and merchantry.

Another cause of the Renaissance was the Black Plague, which decimated Italy's population. Thd Florentine ruler Lorenzo of the House of Medici from 1449 to 1492 was a great cause for the Renaissance in Florence, since he sponsored many artists.

The Renaissance was a humanist change. They focused on reasoning and empirical evidence rather than using the old medieval methods of learning. Renaissance art was unique and often had intellectual aspects such as anatomy. Architecture also changed, and so did science with printing, astronomy, anatomy, and mathematics.

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