Renaissance is the name of the great intellectual and cultural movement of the revival of interest in classical culture that occurred in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries -- a period which saw the transition from the Middle Ages to times. The inpenetration of Greek and Latin culture that occurred as a result of the formation of extensive dominions in the Eastern Mediterranean after the 4th Crusade can be regarded as the basic condition, if not directly the cause, of the Renaissance. It began in , and its first period was marked by a revival of interest in classical literature and the classical ideals. It was a great revolt against the intellectual sterility of the medieval spirit, and especially against scholasticism, in favour of intellectual freedom and its first sign was a passion for the cultural magnitude and richness of the pagan world. Traces of this revolt can be seen in (1265- 1321), who chose the Roman poet Virgil as his model, and who, in the vigour and magnificence of his own verse, was a striking contrast to his contemporated Byzantium in order to learn Greek and to buy old manuscripts, saved from pillages, conflagrations, and devastation of the invaded country. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 Renaissance gained a further impetus because of a number of Greek humanists who moved from Byzantium to Italy. In 1462 the Platonic Academy was opened in Florence under the patronage of . Its leader became Marcilio Ficino.
The second period of the Renaissance is marked by a continued zeal for classical study, and by the developmental of a broad learning and the new view of the intellectual life which is now known as By this time the movement had spread to Germany, Poland and France, the Netherlands and to other northern countries, where it developed into the wide scholarship and sound learning of men like Thomas More, Campanella, Bruno, Ronsard, Erasmus, and Copernicus.. In science it led to the great discoveries of Copernicus, , Kepler and Newton. In architecture it brought about the revival of the classical style. In the fine arts it inspired new schools of painting in Italy, such as of Giorgione, Raphael, , Bellini, and Michael Angelo, and the Flemish school in the Netherlands. In religion its influence can be seen in the revolt of Martin Luther. Also, it indirectly inspired the passion for exploration that led to the discovery of the .
latin
Italy
modern
Dante
Cosimo de' Medici
Humanism
Galileo
Leonardo
Martin Luther
New world