William Shakespeare
Writer from England who wrote famous plays including Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Midsummer Night’s Dream. He was an actor and a poet but is best known for his plays. He wrote all kinds of plays during his lifetime.
Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes wrote numerous plays and works of fiction, including Novelas Ejemplares in 1613. He was born in 1547. He was nit widely known, however, until the publication of his most influenced piece, Don Quixote de la Mancha.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Niccolo Machiavelli, a diplomat in Florence, tried to answer the question, How could a ruler guarantee that he
would stay in power?, when he wrote The Prince in 1513. Machiavelli claimed that people were greedy and self-centered. Rulers should not try to be good, he argued. They should do whatever is necessary to keep power and protect their city, including killing and lying.
would stay in power?, when he wrote The Prince in 1513. Machiavelli claimed that people were greedy and self-centered. Rulers should not try to be good, he argued. They should do whatever is necessary to keep power and protect their city, including killing and lying.
Francesco Petrarch
Poet and scholar who encouraged Europeans to search for Latin manuscripts; he is often called the father of Italian Renaissance humanism. He was a poet and scholar who lived in the 1300s. He studied Roman writers like Cicero and wrote biographies of famous Romans.
Dante Alighieri
A poet from Florence who wrote one of the world’s greatest vernacular poems entitled The Divine Comedy. As a young man, Dante was involved in politics, but when he noble families started to fighting overpower, he had to leave Florence.
Chaucer
Famous writer from England who wrote The Canterbury Tales. This book describes the levels of English society, from the nobles at the top to the poor at the bottom. The English Chaucer used in his writing is the ancestor of the English we speak today.
Louise Labe
Louise Labé, also identified as La Belle Cordière, was a female French poet of the Renaissance, born at Lyon, the daughter of a rich ropemaker, Pierre Charly, and his second wife, Etiennette Roybet.
Sir Thomas More
Sir Thomas More, known to Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More since 1935, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist.
Vernacular
The vernacular is the everyday language people speak in a region for example Italian, French, or German.
Printing Press
printing press was a key to the spread of humanist ideas throughout Europe. In the early 1450s, Johannes Gutenberg developed a printing press that used movable metal type.