The Renaissance

Wedding of the Virgin by Raphael

Near the end of the 14th century, an intellectual and artistic movement began in Italy. This movement would transform the world. The Renaissance, or rebirth, was the rebirth of ancient Greece and Roman culture, in particular, painting, literature, and philosophy.

As the ideas of the Renaissance spread to the rest of Europe, they changed the way people saw the world around them and marked civilization's transition to the modern world.

Essential Questions

• What were the artistic, literary, and intellectual ideas of the Renaissance?
• What was the role of the printing press in the spread of new ideas?