1347: The Black Death ravages Europe for the first time. 1374: Death of Petrarch. 1396: Creation of Chair of Greek in Florence: teacher Chrysoloras brings a copy of Ptolemy’s Geography. 1397: Giovanni de Medici moves to Florence.
1400 - 1450
1400: Burni: Panegyric to the City of Florence. 1401: Ghiberti awarded commission to create doors for the baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence; Brunelleschi and Donatello travel to Rome; birth of painter Masaccio. 1417 – 36: Brunelleschi works on dome of Florence Cathedral. 1420: The newly united Papacy moves back to Rome. 1423: Forsari become Doge in Venice. 1429: Cosimo de Medici inherits the family bank and rises to great power in Florence. 1432: Van Eycks: The Adoration of the Lamb. 1435: Alberti: On Painting. 1440: Valla uses humanist skills to expose Donation of Constantine as forgery. 1444: Alberti: On the Family. 1446: Death of Brunelleschi. 1447: Pope Nicholas V appointed, he begins a major program of rebuilding. 1450: Francesco Sforza takes power in Milan.
1451-1500
1452: Birth of Leonardo da Vinci. 1453: Ottoman conquest of Constantinople: many Greek thinkers and works travel westward; end of Hundred Years War: stability returns to north-west Europe. 1454: The Gutenberg Bible revolutionizes European literacy. 1459: Gozzoli: Adoration of the Magi. 1465: Bellini and Mantegna: The Agony in the Garden. 1469: Lorenzo de Medici, “The Magnificent”, takes power in Florence; his rule is considered the high point of the Florentine Renaissance. 1470: Malory: Morte d’Arthur. 1471: Sixtus IV appointed Pope. Major building continues in Rome, including the Sistine Chapel. 1474: Ficino: Platonic Theory. 1480: Botticelli: Primavera. 1483 Pico: 900 Treatises; he is declared a heretic but protected by the Medici. 1485: Alberti: On Building. Italian architects travel to Russia to aid in rebuilding of Kremlin. 1488: Portuguese sailors led by Bartolomeu Diaz round the Cape of Good Hope. 1492: Buonarroti: Battle of Lapiths and Centaurs; Rodrigo Borgia appointed Pope, his rule is considered a reign of corruption; Columbus sails west; Behaim’s globe created. 1494: Pacioli: Everything About Arithmetic, Geometry and Proportion. 1494 – 95: Rule of Savonarola in Florence; he is burnt as a heretic; Italian Wars, France invade. 1498: Leonardo da Vinci: Last Supper; Portuguese sailors led by Vasco de Gama reach India. 1499: French conquer Milan, facilitating greater passage of Renaissance ideas into the France. 1500: Michelangelo: Pieta; Giorgine: Tempesta; Portuguese “discover” Brazil.
1501 - 1550
1503: Pope Julius II appointed Pope; start of “Roman Golden Age”. 1504: Michelangelo: David; Bosch: Garden of Earthly Delights. 1505: Leonardo: Mona Lisa; Dürer travels to Italy. 1506 – 1615: Work on St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. 1508 – 12: Michelangelo paints roof of the Sistine Chapel. 1509: Henry VIII succeeds to power in England. 1511: Erasmus: Praise of Folly. 1512: Erasmus: De Copia. 1513: Machiavelli: The Prince. 1515: Francis I takes power in France. 1516: Eramus: New Testament; More: Utopia; Castiglione: Book of the Courtier; Charles V takes power in Spain, followed by his accession to the Holy Roman throne. 1517: Start of the Reformation, heavily influenced by Humanist thinking. 1519: Death of Leonardo de Vinci. 1520: Süleyman “the Magnficent” takes power in the Ottoman Empire. 1524: Raphael: Donation of Constantine. 1525: Dürer: A Course in the Art of Measurement; Battle of Pavia between France and theHoly Roman Empire: end of French claims on Italy. 1527: Sack of Rome by Imperial forces. 1529: Ribeiro: World Map. 1532: Rabelais: Pantagruel. 1533: Holbein: The Ambassadors; Regiomontanus: On Triangles. 1536: Paracelsus: Great Book of Surgery; Death of Erasmus. 1541: Michelangelo: The Last Judgement. 1543: Copernicus: Revolutions of the Celestial Orbits/ De Revolutionibus; Vesalius: On the Fabric of the Human Body. 1544: Bandello: Novelle.
1550+
1555: Labé: Euvres; Peace of Augsburg brings legal co-existence of Protestants and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire. 1556: Tartaglia: A General Treatise on Numbers and Measurement; Agricola: De Re Metallica; Philip II takes power in Spain as Charles V abdicates. 1558: Elizabeth I succeeds to the throne in England: start of the English “Golden Age”. 1564: Death of Michelangelo. 1567: Whitney: The Copy of a Letter. 1569: Mercator: World Map. 1570: Palladio: Four Books on Architecture; Ortelius: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. 1571: Battle of Lepanto. 1572: Camõs: The Lusiads; St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of Protestants in France. 1580: Montaigne: Essays. 1590: Spenser: The Faerie Queen. 1603: Shakespeare: Hamlet. 1605: Cervantes: Don Quixote.