The Renaissance

Salutati, Coluccio ............................ (1331–1406) Important humanist, scholar, and political leader of Florence, Italy ...

At first, his use of the didactic and ob- scure language of religious scholars turned listeners away. He left the city in 1487 b ...

In 1498, when one of Savonarola’s follow- ers agreed to a public ordeal by fire, a storm prevented the ordeal from taking place. ...

SEEALSO: France; Francis I; Margaret of Austria Saxony ............................................. A medieval duchy of norther ...

meantime, the Scottish monarchs arranged a series of marriage alliances with various European powers, including Denmark and the ...

gnoria in Florence since the fifteenth cen- tury. Lorenzo Ghiberti’s two sets of baptis- tery doors, completed over a period of ...

ily, Caterina Sforza was the illegitimate daughter of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza, a member of the ruling dynasty of Milan. At th ...

the commander of the armies of Milan. On the latter’s death in 1447, Milan de- clared a republic. Francesco allied with Venice a ...

dovico languished in a dungeon for eight years before dying. SEEALSO: Leonardo da Vinci; Sforza, Cate- rina; Sforza, Francesco; ...

wroteThe Taming of the Shrew, in which the author combines Italian and English plot devices, the fantasy playA Midsum- mer Night ...

possible for navigators to expand the lim- its of the known world. Medieval ships were small sailing vessels—some of them powere ...

SEEALSO: Columbus, Christopher; explora- tion; Henry the Navigator; trade Siena ................................................ ...

adopted sons or daughters of the owners of their parents. Crusaders took captive Muslims as slaves in the Middle East, and in th ...

the Isle of Wight, the English commander Sir Francis Drake attacked, chasing the Ar- mada out of the Channel. After passing the ...

with a three thousand–acre country estate in Kilcolman, County Cork, which he in- tended as a center of English settlement and c ...

Stampa. In Venice, she studied literature and music, and with her sister Cassandra she became an accomplished lute player. Her b ...

Suleiman ........................................ (1494–1566) Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 until 1566, under whose rul ...

favor of her sons Selim and Bayezid against their elder half brother Mustapha. In 1553, as Mustapha’s own power and influence at ...

northern Europe and the interior of Rus- sia, which supplied valuable commodities such as furs, honey, and slaves to the Eu- rop ...

Tasso, Torquato ............................... T (1544–1595) Considered the finest Italian poet of the late Renaissance, Torqua ...