LEONARDO DA VINCI

Artist, Mathematician, Inventor, Writer (14521519)

QUOTES
Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap
the vigor of the mind.
Leonardo da Vinci
SYNOPSIS
Born on April 15, 1452, in Vinci, Italy, Leonardo da Vinci was the epitome of a Renaissance man. Possessor of a
curious mind and keen intellect, da Vinci studied the laws of science and nature, which greatly informed his work as
a painter, sculptor, architect, inventor, military engineer and draftsman. His ideas and body of workwhich includes
"Virgin of the Rocks," "The Last Supper" and "Mona Lisa"have influenced countless artists and made da Vinci a
leading light of the Italian Renaissance.
QUICK FACTS April 15, 1452 AKA
NAME DEATH DATE Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci May 2, 1519 Da Vinci
OCCUPATION PLACE OF BIRTH FULL NAME
Artist, Mathematician, Vinci, Italy Leonardo di ser Piero
Inventor, Writer PLACE OF DEATH da Vinci
BIRTH DATE Amboise, France
MICHELANGELO
Painter, Architect, Poet, Sculptor(14751564)
QUICK FACTS DEATH DATE Michelangelo Buonarroti
NAME February 18, 1564 Michelangelo
Michelangelo PLACE OF BIRTH NICKNAME
OCCUPATION Caprese (Republic of "Father and Master of All
Painter, Architect, Poet, S Florence), Italy the Arts"
culptor PLACE OF DEATH FULL NAME
BIRTH DATE Rome, Italy Michelangelo di Lodovico
March 6, 1475 AKA Buonarroti Simoni

Michelangelo is widely regarded as the most famous artist of the Italian Renaissance. Among his works are the
"David" and "Pieta" statues and the Sistine Chapel frescoes.
QUOTES
Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I accomplish.
Michelangelo
SYNOPSIS
Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese, Italy. Born to a family of moderate means in the banking
business, Michelangelo became an apprentice to a painter before studying in the sculpture gardens of the powerful
Medici family. What followed was a remarkable career as an artist in the Italian Renaissance, recognized in his own
time for his artistic virtuosity. His works include the "David" and "Pieta" statues and the ceiling paintings of Rome's
Sistine Chapel, including the "Last Judgment." Although he always considered himself a Florentine, Michelangelo
lived most of his life in Rome, where he died in 1564, at age 88.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Poet, Playwright(c. 15641616)
QUICK FACTS April 23, 1616 AKA
NAME EDUCATION Shakspere
William Shakespeare King's New School Will Shakespeare
OCCUPATION PLACE OF BIRTH NICKNAME
Poet, Playwright Stratford-upon- "Bard of Avon"
BIRTH DATE Avon, United Kingdom "Swan of Avon"
c. April 23, 1564 PLACE OF DEATH "The Bard"
DEATH DATE Stratford-upon-
Avon, United Kingdom
William Shakespeare, often called the English national poet, is widely considered the greatest dramatist of all time.
QUOTES
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
William Shakespeare
SYNOPSIS
William Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. From roughly 1594 onward
he was an important member of the Lord Chamberlains Men company of theatrical players. Written records give
little indication of the way in which Shakespeares professional life molded his artistry. All that can be deduced is
that over the course of 20 years, Shakespeare wrote plays that capture the complete range of human emotion and
conflict.
NICOLAUS COPERNICUS
Religious Figure, Astronomer, Scholar, Scientist, Mathematician (14731543)
QUICK FACTS DEATH DATE PLACE OF DEATH
NAME May 24, 1543 Frombork, Poland
Nicolaus Copernicus EDUCATION ORIGINALLY
OCCUPATION University of Mikolaj Kopernik
Religious Padua, University of AKA
Figure, Astronomer, Scho Cracow, University of Copernicus
lar, Scientist, Mathematic Ferrara, University of FULL NAME
ian Bologna Nicolaus Copernicus
BIRTH DATE PLACE OF BIRTH
February 19, 1473 Torun, Poland
Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was instrumental in establishing the concept of a heliocentric solar system, in
which the sun, rather than the earth, is the center of the solar system.
QUOTES
I am not so enamored of my own opinions that I disregard what others may think of them.
Nicolaus Copernicus
SYNOPSIS
Nicolaus Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473 in Torun, Poland. Circa 1508, Copernicus developed his own
celestial model of a heliocentric planetary system. Around 1514, he shared his findings in the Commentariolus. His
second book on the topic, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, was banned by the Roman Catholic Church decades
after his May 24, 1543 death in Frombork.
CHRISTINE DE PISAN
Activist, Poet, Women's Rights Activist, Journalist (1364c. 1430)
QUICK FACTS Poet, Women's Rights PLACE OF BIRTH
NAME Activist, Journalist Venice, Italy
Christine de Pisan BIRTH DATE AKA
OCCUPATION 1364 Christine de Pizan
DEATH DATE Christine de Pisan
c. 1430
Christine de Pisan was one of the most notable women writers of medieval times who is known for her pioneering
works about women.
SYNOPSIS
French poet and author Christine de Pisan was born in 1364 in Venice, Italy. Widowed, she took up writing to
support herself. Her first poems were ballads of lost love written in memory of her husband. These verses met with
success, and she continued writing ballads. In her prose works she wrote of women's heroism. After the Battle of
Agincourt, she retired to a convent and died circa 1430.
Born in Venice, Italy, in 1364, Christine de Pisan is considered a pioneering feminist writer and one of the most
notable women writers of medieval times. Her father, Tommaso di Benvenuto da Pizzano, was the court astrologer
for France's King Charles V.
LORENZO DE' MEDICI
Royalty(14491492)
QUICK FACTS BIRTH DATE PLACE OF DEATH
NAME January 1, 1449 Careggi, Italy
Lorenzo de' Medici DEATH DATE AKA
OCCUPATION April 9, 1492 Lorenzo the Magnificent
Royalty PLACE OF BIRTH
Florence, Italy
Lorenzo de' Medici was Florentine statesman, ruler and patron of arts and letters, the most brilliant of the Medici.
SYNOPSIS
Lorenzo de Medici ruled Florence with his brother Giuliano from 1469 to 1478. After the latter's assassination, the
crowd stood by the Medici and tore the assassins limb from limb. Lorenzo was considered the Wise, the needle on
the Italian scales, and ruled from 1478 to 1492. Lorenzos patronage of the arts was renowned, and those under his
protection included Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci.
SIR THOMAS MORE
Philosopher, Journalist, Saint, Lawyer(14781535)
QUICK FACTS DEATH DATE London, England, United
NAME July 6, 1535 Kingdom
Thomas More EDUCATION AKA
OCCUPATION St. Anthony's School Saint Thomas More
Philosopher, Journalist, S PLACE OF BIRTH St. Thomas More
aint, Lawyer London, England, United FULL NAME
BIRTH DATE Kingdom Sir Thomas More
February 7, 1478 PLACE OF DEATH
Thomas More is known for his 1516 book Utopia and for his untimely death in 1535, after refusing to acknowledge
King Henry VIII as head of the Church of England. He was canonized by the Catholic Church as a saint in 1935.
QUOTES
The king's good servant, but God's first.
Thomas More
SYNOPSIS
Thomas More wrote Utopia in 1516, which was the forerunner of the utopian literary genre. More served as an
important counselor to King Henry VIII of England, serving as his key counselor in the early 1500s, but after he
refused to accept the king as head of the Church of England, he was tried for treason and beheaded (he died in
London, England, in 1535). More is noted for coining the word "Utopia," in reference to an ideal political system in
which policies are governed by reason. He was canonized by the Catholic Church as a saint in 1935, and has been
commemorated by the Church of England as a "Reformation martyr."
NICCOL MACHIAVELLI
Diplomat, Writer(14691527)
QUICK FACTS June 21, 1527 Niccol Machiavelli
NAME PLACE OF BIRTH NICKNAME
Niccol Machiavelli Florence, Italy "Father of Modern
OCCUPATION PLACE OF DEATH Political Theory"
Diplomat, Writer Florence, Italy FULL NAME
BIRTH DATE AKA Niccol di Bernardo dei
May 3, 1469 Machiavelli Machiavelli
DEATH DATE Niccol di Bernardo
Italian diplomat Niccol Machiavelli is best known for writing The Prince, a handbook for unscrupulous politicians
that inspired the term "Machiavellian" and established its author as the "father of modern political theory."
QUOTES
Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.
Niccol Machiavelli
SYNOPSIS
Born on May 3, 1469, in Florence, Italy, Niccol Machiavelli was a diplomat for 14 years in Italy's Florentine Republic
during the Medici family's exile. When the Medici family returned to power in 1512, Machiavelli was dismissed and
briefly jailed. He then wrote The Prince, a handbook for politicians on the use of ruthless, self-serving cunning,
inspiring the term "Machiavellian" and establishing Machiavelli as the "father of modern political theory." He also
wrote several poems and plays. He died on June 21, 1527, in Florence, Italy.
JOHANNES GUTENBERG
Inventor(c. 1395c. 1468)
QUICK FACTS c. 1395 Mainz, Germany
NAME DEATH DATE FULL NAME
Johannes Gutenberg c. February 3, 1468 Johannes Gensfleisch
OCCUPATION PLACE OF BIRTH Gutenberg
Inventor Mainz, Germany
BIRTH DATE PLACE OF DEATH
German inventor Johannes Gutenberg developed a method of movable type and used it to create one of the
Western world's first major printed books, the Forty-Two-Line Bible.
SYNOPSIS
Johannes Gutenberg was born circa 1395, in Mainz, Germany. He started experimenting with printing by 1438. In
1450 Gutenberg obtained backing from the financier, Johann Fust, whose impatience and other factors led to
Gutenberg's loss of his establishment to Fust several years later. Gutenberg's masterpiece, and the first book ever
printed in Europe from movable type, is the Forty-Two-Line Bible, completed no later than 1455. Gutenberg died
in Mainz in 1468.
MARTIN LUTHER
Theologian(14831546)
QUICK FACTS DEATH DATE Theologian Martin Luther
NAME February 18, 1546 forever changed
Martin Luther PLACE OF BIRTH Christianity when he
OCCUPATION Eisleben, Germany began the Protestant
Theologian PLACE OF DEATH Reformation in 16th-
BIRTH DATE Eisleben, Germany century Europe.
November 10, 1483
SYNOPSIS
Born in Germany in 1483, Martin Luther became one of the most influential figures in Christian history when he
began the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. He called into question some of the basic tenets of Roman
Catholicism, and his followers soon split from the Roman Catholic Church to begin the Protestant tradition.
PETRARCH
Philosopher, Poet(1304c. 1374)
QUICK FACTS c. July 19, 1374 Petrarch
NAME PLACE OF BIRTH NICKNAME
Petrarch Arezzo, Tuscany (now Father of Humanism
OCCUPATION part of Italy), Italy Father of the
Philosopher, Poet PLACE OF DEATH Renaissance
BIRTH DATE Arqu (near Padua), ORIGINALLY
July 20, 1304 Carrara (now part of Francesco Petrarca
DEATH DATE Italy), Italy
AKA
Petrarch was a poet and scholar whose humanist philosophy set the stage for the Renaissance. He is also considered
one of the fathers of the modern Italian language.
QUOTES
[T]here was a time, there was an age, that was happier for poets, an age when they were held in the highest honor,
first in Greece and then in Italy, and especially when Caesar Augustus held imperial sway, under whom there flourished
excellent poets: Virgil, Varius, Ovid, Horace, and many others.
Petrarch
SYNOPSIS
Petrarch was born Francesco Petrarca on July 20, 1304, in Arezzo, Tuscany. He was a devoted classical scholar who is
considered the "Father of Humanism," a philosophy that helped spark the Renaissance. Petrarch's writing includes
well-known odes to Laura, his idealized love. His writing was also used to shape the modern Italian language. He died
at age 69 on July 18 or 19, 1374, in Arqu, Carrara.