Aim: Who were the major participants in the arts, literature, philosophy, and the sciences during the Renaissance?

Do Now: People of Renaissance Worksheet

Important People Important People During the Renaissance During the Renaissance

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in April of 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.Shakespeare was one of the worlds greatest writers and playwrights.Two of his most famous plays are Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet.

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, in the small Tuscan town of Vinci.Leonardo was a scientist, artist, inventor, and engineer.Leonardo was the original “Renaissance man.”He was great at everything he tried.

Michelangelo

Michelangelo was born March 6, 1475 in Tuscany, Italy.Michelangelo was one of the great artists of the Renaissance.His most famous work in the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Johannes Gutenberg

Johann Gutenberg was born in Germany in 1398.Gutenberg invented the printing press in Europe in the 1450’s.The first book he printed was the Bible in German.

Martin Luther

Martin Luther was born November 10, 1483 in Germany.Martin Luther protested against the Catholic Church by nailing a list of 95 Theses (complaints) to a door of a church. Luther is credited with starting the Protestant Reformation.

John Calvin

John Calvin was born July 10, 1509 in France.Calvin was an important Christian thinker during the Protestant Reformation.Calvin began a new system of Christian thinking called Calvinism.

Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was born February 19, 1473 in Poland.Copernicus was the first astronomer who said the earth moved around the sun.

Galileo

Galileo was Pisa, Italy in 1564.Galileo used instruments to observe nature.He was able to prove that the earth moves around the sun by using a telescope.Catholic church put him on trial for heresy.

Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton was born on December 25, 1642.

Isaac Newton was a scientist and mathematician.

Newton studied the laws of motion and gravity.

Henry VIII

King Henry VIII was born on June 28, 1491 in England.Henry is famous for his six wives and starting his own church of England when the pope forbid him to divorce his wife.

Queen Elizabeth I

Queen Elizabeth I was born in England in 1533.She is recognized as the best queen England ever had.Here reign saw many accomplishments including Shakespeare’s plays and Drake’s explorations.

Prince Henry the Navigator

Prince Henry was born in Portugal in 1394.Prince Henry opened a navigation school and sent many voyages from England to Africa.He was nicknamed “the Navigator” because he was responsible for sending so many voyages.

King Ferdinand and Queen IsabellaThe King and Queen of Spain financed the voyages of Columbus to the “New World.”

Christopher Columbus

Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy in 1451.In 1492, Columbus to led the first expedition to cross the Atlantic Ocean, discovering the New World for Europe.

Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan was born in Portugal in 1481.Magellan led the first crew to sail all the way around the world.

Hernando Cortes Hernando Cortes was born December 2, 1485 in Spain. Cortes was the conquistador who conquered the Aztecs and Mexico for Spain.

Francisco Pizarro

Francisco Pizarro was born in Spain in 1475.Pizarro was an Italian explorer and conqueror of the Incas.