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The 16th century is commonly
designated as the ‘age of renaissance’, also called the ‘revival of learning’.
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It is said to have started from the capture of
Constantinople (now Istanbul) by the Turkish 1453 and the dispersal of the
scholars throughout Europe. Who sought asylum in Italy.
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Italy practically became the home of the
renaissance – and fundamental to the renaissance was the revival of classical
learning, art and architecture and the concept of the dignity of the man, which
characterized humanism. It resulted in the emancipation of the mind of man from
the shackles of effected dogmatism, and in the creation of fresh intellectual
atmosphere and ideals of life.
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Great writers of the Italian renaissance
included Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio & Machiavelli. Great painters of
Italian renaissance included Leonardo ad Vinci (famous paintings:’ the last
supper’ &’moralizer’), Michelangelo (‘the last judgment’ & ‘the last
supper’ & ‘moralist’), Michelangelo (‘the last judgment’ & ‘the fall of
man’) & rappel (‘Madonna’) . Great astronomers of Italian renaissance
included Bruno *& Galileo.
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The movement spread to other countries of Europe
also, especially to franc & Germany; and at last it reached the shores of
England, where it manifested itself in the poems of Chaucer & Spenser, the
plays of Shakespeare, the essays of Francis bacon & Spenser, the plays and
particularly in the course of such rulers as Elizabeth I of England.
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The renaissance movement was enormously, helped
by the invention of the printing press (in 1454 by Gutenberg of Germany;
‘Gutenberg bible’ 1456 – the first printed book); with the help of which old and classical books were
multiplied leading to a great increase in knowledge and in the spirit of
enquiry and experiment.