Chapter 12 Vocabulary - The Renaissance

Question 1

Francesco Petrarch

Answer 1

An Italian scholar and poet in Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch’s rediscovery of Cicero’s letters is often credited for initiating the 14th-century Renaissance.

Question 2

Leon Battista Alberti

Answer 2

An Italian writer, humanist, and architect. Through his theoretical writings on painting, sculpture, and architecture, he raised them from the level of the mechanical arts to that of the liberal arts.

Question 3

House of Medici

Answer 3

An Italian banking family, political dynasty and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de’ Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century.

Question 4

Baltasar Castiglione

Answer 4

Was count of Casatico, an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissance author, who is probably most famous for his authorship of The Book of the Courtier.

Question 5

Francisco Sforza

Answer 5

An Italian condottiero (leaders or warlords), the founder of the Sforza dynasty in Milan, Italy. He was the brother of Alessandro, with whom he often fought.

Question 6

Machiavelli

Answer 6

An Italian historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher, humanist, and writer, who is recognized as the founder of modern political science and political ethics because of his book, “The Prince”.

Question 7

Treaty of Lodi

Answer 7

Also known as the Peace of Lodi was a peace agreement between Milan, Naples, and Florence signed on April 9, 1454 at Lodi in Lombardy, on the banks of the Adda.

Question 8

Lorenzo Valla

Answer 8

An Italian humanist, rhetorician, and educator. He is best known for his textual analysis that proved that the Donation of Constantine was a forgery.

Question 9

Humanism

Answer 9

An intellectual movement in Renaissance Italy based on the study of the Greek and Roman classics.

Question 10

Marsilio Ficino

Answer 10

An Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance.

Question 11

Leonardo Bruni

Answer 11

An Italian humanist, historian and statesman, recognized as the most important humanist historian of the Renaissance.

Question 12

Pico della Mirandola

Answer 12

An Italian Renaissance philosopher. He wrote “Oration on the Dignity of Man”, one of the most famous Renaissance texts. He was also the first Christian scholar to use Kabbalistic doctrine in support of Christian theology.

Question 13

Juan Luis Vives

Answer 13

A Valencian scholar and humanist who spent most of his adult life in the Southern Netherlands.

Question 14

Johannes Gutenberg

Answer 14

A German blacksmith, goldsmith, printer, and publisher who introduced printing to Europe.

Question 15

Francesco Guicciardini

Answer 15

An Italian historian and statesman. He is considered one of the major political writers of the Italian Renaissance.

Question 16

Botticelli

Answer 16

An Italian painter of the Early Renaissance.

His most famous paintings include: The Birth of Venus, Primavera, and Mars and Venus.

Question 17

Donatello

Answer 17

The most important early Renaissance sculptor from Florence.

Question 18

Bruneleschi

Answer 18

An Italian engineer and key a figure in architecture. He is perhaps most famous for developing a technique for linear perspective in art and for building the dome of the Florence Cathedral.

Question 19

Leonardo da Vinci

Answer 19

Leonardo da Vinci was a leading artist and intellectual of the Italian Renaissance who’s known for his enduring works “The Last Supper” and “Mona Lisa.”

Question 20

Michelangelo

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

Raphael

Answer 21

A leading figure of Italian High Renaissance classicism, Raphael is best known for his “Madonnas,” including the Sistine Madonna, and for his large figure compositions in the Palace of the Vatican in Rome.

Question 22

Jan Van Eyck

Answer 22

One of the earliest Flemish oil painters, artist and portraitist Jan van Eyck, painted the “Adoration of the Lamb,” the altarpiece for the Church of St. Bavon.

Question 23

Albrecht Dürer

Answer 23

Regarded as the greatest German Renaissance artist. His work includes altarpieces, portraits and self-portraits, engravings, and woodcuts.

Question 24

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Answer 24

A Dutch Renaissance painter and printmaker from Brabant, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes.

Question 25

Star Chamber

Answer 25

An English court of law who sat at the royal Palace of Westminster, from the late 15th century to the mid-17th century. The Star Chamber was established to ensure the fair enforcement of laws against socially and politically prominent people so powerful that ordinary courts would likely hesitate to convict them of their crimes.

Question 26

Ferdinand and Isabella

Answer 26

Monarchs whose marriage created the union of Castile and Aragon which formed the Kingdom of Spain . Because of their religious zeal, they became known as the “Catholic monarchs.”

Question 27

Giorgio Vasari

Answer 27

An Italian painter, architect, writer and historian, most famous today for his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, considered the ideological foundation of art-historical writing.

Question 28

Suleiman the Magnificent

Answer 28

Suleiman, commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and “Kanuni” in the East, was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1520 to his death in 1566.

Question 29

Savonarola

Answer 29

An Italian Dominican friar and preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of secular art and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal.

Question 30

Nepotism

Answer 30

The practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs.