Giovanni Pico della Mirandola was an Italian humanist, philosopher, scholar, Neo-Platonist and

Matteo Ricci was one of the most influential people before the twentieth century through his contributions to science in China. He was born on October 6, 1552 in Macerata of the Papal states in Italy and lived to the age fifty-eight May 11, 1610 in Beijing, China leaving behind 2,500 Chinese Catholics, with many in the educated classes, and a great legacy. He came from a noble family. His parents were Giovanni Battista Ricci and Giovanna Angiolelli. His dad was pharmacist by profession and his mom was known for a simple piety. When he was eighteen, Matteo went to study law at La Sapienza, the University at Rome. In May 1577 Ricci he traveled to Portugal for ten months in preparation for his overseas mission studying Portuguese and starting theology. From 1578 to 1582 he was in India, after ordained as a priest, and spent two years completing his theological training. While this was happening he taught Greek in Jesuit colleges. After, completing his training with the Jesuits he was assigned to China Mission, in 1582. He stayed there and worked for twenty-seven years. Throughout the twenty-seven years he gained a lot of respect from others, attained knowledge, and gained many influential friendships.

Giralamo Savonarola was born in Ferrara in 1452. He was brought to Florence by Lorenzo after Pico della Mirandola encouraged him to bring Savonarola to the city. In Ferrara, Savonarola was a traditionalist and a moralist and renowned as a preacher and a prophet. Upon his arrival, Savonarola did not intend on reforming the city and returning it to a religious centered state. Yet, after witnessing the atrocities of Florence, he became a reformer and an outspoken enemy of the Medici family.

Girolamo Savonarola was a controversial figure in the late 1400s. Savonarola, through divine visions, would predict the coming of a great tyrant that sought to ruin Florence. King Charles VIII of France would be that tyrant and Savonarola a hero for convincing the king to leave Florence undisturbed. This connection with the divine and his deep religious beliefs would play a big role in renaissance Florence. It is these religious beliefs that would influence his politics and how he fit within the role of the Renaissance. Savonarola fits into the Renaissance context as a force that wishes to maintain absolute devotion to god. He is someone who wants to keep away humanist thought and have everyone submit to God in all aspects of life. While people like Pico della Mirandola and Cardano were very religious men, their approach to thought put more emphasis on humankind than God. This way of thought would soon become ever more dominate as time carried on. To start, looking at how he mixed politics and religion may give a better understanding of what type of person he was.

During the years 1434 -1737, an Italian bourgeois family, the Medici’s, ruled Florence and eventually Tuscany. Cosimo de Medici created a “Platonic Academy”, which was based off the example of Plato’s Akademia. (Oneonta, 2017) Neoplatonism was very popular during this era as well, Neoplatonism is the thought of finding ties between Greek and Roman culture with Christianity. (Uffizi, 2017) The study of classical texts was also central to this humanist culture. (Oneonta, 2017)

As John M. Najemy, author of “Dante and Florence” within the book The Cambridge Companion to Dante succinctly notes, “Dante’s political career coincided with the onset of a violent split among the families of the Florentine elite,” which would trickle down to the rest of Florence’s unstable society. Knowing that Dante was “first and foremost a citizen of Florence, and Florence is the root of his knowledge of and interest in politics,” unfortunate timing, his involvement with politics, and his dedicated investment for an independently run Florence would be his social downfall. Dante’s Florence was marked by two centuries of rapid growth among financial and commercial interests, and the reach of Florentine influence had spread throughout Europe, extending as far north to England and to Constantinople in the east, making it one of Europe’s largest and most important cities by the early fourteenth century. This swift increase in Florentine wealth, population, and civil strife, as argued by Robert M. Durling in his edited translation of the Inferno, helps to explain the certain convictions held by Dante, particularly his condemnation of avarice and political factionalism. Dante’s opinions, as expressed later on during his exile, can be found dispersed within the Inferno, for instance within the fourth circle of Hell where, “…clerics, cardinals, [and] popes, in whom the passion of avarice has wrought excess. Dante’s specific mention of ecclesiastical members here underlines his disillusionment of the Church in reference to its internal corruption and the unmoral greed of its leaders. But before scholars can analyze Dante’s embittered relationship with the Church and its members following his exile in 1302, they must examine his involvement within Florentine political life that led to his

Saint Bonaventure was born in Umbria, Italy to parents Giovanni di Fidanza who was a physician and Maria Ritella, he was an Italian medieval Franciscan, scholastic theologian and philosopher, and there is not a lot of information about his childhood. He fell ill while he was young and was saved from death by the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi. He was born as Giovanni di Fidanza just like his father but later on be canonized by Pope Sixtus IV. He would be also later on declared a Doctor of the church in 1588 by Pope Sixtus V.

Faced with his ministers failing him, the young scholar caught the ear of the King. He listened as news traveled, and the argument on the inability of any man, even those with Papal authority to overwhelm the issue of morality played into the theories that so many academics floated around amongst themselves. This move gained him employment on the King’s panel of scholars, where in 1532; he embarked on a missive to reconcile to Holy Roman Emperor to the divorce, along with the Pope. Clearly, the educational environment cleared the way for the new religion to take root, however, it formed into full-fledged belief in the Protestant cause and the theory of justification by faith during his envoy, as seen increasingly in letters home. Confirming this, he not only acquired new theology, but also, his second wife, the niece of Reformer Andreas

In the year 1941 he attended the University of Cracow. While attending this university is where his love for astronomy began. In 1495, his uncle was the bishop a canonry in Frauenburg. A law from the chapter commanded that every canon that did not have a degree in theology, medicine, or prudence had to go to school for three years straight and get that degree. Copernicus did not have a degree so in the year of 1947 he went to Bologna to study law. He only picked this branch of study because of his membership at the cathedral chapter. Although he was studying law, this did not interfere with his love for astronomy or math. In 1499, Copernicus was having some financial troubles. His brother, Andrew who was also in Bologna, helped his some. It was his uncle, the bishop who saved him from the troubles. A year later in 1500 he was in Rome, teaching a large class on mathematics. A

Florence, Italy. He left Florence in 1480 to help decorate the Sistine Chapel in Rome with some of his art which only the most famous painters of that time were invited to do. In 1482, Botticelli returned to Florence and shortly

Dante Alighieri grew up among Florentine nobility. As a youth, Dante struck up a friendship with a renowned poet who urged Dante to write in Italian rather than Latin. Dante’s greatest work, The Divine Comedy, is a narrative poem in the Italian dialect common in Florence. Dante also wrote lyric poetry and works on moral and political philosophy. During his life, Florentines experienced civil wars and were often politically divided. Dante began actively opposing papal policies around 1300, and by 1302 a death sentence effectively exiled him from the city. Dante worked on The Divine Comedy from around 1308 until the end of his life. As he aged, he traveled through the north of Italy, visiting many noble homes. He was buried with honor following

If I could spend a day with any person, I would choose Leonardo da Vinci, Italian polymath of the Renaissance. His wide range of experience as a writer, artist, mathematician, and inventor makes him the most interesting man to observe. I hold such strong admiration for da Vinci because we have much in common. During his entire life, he held onto the belief that people should not be tied down to one thing they do best. I agree with this philosophy, and practice it in my own life. Similar to da Vinci, I have my own variety of interests and talents. He would be proud of the way I practice the theatrical teachings of Sanford Meisner, play guitar to progressive rock songs with 130 time signature changes, and create a computer program that alphabetizes

The two most famous of his works were On the Ruin of the World written in 1472 when he was only twenty and On the Ruin of the Church, which he wrote in 1475 when he was only twenty-three years old. In these early poems Girolamo wrote about the quickly approaching apocalypse and the corruption in the Catholic Church. Corruption and the forthcoming apocalypse would become something of a staple for Girolamo in his coming life. The true event that sparked and changed one of the most controversial religious figures of all time came when he heard a sermon at Faenza. This unknown preacher shook young Girolamo so profoundly that it made him abandon everything else in his life and dedicate himself to religion. So on April twenty-fifth 1475 Girolamo came to the Convent of San Domenico in order to become a

One individual humanist that contributed to the Renaissance and its culture was Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). He was called the “Father of the Italian Language”, and was the first scholar to write in the vernacular (the common tongue). Before Dante, everything was written in Latin or Greek. In addition, he wrote “The Divine Comedy”, which had three parts – Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. This specific literature had defined what Hell looked like for Christians in the West, which further induced religion during the Renaissance. Another individual humanist that contributed to Renaissance and its culture was Petrarch (1304-1374), who was considered “The Father of Humanism”. He was a scholar and poet who spent his life writing in Latin and recovering

Augustine was born Aurelius Augustinus on November 13, 354 in North Africa. He received a classical Latin education and went to study rhetoric at the age of twelve in Madaura. He later studied at Cathrage

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, The archetype man for politics in history. He was born on May 1469 and died June 1527. He is an Italian philosopher, thinker and writer. He was considered by many as one of the origin founders of political science in modern age. He was a diplomatic person, besides being a political philosopher, and musician. In Florentine Republic he used to be a civil servant. Then In 1498, he was elected as Secretary to the second Chancery of the Republic of Florence by the Great council. When I hear Renaissance, directly Leonardo Da Vinci comes up to my mind, as well as Machiavelli. He is known as an Icon of the Renaissance Man. He is most known for a political booklet The Prince; it is written on 1513, but not