Il Rinascimento
In the Italian city-states, the ancient wisdom was reborn. Artists, philosophers, and statesmen forged a new vision of human potential.
From Florence to Rome, from Venice to Milan, they rediscovered the texts of Greece and Rome. But they did not merely copy—they transformed. What is man capable of becoming? In answering this question, they invented the modern world.
1300–1450
1265–1321 · Florence
"In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself in a dark wood."
1304–1374 · Arezzo
"Books have led some to learning and others to madness."
1313–1375 · Florence
"It is better to act and repent than not to act and regret."
1450–1530
1452–1519 · Vinci
"Learning never exhausts the mind."
1463–1494 · Mirandola
"We have made you neither of heaven nor of earth, so that you might be your own free maker."
1469–1527 · Florence
"It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both."
1478–1529 · Casatico
"Practice in all things a certain sprezzatura, so as to conceal all art."
1530–1600
1548–1600 · Nola
"Perhaps you who condemn me are in greater fear than I who am condemned."
1564–1642 · Pisa
"And yet it moves."
We have made you a creature neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, in order that you may, as the free and proud shaper of your own being, fashion yourself in the form you prefer.Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man