Renaissance: Around the 15th century, a period following the Middle Ages; a French term for "rebirth"

Quattrocento: Italian term for fifteenth century; a period in which people built upon the framework left by the Middle Ages and extended into other fields of thought and expression

Medici Family: The primary power in Florence; eventually became grand dukes of Tuscany, supplied two popes and two queens of France

Virtu: The quality of being a man; successful demonstration of human powers; shaping one's own destiny; someone who knew what he was doing

Condottiere: A leader of the fighting bands that powerful Italians would hire to wage war against each other

Christine de Pisan: One of few female writers; helped spread humanist themes in France and demonstrated that women could participate in European intellectual life

Petrach: First man of letters; criticized law and religion for their scholasticism; writings convey contradictory attitudes of the Renaissance (ex: loving worldly things while simultaneously spurning them); wrote sonnets, an epic, an study of himself, and many letters; made literature into a calling

Lorenzo Valla: Founder of textual criticism; studied Latin historically and was able to prove that the Donation of Constantine was a forgery for the king of Naples based on his studies

Pico della Mirandola: Looked for aspects of truth not revealed in scripture; claimed at 23 to be able to summarize all human knowledge in 900 theses

Baldassare Castiglione: Wrote 'Book of the Courtier', a popular book on etiquette Courtier A man of good birth who is neatly clothed, graceful, and good at socializing; who is able to dance, appreciate music, know Latin and Greek, and speak knowledgeably but not pedantically

Niccolo Machiavelli: Wrote 'The Prince'; wished Italians could be stronger politically, fight in citizen armies for patriotic causes, and uphold their dignity; as result produced first secular treatise on politics; instead of relating government to God, argued an effective ruler acted only in his own political interest

Leonardo da Vinci: Painted the Last Supper; each disciple with his own characteristics, as was typical of Renaissance attempts to display personality in portraiture

Michelangelo: Renaissance artist who painted the ceilings of the Sistine Chapel; let human aspects into even his depictions of heavenly figures