- cultural and intellectual movement in Europe, 14th-17th century
- revival of classical Greek and Roman knowledge, art, philosophy
- origin in Italian city-states: Florence, Venice, Rome
- key figures: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo, Copernicus, Machiavelli
- printing press (1440) accelerated the spread of ideas across Europe
- humanism: emphasis on human potential, reason, observation, individual agency
- birth of modern science: empirical method, heliocentric model, anatomy
- bridge between the Iron Age classical legacy and the Industrial Revolution
- transformed art, architecture, music, literature, and governance