Topic 10: Renaissance and Refermation Key Terms/People

Renaissance

a period of rebirth in Europe when art, science, and learning flourished after the Middle Ages.

Patron

A person who gives financial support to the arts.

Perspective

An artistic technique that allowed an artist to show depth and 3-D qualities by making father objecrs smaller.

Humanism 

The Renaissance smart move that studied the classical cultures to better understand their own time.

Machiavelli

The author of the The Prince that describes how to rule in an age of ruthless power politics.

Michelangelo

An Italinan sculptor and painter.

Leonardo da Vinvi

An Italian artist, scientist, and inventor. Also know as the Remaissance Man. 

Vernacular

Everyday language.

Theocracy

A government run by religious leaders.

Diet

assembly or legislature (big important meeting of lawmakers).

Predestination

Calvinist belief that God had predetermined who would gain salvation (who goes to heaven or hell).

Indulgences

in the Roman Catholic Church, pardons for sins (bad deeds) committed during a person’s life (a get out of hell free card).

Canonize

to recognize someone as a saint.

Sect

a subgroup of a major religious group.

Ghetto

a seperate section of a city wher members of a minority group are forced to live.

Hypothesis

a logical explanation to a problem

Francis Bacon

English philosopher credited with developing the scientific method.

Galileo Galilei

Italian astronomer, physicist, and engineer; a central figure in the scientific revolution for his imporvements to the telescope and overservational astronomy.

Isaac Newton

English physicist and mathematician know for his laws of motion, universal gravitation, and developing calculus.

Rene Descartes

French thinker who said, "I think, therefore I am," meaning that thinking proves our existence.

Robert Boyle

English scientist known as the father of modern chemistry, famous for Boyle’s Law, which explains how gas pressure and volume are related.

Leeuwenhoek

Dutch scientist who discovered microscopic life using the first powerful microscopes.

Copernicus

Polish astronomer who proposed that the Earth and other planets orbit the Sun.