William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is a famous English poet and playwright who wrote famous plays such as Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bird of Avon".
Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes is a Spanish author best known for his novel entitled Don Quixote de la Mancha. This novel was considered to be the first modern European novel and one of the best works of fiction ever written.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher, humanist, and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance. Machiavelli's best-known book, Il Principe, contains a number of maxims concerning politics, but rather than the more traditional subject of a hereditary prince, it concentrates on the possibility of a "new prince".
Francesco Petrarch
Francesco Petrarch was an Italian scholar and poet, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism". He is best known for his Italian poetry, notably the Canzoniere ("Songbook") and the Trionfi ("Triumphs").
Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri, the father of the Italian language, is a poet from Florence who wrote one of the world's greatest vernacular poems entitled The Divine Comedy. The Divine Comedy describes Dante's journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.
Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer is an author, philosopher, alchemist and astronomer. He is known as the Father of English literature. He is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey. One of his famous works was The Canterbury Tales.
Rene Descartes
Rene Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy'. One of his most famous works was
Vernacular
Vernacular was the everyday language that people would speak in a region. This was important during the Renaissance because, when the authors started to write in this language more people could now read their work easier.
Printing Press
The printing press helped spread of humanist ideas all throughout Europe. One of the most famous printing press was the movable metal type. Printing Presses helped to print books quickly. Soon, many more people learned how to read. It help print out more books for literature, bibles and religious books.