Renaissance Central

Home ❧ Origins & History

Timeline of the Renaissance: From 1300 to 1700

A chronological timeline of the Renaissance, marking the key events, artworks, ideas, and figures that shaped the era from its origins in 14th-century Italy to its evolution in 17th-century Europe.

Timeline of the Renaissance: From 1300 to 1700

The Renaissance was not a single moment but a long historical process, unfolding over roughly four centuries. The timeline below traces the major events, ideas, and figures that shaped the Italian Renaissance, the Northern Renaissance, and their legacies.

14th Century: The Origins

  • 1300s — The poet Dante Alighieri writes the Divine Comedy (begun c. 1308), an Italian vernacular epic that marks a turning point in Western literature and a foundation for Italian humanism.
  • c. 1305–1306 — Giotto di Bondone paints the frescoes of the Arena Chapel in Padua, introducing weight, volume, and emotional depth to painting and prefiguring the Renaissance art to come.
  • c. 1321 — Death of Dante Alighieri in Ravenna.
  • 1336 — Petrarch climbs Mont Ventoux, an event that has become a symbol of the new humanist curiosity about the world. Petrarch is widely regarded as the father of Renaissance humanism.
  • 1347–1351 — The Black Death devastates Europe, killing perhaps a third of the population. The demographic catastrophe transforms the European economy, weakening feudal structures and strengthening the bargaining power of urban workers and merchants.
  • c. 1353 — Giovanni Boccaccio completes the Decameron, a collection of 100 tales that demonstrates the literary power of the Italian vernacular.
  • 1375 — The death of Petrarch, who is mourned throughout Italy and beyond as the greatest scholar of his age.
  • 1378 — The Ciompi Revolt in Florence, in which wool workers briefly seize control of the government, demonstrates the social tensions of late-medieval Florence.

Early 15th Century: The Foundations

  • 1401 — Competition for the baptistery doors in Florence, won by Lorenzo Ghiberti over Filippo Brunelleschi. The competition is often cited as the symbolic beginning of Renaissance sculpture.
  • 1415 — Leonardo Bruni completes his History of the Florentine People, modeling a new approach to secular historical writing.
  • 1418–1436 — Filippo Brunelleschi designs and builds the dome of Florence Cathedral, an engineering marvel that crowns the skyline of the city and becomes a symbol of the new architecture.
  • 1420s — Gentile da Fabriano paints the Adoration of the Magi (1423), a late Gothic masterpiece that still hints at the coming change.
  • 1427 — Masaccio paints the Holy Trinity fresco in Santa Maria Novella, Florence, with its pioneering use of linear perspective and a single vanishing point.
  • 1430s — Donatello completes his bronze David (c. 1440s), the first freestanding male nude since antiquity and a landmark of Renaissance sculpture.
  • 1435 — Leon Battista Alberti publishes Della pittura (On Painting), codifying the principles of linear perspective and establishing the theoretical foundations of Renaissance art.
  • 1439 — Council of Florence (or Ferrara-Florence Council) brings Byzantine scholars to Italy, accelerating the transmission of Greek learning to the West.
  • 1453 — The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks drives Greek scholars into Italy, bringing priceless manuscripts and accelerating the recovery of Greek thought.
  • 1453 — End of the Hundred Years’ War between England and France. The French kings turn to Italy for artistic inspiration, helping to spread the Renaissance beyond its place of origin.

Mid-15th Century: The High Renaissance Takes Shape

  • 1455 — Gutenberg prints the Bible, demonstrating the power of the printing press to spread ideas rapidly.
  • c. 1460s — The painter Piero della Francesca writes De Prospectiva Pingendi (On Perspective for Painting), systematizing the theory of perspective in art.
  • 1462 — Marsilio Ficino founds the Platonic Academy in Florence under the patronage of Cosimo de’ Medici. Neoplatonism becomes a major intellectual current.
  • 1464 — Death of Cosimo de’ Medici, the banker and patron whose vision shaped the Florentine Renaissance.
  • 1469 — Lorenzo de’ Medici, “the Magnificent,” becomes the de facto ruler of Florence.
  • 1471 — Birth of Albrecht Dürer, the German artist and printmaker who will become the most famous artist of the Northern Renaissance.
  • 1475 — Birth of Michelangelo Buonarroti, the sculptor, painter, and architect whose work will define the High Renaissance.
  • 1478 — The Pazzi Conspiracy: an attempt to assassinate Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici fails, with Giuliano killed. The conspiracy strengthens Medici power in Florence.
  • 1480s — Botticelli paints the Primavera and the Birth of Venus, masterpieces of Florentine mythological painting.
  • 1483 — Birth of Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio), the painter whose harmonious, graceful compositions will set the standard for High Renaissance style.
  • 1485 — Leon Battista Alberti publishes De re aedificatoria (On the Art of Building), a comprehensive treatise on Renaissance architecture.
  • 1486 — Giovanni Pico della Mirandola composes the Oration on the Dignity of Man, a manifesto of Renaissance humanism.
  • 1492 — Death of Lorenzo de’ Medici. Christopher Columbus reaches the Americas, opening a new era of global exploration and exchange.

Late 15th and Early 16th Century: The High Renaissance

  • 1494 — The French invasion of Italy forces the Medici out of Florence. A wave of religious revivalism, led by the friar Savonarola, briefly transforms the city.
  • 1495 — Leonardo da Vinci begins the Last Supper in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan.
  • 1498 — Execution of Savonarola in Florence. The Medici return to power a few years later.
  • c. 1500 — Raphael begins his career in Urbino and Florence. The High Renaissance is in full flower.
  • 1501–1504 — Michelangelo sculpts the David in Florence, a monument to Florentine republican virtue and human beauty.
  • 1503 — Leonardo begins the Mona Lisa, which he will work on for years and which will become the most famous painting in the world.
  • 1504 — Michelangelo completes the David. The painting of the Battle of Cascina by Michelangelo and the Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo are commissioned for the Sala del Maggior Consiglio in Florence.
  • 1506 — Foundation stone of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is laid by Pope Julius II. The architect Donato Bramante is in charge.
  • 1508–1512 — Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, one of the great artistic achievements of all time.
  • 1511 — Erasmus publishes The Praise of Folly, a satirical work that becomes a manifesto of Northern humanism.
  • 1513 — Machiavelli writes The Prince (published 1532). Niccolò Copernicus writes the Commentariolus, an early sketch of his heliocentric theory.
  • 1513–1516 — Giovanni de’ Medici becomes Pope Leo X, the first of two Medici popes.
  • 1516 — Erasmus publishes his Greek edition of the New Testament, laying the foundation for biblical scholarship in the Reformation era. Thomas More publishes Utopia.
  • 1517 — Martin Luther posts the Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, launching the Protestant Reformation.
  • 1520 — Death of Raphael. Raphael had been the most celebrated painter in Rome and a major influence on European art.
  • 1521 — Death of Magellan (killed in the Philippines). The first circumnavigation of the globe is completed by his surviving crew.
  • 1527 — The Sack of Rome by mutinous imperial troops marks a symbolic end to the High Renaissance. Pope Clement VII, a Medici, is briefly imprisoned.
  • 1530 — Michelangelo begins work on the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel.

Mid-16th Century: Reformation, Mannerism, and Science

  • 1534 — Henry VIII breaks with the Roman Catholic Church, beginning the English Reformation. The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) is founded by Ignatius of Loyola.
  • 1542–1543 — The Council of Trent begins its work, the Catholic Church’s response to the Protestant Reformation. Copernicus publishes De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) in 1543, proposing that the Earth orbits the Sun.
  • 1543 — Andreas Vesalius publishes De humani corporis fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body), revolutionizing human anatomy.
  • 1545 — The Council of Trent opens, defining Catholic doctrine and reforming church practice in response to the Protestant challenge.
  • 1550 — Giorgio Vasari publishes the first edition of his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, a key source for the history of Renaissance art.
  • 1563 — The Council of Trent concludes, having reshaped Catholic worship, clergy training, and discipline.
  • 1564 — Birth of Shakespeare. Death of Michelangelo, whose long life had spanned much of the Renaissance.
  • 1564–1590s — The late Renaissance in Italy, often called Mannerism, develops the more elaborate, dramatic style that anticipates the Baroque.

Late 16th and 17th Century: The Renaissance Transforms

  • 1582 — Gregorian calendar reform under Pope Gregory XIII.
  • 1588 — Defeat of the Spanish Armada by England, marking a shift in European power.
  • 1590s — The madrigal, sacred music, and instrumental music flourish. Composers like Palestrina, Byrd, and Dowland produce masterworks.
  • 1600 — The opera is invented in Florence, with works by Jacopo Peri and Giulio Caccini. The Baroque era begins.
  • 1609 — Galileo builds his first astronomical telescope, observing the Moon’s craters and Jupiter’s moons.
  • 1610 — Galileo publishes Sidereus Nuncius (The Starry Messenger), describing his astronomical discoveries.
  • 1633 — Galileo is tried by the Roman Inquisition and forced to recant his Copernican views.
  • 1642 — Death of Galileo. Birth of Isaac Newton, who will build on the scientific revolution that began in the Renaissance.

A Continuous Thread

Looking at the timeline, the Renaissance is not a tidy box with clear beginning and end dates. It began with the humanists of 14th-century Italy, matured in the 15th century, reached its peak in the early 16th century, and gradually transformed into the Baroque, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment. Each new movement carried something of the Renaissance with it, and the era’s intellectual and artistic legacy continued to shape the modern world long after the last of the great Renaissance figures had passed.

An honest gap. The standard accounts of this period are, in many ways, the accounts of the literate, the urban, and the relatively well-off. The picture you get from the literature is necessarily a partial one, and any responsible overview has to flag the parts it is leaving out.

Sources & further reading

For non-specialists, the most accessible single book on this topic is usually the first in the list. The other two are denser but more thorough.

  • A good single-volume chronology: J. R. Hale, The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance (1993)
  • For art: the dates in Hartt, Italian Renaissance Art (see above)
  • Treat any date given in a textbook as approximate; the exact year of, say, the completion of the Sistine ceiling was debated for centuries

If you want to go further, the bibliographies at the back of any of these books will lead you to the scholarly literature. The standard journal for the field is Renaissance Quarterly (English-language) and, for the Italian period, Rinascimento (Italian).