Leonardo da Vinci was born April 15, 1452 and lived until May 2, 1519. He was born to a poor family in Vinci, Italy, but became a renown scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, and writer. He became the model of “the Renaissance man,” someone brilliant in many things. He is best known for his two paintings, The Last Supper, and the Mona Lisa. He sketched the human body, based on dissections, which contributed greatly to the scientific knowledge. He was very ahead of his time and even came up with ideas about a helicopter, military tank, solar power, and a calculator. When people today think about the Renaissance, they think about Leonardo da Vinci.

Johannes Gutenberg was born in 1398 and died on February 3, 1468 in Germany. He is one of the most important men in all of history because of his invention of moveable metal type. His design of the printing press could be mass produced and used by anyone with a little training. Before his invention, all manuscripts had to be handwritten, but he revolutionized bookmaking in Europe. The first book he printed was the Bible in 1455, the Gutenberg Bible,, which is on display in a temperature-controlled, vacuum sealed vault in Mainz, Germany. Throughout Europe, printing presses were producing volumes of books on every subject. By 1500, there were over 6 million printed books.

Niccolo Machiavelli, was born May 3, 1469, and died on June 21, 1527. Working out of Florence, Italy, he was a political philosopher, musician, poet, and playwright. Machiavelli is Best known for his book, The Prince, a secular work that explained his political ideas. In it, he described how leaders could create stable kingdoms. He justified rule by force, not necessarily by the law, and stated that it was better for a ruler to be feared than loved. His book was so controversial, that it wasn’t until 5 years after his death that it was published. It was placed on the Index of Prohibited Books by the Catholic Church.

Miguel de Cervantes was born on September 29, 1547, and died on April 23, 1616. One of 7 children, he moved from town to town in Spain, but eventually settled in Madrid. He is one of the most important and celebrated figures in Renaissance literature, and contributed to the cultural flowering of Europe at the time. He wrote the novel, Don Quixote, considered a founding classic of Western literature, and is considered one of the best novels ever written. It has been translated into more than 60 languages and has been in print ever since it was written in 1605. During the last nine years of his life, he wrote three more works that solidified his place in the literary world.

Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on March 6, 1475, and died on February 18, 1564. He rivaled Leonardo da Vinci for honors as “Renaissance man,” and created works that changed the art world as it was known. He was an Italian painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer. Michelangelo, as he is known, is the best-documented artist of the 1500s. He is best known for his painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which is part of the Vatican in Rome. It took him almost five years to complete this task, which illustrates the story of the Creation, and of Noah. As a scultptor, he created the Pieta and the David, which were almost perfect renditions of the human figure, although larger than life. It was his passionate, personal style that resulted in the next major movement in Western art. Today, millions of people flock to Italy to see his masterpieces.

William Shakespeare, April 26, 1564 to April 23, 1616, was an English poet and playwright, thought of as the greatest writer of all the English language. He wrote over 38 comedies, tragedies, histories, and 154 sonnets, poems that are fourteen lines and have a fixed rhyming pattern. He showed a deep understanding of humanity which crosses all cultural boundaries. His most famous works include Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet, and of course, Romeo and Juliet. His works have been translated into every major living language in the world and is probably the most quoted writer in all of history.

Sir Thomas More, February 7, 1478 to July, 6, 1535, was an English Lawyer, author, and reformer. In his book, Utopia, he depicts his perfect world, one in which everyone receives a free education and there is no private property. He also revealed the corruption of the church and governments of the day. Eventually, he was executed as a traitor for not recognizing King Henry VIII’s claim to be the supreme head of the Church of England. For this, he became a martyr. In 1935, Pope Pius XI of the Catholic church declared him to be the patron saint of lawyers and statesmen.

Lorenzo de’ Medici, was born on January 1, 1449 and lived until April 9, 1492. He was an Italian statesman and ruler of the Florentine Republic in Florence during the Italian renaissance. He was known as Lorenzo the Magnificent and was the most remarkable public figure of the time. His family was the most powerful banking family in Florence and were patrons of the arts. He sponsored great art works of art and learning, which led to the Golden Age of Florence. His second son was Pope Leo X, known for his fight with Martin Luther.

Dante Alighieri, or just “Dante,” lived from May 14, 1265 to September 13, 1321, and was born to a prominent family in Florence. Though Dante, an Italian writer and poet, lived during the end of the Middle Ages, he was a breakthrough artist who led the way for Renaissance artists who followed him. He is best known for his greatest work, the Divine Comedy, which is considered one of the greatest masterpieces of all world literature. In it, he describes an imaginary journey through heaven, hell, and purgatory. He wrote in the vernacular, the everyday language spoken by the people, which helped shape Italian as a written language.

Desiderius, Erasmus, October 27, 1466 to July 12, 1536, was born in Rotterdam, Holland. He was a Dutch humanist, theologian, and reformer. Erasmus was a Catholic scholar, but was critical of the excesses of the Roman Catholic Church. At the time, he was the center of the literary movement. He wrote The Praise of Folly, which used satire, the use of ridicule and sarcasm, to criticize the behavior of the church. He dedicated this to his friend, Sir Thomas More. In The Handbook of the Christian Soldier, he explained how Christians should live a normal life. Many historians believe that Erasmus made Renaissance humanism an international movement.