At the beginning of the Renaissance, Italy was divided into some 250 self- governing city-states, ranging from small towns of 2,000 individuals, to some of the largest cities in Europe of that time, such as Florence, Milan, and Venice, each with 100,000 citizens each. These city-states were loosely organized under the Pope, ruling out of Rome, although he had no real political control over the divided Italy.

During the mid- 1300s and early 1400s, many large Italian cities came under the control of one family, such as

Humanism was considered to be the most significant intellectual movement of the Renaissance. As its name implies, humanism was a philosophy that was characterized by its blending of the concern of the history and actions of all human beings, and their influence in the world, with religious duty. Prior to Renaissance thinking, medieval Europe considered life to be sinful and should despised, and that people should only be concerned about their duty to God and the afterlife. The humanists thought that every person has respect and worth and should therefore command the respect of every other person. The humanistic movement began during the early Italian Renaissance with the rediscovery of the writings of the classical Greeks and Romans, which were not only models of literary style, but considered guides to the understanding of life. The first, and most recognized, pioneers of humanism were Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio.

Da Vinci made detailed drawings of human anatomy and skeletal structure, as he tried to understand how the human body worked. His expertise on this subject matter, recorded in well-documented notebooks, lives on to this day.

Perhaps the most renowned and highly recognized achievements during the Renaissance in Italy were in the field of the fine arts. During the Middle ages, painters and sculptors tried to give their works a spiritual quality, wanting people to focus on the deep religious meanings of their works of art. They were definitely not concerned with making their artwork look lifelike, as can be depicted by famous artwork of many medieval painters. Renaissance writers wanted to portray the world realistically in a natural state, with life-like people showing real emotions.

the Visconti and later the Sforza families in Milan. The form of government established by the ruling families of the various Italian cities came to be known as signoria, with the chief official being called the signore. Soon , elaborate court systems, controlled by the ruling families, began to spring up in each city-state. At these courts, leading artists, intellectuals, and politicians gathered under the sponsorship of the signore and families.

Masaccio is most noted for using Brunelleschi's techniques in a series of frescoes designed for the Church of Santa Maria de Carmine in Florence. The scenes in his paintings realistically showed Biblical scenes of drastic emotional intensity.

When certain critics at the time called painting the work of a mechanic, Da Vinci retorted,

In Florence, which is perhaps considered the most important center of Renaissance learning in history, the Medici family dominated the ruling class. Under Medici domination, Flo

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Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)