Renaissance culture and science

The Renaissance began in Italy in the 14th century: scholars and artists sought models in ancient culture, and writing in national languages developed in place of Latin. Humanism is a secular outlook that values the human being, reason and free thought. Thomas More described an ideal society in “Utopia”; “utopia” means “no place”. William Shakespeare (“Hamlet”, “Othello”, “Romeo and Juliet”) and Miguel de Cervantes (“Don Quixote”) made their names in literature, and Leonardo da Vinci (“Mona Lisa”), Raphael (“Sistine Madonna”), Michelangelo (“David”) in painting and sculpture; later, in the 17th century, the Dutch painter Rembrandt became famous. In science Nicolaus Copernicus argued that the Earth moves around the Sun, Giordano Bruno wrote about the infinity of the universe, and Galileo Galilei, using a telescope, strengthened Copernicus’s idea. Isaac Newton formulated the law of universal gravitation, and John Locke put forward the ideas of natural rights (life, liberty, property) and the separation of powers.