The Medici family ruled Florence throughout the renaissance. They had a major influence on the growth of the Italian Renaissance through their patronage of the arts and humanism.. They didn't just support art they also supported science.There are six important members of this family. Giovanni dewars the founder of the Medici bank. Cosimo de was the beginning of the Medici dynasty. Lorenzo de ruled Florence. Pope Leo X was one of the first four of the Medici family to become pope.Catherine de was the queen of France. Marie de acted as regent for her young son Louis XIII of France

Shakespeare wrote plays for the Lord Chamberlain's Men. He worked as an actor as well. His plays became very popular in London and soon the Lord Chamberlain's Men were one of the most popular acting companies in the city. Allen decided he wanted to tear the Theatre down. He locked it up and refused to let the actors perform.The Globe Theatre became the place to be in London. Many of Shakespeare's greatest plays were written in the last half of his career. These included Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. Shakespeare also became famous for his poetry. His most famous poem of the time was Venus and Adonis. He also wrote poems called sonnets.

Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press.While this may not sound like a big deal at first, the printing press is often considered as the most important invention in modern times.Gutenberg took some existing technologies and some of his own inventions to come up with the printing press in the year 1450. One key idea he came up with was moveable type. Rather than use wooden blocks to press ink onto paper, Gutenberg used moveable metal pieces to quickly create pages. He made innovations all the way through the printing process enabling pages to be printed much more rapidly. His presses could print 1000's of pages per day vs. 40-50 with the old method. This was a dramatic improvement and allowed books to be acquired by the middle class and spread knowledge and education like never before. The invention of the printing press spread rapidly throughout Europe and soon thousands of books were being printed on printing presses.

Raphael studied the works of the great masters such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. He absorbed a lot of their style and techniques, but maintained his own unique style. Raphael was considered a friendly and social artist. People liked him and enjoyed his company. By 1508 Raphael's fame had spread to Rome. He was invited to decorate some of the rooms (called "stanze") in the Vatican by Pope Julius II. It was here that Raphael painted his greatest work The School of Athens. By the time he had completed the rooms, he was considered one of the great artists of Italy. Rafael also painted many portraits. This painting of Pope Julius II was very unique at the time as it showed the pope from the side and in a pondering mood. It became the model for future portraits of the pope. Raphael was also an accomplished architect. He became the pope's chief architect in 1514. He did some work on the design of St. Peter's Basilica and worked on other religious buildings such as the Chigi Chapel in Rome