The Renaissance Trivia Word Search

_ _ _ _ _ da Gama completed the first all-sea route from Europe to India, arriving in 1498.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Savonarola, a fiery Florentine friar, held 'Bonfires of the Vanities' before his own execution in 1498.

_ _ _ _ _ della Francesca combined mathematical precision with serene religious scenes in his paintings.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ da Verrazzano, sailing for France, explored the North American coast including present-day New York Bay.

_ _ _ _ _ _ del Verrocchio ran the busy Florentine workshop where a young Leonardo trained.

This Italian explorer realized the Americas were a separate continent, later lending them his first name.

Rebuilt over more than a century, this Vatican church is the largest in Christendom and holds Michelangelo's Pieta.

Often called the father of Humanism, this poet and scholar wrote sonnets to a woman named Laura.

This Flemish painter depicted peasant life and proverbs in vivid detail, as in 'The Peasant Wedding.'

Nicknamed 'the Magnificent,' this Medici ruler of Florence was a major arts patron from 1469 onward.

This English playwright, a rival of Shakespeare's, wrote 'Doctor Faustus' before dying young in a tavern brawl.

This Flemish physician published a landmark, richly illustrated atlas of human anatomy in 1543.

Named for his home city, this Venetian painter created huge, colorful feast scenes like 'The Wedding at Cana.'

The _ _ _ _ _ _ family's powerful Florentine bank funded much of the city's Renaissance art and architecture.

This philosopher led the Medici-sponsored Platonic Academy, translating Plato's dialogues into Latin.

This early Renaissance sculptor created the first freestanding bronze nude since antiquity, a bronze David.

Leonardo's famous ink drawing of a man in two overlapping poses, set inside a circle and square, is called the '_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Man.'

Ruled first by the Visconti and then a mercenary dynasty, this northern Italian city-state was a major military power.

Petrarch addressed many of his sonnets to a woman he idealized under the name _ _ _ _ _.

Michelangelo's fresco on the Sistine Chapel's altar wall, showing Christ's Second Coming, is called 'The Last _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.'

Spanish writer Miguel de _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ wrote 'Don Quixote,' often called the first modern novel.

This Milanese ruling family lost power when its last duke, Filippo Maria, died in 1447.

Giovanni Boccaccio's collection of 100 stories told by plague refugees is called 'The _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.'

This German master of engraving and painting created a famous self-portrait resembling Christ.

This painter and writer authored 'Lives of the Artists,' the first major work of Western art history.

This High Renaissance master painted 'The School of Athens' and died young, on his own birthday, at age 37.

This Portuguese poet wrote the national epic 'Os Lusiadas,' celebrating Vasco da Gama's famous voyage.

This sculptor spent decades on the bronze doors of Florence's Baptistery, later nicknamed the 'Gates of Paradise.'

This ruling family of Ferrara included the noted patron Isabella, a leading art collector of her day.

Thomas More's 1516 book describing an ideal, imaginary island society gave English a brand-new word: '_ _ _ _ _ _.'

Michelangelo's sculpture of Mary cradling the dead Christ is called the _ _ _ _ _.

Botticelli's allegorical painting nicknamed after a season is titled '_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.'

This German inventor's movable-type printing press, developed around 1440, transformed the spread of knowledge.

This German-born painter became court artist to England's King Henry VIII.

The leading painter of 16th-century Venice, famous for rich color, was known simply as _ _ _ _ _ _.

This Flemish painter, credited with perfecting the oil painting technique, created 'The Arnolfini Portrait.'

Gutenberg's press first mass-produced this book around 1455, using movable type for the first time in Europe.

Raphael's fresco depicting great philosophers of antiquity is titled 'The School of _ _ _ _ _ _.'

This canal city, ruled by a Doge, controlled a vast Mediterranean trading empire during the Renaissance.

This short-lived painter pioneered convincing linear perspective in his fresco 'Holy Trinity' in Florence.

This flamboyant sculptor and goldsmith wrote a boastful autobiography and cast the bronze 'Perseus with the Head of Medusa.'

Leonardo famously wrote his notebook entries in reverse, readable only when held up to a _ _ _ _ _ _.

Venetian printer Aldus _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ founded the Aldine Press and pioneered small, portable pocket editions of books.

This Portuguese navigator's expedition achieved the first circumnavigation of the globe, though he died before it finished.

Leonardo da Vinci's famed portrait of a mysteriously smiling woman is titled the _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.

This philosopher wrote the 'Oration on the Dignity of Man,' a cornerstone text of Renaissance humanism.

Often called the father of the Renaissance style, this painter broke from flat Byzantine art with his Scrovegni Chapel frescoes.

Michelangelo reportedly nicknamed Ghiberti's bronze Baptistery doors the 'Gates of _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.'

The author of a 100-tale plague-era collection was named Giovanni _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ Shakespeare, England's most famous playwright, wrote his early plays during the late Renaissance.

In 1453, the _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Empire captured Constantinople, ending Byzantine rule and pushing Greek scholars into Italy.

This Florentine banker and power broker founded the Medici family's political dominance, funding art and architecture.

Leonardo's mural showing Jesus's final meal with the apostles is titled 'The Last _ _ _ _ _ _.'

This astronomer improved the telescope and championed the idea that Earth orbits the Sun.

This Dutch humanist scholar wrote the satirical bestseller 'In Praise of Folly.'

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ Brunelleschi engineered the massive dome of Florence Cathedral without external scaffolding.

Michelangelo carved this 17-foot marble giant, now in Florence's Accademia Gallery, depicting a Biblical shepherd king.

Baldassare Castiglione's guide to ideal Renaissance manners is called 'The Book of the _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.'

The author of 'The Divine Comedy,' _ _ _ _ _ Alighieri, wrote in everyday Italian rather than Latin.

_ _ _ _ _ _ Tintoretto, a dramatic Venetian painter, got his nickname from his father's trade as a dyer.

This French writer essentially invented the personal essay as a literary form.

This pope began rebuilding Rome as a Renaissance capital starting in 1447.

Patriarch of a Venetian painting dynasty, this artist helped establish oil painting as Venice's dominant medium.

This city, the seat of the Papacy, experienced a major architectural and artistic revival under Renaissance popes.

Sandro Botticelli's painting shows a goddess emerging from a scallop shell, titled 'The Birth of _ _ _ _ _.'

In Cervantes's novel, the deluded knight Don Quixote famously charges at these, mistaking them for giants.

The Renaissance polymath who painted the Mona Lisa is known as _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ da Vinci.

This architect and humanist wrote influential treatises on painting and building, including 'On Painting.'

In Dante's 'Inferno,' the ancient Roman poet _ _ _ _ _ _ serves as the narrator's guide through Hell.

A 1439 church council held in Florence was attended by representatives of the _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Empire.

Often called the father of accounting, this Italian mathematician popularized double-entry bookkeeping.

This painter's illusionistic ceiling fresco in Mantua's Ducal Palace tricks the eye with a painted oculus.

This devout Dominican friar painted luminous frescoes in the monastery of San Marco in Florence.

Florence Cathedral is popularly known by this Italian word, also used generally for a domed cathedral.

Michelangelo spent four years painting the ceiling of this Vatican chapel.

English statesman Thomas _ _ _ _ wrote 'Utopia,' describing an ideal imaginary island society.

This 1454 treaty among Italian city-states ushered in roughly 40 years of relative peace, named for a small Lombard town.

In 1517, this German monk nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to a church door, sparking the Reformation.

Born Giovanni de' Medici, this pope excommunicated the reformer Martin Luther in 1521.

In 1527, mutinous troops loyal to Holy Roman Emperor _ _ _ _ _ _ _ V brutally sacked the city of Rome.

Machiavelli's treatise on gaining and keeping political power is titled 'The _ _ _ _ _ _.'

This mercenary general seized control of Milan in 1450, founding a new ruling dynasty there.

This maritime rival of Venice produced the explorer Christopher Columbus.

This stringed instrument, still played today in essentially unchanged form, was developed in Italy during the 1550s.

Known for soft, harmonious landscapes, this painter was Raphael's teacher.

This family ruled Mantua for centuries, hiring the painter Andrea Mantegna to decorate their palace.

Sailing for England, this Italian-born explorer reached the coast of North America in 1497.

This Tuscan rival of Florence is known for its shell-shaped central square, the Piazza del Campo.

Ruled by the Gonzaga family, this small city-state's Basilica of Sant'Andrea showcases Renaissance architecture.

Ruled by the Este family, this city-state was a noted center of Renaissance music and literature.

This southern Italian kingdom was ruled at various points by Aragonese and Spanish monarchs during the Renaissance.

This small hill-town duchy, ruled by the Montefeltro family, produced the painter Raphael.

This city on the Arno River, ruled by a famous banking family, is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Copernicus proposed a Sun-centered model of the universe in a book published near his death.

This 'Warrior Pope' commissioned Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling and the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica.