The Renaissance Trivia Word Search

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This English poet composed the sprawling allegorical epic 'The Faerie Queene.'

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

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

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

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

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

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

The first part of the 'Divine Comedy,' a journey through Hell, is titled '_ _ _ _ _ _ _.'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This maritime rival of Venice produced the explorer Christopher Columbus.

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

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

Venice's Aldine Press pioneered this slanted style of typeface, still used today for emphasis.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This pope commissioned the Vatican chapel that still bears his name today.

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

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

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

In 1492, this Genoese explorer sailed west across the Atlantic under the Spanish crown.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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