Renaissance is an artistic and cultural tendency, which covers a period between the 14th and the 17th century. It arises in Italy, in particular in Florence, and later it spreads to northern Europe.

The causes of the Renaissance regard the different approach and vision of the people in comparison to the approach and the vision of the Middle Age. People need new points of view to value their "active life", contrasting with the "contemplative life", and find their balance, particularly as far as their "soul" and their "body".

Intellectuals start to search in the past older ideas and values in order to create something not completely new, but something that can satisfy the new feelings of the people: classical antiquity represents the perfect model, because it gives much importance to the figure of the ‘man'. Another idea which is taken from antiquity is the concept of the "Great Chain of Being", that subdivides the mankind and all the living beings into hierarchical categories, based on "spirit" and "matter"; the order is: inanimate objects, vegetarian class, animals, human beings, angels.
All the things should be ordered because they have their place and their function. Humankind is considered as a microcosm, in other words a little world.
As far as the repercussion of this concept on the political range, it is used against civil rebellions and to reinforce the authority of the king.

Before Renaissance, also Humanism, a literary tendency, used the antiquity as a source of inspiration, and upgrades the importance of the life on Earth and the role of human being.

The changes of Renaissance concerns the religion, too. In the 16th a movement called the Protestant Reformation comes forward to denounce and contrast the corruption of the Church. Moreover people doesn't understand the Bible -written in latin- so it is translated in many languages.