Renaissance and Reformation Primary Sources | Leonardo da Vinci

Excerpts from Notebooks (c.1490–1515)

Reprinted in Selections from the Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

Edited by Irma A. Richter
Published in 1977

The Italian Renaissance was a time of experimentation in painting, sculpture, and architecture. During the Middle Ages (c. 400–1400; also known as the medieval period) the artist was an anonymous vehicle for glorifying God. In the Renaissance, however, human beings became the central focus of artistic expression. This development was the result of the humanist movement, a revival of the culture of ancient Greece and Rome (called the classical period) initiated by scholars in Florence, Italy, in the mid-1300s. Humanists believed that a body of learning called studia humanitatis (humanistic studies), which was based on the literary masterpieces from the classical period, could bring about a cultural rebirth, or...