Renaissance and Reformation

Dutch language To Eldorado (Spanish, "the gilded one") (Renaissance and Reformation)

Dutch language The language spoken in the modern kingdom of the Netherlands (where it is called Neder-lands) and in northern Belgium, or Flanders (where it varies slightly from Nederlands and is called Vlaams). There are also small pockets of Dutch speakers in the French departement of Nord, in former Dutch dependencies overseas, and in North […]

Elizabeth I To Epic (Renaissance and Reformation)

Elizabeth I (1533-1603) Queen of England and Ireland (1558-1603) The daughter of henry viii by his second wife, Anne Bo-leyn, Elizabeth led an insecure life until her accession to the throne. Her father had her mother beheaded, Elizabeth was declared illegitimate (1536), and her sister, mary i, imprisoned her in the Tower of London (1554) […]

Epicurus To Este family (Renaissance and Reformation)

Epicurus (341-270 bce) Greek philosopher. He was better known in the Middle Ages by repute than by any surviving writings, but he was generally mentioned with disapproval by Christian authors, who travestied his philosophy as teaching that the highest good is pleasure, while omitting to note that Epicurus defined pleasure as the practice of virtue. […]

Estienne press (Latin Stephanus) To Families (Renaissance and Reformation)

Estienne press (Latin Stephanus) The press established by a dynasty of scholar-printers who worked in Paris and Geneva from 1502 to 1674. The first was Henry I Estienne (died 1520), whose widow married his partner, Simon de Colines. He in turn trained his stepson Robert (1503-59) who took over the press in 1526, later receiving […]

Family of Love (Latin Familia Caritatis, Dutch Huis der Liefde) To Festa, Costanzo (Renaissance and Reformation)

Family of Love (Latin Familia Caritatis, Dutch Huis der Liefde) An obscure group of anabaptists founded (c. 1540) by Hendrik Niclaes (Henry Nicholas; c. 1502-c. 1580) in the Netherlands. Niclaes, who had apparently begun life as a Roman Catholic in Munster, went to Amsterdam (c. 1531) after suffering imprisonment for heresy, and while there received […]

Ficino, Marsilio To Floris, Frans (Frans de Vriendt) (Renaissance and Reformation)

Ficino, Marsilio (1433-1499) Italian humanist scholar and philosopher Ficino was born at Figline, near Florence, and taken at an early age into the household of Cosimo de’ medici. In stressing the divine origins of both Christian and pagan revelations, he played a seminal role in the Renaissance process by which the inspiration of Greek and […]

Flotner, Peter To Fouquet, Jean (Renaissance and Reformation)

Flotner, Peter (active 1522-1546) Swiss sculptor and engraver Born in Thurgau, Flotner moved to Nuremberg in 1522, shortly after his first journey to Italy, which he revisited soon after 1530. His Stuttgart bronze horse (c. 1520-30) seems to reflect the naturalistic trend in late Gothic, but his masterpiece, the Nuremberg Apollo fountain (1532), is an […]

Foxe, John To French language (Renaissance and Reformation)

Foxe, John (1516-1587) English Calvinist martyrologist He studied at Oxford and became a Fellow of Magdalen College (1539-45), but fled to the Continent on the accession of the Catholic Mary I. Moving between the main centers of the Protestant Reformation, he met other English refugees and wrote a Latin history of religious persecution (Strasbourg, 1554). […]

Frescobaldi, Girolamo To Galilei, Vincenzo (Renaissance and Reformation)

Frescobaldi, Girolamo (1583-1643) Italian composer Frescobaldi was born into an influential Ferrarese family and his father was also a musician. He studied music with the court organist luzzaschi, and his first post was as organist at the church of Sta. Maria in Trastevere, Rome (1607). In that year he visited the Low Countries with Guido […]

Galileo Galilei To Gelli, Giambattista (Renaissance and Reformation)

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Italian physicist and astronomer The son of Vincenzo galilei, Galileo began to study medicine in 1581 at the university of his native Pisa, but realized that his real interest lay with mathematics, and in 1585 he left the university for Florence. There he rapidly established his scientific reputation. In 1589 he began […]

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