Renaissance

re-nas'sans, in history, an intellectual awakening that began about 1350. The term is from the Latin, meaning a rebirth. Owing to the inroads of the barbarians the customs of the Greeks and Romans had been overthrown and their learning lost. After western Europe settled down gradually to regular methods of life a desire for scholarship arose. The Crusades prepared the way. The new desire for learning showed itself in the republican cities of northern Italy first. Venice and Florence were leaders. Manuscript copies of the Greek authors that lain neglected in monasteries for centuries were brought out and copied diligently. The Greek models of architecture and sculpture were studied. The universities at Bologna, Paris, and Oxford were thronged with students. The great buildings and cathedrals of western Europe resulted from this movement. Even the discovery of America was a part of the general intellectual awakening.