A world lit only by fire_ the medieval m - William Manchester [154]
1497? Amerigo Vespucci in the New World
1497
Lucrezia Borgia’s triple incest
The pope’s eldest son, Juan, is murdered
1498
Manutius’s five-volume Aristotle published
Rise of humanism
Savonarola burned at the stake
Lucrezia gives birth to the Infans Romanus
A.D. 1500
Michelangelo: Madonna and Child
1501
Over 1,000 printing shops now in Europe
Pope acknowledges paternity of his daughter’s child
1502
All books challenging papal authority ordered burned
1503
Julius II: the Warrior Pope
New universities include Wittenberg and Frankfurt an der Oder
Leonardo da Vinci: Mona Lisa
1505
Death of Russia’s Ivan the Great
1506
First stone of St. Peter’s Basilica laid
1507
Violent death of Cesare Borgia
Waldseemüller christens “America”
Martin Luther ordained a Catholic priest
1508
First English translation of Thomas à Kempis’s De imitatione Christi
1509
Aged 18, Henry VIII becomes England’s king
Humanist Erasmus: Encomium moriae
His books encourage critics of Rome
Beginnings of slave trade in America
Judenspiegel: an eruption of anti-Semitism
1510
Da Vinci discovers principle of water turbine
Two speakers of the House of Commons beheaded
Da Vinci’s Anatomy
1512
Michelangelo completes Sistine Chapel ceiling
1513
Balboa sights the Pacific
Ponce de Leon reaches Florida
Machiavelli’s Il principe, inspired by Cesare Borgia
1514
Copernicus postulates the solar system in De hypothesibus … commentariolus
Heroides Christianae: humanist blasphemy
1515
Raphael named chief architect of St. Peter’s
England’s Thomas Wolsey made cardinal and lord chancellor
1516
More’s Utopia
Birth of the future Bloody Mary
Raphael: The Sistine Madonna
1517
Wolsey hangs 60 May Day rioters
Strangling of Cardinal Petrucci
Turks sack Cairo
Pope Leo X’s jubilee sale of indulgences
Martin Luther brands Tetzel a fraud
Luther posts Ninety-five Theses on church door
1518
He defies Cardinal Cajetan
Titian: The Assumption
1519
Luther vs. Eck
Erasmus refuses to support Luther
Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian dies
Spain’s King Carlos becomes Emperor Charles V
Magellan leaves to sail around the world
1520
San Julián mutiny against Magellan
He finds and negotiates Strait of Magellan
Rome hurls Exsurge Domine at Luther
He publishes Adel deutscher Nation
The pope excommunicates him
Aleandro’s witchhunt of Erasmus begins
Henry VIII and France’s Francis I meet on Field of the Cloth of Gold
Erasmus is Europe’s most popular author
German gunsmith invents the rifle
Scipione del Ferro solves cubic equation
1521
Diet of Worms; Luther becomes a fugitive
Germany rises in support of him
Magellan crosses the Pacific
He dies in Philippines
1522
The voyage of circumnavigation ends, vindicating Copernicus
Protestantism sweeps northern Europe
Archbishop slays Von Sickingen in battle
1524
Peasants’ revolt in Germany
1525
Tyndale’s translation of New Testament
Jakob Fugger II dies worth 6 million guilders
1527
Second sack of Rome; end of Renaissance
1528
Plague sweeps England
1529
Fall of Wolsey; More made lord chancellor
1533
Henry VIII divorces Catherine, marries pregnant Anne Boleyn; she gives birth to the future Elizabeth I
1534
Rabelais: Gargantua
Defiant Luther translates Bible into German
1535
Sir Thomas More beheaded for treason
1536
Pietro Aretino’s pornographic Ragionamenti
Queen Anne Boleyn found guilty of adultery and incest and beheaded
Tyndale burned at the stake
Death of Erasmus; his books banned
Calvin: Christianae religionis institutio
* Because of the complex method used to determine when Easter would fall each year, Easter tables reckoned the future dates of the celebration. Easter in turn determines the dates of all other movable feasts in the Christian calendar.
* This is a rough conversion. Providing modern equivalents of original currencies is extremely difficult. The sort