What do I need to know about the renaissance?

I have a project due tomorrow, and I need to know about the renaissance. MY PAPER SAYS:
Imagine that you are alive in the 16th century European traveler who has just completed a walking tour of Florence. Use notes to illustrate a letter describing your experience in florence. Include a date, and a proper salutation.(dear…) Write your letter to a friend who had never been to florence and knows little about the italian renaissance.
It must be at least 400 words so I need lots of detail. I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE ARCHITECTURE, ART, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS, AND OR POLITICS.

I wasn’t going to answer this golddigger question but I need to correct Kevin’s well meaning mistakes.

Kevin wrote:

.. the Renaissance was the mark of art

First, Renaissance means rebirth and signifies europe emerging from the Dark Ages to rediscover many ideas from the Classical period.
It certainly featured many amazing works of art — da Vinci, Rafael, Michelangelo and later Titian, etc etc

…and Humanism is important because that means people started to think for themselves and not go by religious ideals…

Errr, kind of but not really. The Catholic Church reacted against these new ideas and its most powerful force, Spain, started The Inquisition in 1478 (which didn’t officially end until 1834).

So, say whatever humanist thought you wanted until you were tortured and forced to recant.

…The arts is that the things that were made got more 3d… this is call point of perception or lets just call it perception…

I think Kevin really means “perspective”. And classical proportions, e.g. your hand usually covers half your face.

…Big people like William Shakespeare and Da vinci were around at these times… Thats the stuff my teacher emphasized so…

Ummm, neither William for Leonardo were tall, but I think I know what Kevin means. Yes, da Vinci was born as the Renaissance began and was certainly the quintessential “Renaissance Man”. However, Bill wasn’t born for another 200 years, even if he was just one man and not several.

Let me tell you what your teacher doesn’t know. The Renaissance owes its beginnings to the collapse of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) empire, when all its artists and scientists fled.

BUT — READ the chapters you MISSED!

South Africa…..Renaissance of Black Politics

European Renaissance: Centres And Peripheries $59.99 European Renaissance: Centres And Peripheries