Giovanni Boccaccio 1313-1375

• Decameron (1353), written in Italian, deka+hemeron, "ten days"
• On the Genealogy of the Gentile Gods (ca. 1365), written in Latin

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca) 1304-1374

• 1327, Caught sight of "Laura," the mysterious woman who inspired 366 poems, written in exquisite Italian. Dante and Patriarch created literary Italian.
• 1341, named poet laureate in Rome

Secret Book (1342-3), an introspection, a dialogue between himself and Augustin, exposed all the flaws in his character.

Coluccio Salutati 1331-1406, Florentine Chancellor,

• founded and endowed a considerable number of schools in Florence
• maintained connections with scholars
• attracted significant cultural figures to Florence
• argued for public service and family life instead of the cultivations of religious values
• argued for the liberty of free citizens in the Republican form of government

Guarino of Verona, 1374-1460

In his perspective, republican virtues can be easily created and then emulated in an environment of graceful language.

• stressed Latin and Greek, in all their classical purity, as the keys to education in distinction to the more practical uses of language conveyed by the notarial arts that had thrived in the cities.
• sought to put rhetoric in the preeminent place long occupied by logic.

Lorenzo de' Medici, "The Magnificent", 1449-1492

1454, Peace of Lodi

The period of courtly Renaissance

Aeneas Silvius (Enea Silvio Piccolomini) 1405-1464

• 1446, ordained a priest
• 1448, consecrated a bishop
• 1456, came a cardinal
• 1458, elected pope Pius II

Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519

Michelangelo Buonarroti 1475-1564