In groups of two, or on your own, research one of the following characters from Renaissance history.  As you are collecting your information to a file, be sure to include many interesting images, maps, and charts, to support the movie maker aspect of your project.  Remember, you are collecting information to tell a story about their lives and important accomplishments.  Record all websites and other sources to a bibliography page, as you are collecting

Use the following chart to assist you with your research (Word Format)

Artists and Patrons

• Pieter Bruegel (first artist to paint landscapes)

• Filippo Brunelleschi (first artist to use perspective)

• Michelangelo Buonarroti (produced one of the world’s greatest achievements in art)

• Jan Van Eyck (invented oil painting)

• Lorenzo de Medici (patron of some of the greatest artists that ever lived)

• Raphael (one of the greatest  and most influential painters of the Renaissance)

• Rembrandt (Netherland’s greatest artist)

• Leonardo da Vinci (best known Renaissance painter and inventor)

Writers

• Petrarch (poet who influenced world literature)
  
  
• Christine de Pisan (one of first women to earn a living by writing)
  
  
• William Shakespeare (one of the most widely read authors of all times)

Mathematicians

• Francois Viete (provided solutions to doubling a cube and trisecting an angle)

Astronomers

• Nicolaus Copernicus (proved the earth and other planets revolved around the sun)

• Kepler (discovered three laws of planetary motion)

Scientists & Inventors

• Galileo (founder of modern experimental science)

• Johannes Gutenberg (developed the printing press)

• Peter Henlein (invented first spring driven watch)

Politicians & Religious Leaders

• Sir Thomas More (executed by Henry VIII for refusing to denounce the Catholic Church)

• Martin Luther (leader of the Protestant religious movement)

Philosophers

• Sir Francis Bacon (promoted ideas of scientific experimentation, observation, and critical thinking)

• Erasmus (outstanding Humanist scholar of his time)

• Machiavelli (one of the most important political thinkers of the Renaissance

Explorers

• Christopher Columbus (famous explorer and outstanding navigator)

• Sir Francis Drake (first Englishman to sail around the world)

• Vasco da Gama (opened the first all water trade route between Europe and Asia)