+ rep for the teacher. Spending more than about 15 minutes on The Renaissance is a waste of time: - Leo da Vinci and Michelangelo created some neat art, and later became 1/2 of the Ninja Turtles (i think) - Bill Shakespeare wrote some hard-to-read books and poems - the Medici family was powerful in banking - Columbus sailed the ocean blue, in 14 hundred and 92 - watch out for the plague! There ya go, The Renaissance in a nutshell.