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The Medici family were among the richest bankers and merchants of Europe. Cosimo de' Medici gained control of the Florentine government in 1434 and continued to rule for many years. Lorenzo, Cosimo's grandson, expressed the Renaissance ideal and was a patron, financial supporter, of the arts.

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Leonardo da Vinci was an inventor, artist, scientist, botanist, musician, architect, engineer, and optic specialist who had an endless curiosity. Due to his studies of muscles, his paintings were filled of realism. Of these, the Mona Lisa is his most famous masterpiece. He also made sketches of airplanes and submarines far before they were created.

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Artist Michelangelo Buonarroti had many other talents including sculpture, engineering, painting, architecture, and poems. He has been called the "melancholy genius" due to his work reflecting his many life-long spiritual and artistic struggles. His most famous masterpiece, the paintings of the Sistine Chapel, took 4 years and was etched directly into the architecture of the building so they are still in perfect condition.

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A few years younger than Michelangelo, Raphael was admired for both his artistic talent as well as "his sweet and gracious nature." He studied the works of the masters before him but made his own style by blending Christina and classical styles. His most well known painting is The School of Athens which is a meeting of very important thinkers and scientists including Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, and Averroes but also includes Michelangelo, Leonardo, and himself.

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A humanist and historian who wrote one of the most widely read handbook The Book of the Courtier where he describes the manners, skills, learning, and virtues a member of society should have. However he believed women had a lesser role in society and is beautiful for her "outer beauty."

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He wrote a guidebook for rulers on how to gain and maintain power. His book The Prince  looked at rulers in an age of ruthless power politics. He urged rulers to use whatever means necessary to achieve their goals and stressed that the end justifies the means.

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An early Renaissance Florentine humanist, poet, and scholar. He put together a library of Roman and Greek manuscripts in monasteries and churches. His efforts made famous Roman and Greek masterpieces to again be known to the western world.

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He was the first to print the Christian bible on a printing press with a movable type. Prior to the printing press, there were a few thousand bibles across europe. Afterwards, 15-20 million were made

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A German painter who is sometimes referred to as the "Leonardo of the North." He perfected engraving, where an artist etches his design into a metal plate with acid, after discovering it in his father's goldsmithing shop.

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A Dutch priest and humanist as well as one of the most important scholars of his age. He wrote books on many subject and produced a new Greek edition to the Christian Bible.

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A friend of Erasmus, Sir Thomas More is an English humanist who pressed for social reform.  In Utopia, more speaks of an ideal society where men and women live in peace and harmony. None are idle, all are educated, and justice is used to end crime rather than eliminate the criminal. Utopian now describes any ideal society often with the implications of an impractical society

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An English poet and playwright as well as the towering figure of Renaissance literature, William Shakespeare has written 37 plays that are still performed around the world. His themes express universal themes in everyday, realistic settings. They also show the complexity of Renaissance ideals but also speaks in a tone that the common people at the time understand and appreciate.