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1. During the Renaissance, notions of Europe's and of humankind's centrality in the world were challenged and partially discredited by advances in scientific theory, a rediscovery of Greco-Roman culture, and the so-called discovery of the Americas.
2. The Renaissance reached its peak at different times in different cultures, beginning in Italy with the visual arts and, nearly two centuries later, working its way as far as England, where its achievements are most recognized in drama.
3. An interest in the nature of this life rather than in the life to come is of central importance in the works of Petrarch and Erasmus.
4. The Renaissance tendency toward perfection is well illustrated by Machiavelli's ideal prince and Castiglione's ideal courtier, but is also illustrated in the reworking of older literary traditions such as in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso.
5. French rulers and aristocrats adopted the artistic, literary, and social values of the more sophisticated Italian city-states such as Castiglione's Urbino.
6. Spain's major contributions to Renaissance literature can be traced to Cervantes and Lope de Vega.
7. Works from the English tradition, including Paradise Lost, Hamlet, and Othello, question the values of the Renaissance.

Text:
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1. During the Renaissance, notions of Europe's and of humankind's centrality in the world were challenged and partially discredited by advances in scientific theory, a rediscovery of Greco-Roman culture, and the so-called discovery of the Americas. Such revolutionary changes, however, did not come without certain resistance. Scientific findings by Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei met with opposition from the Catholic Church, which plotted to maintain its political and military control over an increasingly secular society. The explorations of navigators such as Christopher Columbus prompted radical revisions of European conceptions of world geography. In Italy, humanists developed new standards of scholarship that allowed for greater access to the cultural legacy of Greece and Rome and a greater sense of their own position in history. Whereas medieval Europe was preoccupied with the afterlife, Europe in the Renaissance was primarily concerned with life—the immediate, the tangible, the earthly, and the aesthetic.
2. Literally meaning "rebirth," the Renaissance is much more than a singular impulse toward the intellectual, artistic, and political achievements of ancient Greece and Rome. The term perhaps more accurately refers to a generalized notion of artistic creativity, an extraordinary zest for life and knowledge, a sensory delight in opulence and magnificence, and an appreciation for individual achievement. Not only does the usefulness of the term Renaissance require a certain degree of elasticity with regard to its impulses, it also requires elasticity when it is used to describe a "movement." The Renaissance reached its peak at different times in different cultures, beginning in Italy with the visual arts and, nearly two centuries later, working its way as far as England, where its achievements are most recognized in drama.
3. An interest in the nature of this life rather than in the life to come is of central importance in the works of Petrarch and Erasmus. Though crafted differently, each of their works offers meditations on the role of the self and the nature of reality. Petrarch, a contemporary of Dante and Boccaccio, is often viewed as a precursor of the Renaissance. Dedicated to recovering the classics of antiquity, he distanced himself as much as possible from his contemporary period that he derogatorily referred to as the "Dark Ages." Following the discovery of Cicero's letters, Petrarch turned to the dialogue as a literary form and a way to think about the past. These letters were often imagined conversations with friends and the ancients and offered Petrarch a way to meditate on the connection with legacies of the past. His Rime Sparse, considered to be his greatest legacy to the European Renaissance, is a collection of 366 poems that reflect on questions about the self. What is widely considered the most important work written by Dutch born Desiderius Erasmus is his The Praise of Folly, a work that suggests all joys in life are illusions that make life bearable. An example of the Renaissance art of "serious play," The Praise of Folly is a humorous exploration of philosophical and moral questions. Perhaps because it criticized the power of institutional and religious authorities, the Praise of Folly was included in the index of books banned by the Church.
4. The Renaissance tendency toward perfection is well illustrated by Machiavelli's ideal prince and Castiglione's ideal courtier, but is also illustrated in the reworking of older literary traditions such as in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. Best known for The Prince, a "handbook" on how to obtain and keep political power, NiccolÚ Machiavelli was a preeminent student of politics and an astute observer of historical events. Machiavelli bases his reasoning for the course that a prudent prince should follow on the basic premise that humanity is evil—not so much a philosophical judgment, but a practical political stratagem. The final chapter is more imaginative than scientific, belonging more to the tradition of poetic visions such as canto 6 of Dante's Purgatorio. Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso also continues a literary tradition: the imitation, parody, and honor of past works. Partly inspired to overcome his predecessor, Ariosto takes the hero of the popular romance epic Orlando Innamorato and forces him to cross the line from love to lunatic frenzy. Author of the immensely popular the Book of the Courtier, Castiglione served in the courts of Francesco Gonzaga and Guidobaldo da Montefeltro. The work is written in the form of a dialogue and conveys ideals for court behavior.
5. Toward the end of the fifteenth century, the French "discovered" Italy through travel and military invasion. French rulers and aristocrats adopted the artistic, literary, and social values of the more sophisticated Italian city-states such as Castiglione's Urbino. Marguerite de Navarre, one of the most influential members of the French court, helped transform French culture as a writer, a patron of the arts, and an intellectual. Her challenges to the Catholic Church's stranglehold on religion contributed to the Reformation movements. The Heptameron, a collection of seventy stories framed by a larger narrative, is generally attributed to her royal authorship, though the circumstances of its production remain unknown. FranÁois Rabelais dedicated the third book of Gargantua and Pantagruel to Marguerite de Navarre. Trained as a Franciscan monk and priest as well as doctor of medicine, Rabelais is know for his bawdy and humorous parody of the grandest of Western literary genres: the imperial epic. Different in tone, Michel de Montaigne composed his stylistically rich and thematically varied Essays around the central question "Who am I?" His arguments focus on the elusive and unstable character of the "self." With ease, he turns from classical antiquity to the emerging modern world, so that his position in history is apparent. During a period in which Catholic and Protestant factions divided France, Montaigne favored religious tolerance, skepticism about human self-interests, and hatred for dogmatic positions. He is generally credited with suspending the self-interest and bias he considered ingrained in human nature in order to analyze himself, his culture, and the place of humankind in the cosmos.
6. Spain's major contributions to Renaissance literature can be traced to Cervantes and Lope de Vega. Examining the conflict between illusion and reality, Miguel de Cervantes's satire of chivalric romances, Don Quixote, is widely considered to be the precursor to the modern European novel. Don Quixote's interactions with Sancho Panza shed light on an important aspect of Renaissance literature: the frustrated desires of the human mind to produce a vision of the world that is meaningful and satisfying. Considered one of the most important dramatists of Spain's Golden Age, Lope de Vega viewed plays as a less-than-serious art: he wrote plays simply to entertain people. Nevertheless, his comedy Fuente Ovejuna draws on actual historical events and matters of political importance at the time of Ferdinand de Aragon's marriage to Isabella of Castile, culminating in the union of Spain. Dealing with how a village community rises up against an abusive comendador, the play is a strong affirmation about how long-suffering people can reaffirm a sense of community and social order.
7. Works from the English tradition, including Paradise Lost, Hamlet, and Othello, question the values of the Renaissance. William Shakespeare's plays are considered to be among the most important works of dramatic art in the modern Western world. Originally performed at the Globe Theatre, Shakespeare's plays were frequented by persons of all classes. Following the commercial success of his plays, Shakespeare purchased a title for his father, allowing himself to officially become known as a "gentleman born." Like other Renaissance works, Hamlet and Othello present worlds in which the culture of the courts and kings has been destroyed. In both plays, Shakespeare presents a protagonist who, like other Renaissance heroes, must ask whether personal and individual codes of conduct can stand up against degraded communal practices. Bridging the Renaissance interest in classical antiquity and the Reformation interest in the Bible, John Milton's Paradise Lost is an important work of Christian humanism in England. By attempting to disrupt the so-called wisdom of the classics and the Bible, Milton's work asks important questions about the role of literature in the pursuit of knowledge and ways of knowing.