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- Muhammad was born in 570 in Mecca, Arabia [now Saudi Arabia]. He was married to Khadija bint Khuwaylid. He died on 8 June 632 in Medina, Hejaz, Arabia [now Saudi Arabia].
- Granddaughter of Prophet Muhammad(PBUH), Daughter of Imam Ali(AS) and Fatima(SA) and Sister of Imam Hossein(AS) who named as Hero of Karbala Martyrdom who saved Imam Sajjad(AS) life as Saviour of Imams and Standing against Yazid Soldiers for Allah and Islam Religion. Zeynab Kobra is Frontline of Ahlebait(PBUT) that Zeynab(PBUH) Holy Grave placed in Damascus, Syria.
Zeynab is Zeynab as clear explanation of her like (Fatima is Fatima) that Dr. Ali Shariati said. But, Zeynab(SA) is another Fatima(PBUH) that Seyed Sadegh Abdosalehi as Persian Prophet said. She is Shield of Ahlebait(PBUT) where her Saint Grave is closer than Kabah, Medina, Aqsa, Beynoul Harameyn, Kazemeyn, Kufah Mosque and Razavi Shrine to West as clear evidence that she is always a Shield.
Karbala Martyrdom had too hard for Zeynab when she walked thirsty from Karbala to Sham (Syria today) while her brother killed by enemies of Islam. Zeynab Kobra is Green, White and Red line of Islamic Republic of Iran that youngest peoples who believing in Zeynab(PBUH) are ready to protecting her holy shrine as Shrine Protectors.
Zeynab Kobra death day is named as Nurse Day in Iran to remember what she did. - Einhard was born in 770 in Mainfranken, Germany. Einhard was a writer, known for Charlemagne (1993). Einhard died on 14 March 840 in Seligenstadt, Germany.
- Kenneth the First died on 13 February 858 in Perthshire, Scotland, UK.
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Born in a wealthy province of Seljuk-ruled Persia, Omar Khayyam was educated well as a youth and became fascinated by science, especially astronomy and mathematics. He built an observatory and created the Jalalaean Calender that was far more accurate than the Julian Calender in use by his European contemporaries. But it was his poetry that would earn him eternal fame. Edward FitzGerald's translation of his Rubaiyat into English sparked interest in his exotic poems and ruminations on the fragility of human life and the nature of the universe. Ironically, Omar Khayyam was not in his own lifetime remembered as a literary talent. His love of wine ("it drives sorrow from the heart") and money ("Cash is better than a thousand promises") and the generally pessimistic nature of his poetry did not make him popular among his Muslim peers. After going on hajj to Mecca in 1092, he returned to his native city of Nishapur to teach. Omar Khayyam died on December 4, 1131.- Music Department
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Hildegard von Bingen was born on 16 September 1098 in Bermersheim vor der Höhe, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. She was a composer and writer, known for Breath of God, Personal Shopper (2016) and A Beautiful Mind (2001). She died on 17 September 1179 in Bingen am Rhein, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Genghis Khan was the founder and first Great Khan (Emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death. He came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of the Mongol steppe and being proclaimed the universal ruler of the Mongols, or Genghis Khan. With the tribes of Northeast Asia largely under his control, he set in motion the Mongol invasions, which ultimately witnessed the conquest of much of Eurasia, and incursions by Mongol raiding parties as far west as Legnica in western Poland and as far south as Gaza. He launched campaigns against the Qara Khitai, Khwarezmia, the Western Xia and Jin dynasty during his life, and his generals raided into medieval Georgia, Circassia, the Kievan Rus', and Volga Bulgaria.
- Jalaluddin Rumi, Scholar in Religious Sciences and famed Sufi Mystic Poet, was born on September 29th 1207 A.D. in Balkh (modern day Afghanistan). Escaping Mongol invasions he travelled extensively to Muslim lands, Bagdad, Mecca, Damascus, Malatia (Turkey). Married Gevher Khatun of Samarquand and moved to Quonya (Konya in present day Turkey). Encountering the wandering dervish and Saint Shamsuddin Tabrezi, who introduced him to the path of mystical and spiritual knowledge. Author of six volumes of didactic epic works. His most famous work in seven books and 24,660 couplets is written in Dari and Arabic and commonly referred to as the "Persian Quran" by Jami. His son was killed with the mystic dervish Shams. He himself died on December 16th 1273 A.D. and his bier was followed by men of five faiths. The night became the "Sebul Arus" or "Night of Union", and ever since the Mawlawi Dervishes celebrate this date as a Festival. Rumi leaves the world a legacy of profound poetry and writings of the most intense spirituality and simplicity ever to be written. Rumi's "Divan-e-Shams" and "Mathnawi" are his most popular works worldwide.
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Thomas Aquinas was born in 1225 in Roccasecca, Kingdom of Sicily [now Sicily, Italy]. Thomas died on 7 March 1274 in Fossanova Abbey, Papal State [now Italy].- Albertus Magnus was born in 1193 in Lauingen, Bavaria, Germany. Albertus died on 15 November 1280 in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
- Edward the First was born on 17 June 1239 in Westminster, London, England, UK. He died on 7 July 1307 in Carlisle, Cumbria, England, UK.
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Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 into the lower nobility of Florence, to Alighiero di Bellincione d'Alighiero, a moneylender. A precocious student, Dante's education focused on rhetoric and grammar. He also became enamored with a young girl, Beatrice Portinari, whose death in 1290 threw a grieving Dante into intense religious studies. Though the Alighieri family had managed to avoid entanglement in the power struggles between the Ghibelline and Guelf families for control of Florence, Dante allied himself with the democratic Guelfs and married a member of that clan, Gemma di Manetto Donati, in 1285.
After serving in the Guelf forces as a cavalryman in the Battle of Campaldino, Dante enrolled in the Guild of Doctors and Pharmacists and became politically active. He became an ambassador and a prior, but after finding himself on the opposite side of the political party in power he was forced to flee Florence in 1301, never able to return to the city of his birth. He narrowly escaped being executed for treason.
Dante left for Verona and Ravenna, where he was joined by his children. He then wrote his most famous work, "Commedia", not in scholarly Latin but in the vernacular Italian of the time, giving his countrymen a literature of their own. In it he would resurrect the love of his youth, Beatrice, giving her a place among the angels. This work would also take the author, escorted by the Roman poet Publius Vergilius Maro, on a grand tour to Hell and Purgatory, and later by his beloved Beatrice to Paradise. History would later judge Dante's creation to be divine. Dante Alighieri died in 1321 and was buried in Ravenna. Three sons--Pietro, Jacopo and Giovanni--and a daughter, Antonia, survived him.- His father Niccolò Polo came from an old Dalmatian family that had settled in the Adriatic lagoon city around 1000 and was primarily dedicated to trade with the Middle East. Little is known about Marco's youth: he grew up with his mother in Venice in the absence of his traveling salesman father. During those years, Niccolò Polo and his brother Matteo Polo undertook extensive journeys to Asia Minor, which even took them to Beijing in 1266. In 1271, the young Marco Polo accompanied his father and uncle on their journey, which they undertook again on Pope Gregory X's diplomatic mission to the Emperor of China. The Polo traveled from Venice to Beijing via Acri, Persia, Afghanistan, the Silk Road and the Gobi Desert in three and a half years.
After arriving in Beijing in 1275, Marco Polo undertook various diplomatic missions on behalf of the Chinese emperor, which took him to Tibet and other provinces of the empire. He meticulously wrote down his travel impressions and experiences that he collected throughout China in the following years. In 1292, the Venetians found the opportunity to return by joining the Chinese princess's journey to Persia to join her fiancé. First they reached Hormuz in Persia on a sea voyage via Sumatra, Ceylon and the west coast of India. After a stay of several months at the Persian court, the Polo traveled back to Venice via Constantinople, where they arrived in 1295.
After Marco Polo began regular business as a merchant in his hometown, he was taken prisoner by the Genoese around 1297 as a result of military conflicts at sea between Venice and Genoa. There he dictated his extensive travel report to a fellow prisoner. In 1299, Marco Polo regained his freedom after the peace agreement between the two city republics. A little later he married Donata Badoer, with whom he had three daughters. Marco Polo's travel report was widely distributed under the title "Il milione" and was soon translated into several languages. One of the most important geographical texts of the Middle Ages, "Il milione" offered a colorful description of the cultures and landscapes of Asia as well as a treasure trove of information for future trade with those regions.
Marco Polo died on January 8, 1324 in Venice. - Philippe de Vitry was born on 31 October 1291 in Paris, France. Philippe was a composer, known for Aranymadár (1999). Philippe died on 9 June 1361 in Paris, France.
- Giovanni Boccaccio was born in June 1313 in Certaldo, Florence, Tuscany, Italy. He was a writer, known for The Little Hours (2017), Decameron n° 3 - Le più belle donne del Boccaccio (1972) and Decameron Nights (1953). He died on 21 December 1375 in Certaldo, Florence, Tuscany, Italy.
- Sergiy Radonezhskiy was born on 14 May 1314 in Varnitsa, Yaroslavl oblast, Russia. Sergiy died on 25 September 1392 in Sergiev Posad, Moscow oblast, Russia.
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Geoffrey Chaucer was born in 1343 in London, Kingdom of England [now UK]. He was a writer. He was married to Philippa Roet. He died on 25 October 1400 in London, Kingdom of England [now UK].- The girl history would come to know as Joan of Arc was the youngest of 5 children born in Domrémy, Duchy of Bar (which Louis XV annexed in 1766 per the Treaty of Vienna after the passing of his father-in-law Stanislaus Leszczynski, the deposed king of Poland and the last Duc de Bar). She was 13 years when she began to hear voices and saw visions of Saints Catherine, Margaret, and Michael directing her to seek out the Dauphin. Around this time, her father was having a reoccurring dream of Joan leaving home with a group of soldiers -- which at the time meant only one thing. The dream was so vivid, he instructed his sons to kill her if she ever tried to leave home; and if they didn't, he would.
Ironically, it was her father contracting a marriage for Joan with a neighbor's boy which made her decide to accept her mission. When the boy sued for breach of contract, she traveled alone to Toul, the nearest diocese, to defend herself. Fortunately, the law was on her side: a woman could not be forced to marry against her will. In ruling in her favor, the judge called Joan "an extraordinary child". She returned to Toul a year later as Commander of the French Army.
In February 1429, the now-17-year-old used the pretense of traveling to Burey-le-Petit to care for her aunt into persuading her aunt's husband to take her to Vaucouleurs to attempt for a second time to gain an audience with the captain of the garrison, Robert de Baudricourt, whom, after increasing pressure from the townsfolk, agreed to provide her an escort to the Dauphin. The men Baudricourt provided, Jéan de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy, would become two of her generals.
What happened when she arrived at Chinon on March 6, 1429, became the stuff of legend. The Dauphin disguised himself as a courtier and had another courtier dressed as the Dauphin, however, she identified the real Dauphin immediately. After an examination by his clerics, the Dauphin furnished Joan with a small force and sent her to Orléans to assist in lifting the Siege, which his army had been contending with since October 1428.
Arriving on April 29th, she proceeded to whip the troops into shape: no more pillaging, profanity, or "camp followers", and each man was to attend Mass at least once a week. Since their humiliating loss at Agincourt (1415), the French had fought from a defensive posture; Joan went on the offensive. In what came to be known as The Audacious Attack, Joan snuck a small group into the town, then ordered them to regroup for an assault on the Siege Post, saving Orléans from capitulation. The commanders regarded her at first as little more than a glorified cheerleader, yet the rank-and-file loved her: she belonged to the same class as they and was willing to take the same risks she asked them to take. Her brothers Jéan and Pierre, sent by their father to bring her home, instead found themselves fighting under her banner.
The lifting of the Siege in just 9 days brought new recruits from all over France, eager to fight for The Maid. She scored victories at Jargeau (June 11-12), Meung-sur-Loire (June 15), Beaugency (June 16-17), and Patay (June 18), the most disastrous English defeat since Baugé (1421). In stark contrast to Agincourt, where the victorious Henry V had French POWs executed, Joan spared the lives of English POWs. At Patay, she came across a wounded English soldier who asked her if she would hear his confession. Comrades fearing her among the dead found Joan cradling the now-dead young man in her arms, weeping uncontrollably. The English did not win another major engagement for the rest of the Hundred Years' War.
Accepting the peaceful surrender of every town along her path, Joan, her army, and their Scottish allies escorted the Dauphin deep into English territory. On July 17th, he was crowned Charles VII at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims. This marked the height of her career, as she was stymied repeatedly by an apathetic Charles, who preferred to negotiate with the English and the Burgundians than capitalize on the momentum she had given him. He gave her just one day to take Paris, an impossible task made worse by his order that the pontoons her general Jéan de Alençon had built be destroyed. The fighting at Porte Saint-Honoré, main entry to Paris from the West, was brutal, even by medieval standards: Joan was wounded twice, and her standard bearer was killed. Alençon had to literally drag her away from the battle as she continued to direct action. Her "failure" to take Paris pummeled her standing at court, as Charles's scheming courtiers hoped. She was forced to abandon the Siege of La Charité (November 24-December 25) after her pleas for supplies and artillery fell on deaf ears. Joan and her family were ennobled on December 29th, officially, in acknowledgment for her service, but, in reality, to get her to go home.
On May 23, 1430, Joan and Pierre were captured by the Burgundians during the Siege of Compiègne, with Joan commanding 400 volunteers. Having ordered a retreat, she ushered her group through Compiègne's city gates, but the gates were closed before she, Pierre, and the rest of the rear guard could enter. Historians are divided as to if the gate were closed to prevent the Burgundians from entering, or if it was an act of treachery by Compiègne's governor. Pierre was released after his ransom was paid, ultimately marrying the daughter of the man who raised it.
Sold to the English after Charles did not pay her ransom, Joan was put on trial, paid for by the Duke of Bedford (regent for his and Charles's nephew, Henry VI). The judges were pro-English French clerics from the University of Paris, led by Bishop Pierre Cauchon (who was forced to flee his seat at Beauvais when Joan took the town). At the time of her capture, Joan was the most-famous person in all Christendom, so Cauchon (hoping to prove that Joan was a fraud) had the proceedings meticulously recorded. In something of an irony, Bedford's wife confirmed Joan's virtue, preventing Cauchon from trying her as a witch. After 15 interrogations in less than a month, followed by a "trial" which rubber-stamped the foregone conclusion, she was convicted of heresy and turned over to secular authorities. Bedford signed her death warrant, and she was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431, at the Vieux-Marché in Rouen before a crowd of 10,000, including 800 English soldiers who escorted her to the venue. One soldier gave her a cross fashioned from twigs and twine as his comrades wept, despite orders from their superiors to show no emotion.
It wasn't until 1450 that Charles ordered an inquiry into the "faults and abuses" committed by the judges whom "brought about her death iniquitously and against right reason, very cruelly". He knew that he owed Joan his throne, and if she was indeed a heretic, that made him a heretic as well. Hence, the inquiry had nothing to do with clearing her name and everything to do with legitimating his rule. Meanwhile, Joan's mother petitioned Pope Nicholas V for redress. Jéan Bréhal, inquisitor-general of France, was charged by the papal legate, Guillaume d'Estouteville, with reviewing the case. Bréhal urged the new pope, Callixtus III, to take up Joan's cause. On July 7, 1456, after a "retrial" at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, Joan was declared a martyr, the victim of a political vendetta which violated canon law and cleared of all charges, however, her claims of divinity were not addressed. Callixtus excommunicated the now-deceased Cauchon in 1457.
Her popularity grew over the centuries, yet not everyone was a fan. Shakespeare depicted her as a witch in "Henry VI, Part I". Voltaire mocked her in "The Maid of Oranges". The Revolutionaries who overthrew Louis XVI banned the yearly celebration of the lifting the Siege of Orléans, destroyed her relics, and turned her statues into cannons. It was only after Napoléon declared her a national symbol of France that she was on her way to becoming universally revered. On May 16, 1920, Joan was canonized by Pope Benedict XV. A gold halo was placed over the head of her statue at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris as Parisians, whose ancestors fought Joan at Porte Saint-Honoré, crammed the streets in celebration.
In the years immediately following her death, several women came forward claiming to be Joan; in 1434, Jéan and Pierre recognized one named Claude. For the next 6 years, the brothers and their "sister" traveled from town to town, receiving lavish gifts from Joan's many admirers, all of whom were desperate to believe she had escaped her fate. Then the trio made the mistake of visiting court. Unable to tell Charles the "secret" Joan told him, proving to him she that had been sent by God, Claude confessed to the subterfuge, and begged forgiveness. Jéan's fate is unknown. Pierre continued to serve in the Army. Claude married and had two children.
Clotilde Forgeot d'Arc, who played Joan in the 2022 celebration of the lifting of the Siege of Orléans, claims to be Pierre's descendant. However, this is disputed. Genealogist Michel de Sachy de Fourdrinoy wrote in "Bulletin de L'alliance Française" (October 1973) "there is no longer any known descendants of the brothers of the Maid", confirming scholar François de Bouteiller's findings published in "Revue des Questions Historiques" (1878) that Joan's great-great nephew Charles du Lys (d. 1632) was the "last remaining male of the line". Clotilde's great-great-grandfather, Henri Gaultier, renamed his children "d'Arc" after being granted an Ordonnance Royale by Charles X in 1827.
Joan's birthplace Domrémy was renamed Domrémy-la-Pucelle ("The Maid") in 1578. - Johannes Gutenberg was born in 1398 in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. He died on 3 February 1468 in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
- Born around 1414-1420 into an English gentry family, Sir Thomas Malory spent his first couple of decades in quiet obscurity, aside from campaigning at the Siege of Calais in 1436. By 1441 he had been knighted, and had developed a growing interest in politics. In 1445 he became MP for his county and over the next few years developed a startling talent for lawlessness. In 1444 he had been charged with assault and theft, and in 1450 Malory tried to ambush and murder the Duke of Buckingham. He allegedly raped Joan Smith not once but twice, stole goods from her husband, extorted money, pilfered cattle, and destroyed the Duke of Buckingham's hunting lodge. In 1451 Malory was imprisoned at Coleshill, but escaped two days later by swimming the moat at night. He then twice raided Combe Abbey alongside a band of outlaws, stealing a great deal of money and harassing the monks. Malory was captured in 1452 and thrown into a London prison where he spent eight years awaiting trial. After he was bailed out, he was caught stealing horses and placed in a Colchester jail, but fought his way through the guards and escaped. He was recaptured and returned to the London prison, but was freed by royal pardon in 1460. However, by 1468 Malory was back in Newgate prison, where he would die in 1471. While in Newgate he turned to writing, creating the immortal "Le Morte D'Arthur", which would win him eternal fame. The truth behind the seemingly contradictory nature of Sir Thomas Malory is hotly debated, and may never be fully known.
- Art Department
Dieric Bouts was born in 1415 in Haarlem, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. He is known for Met Dieric Bouts (1975) and Sister Wendy at the Norton Simon Museum (2002). He died on 6 May 1475 in Leuven, Flanders, Belgium.- Louis XI of France was born on 3 July 1423 in Bourges, Berry [now Cher], France. He was married to Charlotte of Savoy and Margaret of Scotland. He died on 30 August 1483 in La Riche, Touraine [now Indre-et-Loire], France.
- Music Department
Jacobus Barbireau was born in 1455 in Belgium. Jacobus is known for BBC Proms (1972). Jacobus died on 7 August 1491 in Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium.- Music Department
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Johannes Ockeghem was born in 1410 in Saint-Ghislain, Hainaut, Wallonia, Belgium. He is known for eXtrañas heterodoXias (2021). He died on 6 February 1497 in Tours, France.- Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator who completed four Spanish-based voyages across the Atlantic Ocean sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.
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Heinrich Isaac was born in 1450 in Brabant, Belgium. Heinrich is known for BBC Proms (1972). Heinrich was married to Bartolomea . Heinrich died on 26 March 1517 in Florence, Italy.- Art Department
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The archetypal "Renaissance Man," Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest scientific minds as well as one of the greatest visual artists the human race has ever produced. The illegitimate son of a wealthy Florentine notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman named Caterina, Leonardo was born in Tuscany on April 15, 1452, in Anchiano, a town near Vinci, which is in the proximity of Florence.
When he was about 17 years old, Leonardo was apprenticed as a garzone or studio boy to the workshop of the Renaissance master Andrea Verrocchio, the leading Florentine painter and artist of his day. From roughly 1469 to 1476, Leonardo acquired a variety of skills during his apprenticeship at Verrocchio's workshop, including painting altarpieces and panel pictures and making large sculptures in bronze and marble. In 1472, he joined the painters' guild, and six years later, he became an independent master. His first commission was in 1478, to paint an altarpiece for the Palazzo Vecchio's chapel. The painting was never executed. Florence's Monastery of San Donato a Scopeto commissioned Leonardo's first large painting in 1481. 'The Adoration of the Magi' was left unfinished when Leonardo left Florence for Milan approximately a year later, to work for Duke Lodovico Sforza as court artist and as an engineer.
Leonardo had written the Duke of Milan touting his skills as a military engineer. In his letter, Leonardo claimed that he could build portable bridges, manufacture cannon, and build ships and war machines, including armored vehicles and catapults. He also told the Duke he could sculpt in bronze, clay and marble. He worked for the Duke of Milan for almost 18 years, painting portraits, designing festivals, and planning to sculpt a massive equestrian monument to honor the Duke's father. In addition to serving the duke as an architect and working for him as a military engineer, Leonardo assisted the mathematician Luca Pacioli in the celebrated work Divina Proportione.
Leonardo's interest in science began to flourish in Milan, and as a civil and military engineer, he delved into the field of mechanics. His scientific research also embraced anatomy, biology, mathematics, and physics. It was during this period that he finished "The Last Supper," which along with the "Mona Lisa," is his most significant masterpiece.
France captured Milan in 1499, and Leonardo moved to Mantua and then to Venice to seek employment. By April 1500, he had returned to Florence, though two years later, he left to work for Cesare Borgia, the Duke of Romagna, in a military capacity. The son of Pope Alexander VI, Borgia served his father as his general in-chief. Leonardo. as the duke's chief architect and engineer, supervised construction on forts in the Papal states in central Italy.
Back in Florence in 1503, Leonardo served on the art commission of artists that determined the proper placing of Michelangelo's sculpture 'David.' Florence was at war with Pisa, and Leonardo served the city-state as a military engineer while continuing his scientific research. Leonardo began to design a painting for the great hall of the Palazzo Vecchio to commemorate the Battle of Anghiari, a Florentine victory over Pisa. While Leonardo produced a full-size sketch in 1505, he never executed the wall painting. During his second residency in Florence, Leonardo painted the portrait 'La Giocondane,' more famously known as Mona Lisa. Leonardo apparently was quite fond of the completed work, as it accompanied him on all of his subsequent travels.
Arguably the most famous painting in the world, the Mona Lisa is a bravura technical performance. The innovative Leonardo exhibits his mastery of chiaroscuro, the technique of modeling and defining form through contrasts of light and shadow, and sfumato, the technique of using subtle transitions between areas of color. The Mona Lisa, like many of his paintings, features a landscape background utilizing atmospheric perspective. Leonardo was one of the first painters to introduce atmospheric perspective into art, and his work influenced the High Renaissance Florentine masters, including Raphael. He also was a major influence on the artistic development of Correggio.
Returning to Milan in June 1506, at the invitation of French governor Charles d'Amboise, Leonardo went to work for the French court, which with King Louis XII of France, was residing in the Italian city. Except for a sojourn back in Florence in the period 1507-08, Leonardo stayed in Milan for seven years, though he returned to Florence often to visit his half-brothers and -siters and to manage his inheritance. In 1507, Leonardo went was named court painter to King Louis XII.
In Milan, he worked on engineering projects and on the planning of an equestrian statue to honor Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, the French military commander of Milan. The statue was never realized. During this Milan stay, scientific research became paramount. He applied his artistic gifts toward scientific illustration. In addition to his study of anatomy, he studied the stratification of rocks and researched the principles behind light, the flow of water, and the growth of plants. Leonardo's method was to draw and describe things by first approaching the surface before delving in to the underlying structure. He was interested in exactly describing the appearance of natural things in order to analyze their functioning. Similar to his artistic innovations, Leonardo's scientific theories were based on careful observation, precisely documented. He also made sketches of mechanical devices for the transmission of energy.
Along with Giuliano de'Medici, the brother of Pope Leo X, Leonardo moved to Rome in 1514. Enjoying the patronage of Pope Leo X, he lived in the Palazzo Belvedere in the Vatican and was mostly concerned with scientific experimentation. In 1516, he left Italy and moved to France to become the architectural adviser of King Francis I, an admirer of his work. Leonardo lived at the Château de Cloux, near Amboise, France, where he died on May 2, 1519 at at the age of 67.- Art Department
Raphael was born on 6 April 1483 in Urbino, Duchy of Urbino [now Marche, Italy]. He is known for Parajanov: The Last Spring (1992), Night Descends on Treasure Island (1940) and Sister Wendy at the Norton Simon Museum (2002). He died on 6 April 1520 in Rome, Papal State [now Lazio, Italy].- Composer
- Soundtrack
Josquin Desprez was born in 1440 in France. He was a composer, known for When Will I Be Loved (2004), Vaya con Dios (2002) and Vai~E~Vem (2003). He died on 27 August 1521 in Condé-sur-l'Escaut, Nord, France.- Born into a time of extreme political upheaveal, Niccolò Machiavelli was a member of the old Florentine nobility. He received a proper humanistic Renaissance education, and as a young man began the climb up the perilous political ladder of Italy. In 1502 he was sent to Romagna as an envoy to Cesare Borgia, the infamous papal prince and despot who would later influence Machiavelli's political philosophy. The return of the Medici dynasty in 1512 resulted in Machiavelli's downfall. He lost his office and was imprisoned and tortured before finally being banished from Florence. It was during his exile that Machiavelli wrote his most famous work, "Il Principe (The Prince)", a handbook of sorts for autocratic rulers. Though his sympathies lay with republicanism, he was first and foremost intensely pragmatic, a quality which did not endear him to later, more idealistic, generations.
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- Art Department
Albrecht Dürer was born on 21 May 1471 in Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire [now Bavaria, Germany]. He was a writer, known for Knight, Death and the Devil (2023) and Unser Sandmännchen (1959). He died on 6 April 1528 in Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire [now Bavaria, Germany].- Francesco Guicciardini was a writer, known for The Age of the Medici (1972). Francesco died on 22 May 1540 in Arcetri, Florence, Duchy of Florence [now Arcetri, Florence, Tuscany, Italy].
- Nicolaus Copernicus was born on 19 February 1473 in Torun, Poland. He was a writer, known for Teatr Polskiego Radia (2004). He died on 24 May 1543 in Frombork, Poland.
- Agnolo Firenzuola was born on 28 September 1493 in Florence, Republic of Florence [now Tuscany, Italy]. Agnolo was a writer, known for Neskolko lyubovnykh istoriy (1994). Agnolo died on 27 June 1543 in Prato, Republic of Florence [now Tuscany, Italy].
- Composer
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Martin Luther was born on 10 November 1483 in Eisleben, Mansfeld, Holy Roman Empire [now Saxony-Anhalt, Germany]. He was a composer, known for Gangs of New York (2002), Alias Nick Beal (1949) and Mitt folk är icke ditt (1944). He was married to Katherine Von Bora. He died on 18 February 1546 in Eisleben, Mansfeld, Holy Roman Empire [now Saxony-Anhalt, Germany].- Soundtrack
Henry VIII (28 June 1491 - 28 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagreement with Pope Clement VII about such an annulment led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority. He appointed himself Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated. Henry is also known as "the father of the Royal Navy", as he invested heavily in the navy, increasing its size from a few to more than 50 ships, and established the Navy Board.- Marguerite de Navarre was born on 11 April 1492 in Angoulême, Charente, France. Marguerite was a writer, known for Hry lásky sálivé (1971), L'Heptaméron (Joyeux compères) (1973) and Gli altri racconti di Canterbury (1972). Marguerite died on 21 December 1549 in Odos, Hautes-Pyrénées, France.
- François Rabelais was a French Renaissance writer, physician, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He is primarily known as a writer of satire, of the grotesque, and of bawdy jokes and songs.
Ecclesiastical and anticlerical, Christian and considered by some as a free thinker, a doctor and having the image of a "Bon Vivant", the multiple facets of his personality sometimes seem contradictory. Caught up in the religious and political turmoil of the Reformation, Rabelais showed himself to be both sensitive and critical towards the great questions of his time. Subsequently, the views of his life and work have evolved according to the times and currents of thought. - Writer
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Ludovico Ariosto was born on 8 September 1474 in Reggio Emilia, Duchy of Modena and Reggio [now Emilia-Romagna, Italy]. He was a writer, known for The Madness of Roland (1992), Prestige de la musique (1963) and Il viaggio di Astolfo (1972). He died on 6 July 1553 in Ferrara, Duchy of Ferrara [now Emilia-Romagna, Italy].- Pietro Aretino was born on 20 April 1492 in Arezzo, Republic of Florence [now Tuscany, Italy]. He was a writer, known for Der Kaufmann von Venedig (1923), Gli altri racconti di Canterbury (1972) and Beautiful Antonia, First a Nun Then a Demon (1972). He died on 21 October 1556 in Venice, Republic of Venice [now Veneto, Italy].
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Herman Finck was born on 21 March 1527 in Pirna, Saxony, Germany. Herman is known for BBC Proms (1972). Herman died on 28 December 1558 in Wittenberg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.- Writer
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Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on 6 March 1475 in Caprese, Florence, Italy. He was a writer, known for So kindly to the cold stone is the fire... (2022), Yksitoista ihmisen kuvaa (2012) and Michelangelo (1963). He died on 18 February 1564 in Rome, Italy.- Antonio de Cabezón was born in 1510 in Castrillo de Matajudios, Spain. He was a composer, known for Returns (2018) and El alquimista (1971). He died on 26 March 1566 in Madrid, Comunidad de Madrid, Spain.
- Louise Labé was born in 1524 in Lyon, Rhône, France. Louise was a writer, known for Plain-chant (1970) and Symphonie de printemps (1963). Louise died on 25 April 1566 in Parcieux-en-Dombes, Ain, France.
- An apothecary before he began to practice the occult, Michel de Nostredame spent the early part of his career battling outbreaks of the bubonic plague in southern France, and northern Italy. Historians attribute his higher-than-average survival rates to his then-radical practice of personal hygiene, his insistence that patients be bathed and their homes cleaned, his refusal to enter a town until the bodies of plague victims were properly interred (it was routine for bodies to be stacked in the streets like cord-wood), and his refusal to bleed patients. In a cruel irony, he lost his wife and two children to the plague while he was in Italy. After several years, he eventually settled in Salon-de-Provence, married a wealthy widow, and had six children. He and his wife were investors in a canal project to use the Durance River to irrigate Salon-de-Provence and the Désert de la Crau, which de Nostredame hoped would further his efforts to promote sanitation.
Writing under the Latinized version of his surname "Nostradamus", he began publishing farmers almanacs containing his prophecies in 1550. In "The Prophecies" (1555-1558), a collection of quatrains in three volumes, believers claim he predicted the Great London Fire of 1666; the French Revolution; the rise of Napoléon Bonaparte, and Adolf Hitler; the atom bomb; the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy; the first Gulf War; the death of Princess Diana; the 9/11 attacks; and Hurricane Katrina. He also supposedly predicted that the United States and Russia would go to war against China. Among his supporters was Catherine de Médicis, consort of King Henri II, whose death in a jousting match he had predicted. She made de Nostredame Counselor and Physician-in-Ordinary to her son, King Charles IX.
After having his lawyer draft a last will, he told his secretary: "You will not find me alive at sunrise." The next morning, July 2, 1566, he was dead. De Nostredame was buried in the local Franciscan chapel, but was re-interred during the French Revolution in the Collégiale Saint-Laurent, where he remains.
In the 20th and 21st Centuries, he has been used as a touchstone in books, films, television shows, comic books, and video games. - Marin Drzic was born in 1508 in Dubrovnik, Republic of Dubrovnik (Ragusa). Marin was a writer, known for Probisvet (1967), TV teatar (1956) and Novela od Stanca (1959). Marin died on 2 May 1567 in Venice, Republic of Venice [now Veneto, Italy].
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Pieter Bruegel was born in 1525 in Breda, Netherlands. He was an actor, known for The Pit and the Pendulum (1991), Human Nature: Creating It Comes at Night (2017) and Five Revolutionary Painters (1959). He died on 9 September 1569 in Brussels, Southern Netherlands [now Belgium].- Benvenuto Cellini was a writer, known for Cellini: A Violent Life (1990). Benvenuto died on 13 February 1571 in Florence, Tuscany, Italy.
- Giorgio Vasari was born on 30 July 1511 in Arezzo, Tuscany [now Italy]. Giorgio was a writer, known for Raphael Superstar (2016). Giorgio died on 27 June 1574 in Florence [now Italy].
- Hans Sachs was born on 5 November 1494 in Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire [now Bavaria, Germany]. Hans was a writer, known for Aufruhr im Schlaraffenland (1957) and Katzen können kratzen (1989). Hans died on 19 January 1576 in Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire [now Bavaria, Germany].