Here’s the history lesson behind October 16th LARPing event. You can also download the PDF on the Materials Tab.
This is a fascinating time in history. The age of exploration. This was a time period when sea exploration exploded.
In 1488, Bartholomeu Dias sailed around the Cape of Good Hope. Of course, Columbus “sailed the ocean blue in 1492.” He landed in the Bahamas. Did he ever make it to North America? No. Was he the first on to discover America? No. Actually, read about the Vikings and Leif Ericsson. That’s fascinating. What about the man Columbus himself? There’s much controversy these days about him. Read his journals and decide for yourself!
Then there was Vasco da Gama. He sailed to India in 1485. There were many more!
Actually it was studying the Explorers that gave us the name Explorers Creativity Club!
At the time, Sam and Mrs. Beasley were doing a unit study called KONOS and they were studying the great seafaring explorers. Mrs. Beasley couldn’t find anyone to start a co-op with so she started a play and activity based enrichment program called Explorers Creativity Club. We did things like light volcanoes, make rivers, and more.
That was how our club started!
So back to Renaissance History. In the late 15th century, 1494 to be exact, a man named Girolamo Savonarola became the de facto leader of Florence. He was a prior who preached reformation. Not long after, in 1492, a man named Rodrigo Borgia was made Pope Alexander VI. Many considered this was a corrupt appointment. The Pope excommunicated, tortured, and killed Savonarola in 1498.
Most of Europe was involved in wars in Italy that began in 1494, when the French king Charles VIIII invaded Italy. Then the French conquered Milan in 1499. This helped Renaissance art and philosophy flow into France.
The High Renaissance effectively ended in 1527 When Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire sacked Rome. Thousands of houses and churches and palaces were pillaged and burned.
Major Works of the Time Period:
Michelangelo Buonarroti, “Battles of the Centaurs,” 1492. “La Pieta,” 1500
Leonardo da Vinci, “Last Supper,” 1498
Martin Behaim, “the Erdapfel,” 1490–92
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, “900 Theses”
Fra Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli, “Everything About Arithmetic, Geometry, and Proportion,” 1494