At the end of 14th century AD, a small number of Italian thinkers stated that they were

living in a new age. The sadistic Middle Ages were over and the new age would be a
rinascit (rebirth) of learning and literature, art and culture. This was the beginning of
the period now known as the Renaissance. For centuries, scholars have acknowledge
that the Italian Renaissance (rebirth) happened between the 14th century and the 17th
century, a new, modern way of rationalizing about the world and mans place in it
replaced an old, backward one. The Renaissance (Italy) was considerably more
complicated than because in many ways the period we call the Renaissance was not so
different from the era that preceded it. However, many of the scientific, artistic and
cultural achievements of the so-called Renaissance do share common themesmost
notably the humanistic belief that man was the center of his own universe.
One most powerful warring city- states of italy were Milan, Florence, Pisa, Siena,
Genoa, Ferrara, and Venice. High Medieval Northern Italy was divided by the long
running battle for sovereignty between the forces of the Papacy and of the Holy Roman
Empire: each city aligned itself with one faction or the other, then was divided internally
between the two battling parties of Guelfs and Ghibellines. Since the 13th century, as
armies became primarily composed of various mercenaries, prosperous city-states
could field considerable forces, despite their low populations. In the later fifteenth
century, the most powerful city-states annexed their smaller neighbors. Florence took
Pisa in 1406, Venice captured Padua and Verona, while the Duchy of Milan annexed a
number of nearby areas including Pavia and Parma.
The new humanist spirit and the Renaissance it instigate a spread to all parts of Europe,
aided by the invention of printing, which allowed literacy and the availability of Classical
texts to grow exponentially. Among northern humanists was Desiderius Erasmus,
whose Praise of Folly (1509) exemplified the moral essence of humanism in its
emphasis on heartfelt goodness as to the disputed formalistic piety. The intellectual
stimulation provided by humanists helped spark the Reformation,however, many
humanists, including Erasmus, recoiled. By the end of the 16th century the battle of
Reformation and Counter-Reformation had commanded much of Europes energy and
attention, while the intellectual life was poised on the brink of the Enlightenment.
References:
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Italian_Renaissance
http://www.history.com/topics/italian-renaissance
http://www.britannica.com/event/Renaissance