The Italian Renaissance begins the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spans the period from the end of the fourteenth century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe.

The term renaissance is in essence a modern one that had come into currency in the nineteenth century, in the work of historians such as Jacob Burckhardt.

Although the origins of a movement that is confined largely to the literate culture of intellectual endeavor and patronage can be traced to the earlier part of the 14th century, many aspects of Italian culture and society remain largely Medieval; the Renaissance does not come into full swing until the end of the century.

The word renaissance (Rinascimento in Italian) means “rebirth”, and the era is best known for the renewed interest in the culture of classical antiquity after the period that Renaissance humanists label the Dark Ages.

These changes, while significant, are concentrated in the elite, and for the vast majority of the population life is little changed from the Middle Ages.The European Renaissance begins in Tuscany, and centers in the cities of Florence and Siena.

It later has a great impact in Venice, where the remains of ancient Greek culture are brought together, providing humanist scholars with new texts.

The Renaissance later has a significant effect on Rome, which is ornamented with some structures in the new all'antico mode, then is largely rebuilt by sixteenth-century popes.

The Italian Renaissance peaks in the late 15th century as foreign invasions plunge the region into the turmoil of the Italian Wars.

However, the ideas and ideals of the Renaissance spread into the rest of Europe, setting off the Northern Renaissance, and the English Renaissance.The Italian Renaissance is best known for its cultural achievements.

Italian Renaissance literature includes such figures as Petrarch, Castiglione, and Machiavelli.

Italian Renaissance painting is to exercise a dominant influence on Western painting for centuries afterwards, with artists such as Michelangelo, Raphael Botticelli, and Leonardo da Vinci, and the same is true for architecture, with works such as Florence Cathedral and St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

At the same time, some present-day historians also see the era as one of economic regression and of little progress in science, which is to make its great leaps forward among Protestant culture in the seventeenth century.