15th century  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Revision as of 07:52, 22 March 2008

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As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500.

Fashion

Fashion in 15th century Europe is characterized by a series of extremes and extravagances, from the voluminous gowns called houppelandes with their sweeping floor-length sleeves to the revealing doublets and hose of Renaissance Italy. Hats, hoods, and other headdresses assumed increasing importance, and were swagged, draped, jewelled, and feathered.

As Europe continued to grow more prosperous, the urban middle classes, including skilled workers, began to wear more complex clothes that followed, at a distance, the fashions set by the elites. National variations in clothing seem on the whole to have increased over the century.

Events

• 1429: Joan of Arc ends the Siege of Orléans and turns the tide of the Hundred Years' War.
• 1481: Spanish Inquisition begins.
• 1492: Jews expelled from Spain.
• 1492: Christopher Columbus founds Spain's first New World colony on Hispaniola.
• 1494: Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas and agree to divide the World outside of Europe between themselves.
• 1494-1559: The Italian Wars lead to the downfall of the Italian city-states.
• 1497-1499: Vasco da Gama's first voyage from Europe to India and back.

Significant people

• Jan Hus, Bohemian religious thinker and reformer (c. 1369 - 1415).
• Johannes Gutenberg, European inventor of printing with movable type (c.1398 - 1468)
• Joan of Arc, national heroine of France (1412 - 1431).
• François Villon, French poet (c. 1431 - 1474).
• Mehmed II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and Conqueror of Constantinople (1432 - 1481).
• Marsilio Ficino, Significant translator of Plato's works (1433 - 1481).
• Isabella of Castile, co-ruler of Ferdinand II of Aragon and responsible with him for the unification of Spain (1451 - 1504).
• Christopher Columbus sails to the Americas for Spain (c. 1451 - 1506).
• Leonardo da Vinci, inventor and painter (1452 - 1519).
• Vasco da Gama reaches India for Portugal, creating the first maritime alternative for the Silk Road (c. 1469 - 1524

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

List of 15th century inventions

• Renaissance affects philosophy, science and art.
• Age of Discovery begins.
• Rise of Modern English language from Middle English.
• Introduction of the noon bell in the Catholic world.
• Public banks
• Yongle Encyclopedia - over 22,000 volumes
• Psychiatric hospitals
• Development of the woodcut for printing between 1400-1450
• Movable type first used by King Taejong of Joseon - 1403 (Movable type, which allowed individual characters to be arranged to form words, was invented in China by Bi Sheng between 1041 to 1048.)
• Although pioneered earlier in Korea and by the Chinese official Wang Zhen (with tin), bronze metal movable type printing is created in China by Hua Sui in 1490.
• Johannes Gutenberg invents the printing press in Europe (c. 1455).
• Linear perspective drawing perfected by Filippo Brunelleschi 1410-1415
• Invention of the harpsichord c. 1450
• Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus 1492
• First canal lock reportedly built in Vreeswijk, Netherlands in 1481

Births

• François Villon
• Hans Holbein
• Hieronymus Bosch
• Quentin Matsys
• Albrecht Dürer
• Matthias Grünewald
• Lucas Cranach
• Hans Baldung Grien
• Pietro Aretino
• François Rabelais

Notes

Related: Gothic art - Middle Ages - Gilles de Rais - rediscovery of Nero's Golden house - early Renaissance

• Jean Fouquet (or Jehan Fouquet, 1420 - 1481) was a French painter.
• Venus, c. 1485 - Botticelli
• Satyr mourning over a nymph (c. 1495) - Piero di Cosimo
• 1455: Johann Gutenberg invents printing press using movable type cast from metal
• Rediscovery of Nero's Golden House
• The Bonfire of the Vanities
• Gilles de Rais
• 1493 The use of tobacco is introduced into Europe by Columbus and his crew returning from America.
• Europe Claims America October 12 - Christopher Columbus's expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean. The Italian explorer believes he has reached East Asia.
• 1431 - First German peasant revolt at Worms
• The Malleus Maleficarum (1486) Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger
• Vlad the Impaler
• Vlad III Dracula (also known as Vlad Tepes in Romanian or Vlad the Impaler)
• Hieronymous Bosch
• 1485 The first edition Danse Macabre is published in Paris by Guyot Marchant
• Michael Pacher