Renaissance History Trivia

1. Felice della Rovere's father was which pope?

From Quiz Felice della Rovere: The Pope's Daughter

Answer: Pope Julius II

Pope Julius II, her father, commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel. Pope Sixtus IV was her uncle, Francisco della Rovere. The infamous Borgia Pope Alexander VI had children, as did his predecessor Innocent VIII. This was a magnificent and often corrupt period of church history. These papal children were conceived when their fathers were cardinals.

From Quiz The Borgias

Answer: Calixtus III

He was Rodrigo Borgia's uncle, and made his nephew a cardinal in 1456.

From Quiz Tudor Clothing

Answer: French hood

Until the mid 1520s, gable hoods were in style. Gable hoods were pentagon-shaped, with a long veil down the back. Anne Boleyn brought the French hood back from France with her and it quickly took hold at the English court. This hood was rounder, and sat farther back on the head to reveal more hair. Wealthy women could afford to adorn it with jewels or gold embroidery. Of the wives of Henry VIII, Katherine of Aragon and Jane Seymour preferred the gable hood, while Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard preferred the French hood.

From Quiz Renaissance Women

Answer: Jane Seymour

Jane Seymour (1508[?] - 24 October 1537) was his third wife. She died after giving birth to the later Edward VI. Katherine of Aragon was the mother of Mary I, Anne Boleyn was the mother of Elizabeth I.

From Quiz Operatic History - the Sixteenth Century

Answer: Alfonso d'Albuquerque

Benedict (1804-1885) was born in Stuttgart (Germany) and died in London. He composed six operas and two operettas. D'Albuquerque (1453-1515) was the first leader of the important colony of Goa. The others are no Portuguese colonists, but Italian and Spanish adventurers. By the way, the first Archbishop of Goa was another member of the d'Albuquerque family: Joao Alfonso was prelate of Goa from 1538 until 1553. Vespucci (1451-1512) was an Italian who proved that Columbus had found a new continent, and not an already known country. In honour of Vespucci a German cartographer named the continent after Vespucci's Christian name. Pigafetta (1491-1534) was an Italian who sailed with Magellan. He was one of the eighteen survivors of this first trip around the world, completed by Elcano. Pizarro (about 1471-1541) was a Spanish conquistador. He conquered the Inca Empire in 1532 and founded the city of Lima in 1535.

From Quiz Ancient to Renaissance History

Answer: Pax Romana

The Pax Romana started when Augustus Caesar became the emperor, therefore making Rome an Empire. During the Pax Romana the 5 "good emperors" ruled. There were many developments in lifestyles, and the Roman alphabet became the basis for the western world's alphabet.

From Quiz Renaissance - Missing Links

Answer: Pico della Mirandola

There wouldn't have been a Renaissance without the humanists and their innovative ideas. They rediscovered Antiquity and set the place of the human being in the center of the world, thus closing the dark chapter of the Middle Ages. The new concepts promoted by Italian humanists like Petrarch, Bruni, Mirandola or Machiavelli were rapidly assimilated by Northern Europe's thinkers and writers.

From Quiz European History, 16th century

Answer: 1517

The "theses" were essentially a list a propositions (including grievances) for public debate. This action of his sparked off what was to become the Reformation.

From Quiz European History: Renaissance Timeline

Answer: 1414

The Medici family of Florence rose from modest origins to become the most powerful banking dynasty in Europe. In 1414 they became bankers to the Pope. This gave them enormous political and financial influence across the continent. Florence flourished as a result, attracting artists, architects and scholars from across Europe. Their money funded some of the greatest artists of the age, including Botticelli, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Lorenzo de' Medici, known as 'The Magnificent', was the family's most celebrated patron of the arts.

From Quiz The Borgias

Answer: Xativa, Catalonia

Alexander VI and his children continued to speak the Valencian (Catalonian) dialect in private when they lived in Rome.

From Quiz Tudor Clothing

Answer: Chest and waist

The bodice was worn by women, and was similar to a corset, though it was worn over the clothes. It had no sleeves, and was tied tightly. It made the top half of the body look smaller, in contrast to the voluminous skirt beneath.

From Quiz Renaissance Women

Answer: Mary Queen of Scots

Mary I of Scotland was convicted of treason for being involved in a plot to kill Elizabeth I, Queen of England. She claimed the English throne because Henry VII was her great-grandfather. (Her father was James V of Scotland, her grandmother was Margaret Tudor.) Friedrich Schiller's drama "Maria Stuart" written by in 1801. (Schiller includes a dramatic confrontation between the two queens, but this is poetic licence as in fact the two queens never set eyes on one another).

From Quiz Ancient to Renaissance History

Answer: Actium

This battle took place in 31 B.C. off the West coast of Greece. Octavian became Rome's first emperor, and Augustus after defeating Marc Antony and Cleopatra's joint forces.

From Quiz Renaissance - Missing Links

Answer: Ludovico Sforza

Popes, kings, noblemen, influential members of the rich merchant class - these were the maecenases of the Renaissance period. Thanks to their vanity and their love for beauty the patrons of the arts would always show their support, admiration and protection to the talented artists. Prominent among the promoters of the movement were the rich Medici (Lorenzo and Cosimo) and Sforza families. Since the time of Pope Nicolas V, also the church had been directly involved in sustaining the arts. Their example was followed by other European rulers like Francis I in France, or his sister - Margaret of Navarre.

From Quiz European History, 16th century

Answer: 1558-1603

Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, succeeded her half-sister, Mary Tudor (known as Bloody Mary for her sweeping persecution of Protestants), and was in turn succeeded by her cousin Mary Stuart's son, James (I of England, VI of Scotland), whose accession to the English throne was the stepping stone to the unification of England and Scotland.

From Quiz European History: Renaissance Timeline

Answer: Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc was a French peasant girl from Domrémy. She claimed to hear the voices of saints urging her to drive the English from France during the Hundred Years' War. In 1429, aged just seventeen, she led French forces to a remarkable victory at Orleans, turning the tide of the war in France's favour. She was later captured by Burgundian forces and handed to the English, who tried her for heresy. She was burned at the stake in Rouen in 1431 at the age of nineteen. A retrial in 1456 declared her innocent, and she was canonised as a saint in 1920.

From Quiz Felice della Rovere: The Pope's Daughter

Answer: Raphael

The painting hangs in the Vatican apartments and shows a lovely young woman turned toward the Pope as he is saying Mass. There are other masterpieces of that era that are thought to be Felicia.

From Quiz Renaissance Women

Answer: Spain

She married Philip II of Spain in 1554. He was eleven years younger. They were both Catholic, and she had about 300 Protestants ('heretics') executed, including Sir Thomas Wyatt and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. This gave her the nickname Bloody Mary. She was the daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon.

From Quiz Ancient to Renaissance History

Answer: Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Canterbury tales after 1387. It is an unfinished poem in which the various members of a group of pilgrims journeying from London to the shrine of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury each tells a story in verse.

From Quiz Renaissance - Missing Links

Answer: Andrea Mantegna

The 'Quatrocento' period gravitates around the city of Florence, under the brilliant patronage and protection of Lorenzo de Medici - the Magnificent. Although Florence had the leading painting school in this period (Fra Angelico, Masaccio, Castagno, Botticelli, Lippi) several other schools asserted themselves throughout Italy: Umbria (Signorelli, Della Francesca), Padova (Mantegna), Venice (Bellini, Carpacio).

From Quiz European History: Renaissance Timeline

Answer: Moveable type

Johannes Gutenberg was a German craftsman who developed a system of movable-type printing in Europe around 1436. Before this, books were painstakingly copied by hand by monks and scribes. This made them rare, slow to produce and very expensive. Gutenberg's invention allowed books to be produced quickly and in large numbers for the first time. Knowledge spread rapidly across Europe as a result, which fuelled the Renaissance and the Reformation. Education, religion and politics were all affected in the years that followed.

From Quiz Felice della Rovere: The Pope's Daughter

Answer: Orsini

It was a marriage arranged by her father, the pope. The Orsini family was one of the most prominent families in Italy for many generations. She was previously married and widowed as a young teenager. Georgio Orsini was 20 years older than Felice and she was only 20 when they married. The marriage was consummated within 15 minutes of the wedding ceremony with the guests keeping time, apparently. This was a practice to insure that an annulment could not be claimed. All kinds of mental images come to mind as to how you time 15 minutes in the 1500s. Gives a whole new meaning to the term, "You may kiss the bride."

From Quiz The Borgias

Answer: Charles VIII

The humpbacked Charles reached Naples easily, but was forced to withdraw soon after, and was fought to a virtual stalemate at the Battle of Fornovo in 1495.

From Quiz Tudor Clothing

Answer: To lift the skirts into a bell shape

It was fashionable at this time to have a large skirt. This was often done with several layers of petticoats, but sometimes the farthingale was used as a way to make the skirt appear larger. It was a large frame, usually made of whalebone or someother hard material, in the shape of a bell or cone. It was placed around a woman's waist to give the skirts shape.

From Quiz Renaissance Women

Answer: 0

She was nicknamed the Virgin Queen. It's possible that she was involved with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, but she never married. She was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

From Quiz Ancient to Renaissance History

Answer: Henry II

Henry II or Henry Plantagenet suggested to his knights that he wanted to be rid of Archbishop Thomas Becket.

From Quiz Renaissance - Missing Links

Answer: Tintoretto

The high Italian Renaissance or the 'Cinquecento' is synonymous with greatness. The epicenter cultural effervescence moved from Florence towards Rome (Perugino, Raphael) and later Venice (Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto). Works like Leonardo's 'Gioconda', Michelangelo's frescos of the Sistine Chapel or Raphael's 'The School of Athens' are the best displays of the Renaissance movement.

From Quiz European History, 16th century

Answer: Edward VI

Edward was a sickly youth when he ascended to the throne, and he died in 1553 at the age of 15.

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