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Here are a number of links to other Internet resources which contain information and/or other links related to the Renaissance. Please read our disclaimer.

16th Century Renaissance English Literature (1485-1603)

Biographical information and electronic copies of works from such authors as More, Spenser, Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Heriot. There are also essays and articles on the period as well as links to related resources.

[A] Compendium of Common Knowledge 1558-1603

An extensive set of illustrated articles on life in Elizabethan England.

Core Knowledge Lesson Plans

• Ancora Imparo (Still I Am Improving) A fifth grade, two-week teaching unit on the Italian Renaissance. Students map out trade routes, research the role of the church, and evaluate Renaissance ideals as outlined in The Prince by Machiavelli. There is also a fine art component to the unit.
  
• Remembering The Renaissance A three-week teaching unit for grade 5 students in a PDF Format. Lesson topics include: The City States, The Medici Family, The Art of Governing, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, The Gutenberg Press, The Courtier, Don Quixote, and Shakespeare.

Creative Impulse: The Development of Western Civilization: Renaissance

This is a metalist of links to other Renaissance sites. Topics are organized under History (i.e., people, places, events) or Art (Art and Architecture, Artists, Architecture, Literature and Drama, Music and Dance, and Daily Life and Culture)

Elizabethan Costuming Page

Intended for people who participate in re-enactment activities, this site gives descriptions of the clothing worn during the Elizabethan period in addition to the specific instructions on how to create the actual costume itself. Many of the links are to pages within this site but there are also plenty of links to outside resources.

Elizabethan England

Springfield High School (IL) students created this site writing informational articles (complete with pictures) on important figures, events, and cultural trends of the time.

Exploring Leonardo

A comprehensive Website on Leonardo da Vinci, which includes five lesson plans for hands-on classroom activities. The four content sections provide information on Leonardo's futuristic inventions, Renaissance techniques for drawing perspective, a biography of the man, and his curious habit of writing in reverse.

[A] Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Instruments

Descriptions, pictures, and links to over 30 musical instruments of this period.

Inventions and Technology

Learn about nine inventions that were developed during the Renaissance: Clocks, Gunpowder and Artillery, Eye Glasses and Spectacles, Printing Press, Flush Toilet, Microscope, Telescope, Submarine, and the Match.

Life of Women in Tudor England

Although this is a single page site, it contains a lot of information necessary to understand life in that period.

Medieval/Renaissance Food

Links to articles/publications about medieval food as well as to individual recipes.

Medieval/Renaissance Wedding Information

Check out the Medieval/Renaissance Wedding FAQ for information about traditions, ceremonies, attire, receptions, feasts and wedding music.

No Fear o' Eras

The idea behind No Fear o' Eras is to discover some of the key features, aspects, traits, or characteristics that make up the style of certain artistic eras. You will get to look at three examples from some main eras to see if you can discover what the painters did in common that give a similar look or style to each grouping of three. You will look at how the painters used the elements of design to communicate a shared goal.

Othello's Predecessors: Moors in Renaissance Popular Literature

In this lesson plan, high school students use Shakespeare's Othello and the stereotypes of Moors and Africans prevalent in Shakespeare's time as a vehicle for examining the stereotypes they themselves bring while viewing movies and television or in approaching the average school day.

Plague and Public Health in Renaissance Europe

An archive of narratives, government records, religious writings, and images that document the impact of the plague and how Europeans dealt with it.

[Le] Poulet Gauche

A hyper-linked guide to the history, culture, and daily life of 16th century France by the Society for Creative Anachronism, a group dedicated to historical recreation of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Lots of information organized under the following main headings: When We Are; What We Are; Who We Are; History and Politics; Society and Culture; Tavern Life; Entertainment; and Aspects of Everyday Life.

Renaissance

This exhibit from the Annenberg/CPB Projects Exhibits Collection provides an overview to the Renaissance period. Topics covered are: Introduction; Out of the Middle Ages; Exploration and Trade; Printing and Thinking; Symmetry, Shape, Size; Focus on Florence.

[La] Renaissance

Hyper-linked articles on the Renaissance in Italy, Netherlands, Germany and France from The WebMuseum in Paris.

Renaissance Faire

A description of an interdisciplinary project for grade six student in Art, Music, Social Studies, Language Arts, and Library.

Tudor England

Articles and pictures on the Tudor monarchs/families, life during the period, architecture, maps, chronologies, and glossaries.

Virtual Renaissance

In this 6-8 week unit, Grade 8 students travel back in time and assume the role of an apprentice to one of the various guilds that existed during the Renaissance period. In learning their trade, they must travel throughout the virtual world learning from various masters. Teacher's will need time to explore the site since it's quite extensive, but a teacher's guide to the unit is available (Portal 5).

Voice of the Shuttle: English Literature: Renaissance and 17th Century

A meta-list of links to a large number of Websites dedicated to English Renaissance Literature (authors, works, and criticisms).

Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute

• Feasts, Fairs and Festivals: Mirrors of Renaissance Society A study of Renaissance holidays and culture for grade 9 students.
  
• [The] Ideas and Ideals of Man, From the Renaissance to the Reformation A 10-15 day unit in which students examine the Renaissance and especially a study of Italian humanism and artistic expression of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The second half of the unit covers the Protestant Reformation and how it was a product of the Renaissance.
  
• [The] Illusion of the Renaissance This is a teaching unit for eighth grade and high school art students focussing on perspective. The paper starts with a brief sketch of the major differences between Medieval and Renaissance art, proceeds to a history of the discovery of perspective, and finishes with a description of illusionistic art work from the 15th to the 17th century.

Note: The sites listed above will serve as a source of curricular content in the Renaissance. For other resources in Social Studies (e.g., curricular content, lesson plans, and theme pages), click the "previous screen" button below. Or, click here if you wish to return directly to the CLN menu, which will give you access to educational resources in all of our subjects.