The Renaissance was born in the fourteenth century, an era that was arguably the worst in European history. It was shot through with problems — economic decline, continent-wide crop failures, the Hundred Years War, the papacy being moved to Avignon, multiple popes, and, of course, the Black Death. In this context, people began to think that the world had gone seriously wrong and that something better had to be out there. In southern Europe and especially in Italy, they had right in front of them evidence of a better world — the remains of Roman monumental architecture, roads, aqueducts, and
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