29 Wild Facts about the Renaissance

By Karin Lehnardt, Senior Writer

Published October 7, 2025

During the Renaissance, it was fashionable for women to have pale complexions, so they applied white flour, chalk, and lead powder to their faces. They would cover their face with a thin glaze of egg white so that their makeup stayed on longer._[2]
Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci secretly dissected corpses to learn more about the way muscles and the body moved._[2]
Cats during the Renaissance were seen as a symbol of witchcraft, and in some areas, killing them was encouraged. This, ironically, allowed rats, and in turn, disease to spread more easily._[4]
During the Renaissance, women were discouraged from learning to play wind instruments because it was thought that playing them would make their faces unattractive. Instead they were encouraged to play stringed instruments or sing._[3]
During the Renaissance, men were not married until they were near 30 years old. Those in their 20s were known as "giovannis" and were considered to be irrational_[6]

Women would pluck their hairlines to make their foreheads appear larger

During the Renaissance, high foreheads on women were considered beautiful. Women removed hair on their foreheads and often most of their eyebrows by rubbing it with a rough stone or burning it off with quicklime._[2]
The Renaissance began in Florence, a city-state in Italy. Several factors of Florence led to the renaissance, such as the city's political structure, the Medici patronage, Greek scholars who moved there after the Fall of Constantinople._[2]
Some scholars question whether the Renaissance was an improvement over the Middle Ages and argue that the Renaissance was actually a period of nostalgia for classical the period and pessimism._[4]
The term "rinascita" or "rebirth" first appeared in Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists in 1550. It was anglicized as "the Renaissance" in the 1830s._[2]
Because bathing was sparse during the Renaissance, people would heavily use perform to hide body odor._[2]
The Renaissance began in the 14th century and lasted until the 17th century._[2]
During the Renaissance, it was a common belief that full-body bathing could make people sick. Physicians believed that the heat from the bath would open the pores, making a person more vulnerable to poisonous vapors in the air._[2]
The primary thrust of the Renaissance was humanism. Though difficult to define precisely, humanists praise the unique and extraordinary ability of the human mind._[1]
One of the most important highlights of Renaissance art was the creation of linear perspective._[2]

In Raphael's "School of Athens," the central vanishing point is at Socrates left hand

Europe experienced the Renaissance in different ways. The first hints of the Renaissance were seen in Italy in the late 13th century, especially in Dante's writings and Giotto's art._[4]
Renaissance artist Michelangelo did not consider himself a painter. He was a sculptor who called painting the Sistine Chapel "torture."_[2]
The Crusades led to the Renaissance because Crusaders were exposed to new scientific advancements, ancient texts of Greece, and improvements in trade and transportation._[2]
Books were so valuable during the Renaissance that they were often chained to library tables and shelves to prevent them from being stolen._[2]
During the Renaissance, both men and women wore wigs. Because the wigs attracted lice and fleas, some hair pieces had built in lice and flea traps._[7]
During the Renaissance, dysentery was a serious disease. King John, Edward I, and Henry V of England as well as Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, all died from dysentery._[5]
Roughly 40% of accidental deaths in Tudor England were from drowning._[5]

Petrarch's rediscover of Cicero's letters is thought to have triggered the 14th century Italian Renaissance and Renaissance humanism

The father of the Renaissance is considered to be Petrarch. He was a humanist philosopher whose rediscovery of Cicero's letters sparked a rebirth of learning in the 14th century._[2]
Sugar during the Tudor era led to widespread dental decay and infections, which could sometimes lead to death._[5]
The invention of the printing press around 1440 allowed ideas and information to be exchanged, which helped spread the humanistic ideals of the Renaissance._[1]
Renaissance artist Michelangelo's statue David depicts the defense of civil liberties that the Republic of Florence stood for._[2]
The Renaissance's humanistic spirit sparked criticism against the Catholic Church, which led to the Protestant Reformation._[2]
During the Renaissance, women would was their hair with a mixture containing urine to make it shiner and lighter._[1]
Some Renaissance cosmetics contained arsenic to achieve a pale look. However, the user was actually poisoning her and himself._[1]
During the Renaissance, toothpaste was often made up of crushed bones or brick dust to scrub the teeth._[1]