The RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a period in European history, considered by modern scholars to be between 1300 and 1600. Many dramatic changes occurred during the Renaissance. The Renaissance was a time of new inventions and beliefs. The Renaissance was drastically different from the Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages the Church held much of the power and its economy was based on agriculture. Exploration and learning were all but stopped. During the Renaissance the society transformed into one increasingly dominated by central political institutions with an urban commercial attitude. Furthermore, people's curiosity has overcome fear and many people have started to venture out and explore. New schools and colleges became increasingly common. The Renaissance was started by many wealthy Italian cities, such as Florence, Ferrara, Milan, and Venice. Since these cities were very rich, many merchants began to spend money on different things, such as painting, learning, new banking techniques, and new government systems. These things gave rise to a new type of scholar, the humanist. Humanism was a subject that dealt with humanity and culture. They studied various things such as Latin, Greek language, literature and philosophy. Music and mathematics were also studied. The Renaissance gave way to new forms of painting, art and sculpture. In the Renaissance, artists were no longer considered simple craftsmen, as they had been in the medieval past, but for the first time emerged as independent personalities, compared to poets and writers. Many craftsmen blended mathematics with art, to become more precise in their measurements and to ensure that an object was supported both rationally and proportionally. As a result, painters attempted, and often succeeded, to make their painting a window onto the world. Artists also studied how light hits objects and how our eyes perceive light. A new type of paint called oil paint was used. This allowed the artist to create texture, mix colors and allow more time for corrections before it dried. The printing press was probably the most important advancement in technology. Europeans first used movable metal type to print a book. On small pieces of metal they engraved individual letters of the alphabet. These could then be organized and rearranged to form words and sentences.