Editing Italy (section)

=== Early modern period ===
{{Main|Italian Renaissance|History of early modern Italy}}
[[File:Italy 1494.svg|thumb|upright=.8|left|[[List of historic states of Italy#Late Middle Ages|Italian states]] before the [[Italian Wars]] in 1494]]

During the 1400s and 1500s, Italy was the birthplace and heart of the [[Renaissance]]. This era marked the transition from the medieval period to the modern age and was fostered by the wealth accumulated by merchant cities and the patronage of dominant families.<ref name="strathern">Strathern, Paul ''The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance'' (2003)</ref> Italian polities were now regional states effectively ruled by princes, in control of trade and administration, and their courts became centres of the arts and sciences. These princedoms were led by political dynasties and merchant families, such as the [[Medici]] of Florence. After the end of the [[Western Schism]], newly elected [[Pope Martin V]] returned to the [[Papal States]] and restored Italy as the sole centre of Western Christianity. The [[Medici Bank]] was made the credit institution of the Papacy, and significant ties were established between the Church and new political dynasties.<ref name="strathern"/><ref>[http://www.florentine-society.ru/Medici_Chapel_Mysteries.htm Peter Barenboim, Sergey Shiyan, ''Michelangelo: Mysteries of Medici Chapel'', SLOVO, Moscow, 2006]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511133416/http://www.florentine-society.ru/Medici_Chapel_Mysteries.htm|date=11 May 2011}}. {{ISBN|5-8505-0825-2}}.</ref>
[[File:Leonardo self.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|[[Leonardo da Vinci]], quintessential [[Renaissance man]], in a self-portrait ({{circa}} 1512)]]

In 1453, despite activity by [[Pope Nicholas V]] to support the Byzantines, the city of [[Constantinople]] fell to the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]]. This led to the migration of [[Greek scholars in the Renaissance|Greek scholars]] and texts to Italy, fuelling the rediscovery of Greek [[humanism]].<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica, ''Renaissance'', 2008, O.Ed.; Har, Michael H. ''History of Libraries in the Western World'', Scarecrow Press Incorporate, 1999. {{ISBN|0-8108-3724-2}}.

Norwich, John Julius, ''A Short History of Byzantium'', 1997, Knopf. {{ISBN|0-6794-5088-2}}.</ref> Humanist rulers such as [[Federico da Montefeltro]] and [[Pope Pius II]] worked to establish [[ideal city|ideal cities]], founding [[Urbino]] and [[Pienza]]. [[Pico della Mirandola]] wrote the ''[[Oration on the Dignity of Man]]'', considered the manifesto of the Renaissance. In the arts, the Italian Renaissance exercised a dominant influence on European art for centuries, with artists such as [[Leonardo da Vinci]], [[Botticelli]], [[Michelangelo]], [[Raphael]], [[Giotto]], [[Donatello]], and [[Titian]], and architects such as [[Filippo Brunelleschi]], [[Andrea Palladio]], and [[Donato Bramante]]. Italian [[List of Italian explorers|explorers]] and navigators from the maritime republics, eager to find an alternative route to the Indies to bypass the Ottomans, offered their services to monarchs of Atlantic countries and played a key role in ushering the [[Age of Discovery]] and colonization of the Americas. The most notable were: [[Christopher Columbus]], who opened the Americas for conquest by Europeans;<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica, 1993 ed., Vol. 16, pp. 605ff / Morison, ''Christopher Columbus'', 1955 ed., pp. 14ff</ref> [[John Cabot]], the first European to explore North America since the [[Norsemen|Norse]];<ref>{{Cite web|year=2007|title=''Catholic Encyclopedia'' "John & Sebastian Cabot"|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03126d.htm|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200518005335/https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03126d.htm|archive-date=18 May 2020|access-date=17 May 2008|publisher=newadvent}}</ref> and [[Amerigo Vespucci]], for whom the continent of [[Naming of the Americas|America]] is named.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Eric Martone|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MHJ1DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA109|title=Italian Americans: The History and Culture of a People|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2016|isbn=978-1-6106-9995-2|page=504|access-date=22 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240211001055/https://books.google.com/books?id=MHJ1DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA109|archive-date=11 February 2024|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Greene|first=George Washington|author-link=George Washington Greene|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1qsuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PAPA13|title=The Life and Voyages of Verrazzano|publisher=Folsom, Wells, and Thurston|year=1837|location=Cambridge University|page=13|access-date=18 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240211000806/https://books.google.com/books?id=1qsuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PAPA13#v=onepage&q&f=false|archive-date=11 February 2024|url-status=live|via=Google Books}}</ref>

A defensive alliance known as the [[Italic League]] was formed between Venice, Naples, Florence, Milan, and the Papacy. [[Lorenzo de' Medici|Lorenzo ''the Magnificent'' de Medici]] was the Renaissance's greatest patron, his support allowed the League to [[Siege of Otranto|abort invasion]] by the Turks. The alliance, however, collapsed in the 1490s; the invasion of [[Charles VIII of France]] initiated a series of wars in the peninsula. During the [[High Renaissance]], popes such as [[Pope Julius II|Julius II]] (1503–1513) fought for control of Italy against foreign monarchs; [[Pope Paul III|Paul III]] (1534–1549) preferred to mediate between the European powers to secure peace. In the middle of such conflicts, the Medici popes [[Pope Leo X|Leo X]] (1513–1521) and [[Pope Clement VII|Clement VII]] (1523–1534) faced the [[Protestant Reformation]] in Germany, England and elsewhere.

In 1559, at the end of the [[Italian wars]] between France and the Habsburgs, about half of Italy (the southern Kingdoms of [[kingdom of Naples|Naples]], [[Kingdom of Sicily|Sicily]], [[Kingdom of Sardinia|Sardinia]], and the [[Duchy of Milan]]) was under Spanish rule, while the other half remained independent (many states continued to be formally part of the Holy Roman Empire). The Papacy launched the [[Counter-Reformation]], whose key events include: the [[Council of Trent]] (1545–1563); adoption of the [[Gregorian calendar]]; the [[Jesuit China mission]]; the [[French Wars of Religion]]; end of the [[Thirty Years' War]] (1618–1648); and the [[Great Turkish War]]. The Italian economy declined in the 1600s and 1700s.

[[File:Flag of Repubblica Cispadana1.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|left|Flag of the [[Cispadane Republic]], the first [[Flag of Italy|Italian tricolour]] adopted by a sovereign Italian state (1797)]]
During the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] (1700–1714), Austria acquired most of the Spanish domains in Italy, namely Milan, Naples and Sardinia; the latter was given to the House of Savoy in exchange for Sicily in 1720. Later, a branch of the Bourbons ascended to the throne of Sicily and Naples. During the [[Napoleonic Wars]], north and central Italy were reorganised as [[Sister Republics]] of France and, later, as a [[Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)|Kingdom of Italy]].<ref>Napoleon Bonaparte, "The Economy of the Empire in Italy: Instructions from Napoleon to Eugène, Viceroy of Italy", ''Exploring the European Past: Texts & Images'', Second Edition, ed. Timothy E. Gregory (Mason: Thomson, 2007), 65–66.</ref> The south was administered by [[Joachim Murat]], Napoleon's brother-in-law. 1814's [[Congress of Vienna]] restored the situation of the late 18th century, but the ideals of the [[French Revolution]] could not be eradicated, and re-surfaced during the [[political upheaval]]s that characterised the early 19th century. The first adoption of the [[Flag of Italy|Italian tricolour]] by an Italian state, the [[Cispadane Republic]], occurred during [[Flags of Napoleonic Italy|Napoleonic Italy]], following the French Revolution, which advocated national [[self-determination]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Maiorino |first1=Tarquinio |title=Il tricolore degli italiani. Storia avventurosa della nostra bandiera |last2=Marchetti Tricamo |first2=Giuseppe |last3=Zagami |first3=Andrea |publisher=Arnoldo Mondadori Editore |year=2002 |isbn=978-8-8045-0946-2 |page=156 |language=it}}

[http://www.esteri.it/MAE/EN/Benvenuti_in_Italia/Conoscere_Italia/bandieraInno.htm The tri-coloured standard]. Getting to Know Italy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (retrieved 5 October 2008). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080223131121/http://www.esteri.it/MAE/EN/Benvenuti_in_Italia/Conoscere_Italia/bandieraInno.htm|date=23 February 2008}}.</ref> This event is celebrated by [[Tricolour Day]].<ref>Article 1 of the law n. 671 of 31 December 1996 ("National celebration of the bicentenary of the first national flag")</ref>