Name Period Date

The Renaissance Vocabulary Builder

Section 1

DIRECTIONS Draw a line from the word on the left to the description that best matches it on the right.

Golden State Middle School

The Renaissance – Vocabulary Builder

Name Period Date

The Renaissance Vocabulary Builder

Section 1

1. Cosimo de Medici

2. Renaissance

3. Marco Polo

4. Silk Road

5. signoria


a. A traveler from Venice who spent 20 years traveling in Asia

b. A powerful ruler of Florence, Italy, who valued education and culture

c. Period of rebirth and creativity that followed Europe’s Middle Ages

d. A rich merchant family that controlled the government

e. A route that started in China and ended at the Mediterranean Sea

Golden State Middle School

The Renaissance – Vocabulary Builder

Name Period Date

The Renaissance Vocabulary Builder

Section 1

Golden State Middle School

The Renaissance – Vocabulary Builder

Name Class Date

The Renaissance Vocabulary Builder

Section 2

DIRECTIONS Read each sentence. Fill in the blank with the word from the word pair that best completes each sentence.

1. ______refers to showing a three-dimensional scene on a flat surface, such as a painting, so that it looks real. (humanism/perspective)

2. The common language of the people is called ______.
(Thucydides/vernacular)

3. ______was a sculptor, architect, inventor, and engineer, in addition to being an expert painter. (Plato/Leonardo da Vinci)

4. An emphasis on human value and achievement is called ______. (humanism/rebirth)

5. ______was an Italian writer whose major work was
The Divine Comedy. (Dante Alighieri/Cosimo de Medici)

6. The painting that covers the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican was painted by ______. (Michelangelo/Marco Polo)

7. An early Renaissance scholar named ______spoke about the importance of knowing history. (Petrarch/Ferdinand)

8. ______wrote a short book called The Prince that offered advice for rulers on how to stay in power.
(William Shakespeare/Niccolo Machiavelli)

Golden State Middle School

The Renaissance – Vocabulary Builder

Name Class Date

The Renaissance Vocabulary Builder

Section 3


DIRECTIONS Read the FALSE statement below. Replace each underlined word with one from the word bank that makes each sentence TRUE.

1. Albrecht Dürer developed the movable type printing press.

2. Hans Holbein is considered the greatest writer in the English
language, best known for his famous plays.

3. The Praise of Folly was written by Miguel de Cervantes as a criticism of uneducated clergy.

4. The combination of humanism and religion is called poetry.

5. Don Quixote, written by Desiderius Erasmus, poked fun at the romantic tales of the Middle Ages.

Golden State Middle School

The Renaissance – Vocabulary Builder