*Italian poet Franseco Petrarch: first person to use the word renaissance to describe the time in which he lived. He was also the first humanist
*Giovanni Boccaccio: one of the first writers to use vernacular. He is also best known for the Decameron, a collection of stories that shows his lively interest in men and women as unique individuals.
*In the 1300s, the Italian painter Giotto developed a new style of painting that emphasized natural looking forms instead of flat, stylized figures.
*The paintings and sculptures of Michelangelo demonstrated a fascination with the shape, substance, a…