How was the renaissance important?

The Renaissance movement began in Italy in the fourteenth century and quickly spread to the rest of Medieval Europe. This period is historically important because it gave us a number of inventions and innovations. The printing press, for example, the telescope and the clock were all invented by men during the Renaissance. It also improved our overall knowledge of the past through the re-discovery of Ancient texts and histories which were lost for many centuries prior to the Renaissance.

This movement also helped to develop vernacular literature. Many Renaissance scholars spurred traditional Latin in favour of their own language. Figures like Dante and Boccaccio in Italy, for example, made great strides in developing the Italian language.  

Finally, the Renaissance helped to pave the way for a number of other movements, like the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These two movements further increased human progress and could not have taken place without the groundwork laid by the Renaissance thinkers.