The height of the Renaissance: in the Vatican, while Raphael frescoes the walls of the papal apartments, Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. In Florence, the Medici family returns to power after the interlude of the Savonarola era. Niccolo Machiavelli writes The Prince: candid advice to rulers on how to obtain and maintain power. The Dutch priest Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam promotes the ideas of humanism in Northern Europe, which had taken root in Italy over the previous century.
