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Hernán Cortes, in his Five Letters of Relation, describes his entry into the Puebla Valley, where he finds the cities of Cholula and Tlaxcala. It is in Tlaxcala that Cortes finds allies willing to fight alongside him against Montezuma in Tenochtitlan, the capital of the

At the court of the Aztec king Montezuma, Cortes tasted hot chocolate (xocoatl = bitter water); with the addition of sweeteners it became a success in Spain which kept it as a national secret for almost a century.

Americas. Between 1519 and 1521, the Aztecs in Mexico were subdued by Hernán Cortes. In Peru, about ten years later, the magnificent Andean empire of the Incas was defeated by Francisco Pizarro. The Spanish and Portuguese were seizing the greatest riches of the Americas. The

The governor of Cuba, Velazquez, even before the return of the second expedition, authorizes a third expedition, led by Hernan Cortes who reaches Yucatan with 450 men.

Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba lands in Yucatan, clashes with the Maya and is repelled with disastrous losses

The Ottoman Turks conquer Syria and Egypt.

Spain. The Habsburg dynasty reigned with five sovereigns: Charles V (Emperor, King of the Two Sicilies, King of Aragon, King of Sardinia), Philip II (also King of Portugal), Philip III, Philip IV, and Charles II.

Venice. The so-called “German” Jews were allowed to remain in the city in an area that was the site of a new foundry called the “Ghetto Nuovo” (gheto in Venetian means casting, or fusion). Here they governed themselves with their own places of worship and

Marji Daqib, north of Aleppo, Syria. The Ottoman army defeats the Egyptian Mamluks and takes control of Syria. The Egyptian army numbers 80,000 soldiers, of whom 72,000 are killed or missing in action.

Leonardo da Vinci was invited by Pope Leo X to follow his entourage to Florence and Bologna. In the latter city, the pope held a secret conversation with the King of France, Francis I.

The first sugar produced by slave labor in the West Indies (Americas) was shipped to Europe, just 22 years after Christopher Columbus, during his second voyage, introduced sugarcane to Hispaniola (Haiti and Santo Domingo). Refining the byproducts of sugarcane processing to extract sugar would later

India. The Dürer Rhinoceros begins its long journey to Lisbon. It is a real, live rhinoceros donated by the Sultan of Gujarat to the Portuguese in return for the gifts received from Alfonso of Albuquerque. No one in Europe has seen a rhinoceros for at

Pope Leo X asked Paul of Fossombrone to contact Copernicus to ask his opinion on the reform of the ecclesiastical calendar; the latter took care to provide as complete an answer as possible and wrote to the following pope (Pope Paul III, the same one

Mirandola surrenders to the siege of the papal troops and Pope Julius II enters the city

Milan. Leonardo Da Vinci met the professor of human anatomy Marcantonio della Torre, of the University of Pavia. Marcantonio died of bubonic plague in 1511, but in the intense preceding year he worked diligently with Leonardo, who drew 240 anatomical plates with 13,000 words of

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:

Michelangelo Buonarroti is desperate and sends a letter to his father. He has been entrusted with painting the Sistine Chapel, but he is a sculptor. Donato Bramante advised Pope Julius II (Giuliano della Rovere) to do so. But it’s a trap: Bramante knows that Michelangelo

Michelangelo Buonarroti frescoes the Sistine Chapel

Ser Piero da Vinci, Leonardo’s father, dies. Once again, Leonardo, recording the event in his diary, misstated the date and his father’s age by two years, as he had done with his mother. Piero da Vinci never legally recognized Leonardo, leaving him without an inheritance.

Florence. Michelangelo Buonarroti sculpts David, the most famous statue in the world. A city committee is formed to discuss and decide where to place the statue. Botticelli, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci also participate. Ultimately, they decide to place it at the entrance to the

Leonardo da Vinci makes Mona Lisa (La Gioconda)

After Pisa became an independent and free republic in 1494, the Florentines were unable to breach Pisa’s walls, nor were they able to block its trade, as the Arno River gave it access to the sea. Columbus had just returned from the Americas, and a

Florence. Leonardo da Vinci begins work on the Mona Lisa (the Gioconda). He took it with him to Milan in 1506, then to Rome and finally to France, where it was found in his studio after his death.

The French added gun batteries to their warships, turning them into floating fortresses.

Coffee was introduced to Europe from South America

In the Netherlands, the orange carrot variety was selected through crossbreeding, created to celebrate the Dutch Royal House of Orange. In the following decades, the Dutch became the leading producers and traders of carrots. Almost all the varieties on the market today derive from four

Tudor Reign in England: Land ownership of agricultural land is legalized.

The Inca Empire is the largest empire in the world, larger than the Ottoman Empire and the Ming Empire in China. It stretches for 5,000 kilometers along the Andes and includes over 12 million people from Colombia to Chile. It lacks written language, but it

Vincente Yanez Pinzon discovers the mouth of the Amazon River

Amerigo Vespucci lands in America

Girolamo Maria Francesco Matteo Savonarola (Ferrara, September 21, 1452 – Florence, May 23, 1498), an Italian cleric and politician, was hanged and burned at the stake as a “heretic, schismatic, and for preaching new things.” A member of the Dominican order, he had prophesied disaster

Vasco da Gama arrives in India. Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed in Calicut on the Malabar Coast, the first European to reach India by sea. Da Gama had departed from Lisbon in July 1497 and, after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, stopped at

Leonardo Da Vinci collaborated closely with the mathematician Luca Pacioli, both in the pay of the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Maria Sforza Anglo.

Tenerife, Canary Islands, conquered by the Spanish

Venice supported Pisa in its attempt to free itself from Florence. In doing so, it incurred the ire of Milan. Venice then allied itself with Louis XII, the new king of France. He conquered Milan, and Venice thus acquired the wealthy city of Cremona, in

Venice expels the French from the Kingdom of Naples.

Leonardo’s mother, Caterina, dies in Vinci. Her husband, Accattabriga, with whom he had three daughters and a son, had died four years earlier. Leonardo, like a good notary’s son, records his mother’s death accurately, including funeral expenses, but he misstates the day of the week

Treaty of Tordesillas: The world is divided in two: between Brazil and Australia in our hemisphere, Portugal’s sphere of influence; the other hemisphere is Spain’s sphere of influence.

The Venetian Giovanni Caboto, a merchant expert in the Orient, is in Valencia working on a project to improve the port, while Christopher Columbus returns to announce that he has discovered a shorter route to the Indies (Cathay). Cabot, who has read Marco Polo and

Pope Alexander VI (the very immoral, ruthless Alexander Borgia), after several pleas from Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, declared him free from all ecclesiastical censure and reinstated him fully into the community of the Church.

European Renaissance: Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Machiavelli, Botticelli. Italy was fundamental to this Risorgimento movement that placed Man at the center.

With the discovery of America, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, chocolate, corn, and tobacco arrived in Europe.

At the Castilian court in Spain, King Mehmet XI is said to have used as his personal guards wild men from Mulhacen (a rugged mountainous area in the Sierra Nevada). They were considered excellent warriors, taciturn, and extremely strong. At the time, they were identified

Leonardo da Vinci correctly concluded that perpetual motion was impossible with any machinery. He was particularly fascinated by the idea that it could be achieved with the aid of worm screws that made water rise, but he rightly concluded that it was a vain chimera.

Leonardo da Vinci correctly concluded that perpetual motion was impossible with any machinery. He was particularly fascinated by the idea that it could be achieved with the aid of worm screws that made water rise, but he rightly concluded that it was a vain chimera.

Milan. Dinner attended by Giacomo Andrea, court architect, and Leonardo da Vinci. The convivial discussion at the table centers on Vitruvius’s manuscripts. Andrea decides to draw on a piece of paper his idea of the Vitruvian Man, featuring a human figure with arms outstretched toward

Leonardo da Vinci’s studies of the human skull. He uses a revolutionary graphic representation technique: he shows the skull half sectioned and half unsectioned. He is the first to depict the frontal sinus, just behind the eyebrow. He is also the first to describe the

Rome. Gem, a former pretender to the Ottoman throne following the events of Otranto, arrives in the papal entourage. Having lost the contest, he had taken refuge years earlier in Rhodes, where the Knights of St. John had been paid by Sultan Bayezid to keep

Thirteen of Pico della Mirandola’s 900 Theses are considered heretical by the papal commission

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola publishes the 900 Theses in Rome and invites all the scholars to discuss the topics discussed with him as equals, but Pope Innocent VII prohibits this congress and establishes a papal commission that will condemn the theses the following year.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, in Florence, begins work on the 900 Theses, which he sees as an anthology of universal knowledge; it is a colossal collection of dissertations (Conclusiones) on various topics; 402 are taken from various authors while 498 are drawn only from his

Venice. On the island of Lazzaretto, already used as a hospital for the sick, a quarantine is instituted for ships suspected of carrying the Black Death, or Bubonic Plague.

Christopher Columbus asked John II, King of Portugal, for three ships to attempt to reach India by sailing directly west. John II refused: he was now near the Cape of Good Hope, and planned to reach India, rich in spices, by sailing east.

Leonardo da Vinci completed the first version of the Virgin of the Rocks, now housed in the Louvre in Paris. The second version, completed only in 1506, is in London.

Eisblen, Thuringia. Martin Luther is born to Margarethe Ziegler and Hans Luder, a mining entrepreneur.

Raphael was born near Urbino

Leonardo da Vinci in Milan at the court of Ludovico il Moro

Bartolomeo Ramos de Pareja introduces the note B; a historical note: the Italian notation (do, re, mi, etc.) was born around the year 1000 with Guido d’Arezzo. Finally, in the 17th century, the Ut (which is still used in France today) became C for us,

Otranto. Keeping the agreement, the Ottomans let the Aragonese troops enter the city, from which the Turks swarmed. Only a hundred Otranto survivors remained. The Neapolitans also seized the highly efficient Ottoman firearms. The Turkish vessels fleeing toward Albania were caught in a sudden wind,

Albania. Suleiman Eunuch, the new Albanian Sancakbey for the Ottoman Empire, is wounded and captured by Giovanni Castriota’s militia. He is immediately transferred to the Aragonese south, held hostage by Ferrante.

Ottoman Empire. Upon hearing the news of Mehmet II’s death, the sultanate descends into chaos, an abyss of turmoil, blood, and violence. Initially, panicked members of the divan try to stall by hiding the body. But the secret fails: the janissary corporation revolts. The eldest

Monarch’s Meadow, 50 km from Istanbul. Mehmet II the Conqueror, not yet 50 years old, breathes his last.

Monarch’s Meadow, 50 kilometers from Istanbul, on the Asian shore (the same place where Hannibal the Carthaginian committed suicide by poison to avoid falling into the clutches of the Romans). Mehmet II the Conqueror groans and staggers, suffering from excruciating stomach pains. He immediately realizes

The Este orator, Niccolo’ Sadoleto, arrives in Valona. He is welcomed honorably by the Turks and immediately finds himself face to face with Grand Pasha Ahmed “the Toothless.” He immediately senses great hostility and the weakness of his arguments: the offer to exchange Turkish hostages

Pope Sixtus IV issued the papal bull Cogimur iubente altissimo, urging all Christian principalities to observe an absolute truce between them, effective June 1, 1481, for three years. The truce was evidently unworkable, given the profound divisions in what would later be called Europe.

The Este orator, Niccolo’ Sadoleto, sets out from Foggia toward Otranto. He carries three letters from the Ottoman sultan, not yet fully deciphered, seized during a naval battle. He is actually very skeptical about the possibility of an agreement, but determined to try. He will

The orator of the Este family (dukes of Modena) in Naples, Niccolo’ Sadoleto, is entrusted with the mission of going to negotiate with the Turks.

Brindisi. Early in the morning, 19 galleys, 3 fireboats, and 8 support vessels set sail for Salona, the islet off Vlora, Albania. They encountered 32 Ottoman vessels, of which only the front of the formation were in battle trim.

Otranto. The Count of Conversano, Giulio Antonio Acquaviva, decides to take action against the Ottomans. The Aragonese troops attack isolated Ottoman detachments, achieving an initial apparent success thanks to the Turkish retreat, which, however, turns out to be a trap. The feigned escape, a legacy

Otranto. Thirty-two more Ottoman ships, commanded by Gedik Ahmed Pasha “the Toothless,” land, loaded with soldiers and supplies.

Andrea Salai (Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno): At the age of 10, he went to live and work with Leonardo da Vinci. His name means “little devil.”

Welsh poet Gwerful Mechain writes her Ode to the Pubic Hair (Cywydd y Cedor), and she complains about her male colleagues who celebrate all other female parts so much, carefully avoiding the most interesting one…

Graz was devastated by the Black Death plague, with locusts spreading across the fields, ruining the crops, and on top of that, the Turks were arriving from the southwest.

Ivan III the Muscovite definitively expels the Khan and the Mongols from Russia

First printing house in London

Venice. The printer Aldus Manutius designs a new typeface, similar to handwriting, called “italic,” and begins printing smaller-format books, called “octavo” because the sheet is folded into eighths. Venice grants Manutius a patent for this typeface, but it is inevitably quickly imitated elsewhere.

Istanbul. Gedik Ahmed Pasha “the Toothless” requests three hundred warships from Sultan Mehmed II to easily capture Naples and then attack Sardinia and Sicily.

Puglia. Soldiers commanded by the Duke of Melfi arrive to aid Otranto, which is besieged by the Turks. They intercept approximately 400 Ottoman raiders who have entered the hinterland, and the battle erupts. The Ottomans are partly dispersed and partly captured. The severed heads of

Otranto. On the third consecutive day of furious bombardment by the Ottomans. The Turks force a path through. A melee breaks out, and Francesco Zurlo, already wounded in previous skirmishes, is mortally wounded, and his body, still in its armor, lies in the gap. The

Otranto. After another round of bombardments, the Turks finally capture one of the towers. But the villagers still resist.