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Milan. Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, commissioned Leonardo da Vinci, his court, and his entourage to paint a portrait of his beloved Cecilia Gallerani, whom he would marry two years later. Leonardo created a masterpiece: Lady with an Ermine. It is an innovative, emotional, powerful,

Pico della Mirandola decides to leave Italy for Paris, where his theses have been enthusiastically received; here, however, he will be joined by a papal vicar. After kidnappings and various vicissitudes, Pico emerges shocked and will begin to intensify his religiosity more and more, dedicating

Leonardo da Vinci arrives in Milan, where he will spend the next 17 years. He travels with Atalante Migliorotti (15), an aspiring musician and Leonardo’s apprentice. They bring with them a lyre da braccio that will be a gift to Lorenzo de’ Medici in Milan.

Yenisehir, Ottoman Empire. The two contenders for the scepter clash militarily. The military prowess of Ahmed Pasha Gedik “the Toothless” once again makes the difference, and the poisoned ruler’s son, Bayezid, wins. But it’s not enough for Gedik: he is stripped of his duties in

Otranto. Four prostitutes, “all beautiful and adorned,” are sent within the walls by Ferrante, King of Naples. They are unaware that they are intentionally dressed in plague-infected clothing. That disease kills more people than war is a well-known fact at the time. They will be

Leonardo da Vinci receives the commission for the Adoration of the Magi. This time, aware of Leonardo’s reputation for not completing the work, the monks of the Monastery of San Donato draw up a detailed contract specifying who pays for what and the penalties for

Salona, opposite Vlora, Albania. Neapolitan supremacy is overwhelming: 800 Turks perish and 200 are captured alive. Hundreds of tons of goods looted from Otranto are also recovered, including barrels of oil, silver, and horses. Around a hundred hostages are also freed from the Turkish holds,

Tuscany. Lisa Gherardini is born, later renamed Lisa del Giocondo when she marries Francesco del Giocondo. Lisa is later portrayed by Leonardo da Vinci in the famous painting “La Gioconda” (Mona Lisa).

The first Venetian merchant ships return to Constantinople. But they will no longer sail beyond the city, to the Republic’s former maritime possessions in the Black Sea.

Treaty of Alcacovas. It puts an end to yet another war of succession between the Spanish and Portuguese, this time for the Castilian crown. It grants Portugal exclusive jurisdiction over all known Atlantic islands, with the sole exception of the Canary Islands.

News reaches Florence of the capture of Bernardo Bandini, one of the conspirators in the Pazzi conspiracy of April of the previous year. Bandini, in particular, is the assassin of Giuliano de’ Medici.

Uppsala University founded in Sweden

Michelangelo Buonarroti: Florentine sculptor and rival of Leonardo da Vinci

Istanbul. A humble Slavonian boy becomes Grand Vizier, supreme commander of the Turkish army, custodian of the sultanic seal, and holder of the tughra, the calligraphic monogram that constitutes the emperor’s signature. His name is Ahmed Pasha Gedik “the Toothless.” He will emphasize imperial absolutism

Gratz and Styria are set ablaze by Ottoman raids.

Mehmet II’s Ottoman cavalry advances across Venetian Dalmatia, razing villages as far as Istria and then Friuli. Smoke from the fires can be seen from above the bell tower of St. Mark’s Basilica.

Louis XI granted tax exemptions to silk weavers in the city of Lyon, decreed the planting of mulberry trees, and ordered the manufacture of silk for the royal court. For the next five centuries, European sericulture would be centered in the Lyon area, becoming one

Erasmus was born in Rotterdam

Plague epidemic in Italy: Puglia, Ancona, Osimo, Forlimpopoli, Bologna, Venice, Udine, Naples, Palermo, Rome, Perugia.

The Peace of Lodi allowed Italy to flourish in the arts, sciences, and prosperity. It was the period of the Borgias, Brunelleschi, Leonardo da Vinci, Piero della Francesca, Titian, and Tintoretto.

In Marostica, Veneto, a live chess challenge takes place in the town square.

Pope Nicholas V issues the crusading bull Etsi Ecclesia Christi, which will lead to the victory of Lesbos in 1457

Following the conquest of Constantinople-Byzantium by the Muslims, Russia felt invested with the role of the new Holy Roman Empire and Moscow with a new Rome.

Following the conquest of Constantinople-Byzantium by the Ottoman Turks, the city’s scholars fled to the West with all the scientific texts they could carry.

Venice. Direct income taxes are introduced for the first time. This measure (considered exceptional for Venice) was also made necessary by the fall of Constantinople. Taxes were later reduced and regularized starting in 1463, but they still remained a minor contribution to the economic budget

With the fall of Constantinople to the Muslims, Venice tried to gain time and protect its main interest, namely maritime trade: it negotiated and obtained a new treaty from Muhammad, with which the Ottomans promised protection to Venetian trade and colonies.

Constantinople. The Ottomans under Sultan Mehmet II besiege the city. The last Greek emperor appeals in vain for military aid from his historic Venetian ally, but relief is scarce and arrives late. When the city falls on May 29th, several Venetian citizens and sailors distinguish

Leonardo was born in Vinci, the illegitimate son of Ser Piero, a notary, and Caterina

Gutenberg prints the Bible in Latin (1282 pages) and thus invents the printing press.

Over the course of three centuries, approximately 40,000 people were executed for witchcraft (almost all by hanging), a quarter of whom were men.

During the Middle Ages, until 1450, the flow of technology and know-how was clearly from China and Islam to Europe. From 1450 onward, the flow gradually reversed, from Europe to China. For Islam, this turning point was around 1500.

The Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta, a native of Tangier, Morocco, visits the major cities of the Afro-Asiatic macro-civilization: Timbuktu, Cairo, Zanzibar, Baghdad, Bukhara, Delhi, Sumatra, and Beijing. At the time, European culture was not yet dominant globally, either in terms of far-reaching influence or population.

Lorenzo de Medici, known as the Magnificent, was born in Florence, son of Pietro di Cosimo the Elder and Lucrezia Tornabuoni.

Uzbekistan. The astronomical observatory built by Ulan-Beg, grandson of Tamerlane, is set ablaze by a mob incited by fundamentalist mullahs. Ulan-Beg is captured and beheaded with a scimitar. Fortunately, one of his students, Mohamed Taragi, saves nearly all of his writings and takes them to

Johan Gutenberg, with the help of investor Joham Fust, opens a printing shop in Mainz

Hunyadi was defeated by the Ottomans in Kosovo, after having withstood for three days the assault of the Turks, four times more numerous than his army.

Luca Pacioli: Florentine mathematician, friar, and friend of Leonardo da Vinci

Botticelli was born in Florence

Korea. King Sejong invented the Korean Han’gul alphabet, inspired by Chinese logograms and Mongolian and Tibetan Buddhist alphabetic scripts, adding new inventions such as grouping multiple letters into square blocks to represent words. It is therefore an example of the invention of writing through “idea

Sultanate of Mehmet II (Mehmet II, called ﺍلفاتح, Fātiḥ, “The Conqueror”). He will conquer Constantinople. And he will be an enlightened ruler, recognizing, in addition to Sunni Islam, the Greek Orthodox, the Jews, and the Armenians (but not allowing the conversion of a single Muslim).

Humanist Lorenzo Valla demonstrates the falsity of the Donation of Constantine, the document that legitimized the temporal power of the popes.

Nicholas of Cusa enunciates the Cosmological Principle in his Learned Ignorance. He states that the universe appears the same from every point of view. In essence, he says that ours is not a privileged point of view. Isaac Newton, two centuries later, would add that

South America, beginning of the Inca expansion

Galleys for the Mountains: Venice sends a massive fleet to challenge the Milanese. Six galleys and 25 smaller vessels are sent up the Adige River to Verona and then almost to Rovereto, then towed 25 kilometers over the mountains with 120 oxen per galley to

Andrea del Verrocchio: Florentine sculptor and artist. Leonardo da Vinci’s first employer.

Portuguese sailor Gil Eanes, on behalf of King Henry, rounded Cape Bojador, in what is now Western Sahara. This was considered the end of the world for sailors: no one who had rounded it had ever returned. He then continued, passing Cape Blanc, the island

Ming Mission in Florence

Piero da Vinci: Leonardo da Vinci’s father. A notary, he never married Leonardo da Vinci’s mother, nor recognized her son Leonardo as legitimate. He subsequently fathered 11 children by four other wives.

China. Haijin Decree: Ocean voyages are strictly prohibited. Building a ship carries the death penalty. Admiral Zheng He’s logbooks are destroyed. For more than half a millennium, until Deng Xiaoping at the end of the 20th century, China withdraws into itself.

Venice. The island of Lazzaretto was used as a hospital for the sick, also to reduce the spread of the disease in Venice. From 1485, a quarantine was also instituted for ships suspected of carrying the Black Death, or Bubonic Plague.

Beijing. The Forbidden City is completed.

Hundred Years’ War: “Island of France and Anjou” Phase

Battle of Agincourt: It’s Saint Crispin’s Day. King Henry V of England and his troops, having landed in Normandy, are heading toward Calais. The French muster tens of thousands of soldiers to stop them. The battle takes place at Agincourt, in a narrow passage between

Portugal decides not to halt the expulsion of the hated Moors (Muslims) from the Iberian Peninsula, but to continue the war in Africa. A huge expedition of 45,000 men on 200 ships, led by the king and all his sons, seizes Ceuta, opposite Gibraltar. The

The painter Giovanni da Modena in the Cathedral of San Petronio in Bologna painted a tiny fresco where Mohammed is in Hell

Beginning of the current European-American era according to Rudolf Steiner. Anthroposophy has its own concept of history: according to Rudolf Steiner, our current era falls within the post-Atlantean period, since in his view, the disaster that supposedly struck Atlantis in 7227 BC was a significant

Samarkand is ruled by Ulugh Beg on behalf of his father. Ulugh Beg builds an astronomical observatory, which improves upon Greek and Islamic astronomical tables. Ulugh Beg inherits the entire kingdom from his father in 1447 but manages to rule for only two years before

Tamerlane dies. During his lifetime, he temporarily succeeded in reviving the glory of the Mongol hordes, while inflicting incredible oppression on Persia, Anatolia, India, and Central Asia. He also succeeded in hybridizing Sharia with Yasa. His only failure: the failed (re)conquest of China.

Genoa. Birth of Leon Battista Alberti, one of the leading figures of the Renaissance: painter, composer, poet, philosopher, and author of a treatise on flies and an oratory at his dog’s funeral. Alberti also proposed a simple but highly effective trick in information encryption: switching

Baghdad. Timur orders 5,000 soldiers to detach themselves from his army and attack the city to collect tribute. Despite fierce resistance, Baghdad falls and is sacked, the population massacred. Outside the walls, 120 towers are built of decapitated heads. Even women and children are not

Damascus, Syria. After a siege of a few weeks, Timur captures and sacks the city.

Jubilee celebrated by Pope Boniface IX who however remained locked away in the Vatican for fear of conspiracies

Germany. Tannenberg Castle is the first European fortress destroyed by explosives.

Muslims halt their advance in Europe to face Mongol invasions

First Dalai Lama born in Central Tibet

Jubilee proclaimed by Urban VI but celebrated by Pope Boniface IX

Battle of the Field of Blackbirds in Kosovo (Kosovo Polje), in which the Christian Serbs led by the Prince of Serbia are defeated by the Ottoman Osmalis led by Murad and his Christian vassals, as part of the Ottoman advance that will lead to the

Donatello was born in Florence

Toqtamysh, Tamerlane’s main internal rival, appears before the walls of Moscow. The citizens naively open the gates to him, and his Mongol soldiers devastate and pillage the city, causing terrible carnage. Books gathered in churches from the surrounding countryside are also burned out of fear

Venice. After the fourth war between Genoa and Venice, the Venetian public debt (Monte Vecchio) swelled from 3 to 5 million gold ducats. The market price of bonds collapsed for the first time (from 92 before the war to 18 in 1381). Interest payments were

Modena was equipped by the Este with new walls, which completed and strengthened those of the Bonacolsiana wall.

To win the war against the Genoese, the Venetians used rockets called “rocchette” because they resembled the tapered spindle used for spinning wool. This is where the Italian word for “rocket” comes from, the German word “rakete,” and the Russian word “raketa.”

Fourth Genoa-Venice War. Carlo Zeno returns triumphantly after eight months of raids in the Mediterranean with fourteen galleys, all in excellent condition. The loot is rich because all Genoese forces were concentrated in Venice, and he was able to plunder Genoese merchant ships almost everywhere

Towards the end of the 14th century, the Genoese occupied Cyprus and Tenedos, a fact that triggered a reaction from the Venetians, who, after an initial success, were defeated at Pola by the Genoese, who occupied Chioggia and besieged Venice. But the Venetians managed to

Filippo Brunelleschi (pictorial discoverer of perspective)

Island of Tenedos, Aegean Sea (near the Bosphorus). The Greek governor obeys the Emperor’s orders, supported by Venice, and opens the gates to the Venetians. This triggers an attack by the Genoese, who for years have been trying to seize Tenedos from their colonies, Pera

China. The Ming Dynasty is founded with the proclamation of Zhu Yuanzhang as ruler, under the name Hongwu. For the next three centuries, China will be perhaps the most refined civilization in the world. Then something goes wrong.

China. Zhu Yuanzhang proclaims the first year of his reign with the motto hongwu (military magnificence). He chooses the name Ming (light). The Ming era begins.

Muslims return to assault Europe: 84 years after the Eighth Crusade, the Turks conquer Gallipoli north of the Dardanelles and from there invade Thrace, Macedonia, Albania and even subdue Greater Serbia and lay siege to Constantinople for 5 years.

With the Golden Bull, Charles IV transformed the Empire into an elective German monarchy, with the sovereign being chosen by the seven most powerful lay and ecclesiastical lords of the kingdom.