What were the changes in education during the Renaissance?

Renaissance is the French word for
rebirth. It is the time of change that happened in Europe between the
14th and 16th centuries.

It was an age
of growth in Europe. New, powerful
city states emerged. A new
middle class had more and more money to spend. Great artists, writers and thinkers lived
during this time.

The Renaissance was
especially strong in Italian cities. They became centres of trade,
wealth and education. Many cities, like Venice, Genoa and
Florence had famous citizens who were very rich and gave
the city a lot of money.

In 1445 the German
Gutenberg invented the printing
press. He changed the lives of millions of people
throughout Europe. For the first time, bookmaking became cheap and
Gutenberg was able to print many books very quickly.

In the
Middle Ages books were very expensive because they were written by hand. Only priests
and monks could read them because most of them were
written in Latin.

In the Renaissance the middle classes had
the money to buy books but they wanted books that they could read in their own language.
A publishing boom broke out and buying and selling books
began to prosper in many European countries. People bought
travel books, romances, poetry
and almanacs. They read more and became
better educated.