The term of Rebirth is the French equivalent of Italian rinascimento, or rinascita: the revival of European arts, which takes its source, in XVe century, in Italy, where it is associated with the rediscovery of the literature, the philosophy and sciences of Antiquity like to the evolution of the empirical methods used for the study of these disciplines. But the Rebirth, beyond the artistic and cultural flowering which is worth its name to him, is one capital period for Europe, which with the Great Discoveries will launch out to the conquest of the world.
The Rebirth is a concept discussed and undoubtedly debatable. All the features characteristic of this period are found in the full Middle Ages. And yet, one cannot neglect the conviction of the contemporaries, following the painter and Giorgio Vasari art critic, of living a true revival. The Rebirth could be defined then as the “feeling”, then the installation of new structures.
Between 1450 and 1550, Europe will pose the bases of its hegemony as well economic as political. The end of the Middle Ages was marked in Europe by an accumulation of plagues: famines, wars and return of the plague put at evil the continent. The time of the Rebirth is thus that of a general, demographic recovery as well as economic. Thus, in this century which follows the end of the One hundred Year old war, France, which had nothing any more but about ten million inhabitants, doubles its population, which thus finds her demographic level of before the crises. The English, who are two million around 1485, reach the three million in 1550.