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Excerpt from Europe in Renaissance and Reformation, 1453-1659, Vol. 4 of 6 Our own times are separated from the Middle Ages mainly by two differences. The boundaries, both of the geographical world and of the world of thought, have been enlarged. The globe has been explored; men no longer set limits to the knowledge they may gain. These are the great results of two movements which may be said to divide Medieval from Modern times - namely, the Renaissance, which made a rediscovery to man of the powers of the human mind; and the Age of Discovery, which meant for the medieval world the enlargement of the universe. To both these a stimulus was given by the fall of the Greek Empire in 1453. Constantinople was at last captured by the Turks, who for over a century had been pressing towards its gates. During the early fifteenth century, Greek scholars had occasionally settled in Italy to teach their language. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.