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You'll likely be familiar with some aspect of the Renaissance.

Leonardo da Vinci's famous Mona Lisa, for example, or the plays of Shakespeare.

You might even have stood in the Sistine Chapel and admired Michelangelo's fresco on the ceiling. But what exactly was the Renaissance about, and who were the people driving it forward?

And what was it about this period of time that produced such a plethora of talent?

We'll consider these questions and more tonight.

So just relax and let your mind drift as we explore the sleepy history of the Renaissance.

It's a cold January morning in 1417 in the dusty library of a German monastery, an Italian scholar finally strikes gold.

After weeks of searching for treasure along the bookshelves, he's found the only surviving copy of an ancient manuscript,

...