Toward the end of the 14th century AD, a handful of Italian thinkers declared that they were living in a new age. The barbarous, unenlightened “Middle Ages” were over, they said; the new age would be a rebirth of learning and literature, art and culture. This was the birth of the period now known as the Renaissance. There were advances in art, architecture, philosophy, religion, government, and many other fields. This time period was euphoric at the idea of new theories and a wide variety of achievements.