Renaissance Europe

Saturday, a day of rest. This is one of the days of the week that anyone can get away from all of the aspects of life, whether they sleep in, go out, or just stay home. Unfortunately, I was not one of those people. At least not today. Today I was going on my 4th adventure. I was going to the renaissance. I woke up to see my window had frosted over. I wiped away the mist to see a white blanket of snow had delicately covered the ground. I opened my window and smelt freshly baked ginger bread men being taken out of the oven. I grabbed my woolly soft gloves and my fur lined coat. I ran out and saw that the Jincal Lake had frozen over completely. I walked over to the spot where the tea house stood and pressed the button labeled renaissance. This time the whole world didn’t start to spin, in fact nothing happened at all. I open the door and step outside. The view looked nothing like my street. I guess the tea house had worked.   

  

It was the year 1450. I was in the German city of Mainz. It seemed like I was in Gutenberg’s workshop. He was working on something that looked like a type writer. No one seemed to notice me, they were so indulged in their work. After pondering for a couple of minutes, memories came back to me. Last year I remember learning something about Johannes Gutenberg. In those days, for many centuries, knowledge had only been for the few and largely reserved for the monks and priests. For most people this was an literacy problem, they couldn't read or right. During these times books were written by hand. Often monks would spend years on a work. And Johannes Gutenberg was the man who changed this. Just to make sure I had the right idea about this guy, I took out my iPhone. I still had 4G. I didn’t want to make too much noise, so I didn’t use Siri: I just simply googled up Johannes Gutenberg. My 5^th grade teacher had taught me well. There was one major thing she left out and that was how he made writing much more efficient and cheaper. I wasn’t just going to read how he did it, what would be the use of that? I was at his workshop. He was right in front of me. I was going to watch how he made a difference. I casual walked out of the corner I had been teleported in. He finally realized I was there. I was astonished that he didn’t notice the pink tea house behind me. He introduced himself and his crew. He also gave me a “VIP tour.” He had just finished working on the first ever printing press. He told me I was the first one besides his crew that was seeing how this phenomenon worked. He claimed he did this by separating the letters into its individual parts.  First on the end of a metal rod a mirror image of the letter was made. Next the metal rod is pushed into copper. This is called a matrix, the matrix is a mold for the actual type, but then Gutenberg described his problem. He could not make these letters quickly and efficiently. So to tackle his problem he invented the hand casting instrument. With this instrument he could cast letters quickly and no matter what, these letters would be identical. Finally, these letters can be combined into lines. He explained he did not usually do this himself. He had hired a professional called a type-setter. The result of the type-setter’s work was a mirror image of the page to be printed. Next, the mirror image was inked in with printer’s ink. Gutenberg described his was made up off lamp black varnish and egg white. He claimed the printing process could now start. He used a special press for this matter, but the principal was taken from the original wine press. Gutenberg was going to use this extraordinary device to print official documents. I thanked Gutenberg for the tour and headed back to the Tea house. I wish I could have told what an impact he had made in society, but I didn't want to alter the path of history so I left and let it remain a mystery. 

While I was in the Renaissance I had to visit another one of the many geniuses of this time period, Leonardo Di Vinci. I typed his name in the OTHER section of the tea house which would take me to any place I want, and pressed enter. The whole world started to spin, lights shone, and poof I was in Di Vinci house. It was a mess. Blueprints of inventions covered the floor. I’m starting to wonder if I’m the only one who can see the Tea house. Leonardo noticed me right away, but not the time machine. He welcomed me and gave me a tour of his house. I noticed he was obsessed with the human body. He had thousands of drawings and charts. He explained that all things were proportional and the human body was the scale. All his paintings were proportional. He showed me the master piece he was working on. He had accepted a commission from a wealthy merchant to paint his wife. It seemed a lot like the Mona Lisa. It was the Mona Lisa! I thanked Leo for this amazing experience and headed back toward the door. 

Outside a group had formed. Martin Luther was giving a speech. I didn't know a lot about Martin Luther, so I googled him up. This is what I found, a monk named Martin Luther began to question the practices of the Catholic Church as he studied the Bible. He found many areas where he felt the Bible and the Catholic Church disagreed. On October 31, 1517 Luther took a list of 95 points where he thought the Church had gone wrong and nailed it to the door of a Catholic Church. One of the practices that Luther disagreed with was the paying of indulgences. This practice allowed people to be forgiven of their sins when they paid the church money. After Luther nailed his list to the Church, the Catholics began to make less money. This made them mad. They kicked him out of the church and called him a heretic. This may not sound bad today, but in those times heretics were often put to death. Many people agreed with Martin Luther that the Catholic Church had become corrupt. Much of northern Europe began to separate from the Catholic Church. Several new churches were formed such as the Lutheran Church and the Reformed Church. Also new reform leaders such as John Calvin in Switzerland spoke out against the Catholic Church. I wanted to get out before any riots broke out so I sprinted back to the Tea house and pushed home… at least I meant to push home but I had accidentally pushed the wrong button. I had pressed other without entering a destination. 

Lights shone and the whole world started to spin, and Poof. I opened the door and hoped for the best. The year was 1792. The commoners in France were following the example set two decades ago by the Americans.  In 1776, a group of people at the bottom of society in America rebelled against those who were at the top. The British Colonies in America declared their independence and then enforced it by defeating the most powerful military on Earth.  This was a great source of inspiration for the French. The American Revolution sent shock waves throughout Europe, and gave hope to many poverty stricken peasants, who wanted to see the powerful aristocracies of Europe fall. The lower classes decided to rebel, and create a new, fairer society.The changes for reform were based on the desire for freedom, democracy and citizenship.During this Reign of Terror, everyone was afraid they would be accused of being a traitor.  The penalty for that was being beheaded in the guillotine. A massive crowd had gathered around the guillotine. Today King Lois the 16th was getting slaughtered. They had a countdown just like at our new year’s celebration in Time Square when they drop the massive glass ball, but here when the countdown hit zero the sharp blade came down and cut his head off. 

After seeing this bloody site I scurried back to the Tea house and made sure I pressed Home. Again nothing happened, but when I opened the door the smell of gingerbread cookies filled my nose. Home, Sweet, Home!!!