1448-1478/1481
Jean Fouquet, active in Tours
1453
Fall of Constantinople, end of the Byzantine Empire
1455
Printing of the Gutenberg Bible in Mainz
1459-1485
Guillaume Barbe, glazier, active in Rouen
1460/65-1493/98
Jean Colombe, active in Bourges
1464
Louis XI creates the Royal postal system with the Edict of Luxies
1469
Marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile leads to the unification of Spain
1470
First book printed in Paris by the Sorbonne Press of Guillaume Fichet and Jean Heynlin: Gasparino da Barzizza, Epistolae

1460-1480
Maître François , active in Paris
1477
Death of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy and conclusion of the Burgundian Wars.
c. 1480-1510
Master of the Très Petites Heures of Anne of Brittany (Jean d’Ypres?), active in Paris
1480-1521 
Jean Bourdichon, active in Tours
1481
Beginning of the Spanish Inquisition
1483
Birth of Simon Bening
1483
Richard III, King of England
1485-1528
Guillaume II Le Roy, active in Lyons
1485
Henry VII, King of England, founder of the Tudor Dynasty
1485
First printed book by Antoine Vérard, Catholicon abbreviatum
1485
First printed Book of Hours in France, Jean Dupré for Antoine Vérard
1487
Pierre Le Rouge prints the Mer des hystoires
1490s-c. 1510
Master of Etienne Poncher, active in Paris
c. 1490/95-1520s
Master of the Paris Entries, active in Paris
1492
Christopher Colombus discovers America
1492
Jews expelled from Spain
1494
Aldine Press founded in Venice
1494-1559
Great Italian Wars or the Habsburg-Valois Wars
1498
Savonarola burnt as heretic in Florence
1499
Pietà of Michelangelo Buonarotti
1493
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
1494-1495
Albrecht Dürer’s trip to Italy
1497-1499
Vasco da Gama’s first voyage from Europe to India and back
c. 1500-1520
Jean Pichore, active in Paris
c. 1500-1510
Master of Philippe de Gueldres, active in Paris
1503
Copernicus begins his studies of astronomy, moves the sun to the center of the solar system
1509
Henry VIII, King of England
c. 1508-early 1520s
Master of Claude de France, active in Tours
1511
Erasmus, Praise of Folly
1512-1546
Noel Bellemare, active in Paris
1512-45
Etienne Collault, active in Paris
1513
Machiavelli, The Prince
1515
Battle of Marignano, cherished victory by Francis I (“I have conquered those whom only Caesar conquered)
1515
Raphael, Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione
1515
Thomas More, Utopia
c. 1515-1530s
Master of Ango, active in Rouen
1516
Leonardo de Vinci in the Clos Lucé near the Château d’Amboise
1516
First mention of Jean Clouet, peintre du roi,
1516
Portuguese expeditions to China (Ming Dynasty) begin
1517
Martin Luther’s 95 Theses published in Wittenberg
1519
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
1519-1521
Herman Cortès in Mexico
1519-1522
Ferdinand Magellan’s first circumnavigation of the Earth
1520
Suleiman the Magnificent, Grand Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
1524-1525
Geoffroy Tory’s Horae printed in Paris
1524-1549
Literary career of Marguerite of Navarre, sister of Francis I
1525
Battle of Pavia, French defeat and capture of Francis I
c. 1525
Birth of Peter Bruegel
1525-1546
Master of François de Rohan, active in Paris
1526
Beginning of the Mughal Empire in India
1527
Sack of Rome, considered the end of the Italian Renaissance
1530
Foundation of the Collegium trilingue (Collège de France) by Francis I urged by Guillaume Budé
1532
Rabelais’s Pantagruel, followed by Gargantua (1534)
1533
Hans Holbein paints The Ambassadors
c. 1533-1563
Master of Philippe de Levis-Mirepois (Servais Cornoualle?), active in Toulouse
1533-1534
Henry VIII founds the Anglican Church of England
1534
Affair of the Placards, end of the conciliatory religious movement of Francis I
1535
Primaticcio finishes the Royal apartments in Fontainebleau
1536
John Calvin’sInstitution de la vie chrétienne
1539
Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts, prescribed the use of French in all administrative domains
1539
Robert Estienne appointed Royal typographer by Francis I
1543
Andreas Vesalius’s On the Workings of the Human Body
1546
Death of Etienne Dolet, printer and scholar, Place Maubert in Paris
1546
Michelangelo is made chief architect of St.-Peter’s Basilica, Rome
1547
Death of Henry VIII, Edward VI becomes King of England
1547
Death of Francis I, Henry II becomes King of France