[rollo tomasi]

Renaissance started in Florence because of the Medici marketing/banking meme. Art/architecture style had little to do with anything. There were plenty of that “dreaded Gothic” period which in a lot of ways, superior.

[SauronOfMordor]

Also the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Turks in the 1400s, sent many scholars of Greek Classics west into Europe, leading to a revival of interest in the Classical world.

https://medium.com/@historicherald47/the-fall-of-constantinople-1453-a-turning-point-in-history-3f9c138409d8