Spanish Renaissance
Rather than taking the 20,000 foot view of the entire renaissance of Europe, I decided to drill down a little more in depth into the renaissance period of a specific country, Spain. Some of the best writings from Spain came from the renaissance period, such as Jorge Manrique's Coplas a la muerte de su padre
This lyrical work is considered an elegy of Manrique's father. The work is choc full of metaphors and symbolism. Manrique depicts the interaction of mind, body, and spirit. Some of the important themes are life and death, but there are also themes of history. http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/poesia/coplaspo.htm
It was during this historical movement that Spain had conquered Grenada and the Jews were expelled from the country. It was during this time that the Spanish Inquisition took place. Those who were not Christian, or who did not pretend to be Christian were expelled from the country. Since this was a period of "rebirth" for Christians and converts, poets like Garcilaso de la Vega flourished. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garcilaso_de_la_Vega
The renaissance period experienced new movements not only in literature, but also in math, science, religion, and architecture. One of the first examples of this architecture was the Palace of Dukes. http://www.arteguias.com/arquitecturarenacimiento.htm