>>4925408Nice summary. It's strange to hear this time period spoken of as an era with 'so many illiterate people'... it's quantitatively true, but in hindsight it's qualitatively untrue, and seems to be the most inapt label for the Renaissance, especially as so many ancient Greek manuscripts were being retrieved. Most of the Great Wars of Italy (Habsburg-Valois) had concluded by Caravaggio's birth and he died before the Thirty Years War began, so maybe it makes a point about this interim period.
But to say that we're more literate today relative to the Renaissance in Italy...that does not look evident, even if it's quantitively true.
