Renaissance is the name given in the 19th century to a broad cultural movement that occurred in Western Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. It was a period of transition between the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Age. Its main exponents are in the field of the arts, although there was also a renewal in the sciences, both natural and human. The city of Florence, in Italy, was the birthplace and development of this movement, which later spread throughout Europe.