Short answers, pulled from the story.
Marsilio Ficino translated the complete works of Plato into Latin in 1484. This translation had been impossible for centuries before his monumental effort. The task redefined European thought by making Plato's ideas accessible to medieval scholars.
Leonardo Bruni and Lorenzo Valla were the humanists who questioned the foundations of scholasticism in the early fifteenth century. Bruni served as the chancellor of Florence and retranslated Aristotle's Ethics into idiomatic Latin. Valla argued that philosophy should be guided by rhetoric and the beauty of language rather than technical jargon.
Marsilio Ficino lived from 1433 to 1499. He was a Florentine philosopher who reinterpreted Plato's Symposium to transform the concept of love into spiritual love. His work influenced thinkers like Pietro Bembo and Baldassare Castiglione.
Desiderius Erasmus died in 1536. He was a Dutch humanist born in 1466 who challenged the authority of the church through his writings and translations. Erasmus prepared a Greek edition of Aristotle and encouraged the study of ancient texts in their original languages.
The Thirty Years' War lasted from 1618 to 1648. This conflict was the culmination of the Renaissance period and demonstrated the importance of religion in the era. The war reshaped the intellectual landscape of Europe and influenced the development of philosophy.