When did the Renaissance commence?

Explanation

The Renaissance is a cultural movement that began in Italy in the Late Middle Ages, partly as a cultural reaction to the plague which had ravaged the country and lead to economic decline. It was followed, however, by the emergence of a new, growing middle class, full of new ideas. The basis for the renaissance was a financial and scientific blossoming. The later European renaissance 1500-1700 challenges the Italian renaissance some hundred years earlier and is thus not connected to 're-birth' as renaissance means.