Andrea Palladio, the architect of country villas in the Venetian Republic, took his principles chiefly from where?Wikipedia, "Andrea Palladio"; course topic 1.2
Baldassare Castiglione's Book of the Courtier (1528) is a dialogue about what?Wikipedia, "The Book of the Courtier"; course topic 1.2
Filippo Brunelleschi is considered a founder of Renaissance architecture. Which work is he best known for?Wikipedia, "Filippo Brunelleschi"; course topic 1.2
Francesco Petrarch, Letter to Posterity: "I dwelt especially upon antiquity, for our own age has always repelled me." Which humanist attitude does the line show?Francesco Petrarch, Letter to Posterity, Hanover Historical Texts Project; course topic 1.2
Giorgio Vasari, Life of Leonardo da Vinci: Leonardo's "every action is so divine, that, surpassing all other men, it makes itself clearly known as a thing bestowed by God." What attitude toward artists does Vasari's praise show?Giorgio Vasari, Life of Leonardo da Vinci, Internet History Sourcebooks Project, Fordham University; course topic 1.2
Show all 59 questions (54 more)
Topic 1.2: Italian Renaissance, continued
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man: God tells Adam, "We have made you a creature neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, in order that you may, as the free and proud shaper of your own being, fashion yourself in the form you may prefer." Which Renaissance value does the passage express?Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man, Internet History Sourcebooks Project, Fordham University, and Wikipedia, "Oration on the Dignity of Man"; course topic 1.2
Leon Battista Alberti's treatise On Painting set the art on which foundation?Wikipedia, "Leon Battista Alberti"; course topic 1.2
Leonardo Bruni, chancellor of Florence, was the first to divide history into antiquity, a middle age and a modern age. What does the scheme reveal about humanists?Wikipedia, "Leonardo Bruni"; course topic 1.2
Lorenzo de' Medici, called the Magnificent, held which position in Florence?Wikipedia, "Lorenzo de' Medici"; course topic 1.2
Lorenzo Valla wrote that the Donation of Constantine "is comprised of contradictions, impossibilities, stupidities, barbarisms and absurdities." How did Valla show that the document was a forgery?Lorenzo Valla, Discourse on the Forgery of the Alleged Donation of Constantine, Hanover Historical Texts Project, and Wikipedia, "Donation of Constantine"; course topic 1.2
Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel between 1508 and 1512. Who commissioned it?Wikipedia, "Sistine Chapel ceiling" and AP European History Course and Exam Description, KC-1.1.III.A; course topic 1.2
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, chapter XV: "how one lives is so far distant from how one ought to live, that he who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation." What approach to politics does Machiavelli announce?Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (written 1513), chapter XV, translated by W. K. Marriott, Project Gutenberg; course topic 1.2
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, chapter XVII, says of men in general "that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous." How does this view shape his advice to a prince?Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (written 1513), chapter XVII, translated by W. K. Marriott, Project Gutenberg; course topic 1.2
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, chapter XVIII: "it is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves." What is the advice?Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (written 1513), chapter XVIII, translated by W. K. Marriott, Project Gutenberg, and Wikipedia, "The Prince"; course topic 1.2
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, chapter XXV: "Fortune is the arbiter of one-half of our actions." What does Machiavelli say about the other half?Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (written 1513), chapter XXV, translated by W. K. Marriott, Project Gutenberg; course topic 1.2
On Mount Ventoux, Petrarch opened Augustine's Confessions and read that men wonder at mountains and seas, "but themselves they consider not." What does the episode suggest about early humanism?Francesco Petrarch, The Ascent of Mount Ventoux, Internet History Sourcebooks Project, Fordham University; course topic 1.2
Petrarch died in 1374, yet he is often called the father of humanism. Which of his acts is credited with starting the movement?Wikipedia, "Petrarch"; course topic 1.2
Raphael's fresco The School of Athens, painted in the pope's own palace, puts Plato and Aristotle at its center. What does that choice show?Wikipedia, "The School of Athens" and Wikipedia, "Raphael"; course topic 1.2
What did Renaissance humanists expect their program of study to produce?Wikipedia, "Renaissance humanism"; course topic 1.2
What did the circle that formed around Marsilio Ficino near Florence, under the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici, set out to revive?Wikipedia, "Platonic Academy (Florence)"; course topic 1.2
What is geometric, or linear, perspective used for in painting?Wikipedia, "Perspective (graphical)" and AP European History Course and Exam Description, KC-1.1.III.A; course topic 1.2
What was new about Francesco Guicciardini's History of Italy?Wikipedia, "Francesco Guicciardini"; course topic 1.2
Which subjects made up the studia humanitatis, the course of study that gave humanists their name?Wikipedia, "Renaissance humanism" and AP European History Course and Exam Description, KC-1.1.I.B; course topic 1.2
Why did Valla's exposure of the Donation of Constantine matter beyond scholarship?Wikipedia, "Lorenzo Valla"; course topic 1.2
Why is Donatello's bronze David, made in Florence probably in the 1440s, a landmark of Renaissance art?Wikipedia, "David (Donatello, bronze)"; course topic 1.2
Topic 1.3: Northern Renaissance 9
The course names Bruegel and Rembrandt as northern artists who employed naturalism. What did that naturalism treat as fit subjects for art?AP European History Course and Exam Description, KC-1.1.III.B; course topic 1.3
Desiderius Erasmus, The Praise of Folly, on certain monks: "they reckon it one of the main points of piety if they are so illiterate that they can't so much as read." Which belief of the Christian humanists lies behind the joke?Desiderius Erasmus, The Praise of Folly, translated by John Wilson, Internet History Sourcebooks Project, Fordham University, and AP European History Course and Exam Description, KC-1.2.I.A; course topic 1.3
Desiderius Erasmus, The Praise of Folly: monks "call themselves the religious and monks, most false in both titles, when both a great part of them are farthest from religion." What is Erasmus doing in the passage?Desiderius Erasmus, The Praise of Folly, translated by John Wilson, Internet History Sourcebooks Project, Fordham University, and Wikipedia, "In Praise of Folly"; course topic 1.3
How did the Northern Renaissance differ from the Italian Renaissance?AP European History Course and Exam Description, KC-1.1.III.B and Wikipedia, "Northern Renaissance"; course topic 1.3
How is property arranged on the island that Thomas More describes in Utopia?Wikipedia, "Utopia (book)"; course topic 1.3
Pieter Bruegel the Elder is best known for which subjects?Wikipedia, "Pieter Bruegel the Elder"; course topic 1.3
Thomas More, Utopia (1516), Book I: "your sheep, which are naturally mild, and easily kept in order, may be said now to devour men and unpeople, not only villages, but towns." What is More criticizing?Thomas More, Utopia (1516), Book I, Project Gutenberg; course topic 1.3
What did Erasmus publish in 1516 that applied humanist methods to scripture?Wikipedia, "Novum Instrumentum omne" and Wikipedia, "Erasmus"; course topic 1.3
What was the aim of Christian humanism, the movement embodied in the writings of Erasmus?AP European History Course and Exam Description, KC-1.2.I.A; course topic 1.3
Topic 1.4: Printing 9
About how many copies had the printing presses of Western Europe produced by 1500?Wikipedia, "Printing press"; course topic 1.4
According to the course, what did the growth of vernacular literature after the invention of printing eventually contribute to?AP European History Course and Exam Description, KC-1.1.II.A and Wikipedia, "Printing press"; course topic 1.4
How did the printing press change the Renaissance itself?AP European History Course and Exam Description, KC-1.1.II.A and Wikipedia, "Northern Renaissance"; course topic 1.4
Printed humanist editions of the classics challenged the power of which institutions?AP European History Course and Exam Description, KC-1.1.I.B; course topic 1.4
What is an incunable?Wikipedia, "Incunable"; course topic 1.4
What is the Gutenberg Bible?Wikipedia, "Gutenberg Bible"; course topic 1.4
What is vernacular literature?Wikipedia, "Vernacular literature" and Wikipedia, "Printing press"; course topic 1.4
Which was an effect of the printing press on European readers?Wikipedia, "Printing press"; course topic 1.4
Who introduced printing with movable type to Europe, and where?Wikipedia, "Johannes Gutenberg" and AP European History Course and Exam Description, KC-1.1.II.A; course topic 1.4
Topic 1.5: New monarchies 16
According to the course, new monarchies established monopolies on tax collection, military force and justice. Which further right did they gain?AP European History Course and Exam Description, KC-1.5.I.A; course topic 1.5
For what purpose was the English court of Star Chamber first established?Wikipedia, "Star Chamber"; course topic 1.5
The French jurist Jean Bodin is listed in the course as a secular political theorist. With which idea is he associated?Wikipedia, "Jean Bodin"; course topic 1.5
How did Elizabeth I's Parliament settle the religion of England in 1559?Wikipedia, "Elizabethan Religious Settlement"; course topic 1.5
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, chapter XXVI, on Italy: "without head, without order, beaten, despoiled, torn, overrun." Which condition of Machiavelli's Italy does the line describe?Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (written 1513), chapter XXVI, translated by W. K. Marriott, Project Gutenberg, and AP European History Course and Exam Description, KC-1.5.I.D; course topic 1.5
Thomas More, author of Utopia and Lord Chancellor of England, was executed in 1535. For what?Wikipedia, "Thomas More"; course topic 1.5
Under the Peace of Augsburg of 1555, between which confessions could a ruler in the Holy Roman Empire choose for his state?Wikipedia, "Peace of Augsburg"; course topic 1.5
What did Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile achieve in January 1492?Wikipedia, "Granada War"; course topic 1.5
What did Henry IV of France do by the Edict of Nantes in 1598?Wikipedia, "Edict of Nantes"; course topic 1.5
What did King Francis I of France gain from the Concordat of Bologna of 1516?Wikipedia, "Concordat of Bologna"; course topic 1.5
What did the Act of Supremacy of 1534 declare?Wikipedia, "Acts of Supremacy" and AP European History Course and Exam Description, KC-1.2.II.A; course topic 1.5
What did the Alhambra Decree, issued by Ferdinand and Isabella in March 1492, order?Wikipedia, "Alhambra Decree"; course topic 1.5
What did the Treaty of Lodi of 1454 give the Italian peninsula?Wikipedia, "Treaty of Lodi"; course topic 1.5
What kind of body was the Spanish Inquisition, established in 1478?Wikipedia, "Spanish Inquisition"; course topic 1.5
Which set of achievements is credited to the "new monarchs" of the 15th and 16th centuries?Wikipedia, "New Monarchs" and AP European History Course and Exam Description, KC-1.5.I.A; course topic 1.5
Who were France's nobles of the robe?Wikipedia, "Nobles of the Robe" and AP European History Course and Exam Description, KC-1.5.I.C; course topic 1.5
How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to topics 1.2 to 1.5 of Unit 1 (Renaissance and Exploration, c. 1450 to c. 1648) of the College Board's AP European History Course and Exam Description, effective fall 2026, https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-european-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf, read 2026-10-11. Each fact was read on 2026-10-11 in the public page named under its question: period documents at the Internet History Sourcebooks Project (Fordham University), the Hanover Historical Texts Project and Project Gutenberg, and Wikipedia articles. Licence: Own work. Short quotations from the public documents named under each question.
How it works
This AP Euro Renaissance practice test has 59 questions of our own on humanism, art, printing and the new monarchies, many built on a line from Petrarch, Machiavelli or Erasmus. It is unofficial and not affiliated with the College Board.
Read the full guide
What this test covers
The College Board's course description, read October 11, 2026, places the Renaissance in Unit 1. This page takes the unit's four Renaissance topics: the Italian Renaissance (25 questions), the Northern Renaissance (9), printing (9) and new monarchies (16). The description gives no weights among topics, so the spread is ours. The unit's topics on exploration, colonial expansion, the slave trade and the commercial revolution are left out.
Where the answers come from
Under each answer is the public page its fact was read on: the quoted text itself wherever a question quotes one.
Pair each humanist with one work: Valla and the Donation, Pico and the Oration, Machiavelli and The Prince, Erasmus and The Praise of Folly.
Italian and northern humanists read the same classics. The course separates them by purpose: secular and civic in Italy, religious reform in the north.
Questions and answers
What unit is the Renaissance in AP Euro?
Unit 1, Renaissance and Exploration, about 1450 to 1648. The Italian Renaissance is topic 1.2, the Northern Renaissance 1.3, printing 1.4 and new monarchies 1.5.
How much of the AP Euro exam is Unit 1?
Between 10 and 15%, by the College Board's course page. All nine units carry that weight, and the four Renaissance topics are part of Unit 1's share.
Does this AP Euro practice test on the Renaissance cover the Reformation?
Only where the two meet: Erasmus, the Act of Supremacy and the Peace of Augsburg appear under their Unit 1 topics. Luther, Calvin and the wars of religion belong to Unit 2.
Are these real AP Euro questions?
No. The real questions belong to the College Board and none is copied or reworded here. These were written for this page from the unit's published topics and from public texts.