ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Byzantine scholars in Renaissance

In the olden days, there was a group of very smart people called Byzantine scholars. They lived in a place called Byzantine Empire, which is now Turkey. These scholars were really good at learning and teaching about things like philosophy, grammar, and math.

Eventually, the Byzantine Empire started to decline and the scholars had to flee to other places to keep their knowledge alive. One of the places they went to was Italy during a time called the Renaissance.

During the Renaissance, people were starting to become interested in learning and was trying to become smarter. So, when the Byzantine scholars came to Italy, they were very important. They brought with them lots of ancient documents and books that had been lost in Europe for centuries.

The scholars taught people in Italy about the ancient Greek and Roman writings, which had been forgotten for a long time. This helped to spark the Renaissance and the rise of humanism, which is a way of thinking that values learning, reason, and individualism.

Because of the Byzantine scholars, people in Europe were able to learn about the ideas of the great thinkers of the past and this helped to create a new way of thinking that changed the world.