Medieval and Renaissance aesthetics

There is no single correct answer to the question of when medieval philosophy began and ended, and the Renaissance period is similarly indeterminate in its chronological boundaries. For present purposes, however, it will be useful to regard the medieval era of art and thought as beginning between the birth of Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) and of Abbot Suger of St Denis (1081–1151), and to view the end of the Renaissance period as falling early within the lifetimes of Shakespeare (1564–1616) and Hobbes (1588–1679).