Use of English PRO

Late medieval and early Renaissance Italy witnessed (0) MANY changes, including a (1) ............ of the mercantile economy, the emergence of a vernacular literature, and the first serious efforts to recover the classical tradition of learning. Feudalism, with the (2) ............ nobility controlling the lives and destinies of the populace, began to (3) ............ its grip. The Holy Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church increasingly failed to provide social and political stability. National monarchies, especially those of France and England, rose (4) ............ importance, and in Italy, the city-state became the preferred form of political organization. One city-state, Florence, located in north central Italy, took the (5) ............ in projecting the new indefatigable spirit of (6) ............, a return to the classical ideal of man being the measure of all things; it became the incontestable intellectual capital of Renaissance Europe. The brilliant painter Giotto appeared early in this remarkable period. The next hundred years gave (7) ............ to the artist Masaccio and architects Alberti and Brunelleschi; then, toward the end of the fifteenth century, the matchless trio of Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphaels (8) ............ onto the scene.