Trecento

in Italian, the term for the 14th century. In philology and art studies the term designates 14th-century Italian culture, whose intensive development paved the way for the Renaissance. The literature of the trecento constituted a decisive turn toward the philosophy of humanism and the use of the Italian language, for example, in the works of Petrarch and Boccaccio. In the fine arts, the trecento was characterized by a struggle between realism and strong Gothic tendencies. The Sienese school of painting best typifies the trecento.