This glorious time in European history saw the invention of printing press and the birth of modern science. Shakespeare, Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci revolutionised the arts. In music it was the golden age of the lute, which was as popular then as the guitar is today. Featuring exquisitely intricate vocal polyphony, yearning love songs and madrigals, courtly dances and consort music by composers such as Henry VIII, Josquin de Pres and John Dowland.