thumb|Clockwise from top left: Aquinas, theologian; Bruno, cosmologist;Gatti, Hilary. Giordano Bruno and Renaissance Science: Broken Lives and Organizational Power. Cornell University Press, 2002, 1, Beccaria, criminologist; and Montessori, of Montessori education Italian medieval philosophy was mainly Christian, and included theologians such as Thomas Aquinas, a classical proponent of natural theology, who reintroduced Aristotelian philosophy to Christianity. Renaissance philosophers include: Giordano Bruno, a major scientific figure of the West; Marsilio Ficino, a humanist philosopher; and Niccolò Machiavelli, a founder of modern political science. Machiavelli's most famous work is The Prince, whose contribution to political thought is the fundamental break between political idealism and realism.Moschovitis Group Inc, Christian D. Von Dehsen and Scott L. Harris, Philosophers and religious leaders, (The Oryx Press, 1999), 117. University cities such as Padua, Bologna, and Naples remained centres of scholarship, with philosophers such as Giambattista Vico. Cesare Beccaria was a significant Enlightenment figure and a father of classical criminal theory and penology.
thumb|Clockwise from top left: Aquinas, theologian; Bruno, cosmologist;Gatti, Hilary. Giordano Bruno and Renaissance Science: Broken Lives and Organizational Power. Cornell University Press, 2002, 1, Beccaria, criminologist; and Montessori, of Montessori education Italian medieval philosophy was mainly Christian, and included theologians such as Thomas Aquinas, a classical proponent of natural theology, who reintroduced Aristotelian philosophy to Christianity Renaissance philosophers include: Giordano Bruno, a major scientific figure of the West; Marsilio Ficino, a humanist philosopher; and Niccolò Machiavelli, a founder of modern political science. Machiavelli's most famous work is The Prince, whose contribution to political thought is the fundamental break between political idealism and realism.Moschovitis Group Inc, Christian D. Von Dehsen and Scott L. Harris, Philosophers and religious leaders, (The Oryx Press, 1999), 117. University cities such as Padua, Bologna, and Naples remained centres of scholarship with philosophers such as Giambattista Vico. Cesare Beccaria was a significant Enlightenment figure and a father of classical criminal theory and penology.