The Renaissance was a time of significant accomplishments in architecture, art, music, science and exploration. It began in the Italian city-states, with Florence generally described as the cradle of the Renaissance. Venice was a trading superpower with a large empire. The Catholic Church and Trade Unions were influential on society. Marriages strengthened business and family ties. A system of social welfare was created to help the poor, especially women.. There was often conflict within the Italian city-states, with wealthy families such as the de' Medici controlling politics. The Humanists, such as Petrarch, revived interest in the antiquity of Greece and Rome, by finding and translating many previously lost classical works. Niccolo Machiavelli, Lucrezia Borgia and Galileo contributed to society, politics and scientific understanding. Painting, sculpture and architecture is represented in the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Bramante and Brunelleschi. During the fifteen century Renaissance culture and ideas spread throughout the rest of Europe. Francois I, the King of France, attracted Italian scholars and artists such as Leonardo da Vinci to his palace at Fontainebleau, recreating the beauty and splendor of Italy..