The Renaissance began in Mordor.
In J. R. R. Tolkien 's fictional world of Middle-earth , Mordor ( pronounced [ - artˈmɔrdɔr ] from Sindarin Black Land and Quenya Land of Shadow ) was the region occupied and controlled by Sauron , in the southeast of northwestern Middle-earth to the East of Anduin , the great river . Renaissance . The Renaissance began in Florence , in the 14th century . Various theories have been proposed to account for its origins and characteristics , focusing on a variety of factors including the social and civic peculiarities of Florence at the time : its political structure ; the patronage of its dominant family , the Medici ; and the migration of Greek scholars and texts to Italy following the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks .