European history: Renaissance

Richard Parkinson's Thirty Years in the South Seas was first published in 1907. In this 900-page work, Parkinson drew together and expanded on the scientific and popular papers he had been publishing since 1887, creating in the process a landmark...

A fresh reading of Aldus Manutius, preeminent in the history of the printed book.Aldus Manutius is perhaps the greatest gure in the history of the printed book: in Venice, Europe's capital of printing, he invented the italic type and issued more rst...

Peter Hainsworth's sparkling, eminently readable new English translation ofThe Book of the Courtier, Baldesar Castiglione's (14781529) literary and philosophical masterpiece, captures all the nuance, stylistic flair, and humor of this...

The first biography of Henry VIII's court fool William Somer, a legendary entertainer and one of the most intriguing figures of the Tudor age.In some portraits of Henry VIII there appears another, striking figure - a gaunt and morose-looking man with a...

Through a collection of works from key thinkers in natural philosophy, the second edition of The Scientific Background to Modern Philosophy illuminates the central role scientific writing played in developing modern philosophical thought.This revised and...

A new interpretation of Tycho Brahe's pivotal role in the emergence of empirical science.The Danish aristocrat and astronomer Tycho Brahe personified the inventive vitality of Renaissance life in the sixteenth century. Brahe lost his nose in a student...

A beautifully illustrated monograph on the innovative and at times controversial sculptor Donatello.The Italian sculptor known as Donatello helped to forge a new kind of art - one that defines the Renaissance. His work was progressive, innovative,...

In this engaging book ,Bernadine Barnes brings together new research to show how Michelangelo's art was seen in its own time. Michelangelo's consideration of his audience changed throughout his career: sometimes he produced work for conventional...

Contemporary themes: the search for meaning and for spirituality in a secular world; the art of attention; reconciliation with the Catholic Church; the meaning and value of art (and the humanities) in the 21st century, especially art from cultures and...

Kenneth Bartlett delves into the lives and works of the artists, patrons, and intellectuals - the privileged, educated, influential elites - who created a rarefied world of power, money, and sophisticated talent in which individual curiosity and skill...

"By far the best collection of sources to introduce readers to Renaissance humanism in all its many guises. What distinguishes this stimulating and useful anthology is the vision behind it: King shows that Renaissance thinkers had a lot...

A panoramic history of the antiquarians whose discoveries transformed Renaissance culture and gave rise to new forms of art and knowledgeIn the early fifteenth century, a casket containing the remains of the Roman historian Livy was unearthed at a...

A comprehensive survey of the work of this most influential Florentine artist and teacherAndrea del Verrocchio (c. 14351488) was one of the most versatile and inventive artists of the Italian Renaissance. He created art across media, from his spectacular...

The first comprehensive account of how and why architects learned to communicate through colour.Architectural draw traces the use of colour in European architectural drawings and prints, revealing how this phenomenon reflected the professional anxieties...

The first major history of the bravura movement in European paintingThe painterly style known as bravura emerged in sixteenth-century Venice and spread throughout Europe during the seventeenth century. While earlier artistic movements presented a...

The untold story of Michelangelo's final decades-and his transformation into one of the greatest architects of the Italian RenaissanceAs he entered his seventies, the great Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo despaired that his productive years were...

The legendary Renaissance math duel that ushered in the modern age of algebraThe Secret Formula tells the story of two Renaissance mathematicians whose jealousies, intrigues, and contentious debates led to the discovery of a formula for the solution of...

To what extent was Machiavelli a "Machiavellian"? Was he an amoral adviser of tyranny or a stalwart partisan of liberty? A neutral technician of power politics or a devout Italian patriot? A reviver of pagan virtue or initiator of modern nihilism?...

How the nature illustrations of a Renaissance polymath reflect his turbulent ageThis pathbreaking and stunningly illustrated book recovers the intersections between natural history, politics, art, and philosophy in the late sixteenth-century Low...

The first book to explore the role of images in philosophical thought and teaching in the early modern period Delving into the intersections between artistic images and philosophical knowledge in Europe from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth...

'A judicious selection of the varied writings of the great humanist, translated from both Latin and Italian. The introduction is admirably structured, clear and coherent, and presents Petrarch to the reader without didacticism or oversimplification. It...

Drawn from James B. Atkinson and David Sices' Montaigne: Selected Essays, this annotated translation of tienne de La Botie's political masterpiece offers an ideal opportunity to become acquainted with the thought of a brilliant though short-lived...