Here is a stimulating introduction to the world of the Renaissance - from the achievements of Leonardo da Vinci to everyday life in an Italian city-state. Filled with full-color photographs of works of art and artifacts, Leonardo brings the Renaissance to life, offering an eyewitness view of this period of history. See Leonardo's design for exploding cannonballs, and one of the first pocket watches. Learn how one family dominated a city for more than two centuries, and why the ancient world was an inspiration for the modern one. Discover how the invention of the printing press changed the world, why Leonardo studied a bird's wing to make a flying machine, and much, much more.
1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance
The New York Times bestselling author of 1421 offers another stunning reappraisal of history, presenting compelling new evidence that traces the roots of the European Renaissance to Chinese exploration in the fifteenth century
The Historical Dictionary of the Renaissance covers the history of Western and Central Europe from about 1350 to the early 17th century. It emphasizes those persons, movements, and places that are especially important in the growth of the humanistic culture and the new artistic and musical styles that are the most important aspects of European history in this period. The heart of the book is the alphabetically organized dictionary.
The Culture Wars of the Late Renaissance - Skeptics, Libertines and Opera
In the summer of 1591 students from the University of Padua attacked the local Jesuit college and successfully appealed to the Venetian Senate to intervene on behalf of the university. When the Jesuits were expelled from the Venetian dominion a few years later, religious censorship was virtually eliminated. The result was a remarkable era of cultural innovation that promoted free inquiry in the face of philosophical and theological orthodoxy, advocated libertine morals, critiqued the tyranny of aristocratic fathers over their daughters, and expanded the theatrical potential of grand opera.
Lucrezia Borgia - Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy
Lucrezia Borgia is legendary as the archetypal villainess who carried out the poisoning plotted by her scheming father—Pope Alexander VI, aka Rodrigo Borgia—and by her ruthlessly ambitious brother Cesare. The facts of Lucrezia's case are sorted out from fiction by Bradford's humanizing biography, which presents Lucrezia as an intelligent noblewoman, powerless to defy her family's patriarchal order, yet an enlightened ruler in her own right as Duchess of Ferrara.
