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At Home in Renaissance Bruges
The Atlantic in World History
As the Atlantic Ocean was transformed from a terrifying barrier into a highway uniting four continents, the lives of people all around the ocean were transformed. After 1492 merchants and political leaders around the Atlantic refocused their attention from trade highways in their interiors tothe coasts. Those who emigrated, willingly or unwillingly, had their lives changed completely, but many others became involved in new trades and industries that necessitated consolidation of populations. American gold and silver contributed to the emergence of nation-states. New foods enriched dietsall over the world. American foods such as fish, cassava, maize, tomatoes, beans, and cacao fed burgeoning populations. Sugar grown around the Atlantic transformed tastes everywhere. Tobacco was the first great consumer craze. Furs provided the raw material for fashionable broad hats. Chains ofcommodity exchange linked the Atlantic to the Pacific; they also linked Americans to the Mediterranean and the goods of the Middle East. Creation of Atlantic economies required organization of labor and trade on a scale previously unknown. Generations of Europeans who signed up for servitude for a number of years in order to pay their passage over were gradually supplanted by enslaved Africans, millions of whom were imported intoslavery. Wars, fueled by the need for ever more slaves, spread throughout West and Central Africa. The African end of the slave trade produced powerful rulers and great confederations in Africa. Consolidation of displaced tribal groups and remnants of populations depleted by epidemic disease led tothe emergence of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League in northern North America, and the Creeks, Cherokees, and others in the south. Those who made a choice to travel across the Atlantic did so for economic advancement, but many also were influenced by religious concerns. Conflict between Roman Catholics and Protestants in Europe, and the power of political leaders to force conformity, caused many to feel that their right toworship was under threat. They were willing to accept servitude to make emigration possible, in order to protect their religious lives. Attempting to create and control vast networks of settlement and trade enhanced the rise of nation-states in Europe and contributed to the growth of national identities. The wars of independence in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries changed the nature of relationships, but did not endthem. Abolitionism serves as a vivid example of the collision of religious, philosophical, and economic realities and the ways in which the Atlantic context posed new possibilities and new answers.
Birth, Marriage, and Death: Ritual, Religion, and the Life-cycle in Tudor and Stuart England
A vivid picture of the classic rites of passage in Tudor and Stuart England. From childbirth and baptism through to courtship, weddings, and funerals, every stage in the life-cycle of Tudor and Stuart England was accompanied by ritual. Even under the protestantism of the reformed Church, the spiritual and social dramas of birth, marriage, and death were graced withelaborate ceremony. Powerful and controversial protocols were in operation, shaped and altered by the influences of the Reformation, the Revolution, and the Restoration. Using fascinating first-hand evidence, David Cressy shows how the making and the re-making of ritual formed part of a continuing debate, sometimes strained and occasionally acrimonious, which exposed the raw nerves of society in the midst of great historical events. In doing so, he vividly bringsto life the common experiences of living and dying in Tudor and Stuart England. `...a massive compendium of information...its material is so extensive and often so novel in itself that it opens a door on a lost world of experience, dispelling popular myths and removing areas of scholarly ignorance.' Times Literary Supplement, June 1997 `David Cressy's detailed study examines how each elaborate rite of passage was shaped and altered by the wider events of the Reformation, the Commonwealth, and the Restoration.' History Today, April 1997 `...detailed and absorbing book.' The Observer, May 1997
Blackwell Companions to European History: A Companion to the Reformation World
Brings together essays by leading international scholars, to provide an inclusive overview of recent work in Reformation history.
Columbus Then and Now
Who was Christopher Columbus? Discoverer of the New World or murderer of the innocent people whose lands he invaded? Whether viewed as hero or villain, Columbus has achieved near-mythical status in the popular imagination. In this provocative study, Miles H. Davidson explores the myth of Columbus as it is reflected in numerous recent biographies. Measuring these biographies against a vast record of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century sources, Davidson exposes flaws, omissions, and biases in modern accounts. The author traces the events of Columbus's life in chronological order, drawing on manuscripts, diaries, private correspondence, court and naval records, and shipping logs to provide a historically credible portrait. He uses sources never before incorporated in a book-length study, most notably the recently discovered Libro copiador (a collection of letters written by Columbus himself) and Columbus's holographs (over two thousand notes written in the margins of four of his books). Separating fact from fiction, Davidson sheds new light on crucial junctures in Columbus's life: the original contract given him to seek island in the west, the claimed influence of Marco Polo on Columbus, the supposed sinking of the Santa María, and the role played by Jews in connection with the first voyage. At once a retelling of Columbus's life and critique of other versions, Columbus Then and Now will be of value to Columbists, Latin American scholars, and biographers in general. Who was Christopher Columbus? Discoverer of the New World or murderer of the innocent people whose lands he invaded? Whether viewed as hero or villain, Columbus has achieved near-mythical status in the popular imagination. In this provocative study, Miles H. Davidson explores the myth of Columbus as it is reflected in numerous recent biographies. Measuring these biographies against a vast record of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century sources, Davidson exposes flaws, omissions, and biases in modern accounts. The author traces the events of Columbus's life in chronological order, drawing on manuscripts, diaries, private correspondence, court and naval records, and shipping logs to provide a historically credible portrait. He uses sources never before incorporated in a book-length study, most notably the recently discovered Libro copiador (a collection of letters written by Columbus himself) and Columbus's holographs (over two thousand notes written in the margins of four of his books). Separating fact from fiction, Davidson sheds new light on crucial junctures in Columbus's life: the original contract given him to seek island in the west, the claimed influence of Marco Polo on Columbus, the supposed sinking of the Santa María, and the role played by Jews in connection with the first voyage. At once a retelling of Columbus's life and critique of other versions, Columbus Then and Now will be of value to Columbists, Latin American scholars, and biographers in general.
Conquistador in Chains: Cabeza De Vaca and the Indians of the Americas
The current image of the Spanish conquest of America and of the conquistadores who carried it out is one of destruction and oppression. One conquistador does not fit that image, however. A life-changing adventure led Cabeza de Vaca to seek a different kind of conquest, one that would be just and humane, true to Spanish religion and law, but one that safeguarded liberty and justice for the Indians of the New World. His use of the skills learned from his experiences with the Indians of North America did not always help him in understanding and managing the Indians of South America, and too many of the Spanish settlers in the Rio de la Plata Province found that his policies threatened their own interests and relations with the Indians. Eventually many of those Spaniards joined a conspiracy that removed him from power and returned him to Spain in chains. That Cabeza de Vaca was overthrown is not surprising. His ideas and policies opposed the self-interest of most of the first Spaniards who had come to America. What is amazing is that he was able to inspire and hold support among many others in America, who remained loyal to him during his time in prison and after his return to Spain.
Early Modern Europe: Facts and Fiction
Through the exploration of nine common myths about the history and culture of early modern Europe, roughly 1350–1700, this book uses common assumptions to introduce newcomers to the period and its key figures, developments, and events. It utilizes primary sources to interrogate popular beliefs about early modern Europe and reveal the true story behind such movements and events as the Scientific Revolution, the Crusades, and the European witch hunts.
The Encyclopaedia of the Renaissance
"Conceived and produced in association with the Renaissance society of America, this work presents a panoramic view of the cultural movement and the period of history beginning in Italy from approximately 1350, broadening geographically to include the rest of Europe by the middle-to-late-15th century, and ending in the early 17th century. Each of the nearly 1,200 entries provides a learned and succinct account suitable for inquiring readers at several levels. These readable essays covering the arts and letters, in addition to everyday life, will be appreciated by general readers and high-school students. The thoughtful analyses will enlighten college students and delight scholars. A selective bibliography of primary and secondary sources for further study follows each article."
Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism Since 1450
This new set provides students and researchers with a much-needed, comprehensive resource on the subject of colonialism and expansion. The work describes and analyzes the many aspects of the history of Europe's expansion overseas into the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Pacific, beginning in the 15th century and the building and collapse of empires (Spanish, Portuguese, British, French, Dutch, German, American). Race relations in decolonized regions as well as current examples of continuing dependence by much of the developing world on Western nations are covered. In addition, a number of the more than 400 articles in the set address the ideology and theories behind colonialism and imperialism, as well as the major and controversial issues at the core of the debate on colonialism and its consequences. Other features include a thematic outline for assistance in cross-curricular research, a glossary for quick reference and a handy subject index for easy navigation. The breadth and depth of coverage results in substantial geographic, historical, political, economic, social and cultural data.
Europe, 1450-1789
This new detailed set explores European history from 1450-1789, from the print revolution to the French Revolution. The set's 1,150 articles, written by eminent scholars, cover major topics in art, government and education as well as providing biographical entries on key figures of the period. In addition, the set covers topics specific to the era, such as apocalypticism, guilds, food riots, royal mistresses and lovers, the Spanish inquisition, Utopia and others. Each volume includes a color frontispiece and an eight-page color insert. Features include approximately 750 black-and-white photographs, 30 maps, a year-by-year chronology, a topical outline and index, a research guide and a comprehensive index.
The European Renaissance and Reformation, 1350-1600
Part of a series aiming to help students and researchers understand key periods in world history, this volume is divided into nine chapters that focus on arts and communication through the period of renaissance and reformation within Europe.
History of World Trade Since 1450
Trade has always been a defining factor in world history and the History of World Trade Since 1450 illustrates this continuity in more than 400 articles, making the work essential to those interested in the great industrial and commercial expansion of the 19th and 20th centuries, world history surveys, American history and economics. History of World Trade since 1450 examines how the hunt for new resources and markets resulted in the establishment of colonies in Africa, the Americas and Asia.
The Italian Renaissance State
This magisterial study proposes a revised and innovative view of the political history of Renaissance Italy. Drawing on comparative examples from across the peninsula and the kingdoms of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, an international team of leading scholars highlights the complexity and variety of the Italian world from the fourteenth to early sixteenth centuries, surveying the mosaic of kingdoms, principalities, signorie and republics against a backdrop of wider political themes common to all types of state in the period. The authors address the contentious problem of the apparent weakness of the Italian Renaissance political system. By repositioning the Renaissance as a political, rather than simply an artistic and cultural phenomenon, they identify the period as a pivotal moment in the history of the state, in which political languages, practices and tools, together with political and governmental institutions, became vital to the evolution of a modern European political identity.
Reformation Thought
Reformation Thought is an acclaimed and popular introductory guide to the central ideas of the European reformation for theology and history students.
The Renaissance and Early Modern Era, 1454-1600
The 330 essays in this set discuss the most important events and developments that occurred between the years 1454 and 1600, including the rise of the Ottomans and the Wars of the Roses.
Selling Women: Prostitution, Markets, and the Household in Early Modern Japan
This book traces the social history of early modern Japan's sex trade, from its beginnings in seventeenth-century cities to its apotheosis in the nineteenth-century countryside. Drawing on legal codes, diaries, town registers, petitions, and criminal records, it describes how the work of "selling women" transformed communities across the archipelago. By focusing on the social implications of prostitutes' economic behavior, this study offers a new understanding of how and why women who work in the sex trade are marginalized. It also demonstrates how the patriarchal order of the early modern state was undermined by the emergence of the market economy, which changed the places of women in their households and the realm at large.
Society and Individual in Renaissance Florence
Renaissance Florence has often been described as the birthplace of modern individualism, as reflected in the individual genius of its great artists, scholars, and statesmen. The historical research of recent decades has instead shown that Florentines during the Renaissance remained enmeshed in relationships of family, neighborhood, guild, patronage, and religion that, from a twenty-first-century perspective, greatly limited the scope of individual thought and action. The sixteen essays in this volume expand the groundbreaking work of Gene Brucker, the historian in recent decades who has been most responsible for the discovery and exploration of these pre-modern qualities of the Florentine Renaissance. Exploring new approaches to the social world of Florentines during this fascinating era, the essays are arranged in three groups. The first deals with the exceptionally resilient and homogenous Florentine merchant elite, the true protagonist of much of Florentine history. The second considers Florentine religion and Florence's turbulent relations with the Church. The last group of essays looks at criminals, expatriates, and other outsiders to Florentine society.
Thames & Hudson Dictionary of the Italian Renaissance, The
Within the vast literature of the Renaissance, this is the one indispensable book: for the student who wants a guide to the complicated maze of Italian Renaissance political history; the scholar who needs a convenient, unified reference source; the art lover who wants to check facts and discover the background to the masterpieces of painting and sculpture; the traveler in Italy who wants to understand the great works of art and architecture in their context; and also the general reader who wants to find out more about this fascinating and important historical and cultural epoch.
Voices of the Renaissance: Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life
Voices of the Renaissance: Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life contains excerpts from 52 different documents relating to the period of European history known as the Renaissance. In the 14th century, the rise of humanism, a philosophy based on the study of the languages, literature, and material culture of ancient Greece and Rome, led to a sense of revitalization and renewal among the city-states of northern Italy. The political development and economic expansion of those cities provided the ideal conditions for humanist scholarship to flourish. This period of literary, artistic, architectural, and cultural flowering is today known as the Renaissance, a term taken from the French and meaning "rebirth." The Italian Renaissance reached its height in the 15th and early 16th centuries. In the 1490s, the ideals of the Italian Renaissance spread north of the Alps and gave rise to a series of national cultural rebirths in various states. In many places, this Northern Renaissance extended into the 17th century, when war and religious discord put an end to the Renaissance era.
Weapons, Warfare and Military Technology - Volume 1
White Magic, Black Magic in the European Renaissance
This book explores philosophical theories which in the Renaissance provided an interpretation of nature, of its laws and exceptions and, lastly, of man's capacity to dominate the cosmos by way of natural magic or by magical ceremonies. It does not concentrate on the Hermetic and Neoplatonic philosophers (Ficino, Pico, Della Porta), or on the relationship between magic and the scientific revolution, but rather upon the interference of the ideas and practices of learned magicians with popular rites and also with witchcraft, a most important question for social and religious history. New definitions of magic put forward by certain unorthodox and wandering scholastics (Trithemius, Agrippa, Paracelsus, Bruno) will interest readers of Renaissance and Reformation texts and history.
World Eras: Imperial China, 617-1644
Part of a series aiming to help students and researchers understand key periods in world history, this volume is divided into nine chapters that focus on Imperial China.
The World of Renaissance Italy
Students of the Italian Renaissance who wish to go beyond the standard names and subjects will find in this text abundant information on the lives, customs, beliefs, and practices of those who lived during this exciting time period. * Synthesizes the latest research and publication in the Italian Renaissance era by the top scholars in their respective historical fields * Covers a range of types of people and issues rarely covered in other books on the Italian Renaissance and supplies detailed coverage that adds a social dimension to traditional topics such as art, religion, and war * Authored by a prolific and highly regarded author of history texts, Joseph P. Byrne, PhD, who is expert in the Italian Renaissance * Appropriate for advanced high school and undergraduate college students as well as general readers interested in the Renaissance period in Italy
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Aladdin's Lamp: How Greek Science Came to Europe Through the Islamic World
Aladdin's Lamp is the fascinating story of how ancient Greek philosophy and science began in the sixth century B.C. and, during the next millennium, spread across the Greco-Roman world, producing the remarkable discoveries and theories of Thales, Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Archimedes, Galen, Ptolemy, and many others.
The Atlantic World: Europeans, Africans, Indians and Their Shared History, 1400-1900
From 1400 to 1900 the Atlantic Ocean served as a major highway, allowing people and goods to move easily between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. These interactions and exchanges transformed European, African, and American societies and led to the creation of new peoples, cultures, economies, and ideas throughout the Atlantic arena.
Brutal Journey: The Epic Story of the First Crossing of North America
A gripping account of four explorers adrift in an unknown land and the harrowing journey that took them across North America 270 years before Lewis and Clark One part "Heart of Darkness," one part Lewis and Clark, "Brutal Journey" tells the story of a group of explorers who came to the new world on the heels of Cortes; bound for glory, only four of four hundred would survive.
The Counter Reformation: Religion and Society in Early Modern Europe
The Counter Reformation is part of the Cambridge Topics in History series which looks at key A-level topics through a stimulating selection of original documents and other source material. In recent years historians have transformed the very meaning of the term 'Counter Reformation'.
The European Reformations
Combining seamless synthesis of original material with updated scholarship, The European Reformations 2nd edition, provides the most comprehensive and engaging textbook available on the origins and impacts of Europe's Reformations - and the consequences that continue to resonate today.
The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople
Beginning in the heady days just after the First Crusade, this volume--the third in the series that began with The History of the Ancient World and The History of the Medieval World--chronicles the contradictions of a world in transition. Popes continue to preach crusade, but the hope of a Christian empire comes to a bloody end at the walls of Constantinople. Aristotelian logic and Greek rationality blossom while the Inquisition gathers strength.
The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance
A myth-shattering view of the medieval Islamic world's myriad scientific innovations, which preceded-and enabled-the European Renaissance. The Arabic legacy of science and philosophy has long been hidden from the West. British-Iraqi physicist Jim Al-Khalili unveils that legacy to fascinating effect by returning to its roots in the hubs of Arab innovation that would advance science and jump-start the European Renaissance.
The Hundred Years War
What life was like for ordinary French and English people, embroiled in a devastating century-long conflict that changed their world The Hundred Years War (1337-1453) dominated life in England and France for well over a century. It became the defining feature of existence for generations.
Living in the Ottoman Realm: Empire and Identity, 13th to 20th Centuries
Living in the Ottoman Realm brings the Ottoman Empire to life in all of its ethnic, religious, linguistic, and geographic diversity. The contributors explore the development and transformation of identity over the long span of the empire's existence. They offer engaging accounts of individuals, groups, and communities by drawing on a rich array of primary sources, some available in English translation for the first time. These materials are examined with new methodological approaches to gain a deeper understanding of what it meant to be Ottoman. Designed for use as a course text, each chapter includes study questions and suggestions for further reading.
The Other Renaissance
An original, illuminating history of the northern European Renaissance in art, science, and philosophy, which often rivaled its Italian counterpart. It is generally accepted that the European Renaissance began in Italy. However, a historical transformation of similar magnitude also took place in northern Europe at the same time. This "Other Renaissance" was initially centered on the city of Bruges in Flanders (modern Belgium), but its influence was soon being felt in France, the German states, London, and even in Italy itself. The northern Renaissance, like the southern Renaissance, largely took place during the period between the end of the Medieval age (circa mid-14th century) and the advent of the Age of Enlightenment (circa end of 17th century). Following a sequence of major figures, including Copernicus, Gutenberg, Luther, Catherine de' Medici, Rabelais, van Eyck, and Shakespeare, Paul Strathern tells the fascinating story of how this "Other Renaissance" played as significant a role as the Italian renaissance in bringing our modern world into being.
Renaissance and Reformation: The Intellectual Genesis
In this new survey of the development of European intellectual culture between about 1300 and 1535, Anthony Levi offers a fresh view of the Renaissance and the Reformation, calling for a reassessment of the nature of both.
The Rise and Fall of Renaissance France: 1483-1610
Drawing on more than 40 years of research and combining narrative with analysis, R. J. Knecht describes the rise and fall of France in the sixteenth century clearly and authoritatively.
The Spanish Inquisition
This is the story of 350 years of terror. Established by papal bull in 1478, the first task of the Spanish Inquisition was to question Jewish converts to Christianity and to expose and execute those found guilty of reversion. Authorities then turned on Spanish Jews in general, sending 300,000 into exile. Next in line were humanists and Lutherans. No rank was exempt. Children informed on their parents, merchants on their rivals, and priests upon their bishops. Those denounced were guilty unless they could prove their innocence. Nearly 32,000 people were publicly burned at the stake; the "fortunate" ones were flogged, fined, or imprisoned. Joseph Pérez tells the history of the Spanish Inquisition from its medieval beginnings to its nineteenth-century ending. He discovers its origins in fear and jealousy and its longevity in usefulness to the state. He explores the inner workings of its councils, and shows how its officers, inquisitors, and leaders lived and worked. He describes its techniques of interrogation and torture, and shows how it refined displays of punishment as instruments of social control. The author ends his fascinating account by assessing the impact of the Inquisition over three and a half centuries on Spain's culture, economy, and intellectual life.
A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World
The bestselling author ofBlue Latitudes takes us on a thrilling and eye-opening voyage to pre-Mayflower America On a chance visit to Plymouth Rock, Tony Horwitz realizes he's mislaid more than a century of American history, from Columbus's sail in 1492 to Jamestown's founding in 16-oh-something.
Voyagers: The Settlement of the Pacific
An award-winning scholar explores the sixty-thousand-year history of the Pacific islands in this dazzling, deeply researched account. The islands of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia stretch across a huge expanse of ocean and encompass a multitude of different peoples. Starting with Captain James Cook, the earliest European explorers to visit the Pacific were astounded and perplexed to find populations thriving thousands of miles from continents. Who were these people? From where did they come? And how were they able to reach islands dispersed over such vast tracts of ocean? In Voyagers, the distinguished anthropologist Nicholas Thomas charts the course of the seaborne migrations that populated the islands between Asia and the Americas from late prehistory onward. Drawing on the latest research, including insights gained from genetics, linguistics, and archaeology, Thomas provides a dazzling account of these long-distance migrations, the seagoing technologies that enabled them, and the societies they left in their wake.
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The Conquistadors: A Very Short Introduction
With startling speed, Spanish conquistadors invaded hundreds of Native American kingdoms, took over the mighty empires of the Aztecs and Incas, and initiated an unprecedented redistribution of the world's resources and balance of power. They changed the course of history, but the myth theyestablished was even stranger than their real achievements. This Very Short Introduction deploys the latest scholarship to shatter and replace the traditional narrative. Chapters explore New World civilizations prior to the invasions, the genesis of conquistador culture on both sides of theAtlantic, the roles black Africans and Native Americans played and the consequences of the invasions. The book reveals who the conquistadors were and what made their adventures possible.
Exploration: A Very Short Introduction
We live in an age of globalization on every conceivable level, but globalization has a deeper history than politicians and pundits often allow, and nothing is more significant to its history than exploration. Wherever trade or faith or empire followed, explorers usually led. Their motives wereas many-sided and various as their actions; their legacies are contested and mixed. But none can doubt the significance of explorers to the making of the modern world. For as long as human societies have existed, people have felt the urge to venture outside of them, either in search of other societies or in search of new land or adventure. Exploration: A Very Short Introduction surveys this quintessential human impulse, tracing it from pre-history to the present,from east to west around the globe, and from the depths of volcanoes to the expanses of space. Focusing on the theme of exploration as encounter, Stewart Weaver discusses the Polynesians in the Pacific, the Norse in the Atlantic, and other early explorers. He reflects on the Columbian "discovery" of the Americas, James Cook and the place of exploration in the Enlightenment, and Alexander vonHumboldt's epochal encounter with tropical South America. The book's final chapters relate exploration to imperial expansion in Africa and Central Asia, assess the meaning of the race to the North and South Poles, and consider the significance of today's efforts in space and deep sea exploration.But what accounts for this urge? Through this brief study of the history of exploration, Weaver clearly shows how the impulse to explore is also the foundation of the globalized world we inhabit today. Exploration combines a narration of explorers' daring feats with a wide-lens examination of whatit fundamentally means to explore. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, andenthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
The Reformation: A Very Short Introduction
The Reformation transformed Europe, and left an indelible mark on the modern world. It began as an argument about what Christians needed to do to be saved, but rapidly engulfed society in a series of fundamental changes. This Very Short Introduction provides a lively and up-to-date guide tothe process. It explains doctrinal debates in a clear and non-technical way, but is equally concerned to demonstrate the effects the Reformation had on politics, society, art, and minorities. Peter Marshall argues that the Reformation was not a solely European phenomenon, but that varieties of faith exported from Europe transformed Christianity into a truly world religion. The complex legacy of the Reformation is also assessed; its religious fervour produced remarkable stories ofsanctity and heroism, and some extraordinary artistic achievements, but violence, holy war, and martyrdom were equally its products. A paradox of the Reformation - that it intensified intolerance while establishing pluralism - is one we still wrestle with today.
The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction
More than ever before, the Renaissance stands as one of the defining moments in world history. Between 1400 and 1600, European perceptions of society, culture, politics and even humanity itself emerged in ways that continue to affect not only Europe but the entire world. This wide-ranging exploration of the Renaissance sees the period as a time of unprecedented intellectual excitement and cultural experimentation and interaction on a global scale, alongside a darker side of religion, intolerance, slavery, and massive inequality of wealth and status. It guides thereader through the key issues that defined the period, from its art, architecture, and literature, to advancements in the fields of science, trade, and travel. In its incisive account of the complexities of the political and religious upheavals of the period, the book argues that Europe's reciprocalrelationship with its eastern neighbours offers us a timely perspective on the Renaissance that still has much to teach us today.
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