The Renaissance, now in its third edition, engages with earlier and current debates about the Renaissance, especially concerning its ‘modernity’, its elitism and gender bias and its globalism.
This new edition has been revised to include a discussion of Venice, Rome, Naples and Florence and their relationship with surrounding courts and smaller provincial towns. Brown provides a fresh insight into some of the main themes of the Renaissance, with humanism now being explored in relation to gender, the position of women and the response of religious reformers to the new ideas. The broad geographical scope, concluding with an examination of diffusion through trade with Constantinople, Portugal and Spain, allows students to fully explore how the Renaissance transformed into a global movement.
Key themes, such as humanism, art and architecture, Renaissance theatre and the invention of printing, are illustrated with quotations and exempla, making this book an invaluable source for students of the Renaissance, early modern history and social and cultural history.
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1. The Problem of Interpretation 2. The Concept of Revival 3. Earlier Renaissances, 800-1300 PART TWO: CONTEXT: POLITICS AND RELIGION 4. Italian Communes and City-States, c. 1300 5. The Rise of Lordships and the Black Death 6. Florence, Venice and Naples 7. Rome and the Papacy PART THREE: RENAISSANCE PASSIONS 8. Petrarch: self-love and the love of books 9. New Schools 10. Liberty and Republicanism 11. Art and Architecture 12. Man the Measure of all things: humanism and gender 13. Religion ancient and modern PART FOUR: SOCIETY AND THE CIRCULATION OF NEW IDEAS 14. Commerce and the Classics in Europe and the East 15. Portugal, Spain and the New World 16. The Invention of Printing 17. Representation and the Renaissance Theatre PART FIVE: ASSESSMENT 18. Globalism and the Renaissance PART SIX: DOCUMENTS
Biography
Alison Brown is Emeritus Professor of Italian Renaissance History at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her work has focused on the history of Florence during the Medici and Savonarolan regimes and the revolution in political thinking and language at this time. Her most recent publications include The Return of Lucretius to Renaissance Florence (2010) and Piero di Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Crisis of Renaissance Italy (2020).
