Renaissance History

In de westerse kunst- en cultuurgeschiedenis beslaat de Renaissance bovenal de periode tussen 1400 en 1600. De confrontatie met de denkbeelden uit de antieke wereld bracht een wedergeboorte van de kunsten teweeg en was een breekpunt met wat men lang beschouwde als de ‘donkere middeleeuwen’. Tegenwoordig zien we de voortekenen van een renaissance al vanaf de late 12e eeuw opdoemen, met de herontdekking van de klassieke oudheid en de opkomst van het humanisme.

Existen al menos cinco referencias históricas reales que certifican la existencia de un retrato femenino de manos de Leonardo da Vinci. Un encargo que, al parecer, nunca entregó. Sin embargo, a la hora de identificar a la modelo de la Gioconda, las palabras de Agostino Vespucci, Antonio de Beatis, Giorgio Vasari, Cassiano dal Pozzo y el Anónimo Gaddiano no coinciden.

Simonetta Vespucci war die Geliebte Giuliano de Medicis und Muse Botticellis. Als Venus strahlte die Schönheit im Mittelpunkt seines Meisterwerkes "Primavera". Als Mäzene von Künstlern wie Botticelli oder Michelangelo erwerben sich die Medici ihren guten Ruf. Aber die Ästheten vom Arno sind zugleich Meister einer diskreten Staatspolitik. Ohne ein politisches Amt avanciert Cosimo der Alte zum heimlichen Herrscher von Florenz, der wie Don Corleone im Film "Der Pate" alle Fäden in seiner Hand hält. Im 16. Jahrhundert steigen die Medici zu Herzögen auf.

Desde los últimos años del siglo XV, la España de los Reyes Católicos conoce el resurgir de la vitalidad nacional. La victoria política deja también su impronta en lo cultural. Se abren las puertas a todo lo que signifique influjo exterior para asimilarlo, pero sin olvidar lo propiamente hispánico.

The medieval period has to be one of the most fascinating periods of history. With it comes the images of castles, knights, conquests, and, of course, kingdoms and empires. Every European empire and kingdom during this age is filled with exciting tales, shrewd plots for revenge or power, creation of a national identity enduring to the present day, and inventions with lasting influence.

Now celebrated as one of the great painters of the Renaissance, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio fled Rome in 1606 to escape retribution for killing a man in a brawl. Three years later he was in Naples, where he painted The Seven Acts of Mercy. A year later he died at the age of thirty-eight under mysterious circumstances. Exploring Caravaggio's singular masterwork, in The Guardian of Mercy Terence Ward offers an incredible narrative journey into the heart of his artistry and his metamorphosis from fugitive to visionary.

"No one wanted you. But I did." Kat's true identity is a secret, even from her. All she has ever known are Grace and Anna and their small village. Kat wants more - more than hours spent embroidering finery for wealthy ladies and more than Christian, the gentle young farmer courting her. But there are wolves outside, Grace warns. Waiting, with their eyes glowing in the dark... nd Grace has given Kat safety and a home when no one else would.

Renowned scholar Patrick Collinson is Regius Professor of Modern History, Emeritus, Cambridge. He states, "The Reformation (and Counter Reformation) was the blast furnace in which the modern state was forged." This engaging work offers a concise overview of the ecumenical revolution of the late medieval and Renaissance periods. Narrator John McDonough's presentation of the spiritual and the secular elements that led to religious reform will captivate listeners.

This is a performance of the very first English translation of Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince. This translation, published by Edward Dacres, first appeared in 1640. Machiavelli's original Italian edition was printed in 1532, five years after his death. Due to the evil associated with Machiavelli's book, it took 108 years for The Prince to be published in the English language.

Does a mental disorder reveal the “real” William Shakespeare? Back in the 16th and 17th centuries, bipolar disorder was a mystery, and even as late as the early 2000s, most doctors had difficulties diagnosing it. Unlike COVID-19, there is no swab test for antibodies. No blood test. It is a mood disorder, so doctors rely on their patients to “self-report” their symptoms and ask them questions like, “Were you in a good mood yesterday?”

In this Very Short Introduction audiobook, Jeroen Duindam connects the earliest history of kings and queens to contemporary examples of family-based leadership. His sweeping overview of five millennia of dynastic rule brings to light recurring predicaments of families on the throne.

In Nature and Culture in the Early Modern Atlantic, historian Peter C. Mancall reveals how Europeans and Native Americans thought about a natural world undergoing rapid change in the century following the historic voyages of Christopher Columbus. Through innovative use of oral history and folklore maintained for centuries by Native Americans as well as original use of manuscript atlases, paintings that depict European representations of nature, and texts that circulated across the ocean, he reveals how the encounter between the old world and the new changed the fate of millions.

Lukas wants only two things: to rebuild his castle home in time to make it through the coming winter and to reconnect with the sister who was stolen from him in a plot against his family. But then an astrologer appears with foreboding news: his old adversary, Inquisitor Waldemar von Schönborn, has stolen three royal artifacts, which are required to coronate a new German emperor. With these valuable objects - the sword, the crown, and the scepter - he could blackmail the empire. The treasures are currently hidden in three different places in the old imperial city of Prague.

In this thrilling adventure by bestselling author Oliver Pötzsch, thirteen-year-old Lukas has been trained as a swordsman by his father, a nobleman who was once a famed Musketeer. When the threat of war and accusations of witchcraft spread across the land, Lukas's life is forever changed. He flees his home and vows to find his missing sister.

Virtually everyone would agree that Leonardo da Vinci was the most important artist of the High Renaissance. It was Leonardo who singlehandedly created the defining features of Western art: a realism based on subtle shading; depth using atmospheric effects; and dramatic contrasts between light and dark.

In this audiobook, John Pruskin takes us from the fall of the Roman Empire to the cusp of the Italian Renaissance. You have a ringside seat as the remnants of the Roman Empire emerge from the tangled chaos of the barbarian conquests.

The award-winning Beneath the American Renaissance is a classic work on American literature. It immeasurably broadens our knowledge of our most important literary period, as first identified by F.O. Matthiessen’s American Renaissance. With its combination of sharp critical insight, engaging observation, and narrative drive, it represents the kind of masterful cultural history for which David Reynolds is known. Here the major works of Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, and others receive striking, original readings set against the rich backdrop of contemporary popular writing.

"Know thyself" - this fundamental imperative appeared for the first time in ancient Greece. For the Greeks, self-knowledge and identity were the basics of their civilization and their sources were to be found in where one was born and into which social group. These determined who you were and what your duties were. In this book the independent scholar Ingrid Rossellini surveys the major ideas that, from Greek and Roman antiquity through the Christian medieval era up to the dawn of modernity in the Renaissance, have guided the Western project of self-knowledge.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Henry VIII: The Quest for Fame by John Guy, read by John Banks. Henry VIII's reign transformed the physical and spiritual landscape of England. Magnificent, tyrannical, a strong ruler, a 'pillager of the commonwealth', this most notorious of kings remains a figure of extreme contradictions: a devout traditionalist who oversaw a cataclysmic rupture with the church in Rome, a talented, charismatic, imposing figure who nevertheless could not bear to meet people's eyes when he talked to them.

An authoritative but readable examination of the digital sector in both the UK and US, Towards a Digital Renaissance traces the excitement and optimism of the early internet, the outsider cyberpunk ethic and open access. But it also monitors the more complex but ultimately more commercialised online world of today, a world dominated by corporate business in which many feel that surveillance has become overwhelming.