Thirteen of the most important critical essays on the Italian Renaissance are brought together in this volume.
- Brings together critical essays on the Italian Renaissance.
- Provides an ideal starting point for non-specialists studying this period.
- Includes new research as well as classic interpretations.
- Editorial apparatus helps students to engage with the material.
Cover Illustration.
List of Illustrations.
Acknowledgements.
Part I: Introduction.
1. Understanding the Italian Renaissance. (Paula Findlen).
Part II: Was there a Renaissance State?.
2 Civil Traditions in Premodern Italy. (Gene Brucker).
3 Cosimo de'Medici. Pater Patriae or Padrino?. (Anthony Molho).
Part III: Urban Life and Values.
4 'Kins, Friends and Neighbors': The Urban Territory of a Merchant Family in 1400. (Christiane Klapisch Zuber).
5 Sumptuary Law and Social Relations in Renaissance Italy. (Diane Owen Hughes).
6 The Virgin on the Street Corner: The Place of the Sacred in Italian Cities. (Edward Muir).
Part IV: Gender and Society.
7 'The Most Serious Duty'. Motherhood, Gender and Patrician Culture in Early Renaissance Venice. (Stanley Chojnacki).
8 Gender and Sexual Culture in Renaissance Italy. (Michael Rocke).
Part V: The Power of Knowledge.
9 Petrach's Conception of the 'Dark Ages'. (Theodor Mommsen).
10 Commerce with the Classics. (Anthony Grafton).
11 Isotta lSd