- Baiae
- Giovanni Gioviano Pontano was an important humanist and scholar of Renaissance Italy. He was also the most innovative and versatile Latin poet of Quattrocento Italy. His Two Books of Hendecasyllables, given the subtitle Baiae, are the elegant offspring of Pontano's leisure, written to celebrate love, good wine, friendship, nature, and all the pleasures of life to be found at the seaside resort of Baiae on the Bay of Naples.
- Hardcover 2006
- Biographical Writings
- The Renaissance recovery of ancient biographical writers such as Plutarch, Suetonius, and Jerome led to a wave of imitations by Renaissance authors from Petrarch to Machiavelli. The orator, diplomat, and statesman Giannozzo Manetti (1396-1459), an expert in Greek and Hebrew as well as Latin, was among the leading humanist biographers of the Renaissance. This collection brings together his famous biographies of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, which helped establish the canon of Italian literature, as well as his parallel lives of Socratesand Seneca, which remained the standard biographical sources for those philosophers throughout the early modern period.
- Hardcover 2003
- The Birth of Feminism
- In this illuminating work, surveying 300 years and two nations, Sarah Gwyneth Ross demonstrates how the expanding ranks of learned women in the Renaissance era presented the first significant challenge to the traditional definition of “woman” in the West. An experiment in collective biography and intellectual history, The Birth of Feminism demonstrates that because of their education, these women laid the foundation for the emancipation of womankind.
- Hardcover 2009
- Christiad
Marco Girolamo Vida (1485–1566), humanist and bishop, came to prominence as a Latin poet in the Rome of Leo X and Clement VII. It was Leo who commissioned his famous epic, the Christiad, a retelling of the life of Christ in the style of Vergil, which was eventually published in 1535. This translation, accompanied by extensive notes, is based on a new edition of the Latin text.
- Hardcover 2009
- Ciceronian Controversies
- The main literary dispute of the Renaissance pitted those Neo-Latin writers favoring Cicero alone as the apotheosis of Latin prose against those following an eclectic array of literary models. This Ciceronian controversy pervades the texts and letters collected for the first time in this volume. Addressing some of the most fundamental aspects of literary production, these quarrels shed light on similar debates about vernacular literature concerning imitation and the role of the author.
- Hardcover 2007
- Commentaries on Plato, Volume 1, Phaedrus and Ion
- Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus, was largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. This volume contains Ficino’s extended analysis and commentary on the Phaedrus.
- Hardcover 2008
- Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance
- John Riddle uncovers the obscure history of contraception and abortifacients from ancient Egypt to the seventeenth century with forays into Victorian England. His findings will be useful to anyone interested in learning whether it was possible for premodern people to regulate their reproduction without resorting to the extremities of dangerous surgical abortions, the killing of infants, or the denial of biological urges.
- Hardcover 1992 / Paperback
- The Culture Wars of the Late Renaissance
- In this book, Muir explores an 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. In so doing, he reveals the distinguished past of today's culture wars, including debates about the place of women in society, the clash between science and faith, and the power of the arts to stir emotions.
- Hardcover 2007
- Defenders of the Text
- This book traces the relationship between humanism and science from the mid-fifteenth century to the beginning of the modern period and demonstrates that humanism was neither a simple nor an impractical enterprise, but worked hand-in-hand with science in developing modern learning.
- Hardcover 1991 / Paperback 1994
- Empires of Islam in Renaissance Historical Thought
- Drawing on political oratory, diplomatic correspondence, crusade propaganda, and historical treatises, Meserve shows how research into the origins of Islamic empires sprang from--and contributed to--contemporary debates over the threat of Islamic expansion in the Mediterranean. This groundbreaking book offers new insights into Renaissance humanist scholarship and long-standing European debates over the relationship between Christianity and Islam.
- Hardcover 2008
- Essays and Dialogues
- From humble beginnings, Scala (1430–1497) trained in the law and rose to prominence serving as secretary and treasurer to the Medicis and chancellor of the Guelf party before becoming first chancellor of Florence. This volume collects works from throughout his career that show his acquaintance with recently rediscovered ancient writers, and the influence of fellow humanists such as Marsilio Ficino, Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II), and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.
- Hardcover 2008
- Famous Women
- After the composition of the Decameron, and under the influence of Petrarch's humanism, Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) devoted the last decades of his life to compiling encyclopedic works in Latin. Among them is Famous Women, the first collection of biographies in Western literature devoted exclusively to women. This edition presents the first English translation based on the autograph manuscript of the Latin.
- Hardcover 2001
- Famous Women
- The first collection of biographies in Western literature devoted exclusively to women, Famous Women affords a fascinating glimpse of a moment in history when medieval attitudes toward women were beginning to give way to more modern views of their potential.
- Paperback 2003
- Friendship, Love, and Trust in Renaissance Florence
- Kent explores the meaning of love and friendship as they were represented in the fifteenth century, particularly the relationship between heavenly and human friendship.
- Hardcover 2009
- Government and Community
- Hardcover 1980 / Paperback
- A History of Private Life, Volume III, Passions of the Renaissance
- Readers interested in history, and in the development of the modern sensibility, will relish this large-scale yet intimately detailed examination of the blossoming of the ordinary and extraordinary people of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. This third in the popular five-volume series celebrates the emergence of individualism and the manifestations of a burgeoning self-consciousness over three centuries.
- Hardcover 1989 / Paperback 1993
- History of Venice, Volume 2, Books V-VIII
- Bembo (1470–1547), a Venetian nobleman, later a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, was the most celebrated Latin stylist of his day and was widely admired for his writings in Italian as well. Named official historian of Venice in 1529, Bembo began to compose in Latin his continuation of the city’s history in twelve books, covering the years from 1487 to 1513. The History of Venice was published after Bembo’s death. This edition, in a projected three volumes, makes it available for the first time in English translation.
- Hardcover 2008
- History of Venice, Volume 3, Books IX-XII
- Much of Bembo’s work is devoted to the external affairs of Venice, principally conflicts with other European states and with the Turks in the East. The History of Venice was published after his death, in Latin and in his own Italian version. This edition, completed by this third volume, makes it available for the first time in English translation.
- Hardcover 2009
- A History of Women in the West, Volume III, Renaissance and the Enlightenment Paradoxes
- This book draws a richly detailed picture of women in early modern Europe, considering them in the contexts of work, marriage, and family.
- Paperback 1995 / Hardcover
- History of the Florentine People, Volume 1, Books I-IV
- Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444), the leading civic humanist of the Italian Renaissance, served as apostolic secretary to four popes (1405-1414) and chancellor of Florence (1427-1444). His History of the Florentine People in twelve books is generally considered to be the first modern work of history, and was widely imitated by humanist historians for two centuries after its official publication by the Florentine Signoria in 1442. This edition makes it available for the first time in English translation.
- Hardcover 2001
- History of the Florentine People, Volume 2, Books V-VIII
- Bruni's History of the Florentine People in twelve books is generally considered the first modern work of history, and was widely imitated by humanist historians for two centuries after its official publication by the Florentine Signoria in 1442. This edition makes it available for the first time in English translation.
- Hardcover 2004
- History of the Florentine People, Volume 3, Books IX-XII. Memoirs
- Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444) was the best-selling author of the fifteenth century. His History of the Florentine People is generally considered the first modern work of history. This third volume concludes the edition, the first to make the work available in English translation. It includes Bruni's Memoirs, an autobiographical account of the events of his lifetime, and cumulative indexes to the complete work.
- Hardcover 2007
- The Humanist-Scholastic Debate in the Renaissance and the Reformation
- In the last half of the fifteenth century, the classic Platonic debate over the respective merits of rhetoric and philosophy was replayed in the debate between humanists and scholastics over philology and dialectic. The intense dispute between representatives of the two camps fueled many of the most important intellectual developments of the Renaissance and Reformation.
- Paperback 1998 / Hardcover
- In Defense of Common Sense
One of the leading humanists of Quattrocento Italy, Lorenzo Valla (1406–1457) has been praised as a brilliant debunker of medieval scholastic philosophy. In this book Lodi Nauta seeks a more balanced assessment, presenting us with the first comprehensive analysis of the humanist’s attempt at radical reform of Aristotelian scholasticism.
- Hardcover 2009
- Invectives
- Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374), one of the greatest of Italian poets, was also the leading spirit in the Renaissance movement to revive ancient Roman language and literature. His four Invectives were intended to revive the eloquence of the great Roman orator Cicero. The Invectives are directed against the cultural idols of the Middle Ages--against scholastic philosophy and medicine and the dominance of French culture in general. This volume provides a new critical edition of the Latin text based on the two autograph copies, and the first English translation of three of the four invectives.
- Hardcover 2004
- Invectives
- Petrarca, one of the greatest of Italian poets, was also the leading spirit in the Renaissance movement to revive ancient Roman language and literature. Petrarch’s four Invectives, written in Latin, were inspired by the eloquence of the great Roman orator Cicero. The new translations in this volume include the first English translation of three of the four invectives.
- Paperback 2008
- Italy Illuminated, Volume 1, Books I-IV
- Flavio, humanist and historian, was a pioneering figure in the Renaissance recovery of classical antiquity. While serving a number of the Renaissance popes, he inaugurated an extraordinary program of research into the history, institutions, cultural life, and physical remains of the ancient Roman empire. The Italia Illustrata, which appears here for the first time in English, is a topographical work describing Italy region by region. Its aim is to explore the Roman roots of the Renaissance world. As such, it is the quintessential work of Renaissance antiquarianism.
- Hardcover 2005
- Later Travels
- Cyriac of Ancona was among the first to study the physical remains of the ancient world in person and for that reason is sometimes regarded as the father of classical archaeology. Cyriac's accounts of his travels, with their commentary reflecting his wide-ranging antiquarian, political, religious, and commercial interests, provide a fascinating record of the encounter of the Renaissance world with the legacy of classical antiquity. The Latin texts assembled for this edition have been newly edited and most of them appear here for the first time in English.
- Hardcover 2004
- Latin Poetry
Jacopo Sannazaro (1456–1530) is most famous for having written, in Italian, the first pastoral romance in European literature, the Arcadia (1504). But after this early work, Sannazaro devoted himself entirely to Latin poetry modeled on his beloved Vergil. In addition to his epic The Virgin Birth (1526), which earned him the title of “the Christian Vergil,” he also composed Piscatory Eclogues, an innovative adaption of the eclogue form. This volume contains the first complete English translation of all of Sannazaro’s poetry in Latin, accompanied by extensive notes.
- Hardcover 2009
- Letters, Volume 1, Books I-IV
- Angelo Poliziano was one of the great scholar-poets of the Italian Renaissance and the leading literary figure of the Age of Lorenzo de' Medici. His correspondence gives us an intimate glimpse of the revival of classical literature from the pen of a man at the very center of the Renaissance movement. This volume illuminates his close friendship with the philosopher Pico della Mirandola and includes much of the correspondence concerning the composition and reception of his Miscellanies, a revolutionary work of philology. It also includes his famous and moving letter on the death of Lorenzo de' Medici.
- Hardcover 2006
- Life in Renaissance France
- Paperback
- Lives of the Popes, Volume 1, Antiquity
- Imprisoned for conspiring against Pope Paul II Platina (1421–1481) returned to favor under Pope Sixtus IV, and composed his most famous work, a biographical compendium of the Roman popes from St. Peter down to his own time. The work critically synthesized a wide range of sources and became the standard reference work on papal history for early modern Europe. This edition contains the first complete translation into English and an improved Latin text.
- Hardcover 2008
- Lyric Poetry. Etna
- Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), scholar and critic, was one of the most admired Latinists of his day. After some years at the court of Urbino, where he exchanged Platonic love letters with Lucrezia Borgia, he moved to Rome and served as secretary to Leo X. Later he retired to Padua and a life of letters. He was made a cardinal in 1539. The poems in this volume come from all periods of his life and reflect both his erudition and his wide-ranging friendships. This volume also includes the prose dialogue Etna, an account of Bembo's ascent of Mt. Etna in Sicily during his student days, translated by Betty Radice.
- Hardcover 2005
- New Worlds, Ancient Texts
- Describing an era of exploration during the Renaissance that went far beyond geographic bounds, this book shows how the evidence of the New World shook the foundations of the old, upsetting the authority of the ancient texts that had guided Europeans so far afield.
- Paperback 1995 / Hardcover
- Odes
- Francesco Filelfo (1398–1481), one of the great scholar-poets of the Italian Renaissance, was the principal humanist working in Lombardy in the middle of the Quattrocento and served as court poet to the Visconti and Sforza dukes of Milan. His Odes, completed in the mid-1450s, constitute the first complete cycle of Horatian odes since classical antiquity and are a major literary achievement. This volume is the first publication of the Latin text since the fifteenth century and the first translation into English.
- Hardcover 2009
- On Discovery
- The most popular work of the Italian humanist Polydore Vergil (1470–1555), On Discovery (De inventoribus rerum, 1499), was the first comprehensive account of discoveries and inventions written since antiquity. It became a key reference for anyone who wanted to know about "firsts" in theology, philosophy, science, technology, literature, language, law, material culture, and other fields. This is the first English translation of a critical edition based on the Latin texts published in Polydore Vergil's lifetime.
- Hardcover 2002
- On the Donation of Constantine
- Valla (1407-1457) was the most important theorist of the humanist movement. His most famous work is On the Donation of Constantine, an oration in which Valla uses new philological methods to attack the authenticity of the most important document justifying the papacy's claims to temporal rule. It appears here in a new translation with introduction and notes by G. W. Bowersock, based on the critical text of Wolfram Setz.
- Hardcover 2007
- On the Donation of Constantine
- Valla (1407–1457) was the leading theorist of the Renaissance humanist movement. In On the Donation of Constantine he uses new philological methods to attack the authenticity of the most important document justifying the papacy’s claims to temporal rule, in a brilliant analysis that is often seen as marking the beginning of modern textual criticism. This volume provides a new translation with introduction and notes by Bowersock.
- Paperback 2008
- Platonic Theology, Volume 4, Books XII-XIV
- Platonic Theology is a visionary work and the philosophical masterpiece of Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus who was largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. His Platonic evangelizing was eminently successful and widely influential, and his Platonic Theology, translated into English for the first time in this edition, is one of the keys to understanding the art, thought, culture, and spirituality of the Renaissance.
- Hardcover 2004
- Platonic Theology, Volume 5, Books XV-XVI
- The Platonic Theology is a visionary work and the philosophical masterpiece of Ficino, the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus who was largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. His Platonic evangelizing was eminently successful and widely influential, and his Platonic Theology, translated into English for the first time in this edition, is one of the keys to understanding the art, thought, culture, and spirituality of the Renaissance. This is the fifth of a projected six volumes.
- Hardcover 2005
- Platonic Theology, Volume 6, Books XVII-XVIII
- The Platonic Theology is the philosophical masterpiece of Marsilio Ficino, the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus who was largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. He was committed to reconciling Platonism with Christianity, in the hope that such a reconciliation would initiate a spiritual revival and return of the golden age. This book is one of the keys to understanding the art, thought, culture, and spirituality of the Renaissance.
- Hardcover 2006
- Poems
- Cristoforo Landino (1424–1498) was one of the great scholar-poets of the Renaissance. His most substantial work of poetry was his Three Books on Xandra. Also included in this volume is the Carmina Varia, a collection whose centerpiece is a group of elegies directed to the Venetian humanist Bernardo Bembo.
- Hardcover 2008
- The Pope, His Banker, and Venice
- This study is a story of how several men worked, intrigued, and made business deals against the backdrop of an Italy invaded by continental countries and England. As a dramatic account that brings together diplomacy, war, business, and politics, this book is unique. It juxtaposes differing institutional structures and the various political ways among Italy's city states; it also brings into sharp focus the new men of the Renaissance.
- Hardcover 1980 / Paperback 1991
- Renaissance Genres
- Hardcover 1986 / Paperback
- The Renaissance of Marriage in Fifteenth-Century Italy
- Weddings in fifteenth-century Italian courts were grand, sumptuous affairs that often required guests to listen attentively to lengthy orations given in Latin. In this book, Anthony D'Elia shows how Italian humanists used these orations to support claims of legitimacy and assertions of superiority among families jockeying for power, as well as to advocate for marriage and sexual pleasure.
- Hardcover 2005
- The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century
- Paperback 1971
- Republics and Kingdoms Compared
A Socratic dialogue set in the court of King Mattias Corvinus of Hungary (ca. 1490), Aurelio Lippo Brandolini’s Republics and Kingdoms Compared depicts a debate between the king himself and a Florentine merchant at his court on the relative merits of republics and kingdoms. This is the first critical edition and the first translation into any language.
- Hardcover 2009
- Short Epics
- Maffeo Vegio (1407-1458) was the outstanding Latin poet of the first half of the fifteenth century. This volume includes Book XIII of Vergil's Aeneid, Vegio's famous continuation of the Roman epic, which was extremely popular in the later Renaissance, printed many times and translated into every major European language (and even into Scottish). It also contains three other epic works.
- Hardcover 2004
- Silvae
- Angelo Poliziano (1454-1494) was one of the great scholar-poets of the Renaissance and a leading figure in the circle of Lorenzo de'Medici "il Magnifico" in Florence. His "Silvae" are poetical introductions to his courses in literature at the University of Florence, written in Latin hexameters. They not only contain some of the finest Latin poetry of the Renaissance, but also afford unique insight into the poetical credo of a brilliant scholar as he considers the works of his Greek and Latin predecessors as well as of his contemporaries writing in Italian.
- Hardcover 2004
- A Sudden Terror
- In 1468, on the final night of Carnival in Rome, Pope Paul II sat enthroned above the boisterous crowd, when a scuffle caught his eye. His guards had intercepted a mysterious stranger trying urgently to convey a warning—conspirators were lying in wait to slay the pontiff. Anthony D’Elia offers a compelling, surprising story that reveals a Renaissance world that witnessed the rebirth of interest in the classics, a thriving homoerotic culture, the clash of Christian and pagan values, the contest between republicanism and a papal monarchy, and tensions separating Christian Europeans and Muslim Turks.
- Hardcover 2009
- Writings on Church and Reform
- Nicholas of Cusa(1401–1464), a polymath who studied canon law and became a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, was widely considered the most important original philosopher of the Renaissance. He wrote principally on speculative theology, philosophy, and church politics. This volume makes most of Nicholas’s other writings on Church and reform available in English for the first time.
- Hardcover 2008