Finding the roots of opera in the history of science is a task that would daunt even a polymath of Renaissance stature. Yet in The Culture Wars of the Late Renaissance, Edward Muir plausibly explains how the skepticism taught by a professor at the University of Padua in the early 17th century fostered a musical revolution in neighboring Venice--and much else besides.
   --Francis X. Rocca, Wall Street Journal

Muir's small book (hard-covered but paperback in dimensions) set me thinking. It's a remarkably readable, cross-disciplinary study.
   --Clifford Bartlett, Journal of Japanese Studies

Photo by Laurie Naiman

Edward Muir is Clarence L. Ver Steeg Professor in the Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University.