A Companion to the Worlds of the Renaissance

by Guido Ruggiero (Editor)

Overview

This volume brings together some of the most exciting renaissance scholars to suggest new ways of thinking about the period and to set a new series of agendas for Renaissance scholarship.

• Overturns the idea that it was a period of European cultural triumph and highlights the negative as well as the positive.
• Looks at the Renaissance from a world, as opposed to just European, perspective.
• Views the Renaissance from perspectives other than just the cultural elite.
• Gender, sex, violence, and cultural history are integrated into the analysis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781405157834
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	10/09/2006
Series:	Blackwell Companions to European History
Pages:	574
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.70(h) x 1.25(d)

About the Author

Guido Ruggiero is Professor and Chair of the History Department at the University of Miami. His previous publications include Binding Passions: Tales of Magic Marriage and Power at the End of the Renaissance (1993), The Boundaries of Eros: Sex Crime and Sexuality in Renaissance Venice (1985), and Violence in Early Renaissance Venice (1980). He has also edited two series of books: Studies in the History of Sexuality and Selections from Quaderni Storici.

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors viii

Introduction: Renaissance Dreaming: In Search of a Paradigm 1
Guido Rumiero

PART I THE COURSE of RENAISSANCEE EVENTS 21

1 The Italian Renaissance 23
Gene Brucker

2 The European Renaissance 39
Randolph Starn

3 The Renaissance and the Middle East 55
Linda T. Darling

4 The Renaissance World from the West 70
Matthew Restall

5 The Historical Geography of the Renaissance 88
Peter Burke

PART 11 THE WORLDS AND WAYS OF POWER 105

6 Governments and Bureaucracies 107
Edward Muir

7 Honor, Law, and Custom in Renaissance Europe 124
James R. Farr

8 Violence and its Control in the Late Renaissance: An Italian Model 139
Gregory Hanlon

9 Manners, Courts, and Civility 156
Robert Muchembled

10 Family and Clan in the Renaissance World 173
Joanne M. Feeraro

11 Gender 188
Elissa B. Weaver

12 The Myth of Renaissance Individualism 208
John Jeffiies Martin

PART I11 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC WORLDS 225

13 Social Hierarchies: The Upper Classes 227
Matthew Ester

14 Social Hierarchies: The Lower Classes 243
James S. Amelang

15 Tools for the Development of the European Economy 259
Karl Appuhn

16 Economic Encounters and the First Stages of a World Economy 279
John A. Marino

PART IV CULTURAL WORLDS 297

17 The Subcultures of the Renaissance World 299
David C. Gentilcore

18 High Culture 316
Ingrid D. Rowland

19 Religious Cultures 333
R. Po-chia Hsia

20 Art 349
Loren Partridge

21 Literature 366
James Grantham Turner

22 Political Ideas 384
John M. Najemy

23 The Scientific Renaissance 403
William Eamon

PART V ANTI-WORLDS 425

24 Plague, Disease, and Hunger 427
Mary Lindemann

25 Renaissance Bogeymen: The Necessary Monsters of the Age 444
Linda Woodbridge

26 Violence and Warfare in the Renaissance World 460
Thomas F. Arnold

27 Witchcraft and Magic 475
Guido Ruggiero

28 The Illicit Worlds of the Renaissance 491
Ian Frederick Moulton

Consolidated Bibliography 506

Index 543

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This volume would be a useful tool in an academic library providing students of the period with a valuable source of both traditional and new thought on the Renaissance world. The essays are involved and need to be considered in some detail to fully appreciate the scholarly thought. Perhaps most useful as a stepping-stone to further study, it is an excellent volume that deserves shelf space in all non-specialist academic libraries and libraries that serve history lovers." Louise Ellis-Barrett, Assistant Librarian, Dulwich College, London

"This companion sets new agendas for research and explores some refreshing ways of thinking about the Renaissance. Contributors include scholars from many disciplines. Recommended for scholars, researchers, upper-division under-graduates and graduates students" Choice

"This most impressive volume deserves considerable praise. The editor, in his helpful and wide-ranging introduction, ensures a fascinating and valuable volume." Journal of European Studies

"This Companion (with notes, and a rich composite bibliography) is strongest on social history and literature, as well as for historical insights and literary merits" History Today

"The articles are not simply factual summaries: they all have their own arguments, and many of them suggest places where the present state of knowledge is inadequate, so that the book is rich in suggestions for further research.... Ruggiero asks his readers to "applaud if you have enjoyed our performance"; yes, it is greatly enjoyable." John Considine, University of Alberta

Editorial Reviews

"This volume would be a useful tool in an academic library providing students of the period with a valuable source of both traditional and new thought on the Renaissance world. The essays are involved and need to be considered in some detail to fully appreciate the scholarly thought. Perhaps most useful as a stepping-stone to further study, it is an excellent volume that deserves shelf space in all non-specialist academic libraries and libraries that serve history lovers." Louise Ellis-Barrett, Assistant Librarian, Dulwich College, London

"This companion sets new agendas for research and explores some refreshing ways of thinking about the Renaissance. Contributors include scholars from many disciplines. Recommended for scholars, researchers, upper-division under-graduates and graduates students" Choice

"This most impressive volume deserves considerable praise. The editor, in his helpful and wide-ranging introduction, ensures a fascinating and valuable volume." Journal of European Studies

"This Companion (with notes, and a rich composite bibliography) is strongest on social history and literature, as well as for historical insights and literary merits" History Today

"The articles are not simply factual summaries: they all have their own arguments, and many of them suggest places where the present state of knowledge is inadequate, so that the book is rich in suggestions for further research.... Ruggiero asks his readers to "applaud if you have enjoyed our performance"; yes, it is greatly enjoyable." John Considine, University of Alberta

From the Publisher