The Routledge History of the Renaissance

Drawing together the latest research in the field, The Routledge History of the Renaissance treats the Renaissance not as a static concept, but as one of ongoing change within an international framework. It takes as its unifying theme the idea of exchange and interchange through the movement of goods, ideas, disease and people, across social, religious, political and physical boundaries. Covering a broad range of temporal periods and geographic regions, the chapters discuss topics such as the material cultures of Renaissance societies; the increased popularity of shopping as a pastime in fourteenth-century Italy; military entrepreneurs and their networks across Europe; the emergence and development of the Ottoman empire from the early fourteenth to the late sixteenth century; and women and humanism in Renaissance Europe. The volume is interdisciplinary in nature, combining historical methodology with techniques from the fields of anthropology, sociology, psychology and literary criticism. It allows for juxtapositions of approaches that are usually segregated into traditional subfields, such as intellectual, political, gender, military and economic history. Capturing dynamic new approaches to the study of this fascinating period and illustrated throughout with images, figures and tables, this comprehensive volume is a valuable resource for all students and scholars of the Renaissance.

Table of Contents:
List of illustrations List of figures List of tables List of contributors Introduction: The Renaissance Question William Caferro Part I: Disciplines and Boundaries 1 - The ‘Economic’ Thought of the Renaissance Germano Maifredi 2 - A Makeshift Renaissance: North India in the "Long" Fifteenth Century Samira Sheikh (Vanderbilt University) 3 - ‘By Imitating Our Nurses:’ Latin and Vernacular in the Renaissance Eugenio Refini 4 - Individualism and the Separation of Fields of Study William Caferro 5 - Riddles of Renaissance Philosophy and Humanism Timothy Kircher Part II: Encounters and Transformations 6 - Raw Materials and Object Lessons Timothy McCall and Sean Roberts 7 - Imagination and the Remains of Roman Antiquity Will Stenhouse 8 - Sporus in the Renaissance, or The Eunuch as Straight Man Katherine Crawford 9 - Heritable Identity Markers, Nations and Physiognomy Carina Johnson 10 - Biondo Flavio on Ethiopia: Processes of Knowledge Production in the Renaissance Samantha Kelly 11 - Traditions of Byzantine Astrolabes in Renaissance Europe Darin Hayton 12 - Reading Machiavelli in Sixteenth Century Florence Ann Moyer Part III: Society and Environment 13 - Why Visit the Shops: Taking up Shopping as a Pastime Susan Stuard 14 - Throwing Aristotle from the Train: Women and Humanism Sarah Ross 15 - Mechanisms for Unity: Plagues and Saints Samuel K. Cohn 16 - Dead(ly) Uncertainties: Plague and Ottoman Society Nükhet Varlik 17 - Mapping Florence and Tuscany Nicholas Eckstein 18 - Exercise and Leisure: Sport, and Games Alessandro Arcangeli 19 - War, Entrepreneurship, and Politics Suzanne Sutherland Section IV: Power and Representation 20 - From Frontier Principality to Early Modern Empire: Capabilities and Limits of Ottoman Governance Kaya Sahin 21 - Commerce and Credit in Renaissance Florence Paul D. McLean and John F. Padgett 22 - Against the Fisc and Justice: State Formation, Market Development and Customs Fraud Corey Tazzara 23 - Representations of the Florentine Republic at the Royal Court in the Kingdom of Hungary Katalin Prajda 24 - From the Palazzo to the Streets: Women’s Agency and Networks of Exchange Megan Moran Further reading Index