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.The Renaissance in Europe: A Reader (Renaissance in Europe: A Cultural Enquiry)

by: Whitlock

January 18, 2000

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.The Prince (Penguin Classics)

by: Niccolo Machiavelli, George Bull

February 16, 2004
This masterpiece of reasoning and good practical handbook on how to get ahead in real life if you happen to be already a man of some means, was a work of great humanity in an age when humanity was still considered disgusting and subserviant to the Lord above and his chosen servants on Earth. What a shot across the bows to all those religious hypocrites and Bible following automatons this must have been, then. Two elements surrounding this work's brave publication are crucial, I feel: One being that this was Italy, (as it became) and at its advanced stage of the great Renaissance, as we now know it, and the second being that it was written at a time which was just right to be publishing order challenging controversial works. After seeing the ... Read More:
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.The Complete Essays (Penguin Classics)

by: Michel de Montaigne

February 25, 1993
This is one of the most fantastic privileges a person could have - to listen to, and be touched by - a dead French nobleman from over 400 years ago.

Not only is the work wonderful, the translation is highly consistent and careful over the breadth of the volume - and if you ever needed a book on a desert island, this could be it.

Complete satisfaction may be closely approximated, for some - alledgedly - by a slightly over-ripe banana, I'd suggest this is even closer.
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.The Witch of Edmonton (Revels Student Editions)

by: Thomas Dekker, William Rowley, John Ford

October 07, 1999
This play is an unusually intelligent contemporary drama about the witchcraft craze that swept early modern England. The play depicts Mother Sawyer, a lonely, feeble old woman, who is used as a scapegoat by the villagers of Edmonton for all their woes, and is believed to be a witch even though she isn't. In revenge, Mother Sawyer calls on the Devil for a Faustian pact in which she is given magical powers. She has some fun getting her revenge on the villagers, but ultimately the Devil betrays her, and she is hung at Tyburn.

The play is by no means a modern, materialist analysis of witchcraft, but it is unique in highlighting the scapegoating phenomena as a cause of witchcraft, rather than as a justified response to it, and it also hints that crop failure and ... Read More:
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.The Penguin Book of Renaissance Verse: 1509-1659 (Penguin Classics)

by: H.R. Woudhuysen

May 27, 1993
This play is an unusually intelligent contemporary drama about the witchcraft craze that swept early modern England. The play depicts Mother Sawyer, a lonely, feeble old woman, who is used as a scapegoat by the villagers of Edmonton for all their woes, and is believed to be a witch even though she isn't. In revenge, Mother Sawyer calls on the Devil for a Faustian pact in which she is given magical powers. She has some fun getting her revenge on the villagers, but ultimately the Devil betrays her, and she is hung at Tyburn.

The play is by no means a modern, materialist analysis of witchcraft, but it is unique in highlighting the scapegoating phenomena as a cause of witchcraft, rather than as a justified response to it, and it also hints that crop failure and ... Read More:
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.The Art of Italian Renaissance Courts (Perspectives Series)

by: Alison Cole

April 21, 2005
This play is an unusually intelligent contemporary drama about the witchcraft craze that swept early modern England. The play depicts Mother Sawyer, a lonely, feeble old woman, who is used as a scapegoat by the villagers of Edmonton for all their woes, and is believed to be a witch even though she isn't. In revenge, Mother Sawyer calls on the Devil for a Faustian pact in which she is given magical powers. She has some fun getting her revenge on the villagers, but ultimately the Devil betrays her, and she is hung at Tyburn.

The play is by no means a modern, materialist analysis of witchcraft, but it is unique in highlighting the scapegoating phenomena as a cause of witchcraft, rather than as a justified response to it, and it also hints that crop failure and ... Read More:
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.Merchant of Venice (Arden Shakespeare)

by: William Shakespeare

2000-12
In some respects I think it'd be rather presumptuous of me to attempt to review Shakespeare. Someone so well known and influential wouldn't benefit from my opinions on their work, plus there are more scholarly and concise reviews out there. But I can comment on these Arden versions. Of all the Shakespeare I've read I've always found the Arden copies to be well laid out and to have excellent commentary and notes on the text. They really add to your understanding of Shakespeares outstanding plays and introduce you to the depth in his work. They have superb paper quality and are bound well, withstanding repeated readings and intensive study. For your collection of Shakespeare you can't do much better than Arden publications, some are quite hard to get hold of but it's ... Read More:
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.Art in Renaissance Italy, 1350-1500 (Oxford History of Art)

by: Evelyn Welch

September 14, 2000
This book is a well researched and a thorough introduction to the art of renaissance Italy. It contains lots of full-page colour illustrations and has a nifty timeline at the back of the book. The author talks about how the art was created and its purpose.
I was expecting a headache after the second chapter but I was surprised to find it lucid and not migraine inducing at all.
It would provide anyone with a reliable introduction to this subject.
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.The Italian Renaissance: Culture and Society in Italy

by: Peter Burke

April 26, 1999
I sometimes get a bit nervous when I buy a book written, supposedly, for the general public by an academic. Is the book going to be written in "normal" English, or am I going to be bombarded by jargon and a clunky style? Happily, Peter Burke appears to believe in "plain-speaking". He also has a sense of humor, which helps. Additionally, he doesn't go off the deep end when coming to conclusions. He is prudent and cautious. If he can't say something definitive, if statistical or other types of evidence just aren't there, he isn't afraid to tell you so. Mr. Burke attempts to explain why the Renaissance happened in Italy and why it started when it did. This leads to the importance of the city-states, such as Florence, Milan, Venice, etc. Artists and sculptors were often the children ... Read More:
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.Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy: A Primer in the Social History of Pictorial Style (Oxford Paperbacks)

by: Michael Baxandall

May 19, 1988
This is the kind of book that History of Art departments throw at you early on in their courses to instil the right respect and awe for the whole academic ritual.

When I first saw this book at Birkbeck College (2003 History of Art MA) I was duly impressed and intimidated into thinking this was somehow a classic. In this work Baxandall is the exemplary academic, slowly building up a case from painstaking research and cleverly interpreted trivia.

This approach is fine and dandy until you reflect that at the end of it the conclusions Baxandall has laboured so hard to arrive at are perhaps a little banal -- i.e. Renaissance painting was influenced by such contemporary phenomenon as religious practices, dancing, and the ability to judge quantities by eye. ... Read More:
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