Italy in the Age of the Renaissance
By Denys Hay & John Law
April 1989
Pearson Education
ISBN: 058248359X
384 pages
$57.50 Paper originalOUT OF PRINT
A stimulating and authoritative survey which examines the main aspects of the history of the Italian peninsula from the 1380s to the 1530s. The analysis takes place within a broad account of the social, religious, political and administrative development of the peninsula at a time when any notion of `Italianness' was far from evident to the majority of Italians. Culturally this was a period of incomparable richness, and the authors give this most familiar aspect of the period its due. However, they argue that `Renaissance Italy' was more influenced by its medieval past and Northern Europe than is often recognized.
Contents
List of genealogical tables and maps.
Abbreviations used in the text.
Preface.
Acknowledgements.
PART ONE INTRODUCTION.
1: Historiography.
2: The structure of Italy: the Italian view and the outsider's picture.
PART TWO SOCIETY, THE STATE AND THE CHURCH.
3: Urban society.
4: The contado.
5: The state: authority, famine and war.
6: The state: finance and administration.
7: The Church and religious life.
PART THREE POLITICAL HISTORIES.
8: Italy and Europe.
9: The south and the islands.
10: The papal states.
11: The northern states.
PART FOUR LEARNING, THE ARTS AND MUSIC.
12: The old learning and the new.
13: The patronage of the arts and music.
Appendix: the papal succession 1370-1534.
Genealogical tables.
Maps.
Index.
Features
" Broad account of the social, religious, political and administrative development of the peninsula which emphasizes the importance of regional identities.
" Redresses the overemphasis on Florence and Venice.
Review
"For the reader who wants to find his way into any aspect of Renaissance Italy ...this is an invaluable handbook"
History Today
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