Showing titles in Renaissance

Bloomsbury presents Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer, read by Candida Gubbins. The Renaissance is one of the most studied and celebrated eras of history. Spanning the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of modernity, it has come to symbolise the transformative rebirth of knowledge...

As remarkable as Columbus and the conquistador expeditions, the history of Portuguese exploration is now almost forgotten. But Portugal's navigators cracked the code of the Atlantic winds, launched the expedition of Vasco da Gama to India and beat the Spanish to the spice kingdoms of the East - then set about creating the first long-range maritime empire.

In a series of poignant vignettes, a preeminent historian makes a compelling case for Machiavelli as an unjustly maligned figure with valuable political insights that resonate as strongly today as they did in his time.

What was it actually like to live in Elizabethan England? If you could travel to the past and walk the streets of London in the 1590s, where would you stay? What would you eat? What would you wear? Would you really have a sense of it being a glorious age? And if so, how would that glory sit...

This magnificent biography of Henry VIII is set against the cultural, social and political background of his court - the most spectacular court ever seen in England - and the splendour of his many sumptuous palaces. An entertaining narrative packed with colourful description and a wealth of anecdotal evidence, but also a comprehensive analytical study of the development of both monarch and court during a crucial period in English history.

Bloomsbury presents This Little World written and read by Nandini Das 'A perspective-altering take on a world we usually think of in far more domestic terms. A ground-breaking masterwork' WILLIAM DALRYMPLE 'A page-turning history of how a nation was defined' PHILIPPA GREGORY 'A glimmering vision...

An unprecedented portrait of the Renaissance-era Borgia family and their storied milieu, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Tudors “A vivid and at times startling reappraisal of one of the most notorious dynasties in history . . . If you thought you knew the Borgias, this book...

Beginning in the heady days just after the First Crusade, this volume - the third in the series that began with The History of the Ancient World and The History of the Medieval World - chronicles the contradictions of a world in transition. Impressively researched and brilliantly told, The History of the Renaissance World offers not just the names, dates, and facts but the memorable characters who illuminate the years between 1100 and 1453 - years that marked a sea change in mankind's perception of the world.

Bestselling author Leonard Shlain explores the life, art, and mind of Leonardo da Vinci, seeking to explain his singularity by looking at his achievements in art, science, psychology, and military strategy (yes), and then employing state of the art left-right brain scientific research to explain his universal genius. Shlain shows that no other person in human history has excelled in so many different areas as Da Vinci and he peels back the layers to explore the how and the why.

In the fifteenth century, even before the city states of the Apennine Peninsula began to coalesce into what would become, several centuries later, a nation, "Italy" exerted enormous influence over all of Europe and throughout the Mediterranean. Viewing the Italy (the many Italies?) of that time through the lens of today allows us to gather a fragmented, multi-faceted, and seemingly contradictory history into a single unifying narrative that speaks to our current reality as much as it does to a specific historical period. This is what the French historian Fernand Braudel achieves here.

Bloomsbury presents Young Queens by Leah Redmond Chang, read by Olivia Dowd. LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION WATERSTONES' BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: HISTORY The boldly original, dramatic intertwined story of Catherine de’ Medici, Elisabeth de Valois and Mary, Queen of Scots –...

The Dynamics of Military Revolution aims to bridge a major gap in the emerging literature on revolutions in military affairs, suggesting that there have been two very different phenomena at work over the past centuries: "military revolutions", which are driven by vast social and political changes; and "revolutions in military affairs", which military institutions have directed, although usually with great difficulty and ambiguous results.

this exciting story illuminates the captivating world of the late Renaissance - in this case its plagues, remedies, and alchemy - through the life of Leonardo Fioravanti, a brilliant, remarkably forward-thinking, and utterly unconventional doctor. Fioravanti's marvelous cures and talent for self-aggrandizement earned him the adoration of the people, the scorn of the medical establishment, and a reputation as one of the age's most colorful, combative figures.

A beautifully illustrated history of the Renaissance told through the lives of its most influential patrons. From the late Middle Ages, the independent Italian city-states were taken over by powerful families who installed themselves as dynastic rulers. Inspired by the humanists, the princes of...

A sweeping 400-year history of the Florentines who gave birth to the Renaissance, by the author of The Medici and The Borgias. Between the birth of Dante in 1265 and the death of Galileo in 1642 something happened which transformed the entire culture of western civilisation. Painting, sculpture...

Brought to you by Penguin. Cunning Folk transports us to a time when magic was used to solve life’s day-to-day problems – as well as some of deadly importance. It’s 1600 and you’ve lost your precious silver spoons, or maybe they’ve been stolen. Perhaps your child has a fever. Or...

Bloomsbury presents Age of Discovery: Navigating the Storms of Our Second Renaissance by Ian Goldin and Chris Kutarna read by Philip Franks Age of Discovery looks at the world on the brink of a new Renaissance and asks the question, how do we avoid chaos and disruption, and share more widely the...

A thrilling history of Florence's most famous family, the Medicis, from thrilling heights to the end of an astonishing era. At its height Renaissance Florence was a centre of enormous wealth, power and influence. This enthralling book charts the family's huge influence on the political, economic and cultural history of Florence.

Erlebe den dramatischen Aufstieg und Fall einer Dynastie in dieser fesselnden historischen Erzählung der Renaissance. Perfekt für das tägliche Pendeln oder entspannte Abende, nimmt dich dieses Hörbuch mit auf eine spannende Reise durch Intrigen, Reichtum und kulturelle Strahlkraft. Spüre...

When we imagine Renaissance medicine, the cliché is dreadful–unsterile instruments, a total lack of anaesthetics and shocking levels of infant and maternal mortality. And that’s before you get into astrology, bloodletting and a litany of bizarre ‘treatments’, more likely to kill than cure… As ever, the true picture is somewhat different. Here, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, modern medicine began to take shape.