Böcker i The Bernard Berenson Lectures on the Italian Renaissance Delivered at Villa I Tatti-serien

The Renaissance was a rebirth of art and literature-and of machines. In this lavishly illustrated volume, Paolo Galluzzi guides readers through a singularly inventive period featuring Taccola's and da Vinci's fusion of artistry and engineering and new concepts of learning that enabled Galileo's revolutionary mathematical science of mechanics.

Why do the paintings and poetry of the Italian Renaissance-a celebration of classical antiquity-also depict the Florentine countryside populated with figures dressed in contemporary silk robes and fleur-de-lys crowns? Charles Dempsey argues that a fusion of classical form with contemporary content was the defining characteristic of the period.

This probing analysis of three of Giotto's major works and the patrons who commissioned them goes beyond the cliches of Giotto as the founding figure of western painting. It traces the interactions between Franciscan friars and powerful bankers and illuminates the complex interactions between mercantile wealth and the iconography of poverty.

Kent explores the meaning of love and friendship as they were represented in the fifteenth century, particularly the relationship between heavenly and human friendship.

Muir explores an era of cultural innovation that promoted free inquiry in the face of philosophical and theological orthodoxy, advocated libertine morals, critiqued the tyranny of aristocratic fathers over their daughters, and expanded the theatrical potential of grand opera. In so doing, he reveals the distinguished past of today's culture wars.