Renaissance

Cultural rebirth of Europe between about 1350 and about 1550. It originated in northern Italian city-states such as Florence, spreading across Europe to other centers. The Renaissance revived the... read more

EDITOR'S CHOICE

Renaissance Fashion: The Birth of Power Dressing

At what point did it begin to matter what you wore? Ulinka Rublack looks at why the Renaissance was a turning point in people’s attitudes to clothes and their appearance.

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'Enough Survives' - The Earl of Surrey and European Court Culture

William Sessions on the connections of the charismatic courtier-poet who in a short and ill-fated life bridged the aristocratic Renaissance cultures of the Continent and the lifestyle of Henry VIII's court.

Published in History Today, Volume: 41 Issue: 6, 1991

Fatal Diplomacy, 1541

The murder of two French envoys on the river Po in the summer of 1541 not only provoked a diplomatic whodunnit round the courts of Europe, but also throws light on attitudes to diplomacy in the Renaissance world. Linda and Marsha Frey tell the story and its implications.

Published in History Today, Volume: 40 Issue: 8, 1990

Jacob Burckhardt's Renaissance

Alison Brown evaluates the life and scholarship of the great German historian of Renaissance Italy and his seminal influence on Western cultural history.

Published in History Today, Volume: 38 Issue: 10, 1988

Pox and Paranoia in Renaissance Europe

J.S. Cummins considers the impact of syphilis on the 16th-century world – a tale of rapid spread, guilt, scapegoats and wonder-cures, with an uncomfortable modern resonance.

Published in History Today, Volume: 38 Issue: 8, 1988

The Renaissance in National Context

Three texts dealing with the transition from the Renaissance to the Modern Age

Published in History Today, Volume: 36 Issue: 7, 1986

The Renaissance in Northern Europe

Peter Burke considers the various works dealing with the Renaissance

Published in History Today, Volume: 35 Issue: 4, 1985

'In Place of Strife' - The Guilds and the Law in Renaissance Venice

The trade guilds of Venice, explains Richard Mackenney, were organisations with a surprising amount of political and economic power in the patrician Renaissance city.

Published in History Today, Volume: 34 Issue: 5, 1984

Witch-Hunting and Women in the Art of the Renaissance

The artistic images of women depicted as witches were varied and constitute unusual 'pieces of history' by preserving a visual record of the intellectual origins of the witchcraze, as Dale Hoak discusses here.

Published in History Today, Volume: 31 Issue: 2, 1981

The Devil in Renaissance France

David Nicholls examines the central position of Satan in early modern French popular culture.

Published in History Today, Volume: 30 Issue: 11, 1980

The Hindu Renaissance of the Late 19th Century

Hinduism in the late nineteenth century, explains Lenah Leneman, experienced a revival that was to reawaken its devotees to their ancient faith, expose them to Christian and Muslim ideas, and finally to make its influence felt as far afield as America.

Published in History Today, Volume: 30 Issue: 5, 1980

The 17th Century 'Renaissance' in Russia: Western Influences on Art and Architecture

According to Lindsey A.J. Hughes, Peter the Great's programme of Westernisation was neither as unheralded nor such a break with the past as has sometimes been suggested.

Published in History Today, Volume: 30 Issue: 2, 1980