Violent Ends
Early modern methods of execution were carefully calculated to inflict shame upon the condemned.
Renaissance
Saving Face
The Renaissance face provided clues about the wealth and health of its owner. Those who had been disfigured were often mistreated, but to alter one’s appearance carried a stigma of its own.
Dolphins of the Belfiore
Does the intelligent sea mammal, long associated with Venus, the goddess of love, offer a clue to a lost jewel of the Renaissance?
Was there a Women’s Renaissance?
We ask four historians whether the great advances of the Renaissance were extended to women.
Solving a Renaissance Murder Mystery
The most powerful family of Florence and the most powerful man in the world offer a new solution to one of the most notorious crimes of the age.
Murder at the Vatican
An unsolved Renaissance mystery casts light on the dark world of extortion, revenge and power politics at the heart of the Catholic Church.
War, Law and Massacre
The conflicts that devastated Renaissance Europe were justified by ancient ideas rooted in natural law and Christianity. Though replaced by legal frameworks for the conduct of war between states, the killing continues.
Machiavelli: Cynical, Determined, Intelligent and Witty
A rich and complex portrait of the author of The Prince manages to combine scholarly analysis with the imagination of the historical novelist.
Warfare, Terror, Murder and Bloodshed
A compelling narrative on the machinations of a Borgia pope and his offspring, with the added spice of Machiavelli’s cool observations.
The Renaissance and the Ruins of Ancient Rome
Michael Greenhalgh describes how Roman architecture and Graeco-Roman statues made a profound impression upon the great Renaissance artists.