Renaissance

The Speed of Early Modern News

How did Western Europe learn of the fall of Constantinople, the loss of Negroponte, and the Ottoman defeat at Lepanto? In the early modern era all news was slow news.

Renaissance Florence’s Missing Bronzes

The controversial outcome of a sculpture competition between Filippo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti changed the urban fabric of Renaissance Florence – or so the story goes.

The Black Chamber: Opening Europe’s Post

In the febrile political climate of early modern Europe, letters – and the information they contained – were dangerous. Notorious ‘black chambers’ turned postmasters into spies.

Sex Workers and Salvation in the Renaissance

Renaissance Florence had a problem: it wanted female sex workers, but it also needed to offer them a way out. The solution was a new brothel district – and a nunnery for former prostitutes

Death of Zaga Christ

Zaga Christ died on 22 April 1638 leaving Europe no wiser as to the authenticity of the self-proclaimed Ethiopian prince who might bring his homeland to Catholicism.

The Great German Peasants’ War

More than 100,000 people took up arms across the Holy Roman Empire in the spring of 1525. What drove them? And why were they ultimately crushed?