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Machiavelli

A Biography

by Miles J. Unger ...

A “superb biography” (USA TODAY) of Italian philosopher and playwright Niccolò Machiavelli, author of The Prince, whose writings have outraged and inspired generations of readers.Niccolò Machiavelli is the most infamous and influential political writer of all time. His name has become synonymous with cynical scheming and the selfish pursuit of power, but the real Machiavelli, critically-acclaimed ... Read more

Was $14.99 USD Now $1.99 USD

A “superb biography” (USA TODAY) of Italian philosopher and playwright Niccolò Machiavelli, author of The Prince, whose writings have outraged and inspired generations of readers.Niccolò Machiavelli is the most infamous and influential political writer of all time. His name has become synonymous with cynical scheming and the selfish pursuit of power, but the real Machiavelli, critically-acclaimed
... Read more
The Honourable Company

by John Keay ...

A history of the English East India company.During 200 years the East India Company grew from a loose association of Elizabethan tradesmen into "the grandest society of merchants in the universe". As a commercial enterprise it came to control half the world's trade and as a political entity it administered an embryonic empire. Without it there would have been no British India and no British Empire ... Read more

$12.99 USD

A history of the English East India company.During 200 years the East India Company grew from a loose association of Elizabethan tradesmen into "the grandest society of merchants in the universe". As a commercial enterprise it came to control half the world's trade and as a political entity it administered an embryonic empire. Without it there would have been no British India and no British Empire
... Read more
The Rival Queens

Catherine de' Medici, Her Daughter Marguerite de Valois, and the Betrayal that Ignited a Kingdom

by Nancy Goldstone ...

The riveting true story of mother-and-daughter queens Catherine de' Medici and Marguerite de Valois, whose wildly divergent personalities and turbulent relationship changed the shape of their tempestuous and dangerous century.Set in magnificent Renaissance France, this is the story of two remarkable women, a mother and daughter driven into opposition by a terrible betrayal that threatened to ... Read more

$11.99 USD

The riveting true story of mother-and-daughter queens Catherine de' Medici and Marguerite de Valois, whose wildly divergent personalities and turbulent relationship changed the shape of their tempestuous and dangerous century.Set in magnificent Renaissance France, this is the story of two remarkable women, a mother and daughter driven into opposition by a terrible betrayal that threatened to
... Read more
Inventing the Renaissance

The Myth of a Golden Age

by Ada Palmer ...

WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARDA New Yorker Best Book of 2025An irreverent new take on the Renaissance, which reveals it as anything but Europe’s golden age.From the darkness of a plagued and war-torn Middle Ages, the Renaissance (we’re told) heralds the dawning of a new world—a halcyon age of art, prosperity, and rebirth. Hogwash! or so says award-winning novelist and historian A... ... Read more

$8.69 USD

WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARDA New Yorker Best Book of 2025An irreverent new take on the Renaissance, which reveals it as anything but Europe’s golden age.From the darkness of a plagued and war-torn Middle Ages, the Renaissance (we’re told) heralds the dawning of a new world—a halcyon age of art, prosperity, and rebirth. Hogwash! or so says award-winning novelist and historian A...
... Read more
The World at First Light

A New History of the Renaissance

by Bernd Roeck ...

Translated by Patrick Baker ...

A magisterial history of the Renaissance and the birth of the modern worldThe cultural epoch we know as the Renaissance emerged at a certain time and in a certain place. Why then and not earlier? Why there and not elsewhere? In The World at First Light, historian Bernd Roeck explores the cultural and historical preconditions that enabled the European Renaissance. Roeck shows that the rediscovery ... Read more

$32.39 USD

A magisterial history of the Renaissance and the birth of the modern worldThe cultural epoch we know as the Renaissance emerged at a certain time and in a certain place. Why then and not earlier? Why there and not elsewhere? In The World at First Light, historian Bernd Roeck explores the cultural and historical preconditions that enabled the European Renaissance. Roeck shows that the rediscovery
... Read more
Renaissance in Italy (Vol. 1-7) (Annotated)

Enriched Edition. Complete Edition

by John Addington Symonds, Laurel Emberford ...

Renaissance in Italy (Vol. 1–7) is John Addington Symonds's vast cultural history of Italy's transition from medieval Christendom to the modern world. Across volumes devoted to the Age of the Despots, the Revival of Learning, the Fine Arts, Italian literature, and the Catholic Reaction, Symonds combines political narrative, aesthetic criticism, biography, and moral reflection. Written in a rich ... Read more

Was $1.99 USD Now $0.99 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

Renaissance in Italy (Vol. 1–7) is John Addington Symonds's vast cultural history of Italy's transition from medieval Christendom to the modern world. Across volumes devoted to the Age of the Despots, the Revival of Learning, the Fine Arts, Italian literature, and the Catholic Reaction, Symonds combines political narrative, aesthetic criticism, biography, and moral reflection. Written in a rich
... Read more
Cunning Folk

Life in the Era of Practical Magic

by Tabitha Stanmore ...

"Rich and lively."--New York Times Book ReviewA vibrant look at an unsettled and strangely familiar time that overturns our assumptions about the history of magic.Imagine: it's the year 1600 and you've lost your precious silver spoons, or maybe they've been stolen. Perhaps your child has a fever. Or you're facing a trial. Maybe you're looking for love or escaping a husband. What do you do?In ... Read more

$17.29 USD

"Rich and lively."--New York Times Book ReviewA vibrant look at an unsettled and strangely familiar time that overturns our assumptions about the history of magic.Imagine: it's the year 1600 and you've lost your precious silver spoons, or maybe they've been stolen. Perhaps your child has a fever. Or you're facing a trial. Maybe you're looking for love or escaping a husband. What do you do?In
... Read more
Power And Imagination

by Lauro Martines ...

The great Italian city-states: Venice, Florence, Milan, and the others. The particular nature of their history and culture through the five centuries of their emergence, magnificent flowering, and twilight is brilliantly explored in terms of the internal shifts of economic, social, and political power—by violence, by manipulation, by the gradual pressures of changing circumstance. And here are the ... Read more

Was $22.99 USD Now $17.99 USD

The great Italian city-states: Venice, Florence, Milan, and the others. The particular nature of their history and culture through the five centuries of their emergence, magnificent flowering, and twilight is brilliantly explored in terms of the internal shifts of economic, social, and political power—by violence, by manipulation, by the gradual pressures of changing circumstance. And here are the
... Read more
London Lives

Poverty, Crime and the Making of a Modern City, 1690–1800

by Tim Hitchcock, Robert Shoemaker ...

London Lives is a fascinating new study which exposes, for the first time, the lesser-known experiences of eighteenth-century thieves, paupers, prostitutes and highwaymen. It charts the experiences of hundreds of thousands of Londoners who found themselves submerged in poverty or prosecuted for crime, and surveys their responses to illustrate the extent to which plebeian Londoners influenced the ... Read more

$36.09 USD

London Lives is a fascinating new study which exposes, for the first time, the lesser-known experiences of eighteenth-century thieves, paupers, prostitutes and highwaymen. It charts the experiences of hundreds of thousands of Londoners who found themselves submerged in poverty or prosecuted for crime, and surveys their responses to illustrate the extent to which plebeian Londoners influenced the
... Read more
The Safeguard of the Sea

A Naval History of Britain 660-1649

by N A M Rodger ...

Throughout Britain's history, one factor above all others has determined the fate of the nation: its navy. N. A. M. Rodger's definitive account reveals how the political and social progress of Britain has been inextricably intertwined with the strength - and weakness - of its sea power, from the desperate early campaigns against the Vikings to the defeat of the great Spanish Armada. Covering ... Read more

$22.09 USD

Throughout Britain's history, one factor above all others has determined the fate of the nation: its navy. N. A. M. Rodger's definitive account reveals how the political and social progress of Britain has been inextricably intertwined with the strength - and weakness - of its sea power, from the desperate early campaigns against the Vikings to the defeat of the great Spanish Armada. Covering
... Read more
Pagan Virtue in a Christian World

Sigismondo Malatesta and the Italian Renaissance

by Anthony F. D’Elia ...

In 1462 Pope Pius II performed the only reverse canonization in history, publicly damning a living man. The target was Sigismondo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini and a patron of the arts with ties to the Florentine Renaissance. Condemned to an afterlife of torment, he was burned in effigy in several places in Rome. What had this cultivated nobleman done to merit such a fate?Pagan Virtue in a Christian ... Read more

$38.59 USD

In 1462 Pope Pius II performed the only reverse canonization in history, publicly damning a living man. The target was Sigismondo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini and a patron of the arts with ties to the Florentine Renaissance. Condemned to an afterlife of torment, he was burned in effigy in several places in Rome. What had this cultivated nobleman done to merit such a fate?Pagan Virtue in a Christian
... Read more
Ocean

A History of the Atlantic Before Columbus

by John Haywood ...

A magisterial cultural history of the Atlantic Ocean before Columbus, ranging from the early shaping of the continents and the emergence of homo sapiens to the story of shipbuilding, navigation, maritime exploration, slavery, and nascent European imperialism.A dazzling and ambitious history of the pre-Columbian Atlantic seas, Ocean is a story that begins with the formation of the mid-Atlantic ... Read more

$22.99 USD

A magisterial cultural history of the Atlantic Ocean before Columbus, ranging from the early shaping of the continents and the emergence of homo sapiens to the story of shipbuilding, navigation, maritime exploration, slavery, and nascent European imperialism.A dazzling and ambitious history of the pre-Columbian Atlantic seas, Ocean is a story that begins with the formation of the mid-Atlantic
... Read more
Francis I

The Knight-King

by Glenn Richardson ...

Series Book 61 - Renaissance Lives
Francis I of France led one of the most colourful and influential courts of the sixteenth century. Known as the ‘knight–king’, he was a chivalric warrior, a strong ruler and a passionate patron of the arts and of the French nobility. While he faced setbacks and took significant risks, Francis left his successor a kingdom that was larger, better governed and more stable than before.This concise ... Read more

$20.49 USD

Francis I of France led one of the most colourful and influential courts of the sixteenth century. Known as the ‘knight–king’, he was a chivalric warrior, a strong ruler and a passionate patron of the arts and of the French nobility. While he faced setbacks and took significant risks, Francis left his successor a kingdom that was larger, better governed and more stable than before.This concise
... Read more
From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice

The Longsword Techniques of Fiore dei Liberi

by Guy Windsor ...

In From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice, renowned historical swordsman Guy Windsor demystifies one of the greatest martial arts books of all time, Fiore dei Liberi's Il Fior di Battaglia (The Flower of Battle).In the late 14th century dei Liberi, an Italian knightly combat master, wrote Il Fior di Battaglia (The Flower of Battle). This magnificent, illustrated manuscript described how to ... Read more

$9.99 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

In From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice, renowned historical swordsman Guy Windsor demystifies one of the greatest martial arts books of all time, Fiore dei Liberi's Il Fior di Battaglia (The Flower of Battle).In the late 14th century dei Liberi, an Italian knightly combat master, wrote Il Fior di Battaglia (The Flower of Battle). This magnificent, illustrated manuscript described how to
... Read more
Women’s Patronage and Gendered Cultural Networks in Early Modern Europe

Vittoria della Rovere, Grand Duchess of Tuscany

by Adelina Modesti ...

Series series Visual Culture in Early Modernity
This book examines the sociocultural networks between the courts of early modern Italy and Europe, focusing on the Florentine Medici court, and the cultural patronage and international gendered networks developed by the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Vittoria della Rovere.Adelina Modesti uses Grand Duchess Vittoria as an exemplar of pan-European 'matronage' and proposes a new matrilineal model of ... Read more

$64.99 USD

This book examines the sociocultural networks between the courts of early modern Italy and Europe, focusing on the Florentine Medici court, and the cultural patronage and international gendered networks developed by the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Vittoria della Rovere.Adelina Modesti uses Grand Duchess Vittoria as an exemplar of pan-European 'matronage' and proposes a new matrilineal model of
... Read more
India before Europe

by Catherine B. Asher, Cynthia Talbot ...

India is a land of enormous diversity. Cross-cultural influences are everywhere in evidence, in the food people eat, the clothes they wear, and in the places they worship. This was ever the case, and at no time more so than in the India that existed from c. 1200 to 1750, before European intervention. In this thoughtfully revised and updated second edition, readers are taken on a richly illustrated ... Read more

$34.49 USD

India is a land of enormous diversity. Cross-cultural influences are everywhere in evidence, in the food people eat, the clothes they wear, and in the places they worship. This was ever the case, and at no time more so than in the India that existed from c. 1200 to 1750, before European intervention. In this thoughtfully revised and updated second edition, readers are taken on a richly illustrated
... Read more
Britain and the Dutch Revolt, 1560–1700

by Hugh Dunthorne ...

England's response to the Revolt of the Netherlands (1568–1648) has been studied hitherto mainly in terms of government policy, yet the Dutch struggle with Habsburg Spain affected a much wider community than just the English political elite. It attracted attention across Britain and drew not just statesmen and diplomats but also soldiers, merchants, religious refugees, journalists, travellers and ... Read more

$38.59 USD

England's response to the Revolt of the Netherlands (1568–1648) has been studied hitherto mainly in terms of government policy, yet the Dutch struggle with Habsburg Spain affected a much wider community than just the English political elite. It attracted attention across Britain and drew not just statesmen and diplomats but also soldiers, merchants, religious refugees, journalists, travellers and
... Read more
Sex with the Queen

900 Years of Vile Kings, Virile Lovers, and Passionate Politics

by Eleanor Herman ...

In this follow-up to her bestselling Sex with Kings, Eleanor Herman reveals the truth about what goes on behind the closed door of a queen's boudoir. Impeccably researched, filled with page-turning romance, passion, and scandal, Sex with the Queen explores the scintillating sexual lives of some of our most beloved and infamous female rulers.She was the queen, living in an opulent palace, wearing ... Read more

$14.99 USD

In this follow-up to her bestselling Sex with Kings, Eleanor Herman reveals the truth about what goes on behind the closed door of a queen's boudoir. Impeccably researched, filled with page-turning romance, passion, and scandal, Sex with the Queen explores the scintillating sexual lives of some of our most beloved and infamous female rulers.She was the queen, living in an opulent palace, wearing
... Read more
England Under the Tudors

by G.R. Elton ...

Series series Routledge Classics
‘Anyone who writes about the Tudor century puts his head into a number of untamed lions’ mouths.’ G.R. Elton, PrefaceGeoffrey Elton (1921–1994) was one of the great historians of the Tudor period. England Under the Tudors is his major work and an outstanding history of a crucial and turbulent period in British and European history.Revised several times since its first publication in 1955, England ... Read more

Was $35.99 USD Now $31.99 USD

‘Anyone who writes about the Tudor century puts his head into a number of untamed lions’ mouths.’ G.R. Elton, PrefaceGeoffrey Elton (1921–1994) was one of the great historians of the Tudor period. England Under the Tudors is his major work and an outstanding history of a crucial and turbulent period in British and European history.Revised several times since its first publication in 1955, England
... Read more
Christopher Marlowe : Poet & Spy

Poet & Spy

by Park Honan ...

Christopher Marlowe: Poet & Spy is the most thorough and detailed life of Marlowe since John Bakeless's in 1942. It has new material on Marlowe in relation to Canterbury, also on his home life, schooling, and six and a half years at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and includes fresh data on his reading, teachers, and early achievements, including a new letter with a new date for the famous ... Read more

$26.59 USD

Christopher Marlowe: Poet & Spy is the most thorough and detailed life of Marlowe since John Bakeless's in 1942. It has new material on Marlowe in relation to Canterbury, also on his home life, schooling, and six and a half years at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and includes fresh data on his reading, teachers, and early achievements, including a new letter with a new date for the famous
... Read more
Language Dynamics in the Early Modern Period

Edited by Karen Bennett, Angelo Cattaneo ...

Series series Multilingualism, Lingua Franca and Translation in the Early Modern Period
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the linguistic situation in Europe was one of remarkable fluidity. Latin, the great scholarly lingua franca of the medieval period, was beginning to crack as the tectonic plates shifted beneath it, but the vernaculars had not yet crystallized into the national languages that they would later become, and multilingualism was rife. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the ... Read more

$54.99 USD

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the linguistic situation in Europe was one of remarkable fluidity. Latin, the great scholarly lingua franca of the medieval period, was beginning to crack as the tectonic plates shifted beneath it, but the vernaculars had not yet crystallized into the national languages that they would later become, and multilingualism was rife. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the
... Read more
Survivre

Une histoire des guerres de Religion

by Jérémie Foa ...

Dans le monde incertain des guerres de Religion (1562-1598), survivre est tout un art. Comment mentir, se déguiser, s’échapper, simuler ou dissimuler sa confession religieuse ? Comment se faufiler, tromper ou surprendre son adversaire ? Quelles sont, en somme, les tactiques pour tenir dans un monde soudain hostile, dans lequel le voisin peut dénoncer, le boucher empoisonner, votre accent vous ... Read more

Was $18.99 USD Now $13.99 USD

Dans le monde incertain des guerres de Religion (1562-1598), survivre est tout un art. Comment mentir, se déguiser, s’échapper, simuler ou dissimuler sa confession religieuse ? Comment se faufiler, tromper ou surprendre son adversaire ? Quelles sont, en somme, les tactiques pour tenir dans un monde soudain hostile, dans lequel le voisin peut dénoncer, le boucher empoisonner, votre accent vous
... Read more
Dressing Renaissance Florence

Families, Fortunes, and Fine Clothing

by Carole Collier Frick ...

Series Book 120 - The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science
As portraits, private diaries, and estate inventories make clear, elite families of the Italian Renaissance were obsessed with fashion, investing as much as forty percent of their fortunes on clothing. In fact, the most elaborate outfits of the period could cost more than a good-sized farm out in the Mugello. Yet despite its prominence in both daily life and the economy, clothing has been largely ... Read more

$27.09 USD

As portraits, private diaries, and estate inventories make clear, elite families of the Italian Renaissance were obsessed with fashion, investing as much as forty percent of their fortunes on clothing. In fact, the most elaborate outfits of the period could cost more than a good-sized farm out in the Mugello. Yet despite its prominence in both daily life and the economy, clothing has been largely
... Read more
Marvelous Possessions

The Wonder of the New World

by Stephen Greenblatt ...

"A marvelous book . . . a compelling and a powerful one. Nothing so original has ever been written on European responses to 'the wonder of the New World.'" —Anthony Pagden, Times Literary SupplementPulitzer Prize–Winning AuthorA masterwork of history and cultural studies, Marvelous Possessions is a brilliant meditation on the interconnected ways in which Europeans of the Age of Discovery ... Read more

$18.79 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

"A marvelous book . . . a compelling and a powerful one. Nothing so original has ever been written on European responses to 'the wonder of the New World.'" —Anthony Pagden, Times Literary SupplementPulitzer Prize–Winning AuthorA masterwork of history and cultural studies, Marvelous Possessions is a brilliant meditation on the interconnected ways in which Europeans of the Age of Discovery
... Read more

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