The Oxford Illustrated History of the Renaissance

Gordon Campbell is Fellow in Renaissance Studies at the University of Leicester, and is a Fellow of the British Academy. In January 2012 he was presented with the Longman History Today Trustees Award (for lifetime contribution to history). He has authored and edited many books for OUP including The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance (2003); Renaissance Art and Architecture (2004); John Milton: Life, Work and Thought (2008; co-author);Bible: the Story of the King James Version, 1611-2011 (2010); and The Hermit in the Garden: from Imperial Rome to Ornamental Gnome (2013).

The Renaissance is one of the most celebrated periods in European history. But when did it begin? When did it end? And what did it include?Traditionally regarded as a revival of classical art and learning, centred upon fifteenth-century Italy, views of the Renaissance have changed considerably in recent decades. The glories of Florence and the art of Raphael and Michelangelo remain an important element of the Renaissance story, but they are now only a part of a much wider story which looks beyond an exclusive focus on high culture, beyond the Italian peninsula, and beyond the fifteenth century.The Oxford Illustrated History of the Renaissance tells the cultural history of this broader and longer Renaissance: from seminal figures such as Dante and Giotto in thirteenth-century Italy, to the waning of Spain's 'golden age' in the 1630s, and the closure of the English theatres in 1642, the date generally taken to mark the end of the English literary Renaissance.Geographically, the story ranges from Spanish America to Renaissance Europe's encounter with the Ottomans-and far beyond, to the more distant cultures of China and Japan. And thematically, under Gordon Campbell's expert editorial guidance, the volume covers the whole gamut of Renaissance civilization, with chapters on humanism and the classical tradition; war and the state; religion; art and architecture; the performing arts; literature; craft and technology; science and medicine; and traveland cultural exchange.

The story of the 'long Renaissance' for a new generation-from Giotto and Dante in thirteenth-century Italy, to the English literary Renaissance in the first half of the seventeenth century.

Gordon Campbell: Introduction: The Renaissance; 1 Peter Mack: Humanism and the Classical Tradition; 2 David Parrott: War and the State: c. 1400-1650; 3 Stella Fletcher: Religion; 4 Francois Quiviger: The Civilisation of the Renaissance; 5 Francis Ames-Lewis: Art and Architecture: Italy and Beyond; 6 Paula Nuttall and Richard Williams: Art and Architecture: Flanders and Beyond; 7 Margaret McGowan: The Performing Arts: Festival, Music, Drama, Dance; 8 Warren Boutcher: Literature; 9 Pamela Long, Andrew Morrall: Craft and Technology in Renaissance Europe; 10 Paula Findlen: The Renaissance of Science; 11 Peter Burke and Felipe Fernandez-Armesto: The Global Renaissance; Further Reading; Index