This intriguing book highlights and illustrates nearly 100 notable lives from between 1400 and 1600. Through these very readable short biographies, patterns in the history and art of the Renaissance become clear.Some names are famous - Leonardo, Luther, Lorenzo de Medici and Machiavelli - but others will be new to many readers: artists, philosophers, politicians, scientists, rebels and reactionaries, as well as an acrobat, an actress and even a star comedian.'This ...

Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Non-FictionWinner of the 2011 National Book Award for Non-FictionOne of the world's most celebrated scholars, Stephen Greenblatt has crafted both an innovative work of history and a thrilling story of discovery, in which one manuscript, plucked from a thousand years of neglect, changed the course of human thought and made possible the world as we know it.Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late...

This collection gathers together the works by William Shakespeare in a single, convenient, high quality, and extremely low priced Kindle volume! The Comedies A Midsummer Night's Dream All's Well That Ends Well As You Like It Love’s Labour ’s Lost Measure for Measure Much Ado About Nothing The Comedy of Errors The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor The Taming of the Shrew The Two Gentlemen of Verona Twelfth Night; or, What you will The Romances Cymbeline Pericles, Prince of Tyre ...

Leonardo da Vinci's scientific explorations were virtually unknown during his lifetime, despite their extraordinarily wide range. He studied the flight patterns of birds to create some of the first human flying machines; designed military weapons and defenses; studied optics, hydraulics, and the workings of the human circulatory system; and created designs for rebuilding Milan, employing principles still used by city planners today. Perhaps most importantly, Leonardo pioneered an empirical...

The New York Times bestselling author of How the Irish Saved Civilization reveals how the innovations of the Renaissance and the Reformation changed the Western world. • “Cahill is our king of popular historians.” —The Dallas Morning NewsThis was an age in which whole continents and peoples were discovered. It was an era of sublime artistic and scientific adventure, but also of newly powerful princes and armies—and of unprecedented courag...

Just over four hundred years ago, in 1610, Galileo published the Siderius nuncius, or Starry Messenger, a 'hurried little masterpiece' in John Heilbron's words. Presenting to the world his remarkable observations using the recently invented telescope - of the craters of the moon, and the satellites of Jupiter, observations that forced changes to perceptions of the perfection of the heavens and the centrality of the Earth - the appearance of the little book is regarded asone of the greatest...

Everybody knows her smile, but no one knows her story: Meet the flesh-and-blood woman who became one of the most famous artistic subjects of all time—Mona Lisa.A genius immortalized her. A French king paid a fortune for her. An emperor coveted her. Every year more than nine million visitors trek to view her portrait in the Louvre. Yet while everyone recognizes her smile, hardly anyone knows her story.“Combining history, whimsical biography, personal travelogue, and...

Keen to learn but short on time? Get to grips with the life and discoveries of Copernicus in next to no time with this concise guide.50Minutes.com provides a clear and engaging analysis of Copernicus and his discoveries.When Copernicus discovered the Heliocentric Revolution, it marked a turning point in astronomy. He changed the way people understood the planets and the solar system forever and called into question the observations made by Aristotle and Ptolemy. Co...

Then came the time which is called 'The Renaissance,' a word which means being born again, or a new awakening, when men began to draw real pictures of real things and fill the world with images of beauty.Now it is the stories of the men of that time, who put new life into Art, that I am going to tell you--men who learned, step by step, to paint the most beautiful pictures that the world possesses.In telling these stories I have been helped by an old book called The Lives of...

During the Italian Wars of 1494 to 1559, with innovations in military technology and tactics, armour began to disappear from the battlefield. Yet as field armour was retired, parade and ceremonial armour grew increasingly flamboyant. Displaced from its utilitarian function of defense but retained for symbolic uses, armour evolved in a new direction as a medium of artistic expression.Luxury armour became a chief accessory in the performance of elite male identity, coded with message...

Keen to learn but short on time? Get to grips with the life and career of Isaac Newton in next to no time with this concise guide.50Minutes.com provides a clear and engaging analysis of the life and work of Isaac Newton. Although this English scientist and mathematician is best known for his theory of universal gravitation, he worked in a variety of domains and made major discoveries that revolutionised the way we see the world. Newton remains one of history’s grea...

The Renaissance was a time of beautiful transformations - from art to science and everything else in between. Learn about the events that marked the beginning of the Renaissance. The great thing about this history book is that it has been rewritten to be age appropriate. It also comes with images for the eyes to feast on. Secure a copy of this book today!