Rakuten Kobo

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
A Nearly Infallible History of the Reformation

Commemorating 500 years of Popes, Protestants, Reformers, Radicals and Other Assorted Irritants

by Nick Page ...

500 years ago, Martin Luther nailed his ideas to a church door - and the Reformation began. Or maybe it was a little more complicated than that.Nick Page brings his skills as an unlicensed historian to bear on this key period in European (and world) history in order to uncover everything you need to know about the Reformation - with a fair few bits you never wanted to know thrown in for good ... Read more

$3.99 USD

500 years ago, Martin Luther nailed his ideas to a church door - and the Reformation began. Or maybe it was a little more complicated than that.Nick Page brings his skills as an unlicensed historian to bear on this key period in European (and world) history in order to uncover everything you need to know about the Reformation - with a fair few bits you never wanted to know thrown in for good
... Read more
1453

The Conquest and Tragedy of Constantinople

by Anthony Kaldellis ...

A detailed account of the siege and fall of Constantinople in 1453, a watershed year that closed the book, once and for all, on the Roman Empire and confirmed for Europeans their worst fears about an expanding Ottoman Empire. Anthony Kaldellis offers a new narrative of the siege and fall of Constantinople in 1453, a watershed year that closed the book, once and for all, on the Roman Empire and ... Read more

$19.99 USD

A detailed account of the siege and fall of Constantinople in 1453, a watershed year that closed the book, once and for all, on the Roman Empire and confirmed for Europeans their worst fears about an expanding Ottoman Empire. Anthony Kaldellis offers a new narrative of the siege and fall of Constantinople in 1453, a watershed year that closed the book, once and for all, on the Roman Empire and
... Read more
The Gunpowder Plot: History in an Hour

by Sinead Fitzgibbon ...

Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour.‘Remember, remember, the fifth of November’. The gunpowder plot is a famed tale of treachery that continues to fascinate and capture the imagination four hundred years on.The Gunpowder Plot in an Hour reveals the elaborate background to the infamous plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament and James I, the ultimate act of treason. This ... Read more

$0.99 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour.‘Remember, remember, the fifth of November’. The gunpowder plot is a famed tale of treachery that continues to fascinate and capture the imagination four hundred years on.The Gunpowder Plot in an Hour reveals the elaborate background to the infamous plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament and James I, the ultimate act of treason. This
... 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

$36.99 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
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
The Unbound Prometheus

Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present

by David S. Landes ...

For over thirty years David S. Landes's The Unbound Prometheus has offered an unrivalled history of industrial revolution and economic development in Europe. Now, in this updated edition, the author reframes and reasserts his original arguments in the light of debates about globalisation and comparative economic growth. The book begins with a classic account of the characteristics, progress, and ... Read more

$36.99 USD

For over thirty years David S. Landes's The Unbound Prometheus has offered an unrivalled history of industrial revolution and economic development in Europe. Now, in this updated edition, the author reframes and reasserts his original arguments in the light of debates about globalisation and comparative economic growth. The book begins with a classic account of the characteristics, progress, and
... 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

$20.99 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

$34.99 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

$38.99 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
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

$35.99 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
The Universities of the Italian Renaissance

by Paul F. Grendler ...

A "magisterial [and] elegantly written" study of Renaissance Italy's remarkable accomplishments in higher education and academic research ( Choice).Winner of the Howard R. Marraro Prize for Italian History from the American Historical AssociationSelected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title of the YearItalian Renaissance universities were Europe's intellectual leaders in humanistic ... Read more

$12.99 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

A "magisterial [and] elegantly written" study of Renaissance Italy's remarkable accomplishments in higher education and academic research ( Choice).Winner of the Howard R. Marraro Prize for Italian History from the American Historical AssociationSelected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title of the YearItalian Renaissance universities were Europe's intellectual leaders in humanistic
... 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
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

$27.99 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
The Surgeon, The Midwife, The Quack

How to Stay Alive in Renaissance England

by Dr. Alanna Skuse ...

Discover the remarkable birth of modern medicine... and how not to die in the Renaissance'An entertaining history of medicine… Skuse brings a deep familiarity with the contemporary sources and a dry wit.' Dan Jones, The Sunday Times'A richly researched and atmospheric history.' Wall Street JournalThe cliched view medicine in the Renaissance world is dreadful: gore-splattered hacksaws, arsen... ... Read more

$14.99 USD

Discover the remarkable birth of modern medicine... and how not to die in the Renaissance'An entertaining history of medicine… Skuse brings a deep familiarity with the contemporary sources and a dry wit.' Dan Jones, The Sunday Times'A richly researched and atmospheric history.' Wall Street JournalThe cliched view medicine in the Renaissance world is dreadful: gore-splattered hacksaws, arsen...
... 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

$18.99 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
The Tudors

by Richard Rex ...

The Tudor Age began in August 1485 when Henry Tudor landed with a small force at Milford Haven intent on snatching the English throne from Richard III. For more than a hundred years England was to be dominated by the personalities of the fi ve Tudor monarchs, ranging from the brilliance and brutality of Henry VIII to the shrewdness and vanity of the virgin queen, Elizabeth I. ... Read more

$8.99 USD

The Tudor Age began in August 1485 when Henry Tudor landed with a small force at Milford Haven intent on snatching the English throne from Richard III. For more than a hundred years England was to be dominated by the personalities of the fi ve Tudor monarchs, ranging from the brilliance and brutality of Henry VIII to the shrewdness and vanity of the virgin queen, Elizabeth I.
... Read more
Naples 1343

The Unexpected Origins of the Mafia

by Amedeo Feniello ...

Translated by Antony Shugaar ...

A fresh perspective on the early mafia as a means of resistance against invasion, this gripping history illustrates the previously unknown extent of these families’ power in the 14th century.1343: there is famine in Naples. After nightfall, a Genoese ship loaded with wheat is attacked by members of two local clans who brutally kill several sailors and their captain. The attackers returned to the ... Read more

$15.99 USD

A fresh perspective on the early mafia as a means of resistance against invasion, this gripping history illustrates the previously unknown extent of these families’ power in the 14th century.1343: there is famine in Naples. After nightfall, a Genoese ship loaded with wheat is attacked by members of two local clans who brutally kill several sailors and their captain. The attackers returned to the
... Read more
The World of the Italian Renaissance

by E. R. Chamberlin ...

Series series Routledge Library Editions: The Renaissance
Originally published in 1982, this book tackles the underlying problem of what is meant by ‘the Renaissance’ and outlines those social, economic and topographical factors which triggered it off. It covers a number of subjects, the family, war, trade, religion and art but recognizing that the Renaissance was essentially an urban growth it focusses on 7 great Italian cities: Florence, Rome, Venice, ... Read more

$55.99 USD

Originally published in 1982, this book tackles the underlying problem of what is meant by ‘the Renaissance’ and outlines those social, economic and topographical factors which triggered it off. It covers a number of subjects, the family, war, trade, religion and art but recognizing that the Renaissance was essentially an urban growth it focusses on 7 great Italian cities: Florence, Rome, Venice,
... Read more
European Warfare, 1350–1750

Edited by Frank Tallett, D. J. B. Trim ...

The period 1350–1750 saw major developments in European warfare, which not only had a huge impact on the way wars were fought, but also are critical to long-standing controversies about state development, the global ascendancy of the West, and the nature of 'military revolutions' past and present. However, the military history of this period is usually written from either medieval or early-modern, ... Read more

$40.99 USD

The period 1350–1750 saw major developments in European warfare, which not only had a huge impact on the way wars were fought, but also are critical to long-standing controversies about state development, the global ascendancy of the West, and the nature of 'military revolutions' past and present. However, the military history of this period is usually written from either medieval or early-modern,
... Read more

eReaders

Apps

Accessories

Shopping Cart

You're getting the VIP treatment!

Your Shopping Cart is empty

Available:

1 audiobook monthly

+ FREE 30-day trial

Available:

1 audiobook monthly

+ FREE 30-day trial

Recommended For You

Renaissance eBooks

Show: