"'Renaissance' means 'rebirth' in French. The Renaissance period of European history is aptly named because people had a rebirth, or renewed, interest in the ideas of ancient Greeks and Romans. This led to a new age of science and art. Readers will learn about the many aspects of the Renaissance as well as the prominent figures of this era, including Nicolaus Copernicus, Leonardo da Vinci, and others. A timeline helps summarize the crucial dates of...

In this book the author transports readers to the dawn of the Renaissance and chronicles the life of an intrepid book lover who rescued the Roman philosophical text On the Nature of Things from certain oblivion. In this work he has crafted both a work of history and a 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...

The brilliance of the Renaissance laid the foundation of the modern world. Textbooks tell us that it came about as a result of a rediscovery of the ideas and ideals of classical Greece and Rome. But now bestselling historian Gavin Menzies makes the startling argument that in the year 1434, China--then the world's most technologically advanced civilization--provided the spark that set the European Renaissance ablaze. From that date onward, Europeans...

"Describes the social and economic structure of life in the Renaissance (from roughly 1400-1600), including the ruling classes, the peasantry, the urban dwellers, and members of the Church and the role each group played in shaping European civilization"--Provided by publisher.

After learning how to fight at a young age, Oroonoko, an African prince, fights alongside his army against invading forces. When a celebrated general saves Oroonoko's life, trading his own to take an arrow for Oroonoko, the young prince feels indebted to the man and decides to go pay his respects to the late general's family. There, he meets Imoinda, the daughter of the general. Oroonoko and Imoinda quickly fall in love and become betrothed, but the...

The Sistine Chapel is one of the world’s most magnificent buildings, and the frescos that decorate its ceiling and walls are a testimony to the creative genius of the Renaissance. Two generations of artists worked at the heart of Christianity, over the course of several decades in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, to produce this extraordinary achievement of Western civilization. In this book, the art historian and restorer Antonio Forcellino...

This insightful and entertaining documentary attempts to piece together the many clues the maestro left behind in his diary to create an accurate portrait of his legendary and very private life.