Kenneth R. Bartlett has produced a fine second edition of his already useful sourcebook. Reflecting important recent research, he has added material on the social, economic, religious, political, and intellectual world of Italy from the late thirteenth to the sixteenth century. The texts are well suited for discussion and can be readily linked to lectures. For its accessibility and breadth of primary sources, this stimulating sourcebook is excellent and can be wholeheartedly recommended. -- Edward D. English, University of California, Santa Barbara This is by far the best collection of readings for a semester-length course on the Italian Renaissance. What makes it unique is the balance between the usual literary sources and documents relating to political, economic, and family history, including the lives of women, marginalized people, and the poor. The magnificent range of sources is matched by the quality of the selections themselves, which bring to life the period in all of its complexity. I am particularly pleased to see that the second edition includes readings placing the Renaissance within the context of Dante's world. -- J. Laurel Carrington, St. Olaf College I have used this book's predecessor since it first came out because it was easily the best such reader available. The new edition is signally improved not only by the addition of Dante as well as a number of other new readings but also by a handy and mercifully short guide to reading historical documents. The organization is also improved which makes it easier to find texts by the same author. -- Thomas F. Mayer, Augustana College Kenneth Bartlett's The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance has long been my favorite sourcebook for undergraduate teaching; I could not be happier that it is coming back into print, and updated no less, so that I can assign it as a textbook. I teach a range of courses in the Renaissance, from broad art history surveys, to upper-division lectures and seminars, to interdisciplinary classes-all of which have benefited from this book. Bartlett has assembled not only the best sources, but the best selections from those sources. This is not a collage of short, obscure, or mystifying documents; rather, it is a collection of the most important thinkers and artists of the Renaissance, at their pithiest moments. For example, Alberti's On Painting, Vasari's Life of Michelangelo, and Cellini's Vita are all key texts that are too long and complex for most classes. Bartlett's selections from each are perfectly excised at the ideal length for teaching, and with their key themes intact. The book is endlessly adaptable to subject area (it includes art historical, literary, historical/political and philosophical sources) and to style of class-any material could be safely assigned to a lower-level Renaissance class, but much is in-depth enough for an upper-level lecture or seminar. There is no equivalent compendium of Renaissance sources for undergraduate teaching, which is why I have spent the last several years copying selections from the copy I purchased when it was assigned to me as an undergraduate textbook in 1994. I could not be happier to see this valuable teaching tool re-released, and to have the opportunity to share its contents with my students, as they were once shared with me. -- Lisa Regan, University of California Berkeley
Preface to the Second Edition
Preface to the First Edition
How to Read a Historical Document
1.Introduction to the Italian Renaissance
Introduction: The Renaissance
The Classical Heritage
Quintilian: On the Early Education of the Citizen-Orator
Cicero: The Orator; Brutus; On Duties
2. Dante and Medieval Italy
Introduction
Dante's Contemporaries
Brunetto Latini: Proem to the Tesoretto
Rustico di Filippo: "On the Illness of a Little Girl"; "Portrait of
Messerino de'Caponsacchi"
Guido Cavalcanti: "To Dante"
Cino da Pistoia: "To Dante, on the Death of Beatrice"
Dante Alighieri: Inferno, Canto I, Canto V; Paradiso, Canto XV,
Canto XVI
3. Petrarch
Introduction
Letter to Posterity; The Ascent of Mount Ventoux; Letter to the
Shade of Cicero; On His Own Ignorance
4. Florence in the Renaissance
Introduction
Giovanni Villani: Selections from The Chronicle of Giovanni
Villani: Villani Writes His Chronicle; The Rebuilding of Florence
after 1293; The Black Death; Fire; Famine; Flood; Plague;
Flagellants; The City
Giovanni Boccaccio: A Description of the Plague from the Decameron;
Selections from The Life of Dante: Proem; Family Cares, Honors, and
Exile of Dante; Rebuke of the Florentines
Short Documents Illustrating Guild, Political, and Commercial
Activity
Guelfs and Ghibellines, 1347
The Aftermath of the Ciompi Revolt: A Community in Disorder,
1382
The Decline of the Guelf Party, 1413
Guild Corporations: Wine Merchants
Guild Philanthropy
The Catasto of 1427: The Declaration of Lorenzo Ghiberti,
Sculptor
Benedetto Dei: Letter to a Venetian
Leonardo Bruni: The Events of 1292-93; Speech of Giano della
Bella
5. Humanism
Introduction
Coluccio Salutati: Letter to Peregrino Zambeccari
Vespasiano da Bisticci: From Vespasiano's Lives; Poggio
Bracciolini; Niccolò Niccoli
Lorenzo Valla: The Glory of the Latin Language
Leonardo Bruni: History of Florence: The Struggle against the
Visconti, From Book Twelve; The Life of Dante
Isotta Nogarola: Of the Equal or Unequal Sin of Adam and Eve
6. Florentine Neoplatonism and Mysticism
Introduction
Marsilio Ficino: Commentary on Plato's Symposium on Love; On the
Two Origins of Love and the Double Venus; On the Painting of Love;
How the Soul Is Raised from the Beauty of the Body to the Beauty of
God; How God Is to Be Loved
Selections from His Letters: On Law and Justice; On the Duty of a
Citizen; The Astonishing Glories of Lorenzo de'Medici
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: Oration on the Dignity of Man
Angelo Poliziano: Selections from Stanzas on the Occasion of the
Jousts of Giuliano de'Medici
7. Marriage, the Family, and Women
Introduction
Francesco Barbaro: Selections from On Wifely Duties: On the Faculty
of Obedience; On Love; On Moderation; On the Education of
Children
Leon Battista Alberti: The Family in Renaissance Florence
Marriage and the Family in Renaissance Florence
The Marriages of Gregorio Dati
Two Marriages in the Valori Family, 1452 and 1476
Marriage Negotiations: The Del Bene, 1381
Marriage Neotiations: The Strozzi, 1464-65
Illegitimacy and Marriage, 1355
A Broken Marriage, 1377
The Children of Gregorio Dati, 1404
Niccolo Machiavelli: Selections from Mandragola
Baldassare Castiglione: The Book of the Courtier
Laura Cereta: Letter to Augustinius Aemilius: Curse against the
Ornamentation of Women
Documents Illustrating the Lives of Poor and Marginal Women in
Renaissance Florence
The Establishment of Communal Brothels, 1415
Profits of Prostitution, 1427 and 1433
Prostitutes and the Courts, 1398-1400
The Recruitment of Prostitutes, 1379
A Panderer's Career
The Story of the Servant Girl Nencia
The Tribulations of a Slave Girl
A Witch's Career
8. Art and Architecture
Introduction
Filippo Brunelleschi
Mariano Taccola: A Speech by Brunelleschi
The Competition for the Baptistry Doors
Lorenzo Ghiberti
Antonio Manetti
Girogio Vasari
Il Pinturicchio (Bernardino di Betto): Contract of Pinturicchio
with Cardinal Francesco de'Todeschini-Piccolomini for Decorating
the Library in Siena Cathedral, 29 June 1502
Isabella d'Este
Pietro Vanucci Perugino: Instructions of Isabella d'Este to
Perugino, 19 January 1503; Letter of Perugino to Isabella d'Este,
10 December 1503; Letter of Isabella d'Este to Perugino, 12 January
1504; Letter of Perugino to Isabella d'Este, 24 January 1504
Leon Battista Alberti: On Painting and on Sculpture; On
Architecture
Leonardo da Vinci: Selections from the Notebooks
9. Learning and Education
Introduction
Pietro Paolo Vergerio: Concerning Liberal Studies
Leonardo Bruni: A Letter to Battista Malatesta on the Study of
Literature
Battista Guarino: On the Means of Teaching and Learning
Coluccio Salutati: Letter to Caterina di Messer Vieri di Donatino
d'Arezzo
Laura Cereta: Letter to Bibulus Sempronius: A Defense of the
Liberal Instruction of Women; Letter to Lucilia Vernacular: Against
Women Who Disparage Learned Women
10. The Church and the Papacy
Introduction
Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Pius II): The Election of Pope Pius
II
Lorenzo Valla: The Principal Arguments from the Falsely-Believed
and Forged Donation of Constantine
Roderigo Borgia (Alexander VI): Selections from Pope Alexander VI
and His Court; The Accession of Alexander VI; The Year of the
Jubilee; The Death and Funeral of Alexander
Girolamo Savonarola: "O Soul, By Sin Made Blind"; A Preacher of
Reform ; Selections from a Draft Constitution for Florence
Francesco Guicciardini: Savonarola, a Portrait
Antonio Alamanni: Carnival Song: "The Triumph of Death"
Gregorio Dati: Individual Piety: Selections from the Ricordanze
Michelangelo Buonarroti: "Love's Justification"; "To Vittoria
Colonna: The Model and the Statue"
11. Life in Renaissance Italy
Introduction
The Elite
Pietro Aretino: Letter to Messer Giannantonio Da Foligno; Letter to
Messer Domenico Bollani; Letter to Messer Simone Bianco
Michelangelo Buonarroti: Letter to Tommaso Cavalieri
Niccolo Machiavelli: Letter to Francesco Vettori (1513); Letter to
Francesco Vettori (1514)
Lorenzo de'Medici: "Song for Dance"; "Song of Girls and of
Cicadas"
Francesco Guicciardini: A Portrait of Lorenzo de'Medici
Johannes Burchardus: Life in Papal Rome During the Reign of
Alexander VI
Giovanni Boccaccio: The Tale of Andreuccio
The Poor
Pensions for Retired Employees, 1395
Plague, Famine, and Civil Disorder
Appeal for Tax Relief, 1369
Justice for the Poor, 1367
The Condemnation of a Labor Organizer, 1345
The Demands of the Ciompi, 1378
Warfare
Alessandro Benedetti: Diary of the Caroline War
Francesco Guicciardini: The Formidable French Artillery and Troops
Compared with the Italian Forces; Character of Prospero Colonna;
Changes in the Nature of Warfare
12. The Late Italian Renaissance
Introduction
Francesco Guicciardini: Selections from Maxims and Reflections
Giovanni Della Casa: Selections from Galateo
Giorgio Vasari: Selections from The Lives of the Artists: The Life
of Raphael of Urbino, Painter and Architect, 1483-1520; The Life of
Michelangelo Buonarroti, Florentine Painter, Sculptor, and
Architect, 1475-1564
Benvenuto Cellini: Selections from The Autobiography of Benvenuto
Cellini
Girolamo Cardano: On Himself and His Life
Source Credits
Kenneth R. Bartlett is Professor of History and Renaissance Studies at the University of Toronto. He is the author of The English in Italy 1525–1558: A Study in Culture and Politics (1991), The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance: A Sourcebook (2011), and A Short History of the Italian Renaissance (2013).
Kenneth R. Bartlett has produced a fine second edition of his
already useful sourcebook. Reflecting important recent research, he
has added material on the social, economic, religious, political,
and intellectual world of Italy from the late thirteenth to the
sixteenth century. The texts are well suited for discussion and can
be readily linked to lectures. For its accessibility and breadth of
primary sources, this stimulating sourcebook is excellent and can
be wholeheartedly recommended.--Edward D. English, University of
California, Santa Barbara
This is by far the best collection of readings for a
semester-length course on the Italian Renaissance. What makes it
unique is the balance between the usual literary sources and
documents relating to political, economic, and family history,
including the lives of women, marginalized people, and the poor.
The magnificent range of sources is matched by the quality of the
selections themselves, which bring to life the period in all of its
complexity. I am particularly pleased to see that the second
edition includes readings placing the Renaissance within the
context of Dante's world.--J. Laurel Carrington, St. Olaf
College
I have used this book's predecessor since it first came out because
it was easily the best such reader available. The new edition is
signally improved not only by the addition of Dante as well as a
number of other new readings but also by a handy and mercifully
short guide to reading historical documents. The organization is
also improved which makes it easier to find texts by the same
author.--Thomas F. Mayer, Augustana College
Kenneth Bartlett's The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance has
long been my favorite sourcebook for undergraduate teaching; I
could not be happier that it is coming back into print, and updated
no less, so that I can assign it as a textbook. I teach a range of
courses in the Renaissance, from broad art history surveys, to
upper-division lectures and seminars, to interdisciplinary
classes-all of which have benefited from this book. Bartlett has
assembled not only the best sources, but the best selections from
those sources. This is not a collage of short, obscure, or
mystifying documents; rather, it is a collection of the most
important thinkers and artists of the Renaissance, at their
pithiest moments. For example, Alberti's On Painting, Vasari's Life
of Michelangelo, and Cellini's Vita are all key texts that are too
long and complex for most classes. Bartlett's selections from each
are perfectly excised at the ideal length for teaching, and with
their key themes intact. The book is endlessly adaptable to subject
area (it includes art historical, literary, historical/political
and philosophical sources) and to style of class-any material could
be safely assigned to a lower-level Renaissance class, but much is
in-depth enough for an upper-level lecture or seminar. There is no
equivalent compendium of Renaissance sources for undergraduate
teaching, which is why I have spent the last several years copying
selections from the copy I purchased when it was assigned to me as
an undergraduate textbook in 1994. I could not be happier to see
this valuable teaching tool re-released, and to have the
opportunity to share its contents with my students, as they were
once shared with me.--Lisa Regan, University of California Berkeley
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