Monica Azzolini is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Edinburgh. She has written extensively on Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical studies and on Renaissance astrology. Her first book, The Duke and the Stars: Astrology and Politics in Renaissance Milan, appeared with Harvard/I Tatti Studies in Italian Renaissance History in 2013. She is now working on a new project that investigates the distinctive culture of disaster of early modern Italy from the joint perspectives of religious history and the history of science. She hopes that this project will eventually expand into a more global study of the significance of natural disasters in reshaping the European understanding of nature in the seventeenth and eighteenth century.
Isabella Lazzarini qualified as Professor of Medieval History in 2013; she teaches at the University of Molise. Her research interests focus on the political, social, and cultural history of late medieval Italy, with an emphasis on Renaissance diplomacy and the growth of different political languages in documentary sources. Among her recent publications are Amicizia e potere. Reti politiche e sociali nell'Italia medievale (2010); The Italian Renaissance State, edited with Andrea Gamberini (2012), and Communication and Conflict. Italian Diplomacy in the Early Renaissance (1350-1520) (2015).
"History is the study of our past, not as a collection of isolated fields but rather as an integrated whole, involving entire political societies and the progressive evolution of the state. History is therefore marked by change. Ever since the appearance of what is more or less conventionally referred to as the 'modern state, ' but before the era of printed newspapers, the most eloquent source for such change was diplomatic correspondence, which increased in volume as a consequence of the intense relationships that developed in particular between Italian and European polities. The diplomatic letter, and its imposing presence in the Italian archives of the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, is the protagonist of the present volume, which gathers some of the best research on Italian Renaissance diplomacy, politics, and society of the past three decades. This sourcebook by Monica Azzolini and Isabella Lazzarini has the power of reigniting interest in how our complex political and social past serves as a fundamental part of our culture." -- Riccardo Fubini, University of Florence "Monica Azzolini and Isabella Lazzarini have assembled an excellent set of sources on a much needed subject. The book's strength lies in its wide array of topics, including diplomatic oratory, ritual, astrology, and games and leisure. They provide a close look at the nuances of diplomacy in the Italian Renaissance. The scholarly introductions to the material are all first rate." -- William Caferro, Vanderbilt University
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