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The Ugly Renaissance
Featuring the beauties of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, combined with the dark and hidden side of the Renaissance, by an acclaimed historian and expert in the period. Renowned as an age of artistic rebirth, the Renaissance is cloaked with an aura of beauty and brilliance. But behind the Mona Lisaâe(tm)s smile lurked a seamy, vicious world of power politics, perversity and corruption that has more in common with the present day than anyone dares to admit. Enter a world of corrupt bankers, greedy politicians, sex-crazed priests, rampant disease, and lives of extravagance and excess. Enter the world of the ugly Renaissance. Uncovering the hidden realities beneath the surface of the periodâe(tm)s best-known artworks, historian Alexander Lee takes the reader on a breathtaking and unexpected journey through the Italian past and shows that, far from being the product of high-minded ideals, the sublime monuments of the Renaissance were created by flawed and tormented artists who lived in an ever-expanding world of bigotry and hatred. The only question is: will you ever see the Renaissance in quite the same way again?
Machiavelli
'A wonderfully assured and utterly riveting biography that captures not only the much-maligned Machiavelli, but also the spirit of his time and place. A monumental achievement.' – Jessie Childs, author of God's Traitors. ‘A notorious fiend’, ‘generally odious’, ‘he seems hideous, and so he is.’ Thanks to the invidious reputation of his most famous work, The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli exerts a unique hold over the popular imagination. But was Machiavelli as sinister as he is often thought to be? Might he not have been an infinitely more sympathetic figure, prone to political missteps, professional failures and personal dramas? Alexander Lee reveals the man behind the myth, fol...
Petrarch and St. Augustine
Despite the high regard in which Francesco Petrarca (1304-74) held St. Augustine, scholars have been inclined to view Augustine’s impact on the content of Petrarch’s thought rather lightly. Wedded to the ancient classics, and prioritising literary imitation over intellectual coherence, Petrarch is commonly thought to have made inconsistent use of St. Augustine’s works. Adopting an entirely fresh approach, however, this book argues that Augustine’s early writings consistently provided Petrarch with the conceptual foundations of his approach to moral questions, and with a model for integrating classical precepts into a coherent Christian framework. As a result, this book offers a challenging re-interpretation of Petrarch’s humanism, and offers a provocative new interpretation of his role in the development of Italian humanism.
The Ugly Renaissance
Featuring the beauties of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, combined with the dark and hidden side of the Renaissance, by an acclaimed historian and expert in the period. Renowned as an age of artistic rebirth, the Renaissance is cloaked with an aura of beauty and brilliance. But behind the Mona Lisa’s smile lurked a seamy, vicious world of power politics, perversity and corruption that has more in common with the present day than anyone dares to admit. Enter a world of corrupt bankers, greedy politicians, sex-crazed priests, rampant disease, and lives of extravagance and excess. Enter the world of the ugly Renaissance. Uncovering the hidden realities beneath the surface of the period’s best-known artworks, historian Alexander Lee takes the reader on a breathtaking and unexpected journey through the Italian past and shows that, far from being the product of high-minded ideals, the sublime monuments of the Renaissance were created by flawed and tormented artists who lived in an ever-expanding world of bigotry and hatred. The only question is: will you ever see the Renaissance in quite the same way again?
Humanism and Empire
The first comprehensive, synoptic study of humanistic ideas of Empire in the period c.1250-1402, Humanism and Empire offers a radical new interpretation of fourteenth-century political thought, and raises wide-ranging questions about the foundations of modern constitutional ideas and the origins of the concept of liberty.
Renaissance? Perceptions of Continuity and Discontinuity in Europe, c.1300- c.1550
At least since the publication of Burckhardt’s seminal study, the Renaissance has commonly been understood in terms of discontinuities. Seen as a radical departure from the intellectual and cultural norms of the ‘Middle Ages’, it has often been associated with the revival of classical Antiquity and the transformation of the arts, and has been viewed primarily as an Italian phenomenon. In keeping with recent revisionist trends, however, the essays in this volume explore moments of profound intellectual, artistic, and geographical continuity which challenge preconceptions of the Renaissance. Examining themes such as Shakespearian tragedy, Michelangelo’s mythologies, Johannes Tinctoris’ view of music, the advent of printing, Burgundian book collections, and Bohemian ‘renovatio’, this volume casts a revealing new light on the Renaissance. Contributors include Klára Benešovská, Robert Black, Stephen Bowd, Matteo Burioni, Ingrid Ciulisová, Johannes Grave, Luke Houghton, Robin Kirkpatrick, Alexander Lee, Diotima Liantini, Andrew Pettegree, Rhys W. Roark, Maria Ruvoldt, Jeffrey Chipps Smith, Robin Sowerby, George Steiris, Rob C. Wegman, and Hanno Wijsman.
Humanism and Empire
For more than a century, scholars have believed that Italian humanism was predominantly civic in outlook. Often serving in communal government, fourteenth-century humanists like Albertino Mussato and Coluccio Saltuati are said to have derived from their reading of the Latin classics a rhetoric of republican liberty that was opposed to the 'tyranny' of neighbouring signori and of the German emperors. In this ground-breaking study, Alexander Lee challenges this long-held belief. From the death of Frederick II in 1250 to the failure of Rupert of the Palatinate's ill-fated expedition in 1402, Lee argues, the humanists nurtured a consistent and powerful affection for the Holy Roman Empire. Though...
Development in Multiple Dimensions
Why do some states provide infrastructure and social services to their citizens, and others do not? In Development in Multiple Dimensions, Alexander Lee examines the origins of success and failure in the public services of developing countries. Comparing states within India, this study examines how elites either control, or are shut out of, policy decisions and how the interests of these elites influence public policy. He shows that social inequalities are not single but multiple, creating groups of competing elites with divergent policy interests. Since the power of these elites varies, states do not necessarily focus on the same priorities: some focus on infrastructure, others on social se...
From Hierarchy to Ethnicity
From Hierarchy to Ethnicity discusses the origins of politicized caste identities in twentieth-century India, and how they evolved over time.
Robert E. Lee's Civil War
Examines the military genius of Robert E. Lee and evaluates the performances of the generals from the North and South, including the military strategies used in the Civil War
