{"title":"History--Europe--Renaissance","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"the-voynich-manuscript","title":"The Voynich Manuscript","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe first authorized copy of this mysterious, much-speculated-upon, one-of-a-kind, centuries-old puzzle\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"For the first time, a complete reproduction [of] \u003ci\u003eThe Voynich Manuscript\u003c\/i\u003e, has been published, featuring essays exploring what is known about the book and extra-wide margins so readers can record their responses to its beguiling, beautiful strangeness.\"--Nina Maclaughlin, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e Boston Globe\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"For people who like a good historical mystery, this . . . fifteenth- or sixteenth-century \u003ci\u003eVoynich Manuscript\u003c\/i\u003e will fascinate.\"--Rebecca Onion, \u003ci\u003eSlate\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Many call the fifteenth-century codex, commonly known as the \"Voynich Manuscript,\" the world's most mysterious book. Written in an unknown script by an unknown author, the manuscript has no clearer purpose now than when it was rediscovered in 1912 by rare books dealer Wilfrid Voynich. The manuscript appears and disappears throughout history, from the library of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II to a secret sale of books in 1903 by the Society of Jesus in Rome. The book's language has eluded deciphering, and its elaborate illustrations remain as baffling as they are beautiful. For the first time, this facsimile, complete with elaborate folding sections, allows readers to explore this enigma in all its stunning detail, from its one-of-a-kind \"Voynichese\" text to its illustrations of otherworldly plants, unfamiliar constellations, and naked women swimming though fantastical tubes and green baths. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The essays that accompany the manuscript explain what we have learned about this work--from alchemical, cryptographic, forensic, and historical perspectives--but they provide few definitive answers. 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This was the England of Shakespeare, Jonson, and Bacon; the era of the Gunpowder Plot and the worst outbreak of the plague. Jacobean England was both more godly and less godly than the country had ever been, and the entire culture was drawn taut between these polarities. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis was the world that created the King James Bible. It is the greatest work of English prose ever written, and it is no coincidence that the translation was made at the moment \"Englishness,\" specifically the English language itself, had come into its first passionate maturity. The English of Jacobean England has a more encompassing idea of its own scope than any form of the language before or since. It drips with potency and sensitivity. The age, with all its conflicts, explains the book.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0060838736\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780060838737\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Nicolson, Adam, N\/A, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Harper Perennial\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Aug 2005)","offer_id":45660092661957,"sku":"9780060838737","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780060838737.jpg?v=1768918242"},{"product_id":"the-golden-thread-a-history-of-the-western-tradition-volume-ii-the-modern-and-contemporary-west","title":"The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition, Volume II: The Modern and Contemporary West","description":"\u003cb\u003eA compelling, resource-rich history of the modern West--from the Renaissance to the present--designed for students and lifelong learners alike, and grounded in the enduring ideals of liberty, faith, and reason. 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The pre-Columbian history of the Atlantic is the story of how Europeans learned to master the oceans. This story is, therefore, key to understanding why it was Europeans, and not any of the world's other seafaring peoples, who \"discovered\" the world. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eInformed by the author's extensive travels around the Atlantic Ocean, crossing Newfoundland's Grand Banks, the Sea of Darkness, and the weed-covered Sargasso Sea, and populated by a heterogeneous and multiethnic cast of seafarers, fishermen, monks, merchants, and dreamers, \u003ci\u003eOcean\u003c\/i\u003e is an in-depth history of a neglected subject, fusing geology, geography, mythology, developing maritime technologies, and the early history of exploration to narrate an enthralling story--one which lies at the very heart of Europe's modern history and its relationship with the rest of the world.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1639367667\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781639367665\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Haywood, John\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Pegasus Books\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Pegasus Books","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Dec 2024)","offer_id":46080444825797,"sku":"9781639367665","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781639367665.jpg?v=1776037121"},{"product_id":"dark-renaissance-the-dangerous-times-and-fatal-genius-of-shakespeares-greatest-rival","title":"Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn repressive Elizabethan England, artists are frightened into dull conventionality; foreigners are suspect; popular entertainment largely consists of coarse spectacles, animal fights, and hangings. 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Meanwhile, he explores how the people Marlowe knew, and the transformations they wrought, gave birth to the economic, scientific, and cultural power of the modern world including Faustian bargains with which we reckon still.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0393882276\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780393882278\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Greenblatt, Stephen\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: W. W. Norton \u0026amp; Company\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"W. W. 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Roeck shows that the rediscovery of ancient knowledge, including the science of the medieval Arab world, played a critical role in shaping the beginnings of Western modernity. He explains that the Renaissance emerged in a part of Europe where competing states and cities formed relatively open societies. Most of the era's creative minds--from Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo to Copernicus and Galileo--came from the middle classes. The art of arguing flowered, the basso continuo to intellectual and cultural breakthroughs. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRoeck argues that two revolutions shaped the Renaissance: a media revolution, triggered by Gutenberg's invention of movable type--which itself was a driving force behind the scientific revolution--and the advent of modern science. He also reports on the dark side of the era--hatred of Jews, witch panic, religious wars, and the atrocities of colonialism. In a series of meditative counterfactuals, Roeck considers other cultural rebirths throughout the first millennium, from the Islamic empire to the Carolingians, examining why the epic developments of the Renaissance took place in the West and not elsewhere. The complicated legacy of the Renaissance, he shows, encompasses the art of critical thinking as learned from the ancients, the emergence of the modern state, and the genesis of democracy.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 069118383X\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780691183831\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Roeck, Bernd, Baker, Patrick\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Princeton University Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Jun 2025)","offer_id":46080646021317,"sku":"9780691183831","price":42.75,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780691183831.jpg?v=1776039240"},{"product_id":"the-swerve-how-the-world-became-modern","title":"The Swerve: How the World Became Modern","description":"In the winter of 1417, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties plucked a very old manuscript off a dusty shelf in a remote monastery, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. He was Poggio Bracciolini, the greatest book hunter of the Renaissance. His discovery, Lucretius' ancient poem \u003cem\u003eOn the Nature of Things, \u003c\/em\u003e had been almost entirely lost to history for more than a thousand years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e It was a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functions without the aid of gods, that religious fear is damaging to human life, that pleasure and virtue are not opposites but intertwined, and that matter is made up of very small material particles in eternal motion, randomly colliding and swerving in new directions. Its return to circulation changed the course of history. The poem's vision would shape the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein, and--in the hands of Thomas Jefferson--leave its trace on the Declaration of Independence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e From the gardens of the ancient philosophers to the dark chambers of monastic scriptoria during the Middle Ages to the cynical, competitive court of a corrupt and dangerous pope, Greenblatt brings Poggio's search and discovery to life in a way that deepens our understanding of the world we live in now.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"An intellectually invigorating, nonfiction version of a Dan Brown-like mystery-in-the-archives thriller.\" --\u003cem\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0393343405\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780393343403\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Greenblatt, Stephen\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: W. W. Norton \u0026amp; Company\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"W. W. 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What were they trying to hide? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Garry J. Shaw tells the stories of nine puzzling European texts. Shaw explores the unknown alphabet of the nun Hildegard of Bingen; the enciphered manuscripts of the prank-loving physician Giovanni Fontana; and the angel communications of the polymath John Dee. 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Skuse brings a deep familiarity with the contemporary sources and a dry wit.' Dan Jones, \u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe cliched view medicine in the Renaissance world is dreadful: gore-splattered hacksaws, arsenic concoctions, the four humours and all those leeches... \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eReality, however, proves somewhat different. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a medical revolution was afoot. Physicians' education was being formalised. Surgeons were documenting the intricacies of the human body with ever-greater skill. And, as European powers expanded into the New World, novel medicines and treatments were being discovered. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAlanna Skuse ventures into the bustling medical marketplace of Renaissance England - a world of travelling surgeons, prosthetics craftsmen, faith healers and snake oil merchants.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003eDiscover domestic healers like \u003cb\u003eElizabeth Freke\u003c\/b\u003e, a doyenne of folk remedies, always ready to dole out tonics and elixirs to her ailing neighbours.\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eBrowse the shelves of the early modern apothecary with \u003cb\u003eNicholas Culpeper \u003c\/b\u003eas he lays the groundwork for the modern pharmacy.\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eMeet the expert midwife \u003cb\u003eJane Sharp\u003c\/b\u003e, successful author and pioneer of women's health.\u003c\/li\u003e \u003cli\u003eJoin the intrepid plague doctor \u003cb\u003eGeorge Thomson\u003c\/b\u003e as he braves London's Great Plague.\u003c\/li\u003e \u003c\/ul\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHumane and entrancing, \u003ci\u003eThe Surgeon, The Midwife, The Quack\u003c\/i\u003e reveals the people and stories behind a scientific revolution. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Fascinating.' \u003ci\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Meticulously researched and deliciously detailed.' Victoria Shepherd, author of \u003ci\u003eA History of Delusions\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1836430779\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781836430773\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Skuse, Alanna\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Oneworld Publications\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Oneworld Publications","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Feb 2026)","offer_id":46081809875141,"sku":"9781836430773","price":28.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781836430773.jpg?v=1776049640"},{"product_id":"the-mighty-continent-a-candid-history-of-modern-europe","title":"The Mighty Continent: A Candid History of Modern Europe","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Conservational and erudite.\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e-\u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eA renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning historian recounts the dramatic tale of modern Europe's ascent.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Mighty Continent: A Candid History of Modern Europe\u003c\/i\u003e, Walter McDougall, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, provides readers with a sweeping historical narrative that takes in the political, economic, social, intellectual, and cultural developments in the major European nations from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlong the way, McDougall provides new insights on and interpretations of the Renaissance, the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, the Age of Exploration, the Scientific, French, and Industrial Revolutions, the sources of modernism, the origins of World War I, the rise of totalitarianism, the advance of the European Union, the collapse of communism, and much else.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eComprehensive yet compact, objective yet unabashed, attuned to European failings yet refreshingly free from cloying moralism, \u003ci\u003eThe Mighty Continent\u003c\/i\u003e is history as it used to be: exciting, uplifting, ironic, not infrequently tragic--and, above all, fair to the figures who made modern Europe so world-shakingly powerful and inescapably influential.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1967613001\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781967613007\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: McDougall, Walter A.\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Creed \u0026amp; Culture\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Creed \u0026 Culture","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Jan 2026)","offer_id":46099818479813,"sku":"9781967613007","price":36.1,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781967613007.jpg?v=1776645593"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.inveni.store\/collections\/history-europe-renaissance.oembed","provider":"Inveni","version":"1.0","type":"link"}