Series: I Tatti Studies in Italian Renaissance History

An introduction to one of the premier humanists of the Italian Renaissance, whose extraordinary work in biography, politics, religion, and philosophy has been largely unknown to Anglophone readers. A celebrated orator, historian, philosopher, and statesman, Giannozzo Manetti (1396–1459) was one of the most remarkable figures of the Italian Renaissance. The son of a wealthy Florentine merchant, he was active in...

A revelatory account of the "wonder drug" theriac, which became a powerful tool in the hands of medical and political authorities at the height of the Italian Renaissance. From the 1490s, one of the most influential remedies to circulate in Europe was the "wonder drug" theriac. Although it had been in use for centuries, theriac gained special importance in the...

A new history illuminates the Society of Jesus in its first century from the perspective of those who knew it best: the early Jesuits themselves. The Society of Jesus was established in 1540. In the century that followed, thousands sought to become Jesuits and pursue vocations in religious service, teaching, and missions. Drawing on scores of unpublished biographical documents housed...

A surprising history of interfaith collaboration in the Roman Ghetto, where for three centuries Jewish and Christian butchers worked together to provision the city despite the proscriptions of Church law. For Rome's Jewish population, confined to a ghetto between 1555 and 1870, efforts to secure kosher meat were fraught with challenges. The city's papal authorities viewed kashrut—the Jewish dietary laws—with...

Winner of the Margaret W. Rossiter History of Women in Science Prize A new history uncovers the crucial role women played in the great transformations of medical science and health care that accompanied the Italian Renaissance. In Renaissance Italy, women played a more central role in providing health care than historians have thus far acknowledged. Women from all walks of...

A new history of how one of the Renaissance's pre-eminent cities lost its independence in the Italian Wars. In 1499, the Duchy of Milan had known independence for one hundred years. But the turn of the sixteenth century saw the city battered by the Italian Wars. As the major powers of Europe battled for supremacy, Milan, viewed by contemporaries as...

A revealing account of the lives and work of Ethiopian Orthodox pilgrims in sixteenth-century Rome, examining how this African diasporic community navigated the challenges of religious pluralism in the capital of Latin Christianity. Tucked behind the apse of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome is the ancient church of Santo Stefano. During the sixteenth century, Santo Stefano hosted an unusual community:...

A pathbreaking history of early modern education argues that Europe's oldest university, often seen as a bastion of traditionalism, was in fact a vibrant site of intellectual innovation and cultural exchange. The University of Bologna was among the premier universities in medieval Europe and an international magnet for students of law. However, a long-standing historiographical tradition holds that Bologna—and Italian...

Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, a series of highly controversial Inquisition trials took place throughout the Italian peninsula. The defendants were all accused of the same heresy: claiming that Adam and Eve's original sin had been committing sodomy, a "celestial" pleasure reserved for God alone. Such claims were not merely subversive sexual innuendo. Rather, they were the most radical...