"From tales of chivalrous knights to the barbarity of trial by ordeal, no era has been a greater source of awe, horror, and wonder than the Middle Ages. In handsomely crafted prose, and with the grace and authority of his extraordinary gift for narrative history, William Manchester leads us from a civilization tottering on the brink of collapse to the grandeur of its rebirth--the dense explosion of energy that spawned some of history's greatest poets,...

In this book the author transports readers to the dawn of the Renaissance and chronicles the life of an intrepid book lover who rescued the Roman philosophical text On the Nature of Things from certain oblivion. In this work he has crafted both a work ofhistory and a story of discovery, in which one manuscript, plucked from a thousand years of neglect, changed the course of human thought and made possible the world as we know it. Nearly six hundred...

"The exciting era known as the Renaissance revolutionized art, as artists broke with the past to embrace new subjects, techniques, and mediums. Painters and sculptors, including Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo, became famous across Europe, creating iconic works, such as the Mona Lisa and the statue David."-- Provided by publisher.

This book challenges the general assumption that William Shakespeare was the sole author of Hamlet. It is maintained that the plot line and the characters were drawn up by someone else. This someone is thought to have been a person of high rank, a feudal prince, in the Elizabethan society. Being a nobleman whose constant presence at Court was expected, he must have been familiar with life, gossip and intrigues of the Court. Furthermore, he had knowledge...

A personal account by the basketball star traces his childhood in Harlem and the influence of the Harlem Renaissance on black culture in the United States, featuring interviews with Magic Johnson, Quincy Jones, Spike Lee, and Denzel Washington

"Leap years are a strange, enchanted time. And for some, even a single February can be life-changing. Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn't one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she's the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. Where they're long-stemmed roses, she's a dandelion: an adorable bloom that's actually a weed, born to float wherever the wind blows. In her bones, Ricki knows that...

The Renaissance was one of the greatest moments in Western cultural history. It was the time of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo; architects such as Brunelleschi and Palladio; composers such as Palestrina and Tallis; as well as innovative writers and philosophers. It was a time of great social change and remarkable flowering in science, exploration and politics; the age when medieval Christendom was split apart by the Reformation. The printing press...

The Rebirth of Venus is the last part of The Botticelli Trilogy, following A Tabernacle for the Sun and Pallas and the Centaur. Set in the 1480s and 90s, it tells the story of murder, not only of the leading men of the age, but of the age itself, the Renaissance dying in Savonarola's bonfires. Tommaso de' Maffei was charged with the task of taking the Platonic wisdom to England, but in England he finds he has lost touch with the truth of his philosophy,...

England, 1628. The bloody war of religion in Europe continues, and after a botched and bloody defeat by the French, King Charles I's most trusted confidant and military commander, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, is murdered in Portsmouth in broad daylight. The assailant is a grieving and vengeful soldier, Jack Felton. The King is convinced that the murder of his closest ally is a conspiracy by Parliament, but his advisor, William Laud, Bishop...

The medieval guild is deconstructed into political theory and social commentary in this contemporary look at one of the most important social institutions of the Middle Ages. Essential principles and values underlying the guild system are discussed with a view toward applying them to current societal ills such as unemployment, absentee corporate ownership, and employee disenfranchisement. The system, adapted to the needs and circumstances of the 21st-century,...