The Renaissance books

The Renaissance books to start from. Open one to see books like it, or tell BookSense what you loved for four picks made for you.

• The Civilization of the Renaissance in ItalyJacob Burckhardt

  The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy

  Jacob Burckhardt

  The book that fixed the idea of the Renaissance as a distinct period, centred on individualism and the modern state; much later work is written in reaction to it.

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• The Italian RenaissancePeter Burke

  The Italian Renaissance

  Peter Burke

  A short, clear survey of Italian Renaissance society, culture and politics that reflects the revisionist scholarship of its time and is often used as an entry point.

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• Renaissance Self-fashioningStephen Greenblatt

  Renaissance Self-fashioning

  Stephen Greenblatt

  Studies how writers such as More, Tyndale and Spenser shaped their identities within power and religion, and it helped start the New Historicism in literary study.

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• Studies in IconologyErwin Panofsky

  Studies in Iconology

  Erwin Panofsky

  Lays out a method for reading the meaning of images in Renaissance art by working through their textual and symbolic sources, and remains a foundation of art history.

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• The RenaissanceWalter Pater

  The Renaissance

  Walter Pater

  A set of essays on Renaissance art and thinkers that shaped how English readers came to see the period as a matter of style and sensibility.

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Chosen and described with AI from our notes on the genre.

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