This volume explores critical aspects of the Renaissance through key primary documents, from letters and speeches to government documents and royal and papal edicts. Overview articles provide important context to the era. WIth 11 secondary source Overview articles and 23 primary source documents, Historic Documents of the Renaissance is an ideal starting point for historical research into this vital era. 

Overview Articles

The Renaissance: An Overview 

Renaissance Art and Science

Church Corruption 

The Great Plague 

Christian Humanism

Rise of National Monarchies 

Dante and the Italian Communes

Church Corruption and the Conciliar Movement 

Medieval and Renaissance Art and Architecture

The Copernican Revolution 

The Newtonian Cosmos

Primary Sources

Roger Bacon: “On Experimental Science” 

Giovanni Boccaccio: The Decameron 

Petrarch: Letter to Lapo de Castiglionchio 

Petrarch: Letter to Francesco Nelli

Petrus Paulus Vergerius: “Concerning Liberal Studies” 

Christine de Pisan: The Treasure of the City of Ladies 

Leon Alberti: On Painting

Vespasiano da Bisticci: Portrait of Cosimo de’ Medici

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: Oration on the Dignity of Man 

The Croyland Chronicle: Battle of Bosworth Field

Surrender Treaty of the Kingdom of Granada 

Alhambra Decree

Privileges and Prerogatives Granted by Their Catholic Majesties to Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus: Letter to Raphael Sanxis on the Discovery of America

A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama 

Desiderius Erasmus: The Praise of Folly 

Niccoló Machiavelli: The Prince

Nicolaus Copernicus: On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres 

Giorgio Vasari: “Leonardo da Vinci, Florentine Painter and Sculptor” 

Michel de Montaigne: “Of the Education of Children”

Galileo Galilei: Starry Messenger

Letter of Cardinal Bellarmine to Paolo Antonio Foscarini Concerning Galileo’s Theories

Isaac Newton: The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy