Learn how the European Renaissance came to be! See those most notably involved in this fascinating era. Take a look inside a typical Renaissance home. Follow along as great strides were made in trade, exploration, religion, architecture, and the arts.

Daughter of the Duke of Milan and wife of the conniving Count Girolamo Riario, Caterina Sforza was the bravest warrior Renaissance Italy ever knew. She ruled her own lands, fought her own battles, and openly took lovers whenever she pleased. Her remarkable tale is told by her lady-in-waiting, Dea. Dea reviews Caterina's scandalous past and struggles to understand their joint destiny, while Caterina valiantly tries to fight off Cesare Borgia's unconquerable...

The astonishing life of Caterina Sforza, one of the most prominent women of Renaissance Italy, who was a wife, mother, leader, and warrior with enough fierceness to make Machiavelli himself wince. In this glittering biography, Elizabeth Lev reexamines Caterina's extraordinary life and accomplishments. Raised in the court of Milan and wed at age ten to the pope's corrupt nephew, Caterina was ensnared in Italy's political intrigues early in life....

Painted on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel, 28 years after Michelangelo completed the glorious and hopeful ceiling, The Last Judgment is full of stark images depicting the End of Days. James Connor uses the famous fresco as the lens by which to view the end of the Renaissance, arguing that Michelangelo's imagery and composition reflect the religious and political upheavals of the time. Combining his flair for storytelling with incisive historical...

The background is New Orleans and Saratoga in the 1880's. The story is the romance of Clio Dlaine and Clint Maroon, and about the railroad barons, ruthless in the methods they used to build the roads of steel.

"A new powerful and passionate novel--inspired by historical events--about two women, one European and one American, and the mysterious choral masterpiece by Johann Sebastian Bach that changes both their lives. In the ruins of Germany in 1945, at the end of World War II, American soldier Henry Sachs takes a souvenir, an old music manuscript, from a seemingly deserted mansion and mistakenly kills the girl who tries to stop him. In America in 2010,...

"When Meg's grandmother Cordelia hosts a Renaissance Faire at her craft center, the whole family is put to work: Meg handles the blacksmithing, Michael and the boys will be performing, and no one misses the opportunity to dress up in full regalia. More exciting to Grandfather is the pair of rare falcons he discovers breeding at the fairgrounds. Concerned for their well-being amid all the activity, he appoints himself their protector. When one of the...

A vivid, dramatic and authoritative account of the most influential family in Italian history: The Medici--

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...

Leonardo's Handwriting is a romantic morality tale, with an unconventional woman at its heart. Nature has given the heroine, Anna, the gift of clairvoyance, and it is this that determines her singular fate. The characteristic "left-handed mirror handwriting", which in psychology came to be known as "Leonardo's handwriting" (since that's how the Renaissance genius wrote his notes), simply adds to the "weirdness" both of Anna's personality and the twists...