The Renaissance began in Italy, but it grew out of European civilization, with roots in Antiquity, in Christian dogma, and in Byzantium. The artistic ferment which had taken hold of Florence by 1420 was also reflected in the regional schools of Siena, Umb
"Well-illustrated, undeniably useful, Murray's book is truly welcome." --Architectural Design"Informed in content and concise in style . . . a perfect introduction to the architecture of the Italian Renaissance."--Richard Stapleford, Cooper Union School o
For nineteenth-century Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt, the Italian Renaissance was nothing less than the beginning of the modern world - a world in which flourishing individualism and the competition for fame radically transformed science, the arts, and