Out of Italy

Description

The city-states of fifteenth-century Italy exerted unprecedented cultural influence on Europe and the Mediterranean and acted as a bulwark against the imperial and bellicose designs of the empires that surrounded them. Acclaimed French historian, Fernand Braudel, brings to life the two extraordinary centuries that span the Renaissance, Mannerism, and Baroque and grippingly portrays the complex interaction between art, science, politics and commerce during Italy's extraordinary cultural flowering. Considered one of the great modern historians, Fernand Braudel was a leader of the Annales School. His many books include The Mediterranean, and A History of Civilizations.

Fernand Braudel (1902 - 1985) was a French historian and a leader of the Annales School. Braudel has been considered one of the greatest of the modern historians who have emphasized the role of large-scale socioeconomic factors in the making and writing of history. Sian Reynolds was born in Cardiff and taught at both Sussex University and Edinburgh University before serving as Chair of French at Stirling University from 1999-2004. She has translated numerous books from the French, both fiction and nonfiction, including works by crime writer Fred Vargas.