Renaissance Books - Page 2

Michel de Montaigne - The Complete Essays (Penguin Classics)

Michel de Montaigne

Amazon Price: $16.50 List Price: $25.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin Classics Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $10.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Classics -> General AAS
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Essays -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Essays -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Essays 5 out of 5 stars.
23 of 23 people found this review helpful.

Montaigne. He has lessons for us all, I've found.

Some of the lessons are hard. He writes about everything, but most of all, he writes about himself. There is a painful clarity to his work - but that cliche term does nothing to properly explain what it is he accomplishes with his writing.

At thirty-three, Montaigne decided to retire to his home and write. He had vague ideas about writing a gentleman's book on warfare, and the first few essays reflect that. But, as he progressed, he kept going on little side journeys into his own thoughts and opinions. At first, Montaigne reigned himself in, struggling to stay true to the path he had decided for himself.

Happily for us, he failed.

He abandoned the idea of writing for gentlemen - though there are still slight evidences of this throughout the work. Instead, he decided to focus on the one thing he knew better than anybody else in the entire world - Montaigne. Who else could know more, or would bother to take as much time exploring this one man than the man himself? And why not explore his own mind - every day, he has to live and deal with the advantages and disadvantages, the habits and the thoughts, the opinions and the ironies of being Montaigne. Thus, he decided, it was worth exploring. In his view, there was nothing more important than understanding one's self. If you cannot understand yourself, how can you expect to understand anybody else?

There are moments of 'painful clarity', as I said above. Montaigne discusses (his) impotence, his imperfect marriage, the disappointments he has created in others, the times when he did not do what he should. But he also talks about how he can make himself a better person, and how, in a lot of ways, he is an admirable person. It is important to realise that Montaigne is not writing an apology for himself. He is putting himself on to paper, 'warts and all', and declaring it true. There is a point in one of the essays where he declares that he wouldn't want anyone to lie about the person he is, even if they flattered him or praised him. This is, in a nutshell, Montaigne's thinking. He is not concerned with being the greatest person ever known - he is concerned with understanding himself.

Four hundred years on, what is there to offer us, the modern reader, in Montaigne? An infinity of wisdom. Could I, in honesty, completely and unwaveringly disect myself for the consumption of both myself and others? I don't think so. I very much fear that the answer is no. And yet - why not? Is it shame? I don't think so, as I have nothing major to hide. Perhaps, then, it is simply the fear of unrealised ideas and thoughts. If I am unaware of myself, I cannot present it. Montaigne was and is aware of himself and thus manages to accurately describe the person that he is.

Montaigne's essays are invaluable not only for the man that they portray, but for the wisdom in what is spoken. Montaigne has thought about so many aspects of what it is to be a human and alive, and we can all learn from this. The topics he discusses go beyond mere 16th century issues, and deal with concepts, ideas and concerns that affect us now, and will affect us always. Absolutely essential reading.

Editorial Review:

In 1572, Montaigne retired to his estates in order to devote himself to leisure, reading and reflection. There he wrote his constantly expanding 'essays', inspired by the ideas he found in books from his library and his own experience. He discusses subjects as diverse as war-horses and cannibals, poetry and politics, sex and religion, love and friendship, ecstasy and experience. Above all, Montaigne studied himself to find his own inner nature and that of humanity. The Essays are among the most idiosyncratic and personal works in all literature. An insight into a wise Renaissance mind, they continue to engage, enlighten and entertain modern readers.

Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies

Bartolome de Las Casas

Amazon Price: $10.40 List Price: $13.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin Classics Amazon Marketplace: 64 new & used starting at $7.21

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> South America -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> South America -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Military -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A dark episode in the History of Spain and America 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I wanted to read this book in order to know some of the history in the conquest of america in the early years. Despite that perhaps some of the atrocities where not commited with that violence and some never happened, I think most of them are true. All this violence in the name of gold and the Inquisition.

Now, for the people who came to America, it was not an easy task. Far away from home, most of the people uneducated and indians that you cannot trust completely, the death of people was something inevitable but resulted in massacre.

A dark episode in the History of Spain and America. Finally, you realized that other colonizations were not that violent and more prosperous, it was just the "fortune" of America to receive these spaniards.

Editorial Review:

In 1542, after years of witnessing Indian suffering and slavery, Bartolome de Las Casas wrote this indictment against European exploitation and mistreatment of the native peoples of the New World. The document was dedicated to Prince Philip of Spain and appeared in published form in 1552. It carries all the urgency of a moment in history when it still seemed possible to reverse the tide.

Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde: "Subgit to Alle Poesye" : Essays in Criticism

Catherine S. Cox

List Price: $16.95 By: Mrts Amazon Marketplace: 10 new & used starting at $3.90

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> History & Criticism -> Criticism & Theory -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> History & Criticism -> Criticism & Theory -> General AAS
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> History & Criticism -> Movements & Periods -> Renaissance

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

misleading information 1 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Your web-page is misleading. It quotes, and the image displays, the Middle English original of the poem. The inside pages shown are from the Middle English edition. However, (and the modernized title should be a giveaway, but it wasn't) the edition on this page is in modern English -- a translation, not Chaucer's poem. You need to clean up this page, take away the Middle English quotations, state that it's a modern translation, and refer the prospective buyer to the actual, modernized edition -- which the buyer may or may not want (in my case I did not), with assistance in finding the actual Middle English masterpiece.

Editorial Review:

The tragedy of Troilus and Criseyde is one of the greatest narrative poems in English literature. Set during the siege of Troy, it tells how the young knight Troilus, son of King Priam, falls in love with Criseyde, a beautiful widow. Brought together by Criseyde’s uncle, Pandarus, the lovers are then forced apart by the events of war, which test their oaths of fidelity and trust to the limits. Described by editor Barry Windeatt as Chaucer’s "most ambitious single achievement, his masterpiece," Troilus and Criseyde is the first work in English to depict human passion with such sympathy and understanding.

The Praise of Folly and Other Writings (Norton Critical Editions)

Desiderius Erasmus

Amazon Price: $11.95 List Price: $11.95 Usually ships in 2 to 4 weeks By: W. W. Norton Amazon Marketplace: 25 new & used starting at $8.45

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> World -> Medieval
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Classics -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Classics -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

"Great Guide to Enter the Mind and Times of Erasmus" 4 out of 5 stars.
32 of 34 people found this review helpful.

This edition has "some" of Erasmus' most influential works; namely, "The Praise of Folly", the political "Complaint for Peace", "Forewords to the Latin New Testament", "Julius Excluded from Heaven", the "Colloquis", and excerpts from his finest letters. These works are selected more to understand the humanistic side of Erasmus rather than the scholarly doctrinaire who labored for the peace of christendom. With these selections - entailed by fotenotes, the editor's prefaces, and critcical commentaries - this edition will invariably enhance a more intimate impression of the mind of Erasmus at the dawn of the reformation.

Editorial Review:

Erasmus (1466-1536) of Rotterdam was Northern Europe's leader of Renaissance learning. This great Christian humanist and scholar was the founder of the school of thought that anyone who had a good university education and was well-read in literature and theology would be morally virtuous and intellectually disciplined. Erasmus was well-known for his wit, satire and irony and was regarded as one of the best Latin prose stylists since Cicero. His most famous and widely read work, "The Praise of Folly", is a dramatic monologue on the futility of all human thought and aspiration. This new Norton Critical Edition of "The Praise of Folly" also includes selections from his other works such as "The Complaint of Peace", "The Colloquies" and "The Abbot and the Learned Lady", and two versions of Erasmus's foreword to his translation of the New Testament.

The Discarded Image

C.S. Lewis

List Price: $16.95 By: Cambridge University Press Amazon Marketplace: 9 new & used starting at $7.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Classics -> Medieval
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> History & Criticism -> Criticism & Theory -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> History & Criticism -> Criticism & Theory -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An excellent introduction to the medieval mind 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

C.S. Lewis is just such a pleasure to read. And this book is simply a joy. I am a PhD student in medieval history and have read an awful lot of books on the medieval mind and this is by far the best. There is a slight tendency in Lewis' writing to see philosophy as the sole motor of history--but this is to be expected from his generation and it doesn't detract from the picture he paints. The best part about this book is that when I was finished reading it, I loaned it to my mother, who has absolutely no formal medieval training, and she loved it too! It's such a relief to escape the arrogant jargon of academics, that just masks their ignorance and inane analysis, and explore the world of ideas with such a master of clear and honest language.

Editorial Review:

C.S. Lewis' The Discarded Image paints a lucid picture of the medieval world view, as historical and cultural background to the literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. It describes the "image" discarded by later ages as "the medieval synthesis itself, the whole organization of their theology, science and history into a single, complex, harmonious mental model of the universe." This, Lewis' last book, was hailed as "the final memorial to the work of a great scholar and teacher and a wise and noble mind."

On Painting (Penguin Classics)

Leon Battista Alberti

Amazon Price: $11.20 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin Classics Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $6.98

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> History & Criticism -> General AAS
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Instructional & How-To -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Schools, Periods & Styles -> Renaissance

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Fundamental Insights on Art and Craftsmanship 4 out of 5 stars.
23 of 24 people found this review helpful.

Alberti is one of the more readable of the 'classic' authors on Art, much less prone to gossip than Vasari and less convoluted than Cennini. That said, some of the text on geometry in book one can be a bit difficult to follow. Alberti also loves to name-drop, continually referring to antique painters, but this was expected at the time - the ancients lending authority and historical context. 'On Painting' gives the reader an insight into the tastes and philosophies that inform the arts.

Most interesting to me, as a teacher of drawing, were the insights on the fundamentals of life drawing - such as positioning of the head relative to the feet, and the shifting of values becuase of the limitations of white paper (or paint) being the brightest 'light' available to the artist. the saying 'there is nothing new under the sun' comes often to mind - you will read many of Alberti's observations in any contemporary text.

Much of this may seem irrelevant to the modern painter - for example, his comments on consistency in portrayal of the figure may have been more relevant in an age when lay figures were used and painting took hours, but nonetheless bring up key points for the thoughtful artist to consider, especially for those interested in traditional painting. Use this book in conjunction with a good pictorial survey of art history (or the internet), so that you can readily refer to the pictures he mentions.

For more of my reviews and links on Old Master Drawings, visit http://drawsketch.about.com/od/oldmasterdrawing/

Editorial Review:

Artist, architect, poet and philosopher, Leon Battista Alberti revolutionized the history of art with his theories of perspective in On Painting (1435). Inspired by the order and beauty inherent in nature, his groundbreaking work sets out the principles of distance, dimension and proportion; instructs the painter on how to use the rules of composition, representation, light and colour to create work that is graceful and pleasing to the eye; and stipulates the moral and artistic pre-requisites of the successful painter. On Painting had an immediate and profound influence on Italian Renaissance artists including Ghiberti, Fra Angelico and Veneziano and on later figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, and remains a compelling theory of art.

Utopia

Thomas More

Amazon Price: $4.99 List Price: $4.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Filiquarian Amazon Marketplace: 24 new & used starting at $4.77

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> History & Criticism -> Movements & Periods -> Renaissance
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> United States -> Collections & Readers
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Medieval Thought

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

$2.39 for a book from the 1500s? 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Assuming copyright law hasn't gone totally haywire since I last checked, Amazon is asking money for something in the public domain. This book is almost 500 years old. It belongs to the culture at large. So what does this $2.39 cover? Packaging and distribution? Can't be. This is a digital copy so there are no associated costs.

For the end consumer, you are better off going to Project gutenberg (google it) then running the free version through the Mobipocket creator or using Amazon's DRM email serivice.

Sorry, one last admonishment... Almost done... Shame on you amazon for charging money for part of our cultural commons.

Editorial Review:

Utopia, written by Sir Thomas More, depicts a fictional island with its own unique religion and customs. Sir Thomas More's work introduces readers into the concept of a perfect society with utopian, or perfect, ideas and beliefs. This timeless classic, originally written in 1516 and heavily influenced by Plato's Republic, is often read in schools as a required reading.

Montaigne: Essays (Penguin Classics S.)

Michel de Montaigne, John M. Cohen

List Price: $14.00 Amazon Marketplace: 15 new & used starting at $4.44

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> History & Criticism -> Movements & Periods -> Renaissance

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An enlightened consciousness 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Michel de Montaigne is considered by many to be the inventor of the literary form of the essay, so the collection from which these excerpts come is important in several ways. Montaigne was a humanist and a skeptic in his philosophical approach, and essentially looked at his own experience as the first topic for examination always.

The book of Essays was one he worked on periodically throughout his life, issuing different editions, the first of which appeared in 1580. Montaigne's style of writing is sometimes stream-of-consciousness, sometimes structured in more formal styles.

Montaigne's stated task in his preface to the reader is for self-examination, but it becomes very clear that Montaigne sees himself as an 'everyman' character. He strives for full-disclosure; indeed, he writes that were he another culture 'which are said to live still in the sweet freedom of nature's first laws', then he might have appeared naked.

This is a complete set of the Essays, together with a helpful introduction and notes for reading. As Montaigne added to his essays periodically, they are not necessarily in the order he wrote them, but this collection has preserved their order according to his standards.

Montaigne's essays show a pessimism and skepticism, perhaps based on the kinds of conflicts between Catholics and Protestants going on, in France and elsewhere, as well as the periodic flare of plague. He was a humanist who saw cultures as having value internal to themselves and preferred to not universalise morals, laws and other ideas.

Montaigne was sometimes conventional in thought (seeing marriage as necessary for children, and distrusting the idea of romantic love), but other times he was very much a free thinker (particularly when it came to religious dogma or absolutist kinds of philosophical paradigms). Montaigne had respect for those who followed religious codes and ways of life, but distrusted those who tried to impose such ideas upon others.

Montaigne added to his essays twice in major ways, but did not strive for consistency or systematic ways of thinking - he declined to remove previous essays if they contradicted new writings.

Montaigne is perhaps the most important French philosopher prior to the Enlightenment. His essays remain popular because they have a sense of the modern and the current about them.

Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)

Anselm of Canterbury

Amazon Price: $11.66 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Oxford University Press, USA Amazon Marketplace: 61 new & used starting at $2.39

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Series -> Classics -> Scholastic Classics
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Classics -> Medieval
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> History & Criticism -> Movements & Periods -> Renaissance

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Good Classic Christian Reading 5 out of 5 stars.
28 of 33 people found this review helpful.

Anselm was a very important author for Medieval Christianity. He contributed the Ontological argument for the existence (or should I say subsitence) of God, as well as formulating verbally the substitutionary atonement of Christ. This book provides these as well as a host of other rich classical Christian thoughts. It is difficult reading, but excellent in that it makes one think, believer or non-believer, in the metaphysical realities of life. I would have to say a must for anyone interested in the development of Christian thinking, as well as Philosophical development.

Editorial Review:

Although utterly convinced of the truth of Christianity, Anselm of Canterbury struggled to make sense of his religion. He considered the doctrines of faith an invitation to question, to think, and to learn; and he devoted his life to confronting and understanding the most elusive aspects of Christianity. His writings on matters such as free will, the nature of truth, and the existence of God make Anselm one of the greatest theologians and philosophers in history, and this translation provides readers with their first opportunity to read his most important works within a single volume.

Selected Political Writings

Niccolo Machiavelli

Amazon Price: $23.07 List Price: $34.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Hackett Publishing Company Amazon Marketplace: 14 new & used starting at $10.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Classics -> General AAS
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Essays -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Essays -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Essential reading for anyone who likes politics 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 5 people found this review helpful.

The Prince is a book everyone should read in order to understand how many kings and rulers who followed his philosphies drew their inpsiration from.

Discources is simply outstanding. It will give you a deep appreciation of not only this man's erudition, but also of his great mind.

All this for under 10 dollars! What are you waiting for?

Editorial Review:

Here are The Prince and the most important Discourses, newly translated into spare, vivid English by one of the most gifted historians of his generation. Why a new translation? "Machiavelli was never the dull, worthy, pedantic author who appears in the pages of other translations", says David Wootton in his Introduction. "In the pages that follow I have done my best to let him speak in his own voice." (And indeed, Wootton's Machiavelli literally does so when the occasion demands: Renderings of that most problematic of words, virtu, are in each instance followed by the Italian). Notes, a map, and an altogether remarkable Introduction, no less authoritative for being grippingly readable, help make this edition an ideal first encounter with Machiavelli for any student of history and political theory.