As the transition between the Middle Ages and modern times, the Renaissance is perhaps the most distinguished age since that of Classical Greece. Moreover, the consciousness of our own time was largely formed by those who were given the freedom to express themselves by the rebirth of the arts and sciences of the Renaissance.The Renaissance Reader allows the men and women of that turbulent time of change to speak in their own voices--sane and insane, brilliant and mundane, inspired and possessed, oblivious and decisive. Organized chronologically and covering the fourteenth through seventeeth centuries, the book provides readers with the literary and artistic; social, religious and political; and scientific and philosophic texts that shaped Renaissance thinking from the death of Dante in 1321 to the death of Cervantes and Shakespeare in 1616.Besides selections from such familiar texts as Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur, Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier and Miguel de Bervantes' Don Quixote, the book also contains the work of many less familiar writers, including such prominent Renaissance women as Christine de Pizan, Isabella d'Este and Catherine Zell. With the inclusion of such brilliant artists as Giotto, da Vinci, Durer, Michelangelo, Raphael, Brueghal and others, The Renaissance Reader brings the age to life to life with all its vibrance and excitement. Read Less