Like every era, the Renaissance brims with stories. In this book, Robert Davis and Beth Lindsmith highlight dozens of notable lives from between 1400 and 1600. The Renaissance burst forth around 1500 and was a period of great creativity and productivity in the arts and sciences. The era is illuminated in this book through the lives of more than ninety of its illustrious intellectuals, artists, literary figures, scientists, and rulers. Included are such major figures as Lorenzo and Catherine de Medici, Leonardo da Vinci, Charles V, Martin Luther, Christopher Columbus, Nicolaus Copernicus, and St. Teresa of Avila, as well as lesser-known characters such as Antonio Rinaldeschi, "gambler and blasphemer"; Louise Labé, "the jousting poetess"; Dick Tarlton, "the queen's comedian"; Veronica Franco, "courtesan and wordsmith"; and Catena, "rustler, robber, and bandit chief." Each section in this volume marks a chronological stage in Europe's rebirth, tying the period's intellectual currents to its political and social concerns and setting the context for the individual biographies.--From J. Paul Getty publications website.