The Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment - these seismic developments in Western thought were not confined to Italy and her near neighbors, but were paralleled across the vast and culturally diverse territory stretching from Vienna to Constantinople. Drawing on an array of sources, many of which were little-known before he made this ground-breaking study, Victor Neumann charts the development of Eastern European thought and its literary and artistic expression from the Middle Ages to the modern age. First published, to great acclaim in Romania in 1991, this newly revised, updated and illustrated edition has been published as Neumann's home city of Timinsoara prepares to receive visitors from across the world as European Capital of Culture, and at a time when the question of what it means to be European is being debated more than ever. --