In this book, William Caferro asks if the Renaissance was really a period of progress, reason, the emergence of the individual, and the beginning of modernity.

• An influential investigation into the nature of the European Renaissance
• Summarizes scholarly debates about the nature of the Renaissance
• Engages with specific controversies concerning gender identity, economics, the emergence of the modern state, and reason and faith
• Takes a balanced approach to the many different problems and perspectives that characterize Renaissance studies

William Caferro is Associate Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. His previous publications include Mercenary Companies and the Decline of Siena (1998), and The Spinelli: Merchants, Patrons and Bankers in Renaissance Florence (1998).