Renaissance Essays

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Hugh Trevor-Roper's historical essays, published over many years, are now hard to find. This volume compiles writings on British and European history from the fifteenth to the early seventeenth centuries, concluding with the Thirty Years War, which Trevor-Roper sees as a pivotal moment marking the end of the Renaissance. The essays cover a broad spectrum of topics, reflecting Trevor-Roper's deep interest in intellectual and cultural history. They include analyses of Renaissance Venice, the arts supported by the "universal man," Emperor Maximilian I, and the court of Henry VIII alongside Sir Thomas More's ideas. Other discussions focus on the Lisle Letters, the Cromwellian revolution, and the historiography of Elizabethan figures like John Stow and William Camden. The writings also explore religion through the lens of Richard Hooker, medical philosophy influenced by Paracelsus, literature exemplified by Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, and the ideologies of Renaissance courts. Trevor-Roper contextualizes his intellectual and cultural history within societal and political frameworks, addressing the realization of ideas, arts patronage, historical interpretation, scientific challenges, and religious applications. This collection affirms his reputation as a remarkable historian and essayist.