English Renaissance

Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) was a man of many talents - a sculptor, painter, architect, writer, and scholar - but he is best known for Lives of the Artists, which singlehandedly established the canon of Italian Renaissance art. Before Vasari's extraordinary book, art was considered a technical skill, and artists were mere decorators and craftsmen. It was through Vasari's visionary writings that Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo came to be regarded as great masters of life as well as art, their creative genius celebrated as a divine gift.

A Landmark Translation of the Original Renaissance Quadrivium Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680) was the last great Renaissance polymath—and one of the first global scholars. In the mid-1600s, he published his monumental three-volume work, Oedipus Aegyptiacus, which aimed to decode the ancient world’s symbolic language. This volume contains Kircher’s exploration of the Quadrivium: Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy—the four liberal arts of classical education. Drawing on ancient sources from Pythagoras to Plato, Kircher weaves a cosmological vision in which number, form, sound...

Discover the untold story of a generation that dared to dream, fight, and transform the world. "Fragments of a Generation - The Answer is Blowing in the Wind" is a compelling memoir that weaves together the personal and political, the spiritual and revolutionary. Through the eyes of Gora Devi, a pioneer of the 1960s counterculture, you’ll journey across continents and movements, from the heart of the Hippie revolution to the soul of India’s spiritual awakening. The year 1968, often simply referred to as ’68, marks a profound upheaval that stirred the collective consciousness across ...

A middle aged woman who is recently divorced from a long, abusive marriage discovers that she has a passion for going to renaissance faires. She ends up working as a reenactor and finds out that there is a lot to love about the job and the employees.

A thirst for learning and a passion for astronomy draw an extraordinary young woman deep into the intellectual maelstrom, political complexities and religious extremism of Renaissance Florence. This beautifully crafted novel will appeal to listeners of Karen Brooks' The Good Wife of Bath and Pip Williams' Dictionary of Lost Words.

“This novel is so well written that everything in it feels real, despite it being a combination of fantasy, adventure, drama, romance and at times subtle humor, all fiction of course.” - Amazon reviewer Hrot is a tribesman fighting for his soul. Jasmin is a reporter running from neo-Nazis. Although they should have never met, a magical portal and an incredible twist of fate throw them together in a ruined castle. Hrot unwillingly hurls Jasmin into the claws of the Emissary, who drags her through infernal dominions and forces her to sign a dreadful pact with her blood. In a desperate ...

Federico doesn’t mind being a political hostage in the Pope’s palace, especially now that he has a cat as a friend. But he must admit that a kitten walking into a wardrobe and returning full-grown a moment later is quite odd. Even stranger is Herbert, apparently an art collector from the future, who emerges from the wardrobe the next night. Herbert barters with Federico to get a sketch signed by the famous painter Raphael, but his plans take a dangerous turn when he hurries back to his era, desperate to save a dying girl.

Hope in defiance of suffering. Fleeta and her friends have been captured, taken to Refuge to become Temptors for the men left under the Law of Lindow. Will Hawk and his men be able to save them in time before more scars and trauma are inflicted upon them? Will they ever make it to Ironhaven to start a new life, free from the bonds that held them down for so long?

In the first part of this audiobook, you will discover: Woolly mammoths were used for the craziest things; brrr! Ice Ages last how long?; how man’s best friends are related to wolves; and more....

Five Tudor monarchs sat on the throne of England and Ireland from 1485 to 1603. The family earned their royal rights through strategic planning and battlefield prowess, and kept them because of intellect, strength, and sheer determination. The Tudors, one of England’s most powerful and famous royal dynasties, knitted together a fragmented and small island nation that became one of the world’s financial, colonial, and technological superpowers.

Charlemagne was easily one of the most fascinating figures of Western civilization, as well as the most heroic and romantic. The 47 years of his reign marked some of the most significant and far reaching events of the Middle Ages. Undoubtedly, it was his enlightened vision for Europe that resulted in the Carolingian Renaissance, a period of cultural flowering that never really ceased to develop, and which led in a straight line directly to that period of astonishing achievement we now call the High Gothic. Even in the 21st century, we still hear the echoes of his deeds in the historical events that unfold today.

After the long period of cultural decline known as the Dark Ages, Europe experienced a rebirth of scholarship, art, literature, philosophy, and science and began to develop a vision of Western society that remains at the heart of Western civilization today. On visits to the great cities of Europe, Thomas Cahill brilliantly captures the spirit of experimentation, the colorful pageantry, and the passionate pursuit of knowledge that built the foundations for the modern world.

After unwittingly helping her mother poison King Louis XIV, 17-year-old alchemist Mirabelle Monvoisin is forced to see her mother's Shadow Society in a horrifying new light: They're not heroes of the people, as they've always claimed to be, but murderers. She herself included. Mira tries to ease her guilt by brewing helpful curatives, but her hunger tonics and headache remedies cannot right past wrongs or save the dissenters whom her mother vows to purge.

"And they lived happily ever after." In fairy tales, that's always how things end. The prince and princess ride away on his white horse and from then on, all's right with the world. But what if it wasn't? What if the prince's life didn't suit the princess? What if she felt stifled by life inside the castle walls? Could she tell him? And if she loved him - really loved him - how could she ask him to give up his kingdom?

Zora Neale Hurston is best remembered today for her work as a novelist, but she was also an accomplished dramatist, short story writer, and folklorist. That range of interests and styles is on full display in this collection.

This audiobook is for highly sensitive people who have felt out of place in the modern world. It provides a narrative that describes how they fit into a lineage of creatives throughout history. Jacob Nordby offers a bold new definition of success in the modern era. "The only success now is living and creating a work-of-art life: unique, rich with meaning, naked of anything we don't care about, and ruthless about carving out something absolutely real from a world that has gorged itself on fakeness and become critically ill from it."

This is an exciting story, set in a small, almost unknown country, where the country's president and local poet Darko are trying to save the political and social system. Their friendship strangely evolves from their very personal letters, which are intercepted by the state authorities... - a captivating novel that takes readers on a profound journey of self-discovery, purpose, and the complexities of life. Set against a backdrop of neglected tables, dusty memories, and the longing for significance, this literary masterpiece explores the human desire for meaning and the quest for fulfillment...

From the fall of Constantinople in 1453 until the 18th century, many Western European writers viewed the Ottoman Empire with almost obsessive interest. In this path-breaking audiobook, Noel Malcolm ranges through these vital centuries of East-West interaction, studying all the ways in which thinkers in the West interpreted the Ottoman Empire as a political phenomenon - and Islam as a political religion.

Heiress to the red rose of Lancaster, Margaret Beaufort never surrenders her belief that her house is the true ruler of England and that she has a great destiny before her. Her ambitions are disappointed when her sainted cousin Henry VI fails to recognize her as a kindred spirit, and she is even more dismayed when he sinks into madness.

A girl as beautiful as Simonetta Cattaneo never wants for marriage proposals in 15th-century Italy, but she jumps at the chance to marry Marco Vespucci. Marco is young, handsome, and well-educated. Not to mention he is one of the powerful Medici family's favored circle. Even before her marriage with Marco is set, Simonetta is swept up into Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici's glittering circle of politicians, poets, artists, and philosophers. The men of Florence - most notably the rakish Giuliano de' Medici - become enthralled with her beauty.