William Caferro is Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. His research has focused primarily on economy and violence in medieval and Renaissance Italy, and most recently on Dante and Empire. His latest book, Contesting The Renaissance (2011), traces the meaning and use of the term "Renaissance" in the major debates of the historiography. He is recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (2010) and is foreign fellow of the Deputazione di Storia Patria di Toscana and l'Associazione di Studi Storici Elio Conti.

"William Caferro has assembled an excellent field of scholars representing a wide variety of disciplines and perspectives in the The Routledge History of the Renaissance. Focusing on the disciplinary origins of Renaissance practices, encounters and transformations, social histories of various stripes, and the articulation of power, the volume is at once a summing up of some of the best recent work in the field and a stimulus to further thinking and scholarship. It should be an essential tool for anyone working or teaching in the field of Renaissance and early modern culture broadly conceived."Christopher S. Celenza, Johns Hopkins University, USA"This imaginatively structured book is a work of outstanding originality. Scholars of all generations have contributed to a compendium which ranges across disciplines and approaches – an exemplary kaleidoscope of current scholarship. From novices to veterans, all students of the Renaissance who read this marvellous work will emerge with their horizons broadened and their understanding deepened."Peter Denley, Queen Mary, University of London, UK"This mosaic of essays uncovers the diversity of issues, cultures, polities, and economies that continue to make the study of the Renaissance a fascinating and contentious category in early modern studies. Scholars and newcomers to the field will discover excursions that guide them to new vantage points on the Renaissance in a global context." Caroline Castiglione, Brown University, USA

• List of illustrationsList of figuresList of tablesList of contributorsIntroduction: The Renaissance QuestionWilliam Caferro Part I: Disciplines and Boundaries 1 - The ‘Economic’ Thought of the RenaissanceGermano Maifredi 2 - A Makeshift Renaissance: North India in the "Long" Fifteenth CenturySamira Sheikh (Vanderbilt University)3 - ‘By Imitating Our Nurses:’ Latin and Vernacular in the RenaissanceEugenio Refini 4 - Individualism and the Separation of Fields of StudyWilliam Caferro 5 - Riddles of Renaissance Philosophy and HumanismTimothy Kircher Part II: Encounters and Transformations6 - Raw Materials and Object Lessons Timothy McCall and Sean Roberts 7 - Imagination and the Remains of Roman AntiquityWill Stenhouse 8 - Sporus in the Renaissance, or The Eunuch as Straight ManKatherine Crawford 9 - Heritable Identity Markers, Nations and Physiognomy Carina Johnson10 - Biondo Flavio on Ethiopia: Processes of Knowledge Production in the RenaissanceSamantha Kelly 11 - Traditions of Byzantine Astrolabes in Renaissance EuropeDarin Hayton 12 - Reading Machiavelli in Sixteenth Century FlorenceAnn Moyer Part III: Society and Environment13 - Why Visit the Shops: Taking up Shopping as a PastimeSusan Stuard 14 - Throwing Aristotle from the Train: Women and HumanismSarah Ross 15 - Mechanisms for Unity: Plagues and Saints

William Caferro is Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. His research has focused primarily on economy and violence in medieval and Renaissance Italy, and most recently on Dante and Empire. His latest book, Contesting The Renaissance (2011), traces the meaning and use of the term "Renaissance" in the major debates of the historiography. He is recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (2010) and is foreign fellow of the Deputazione di Storia Patria di Toscana and l'Associazione di Studi Storici Elio Conti.

"William Caferro has assembled an excellent field of scholars representing a wide variety of disciplines and perspectives in the The Routledge History of the Renaissance. Focusing on the disciplinary origins of Renaissance practices, encounters and transformations, social histories of various stripes, and the articulation of power, the volume is at once a summing up of some of the best recent work in the field and a stimulus to further thinking and scholarship. It should be an essential tool for anyone working or teaching in the field of Renaissance and early modern culture broadly conceived."Christopher S. Celenza, Johns Hopkins University, USA"This imaginatively structured book is a work of outstanding originality. Scholars of all generations have contributed to a compendium which ranges across disciplines and approaches – an exemplary kaleidoscope of current scholarship. From novices to veterans, all students of the Renaissance who read this marvellous work will emerge with their horizons broadened and their understanding deepened."Peter Denley, Queen Mary, University of London, UK"This mosaic of essays uncovers the diversity of issues, cultures, polities, and economies that continue to make the study of the Renaissance a fascinating and contentious category in early modern studies. Scholars and newcomers to the field will discover excursions that guide them to new vantage points on the Renaissance in a global context." Caroline Castiglione, Brown University, USA

• List of illustrationsList of figuresList of tablesList of contributorsIntroduction: The Renaissance QuestionWilliam Caferro Part I: Disciplines and Boundaries 1 - The ‘Economic’ Thought of the RenaissanceGermano Maifredi 2 - A Makeshift Renaissance: North India in the "Long" Fifteenth CenturySamira Sheikh (Vanderbilt University)3 - ‘By Imitating Our Nurses:’ Latin and Vernacular in the RenaissanceEugenio Refini 4 - Individualism and the Separation of Fields of StudyWilliam Caferro 5 - Riddles of Renaissance Philosophy and HumanismTimothy Kircher Part II: Encounters and Transformations6 - Raw Materials and Object Lessons Timothy McCall and Sean Roberts 7 - Imagination and the Remains of Roman AntiquityWill Stenhouse 8 - Sporus in the Renaissance, or The Eunuch as Straight ManKatherine Crawford 9 - Heritable Identity Markers, Nations and Physiognomy Carina Johnson10 - Biondo Flavio on Ethiopia: Processes of Knowledge Production in the RenaissanceSamantha Kelly 11 - Traditions of Byzantine Astrolabes in Renaissance EuropeDarin Hayton 12 - Reading Machiavelli in Sixteenth Century FlorenceAnn Moyer Part III: Society and Environment13 - Why Visit the Shops: Taking up Shopping as a PastimeSusan Stuard 14 - Throwing Aristotle from the Train: Women and HumanismSarah Ross 15 - Mechanisms for Unity: Plagues and Saints

William Caferro is Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. His research has focused primarily on economy and violence in medieval and Renaissance Italy, and most recently on Dante and Empire. His latest book, Contesting The Renaissance (2011), traces the meaning and use of the term "Renaissance" in the major debates of the historiography. He is recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (2010) and is foreign fellow of the Deputazione di Storia Patria di Toscana and l'Associazione di Studi Storici Elio Conti.

"William Caferro has assembled an excellent field of scholars representing a wide variety of disciplines and perspectives in the The Routledge History of the Renaissance. Focusing on the disciplinary origins of Renaissance practices, encounters and transformations, social histories of various stripes, and the articulation of power, the volume is at once a summing up of some of the best recent work in the field and a stimulus to further thinking and scholarship. It should be an essential tool for anyone working or teaching in the field of Renaissance and early modern culture broadly conceived."Christopher S. Celenza, Johns Hopkins University, USA"This imaginatively structured book is a work of outstanding originality. Scholars of all generations have contributed to a compendium which ranges across disciplines and approaches – an exemplary kaleidoscope of current scholarship. From novices to veterans, all students of the Renaissance who read this marvellous work will emerge with their horizons broadened and their understanding deepened."Peter Denley, Queen Mary, University of London, UK"This mosaic of essays uncovers the diversity of issues, cultures, polities, and economies that continue to make the study of the Renaissance a fascinating and contentious category in early modern studies. Scholars and newcomers to the field will discover excursions that guide them to new vantage points on the Renaissance in a global context." Caroline Castiglione, Brown University, USA

• List of illustrationsList of figuresList of tablesList of contributorsIntroduction: The Renaissance QuestionWilliam Caferro Part I: Disciplines and Boundaries 1 - The ‘Economic’ Thought of the RenaissanceGermano Maifredi 2 - A Makeshift Renaissance: North India in the "Long" Fifteenth CenturySamira Sheikh (Vanderbilt University)3 - ‘By Imitating Our Nurses:’ Latin and Vernacular in the RenaissanceEugenio Refini 4 - Individualism and the Separation of Fields of StudyWilliam Caferro 5 - Riddles of Renaissance Philosophy and HumanismTimothy Kircher Part II: Encounters and Transformations6 - Raw Materials and Object Lessons Timothy McCall and Sean Roberts 7 - Imagination and the Remains of Roman AntiquityWill Stenhouse 8 - Sporus in the Renaissance, or The Eunuch as Straight ManKatherine Crawford 9 - Heritable Identity Markers, Nations and Physiognomy Carina Johnson10 - Biondo Flavio on Ethiopia: Processes of Knowledge Production in the RenaissanceSamantha Kelly 11 - Traditions of Byzantine Astrolabes in Renaissance EuropeDarin Hayton 12 - Reading Machiavelli in Sixteenth Century FlorenceAnn Moyer Part III: Society and Environment13 - Why Visit the Shops: Taking up Shopping as a PastimeSusan Stuard 14 - Throwing Aristotle from the Train: Women and HumanismSarah Ross 15 - Mechanisms for Unity: Plagues and Saints