This is the first ample collection of facetiae, or witty tales, from the Italian Renaissance to be published in English. Witty and wise anecdotes had been known to the ancient Greeks and Romans in the form of apothegms, but not until the Renaissance did the true facetia acquire an independent life and popularity, and begin to spread rapidly throughout Italy and beyond the Alps. The publication of Poggio Bracciolini's Liberfacetiarum was largely responsible for this vogue: his collection met with tremendous success and resulted in the assembly of numerous other collection of facetiae. The facetia, which has some affinities with the longer, more carefully elaborated novella, is a brief narrative, varying in length from a few lines to two or three pages, whose main purpose it to entertain an excite laughter, and often concludes with a piece of pungent repartee. Both the facetia and the novella have often been censured for licentiousness, but most of them have a healthy moral, or at least a shrewd bit of psychology to impart. Above all, the facetia, like the novella, adds a new dimension to the overall, complex picture of the Renaissance. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1964.

This is the first ample collection of facetiae, or witty tales, from the Italian Renaissance to be published in English. Witty and wise anecdotes had been known to the ancient Greeks and Romans in the form of apothegms, but not until the Renaissance did the true facetia acquire an independent life and popularity, and begin to spread rapidly throughout Italy and beyond the Alps. The publication of Poggio Bracciolini's Liberfacetiarum was largely responsible for this vogue: his collection met with tremendous success and resulted in the assembly of numerous other collection of facetiae. The facetia, which has some affinities with the longer, more carefully elaborated novella, is a brief narrative, varying in length from a few lines to two or three pages, whose main purpose it to entertain an excite laughter, and often concludes with a piece of pungent repartee. Both the facetia and the novella have often been censured for licentiousness, but most of them have a healthy moral, or at least a shrewd bit of psychology to impart. Above all, the facetia, like the novella, adds a new dimension to the overall, complex picture of the Renaissance. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1964.

Four new titles in the series of comprehensive critical overviews of major literary movements in Western literary history The Renaissance was a turning point in the development of civilization. The great flowering of art, architecture, politics, and especially the study of literature began in Italy the late 14th century and spread throughout Europe and the Western world.

Offers a broad sampling of humanist work by educators, statesmen, philosophers, churchmen and courtiers translated into English.

Peter Godman presents the first intellectual history of Florentine humanism from the lifetime of Angelo Poliziano in the later fifteenth century to the death of Niccolo Machiavelli in 1527. Making use of unpublished and rare sources, Godman traces the development of philological and official humanism after the expulsion of the Medici in 1494 up to and beyond their restoration in 1512. He draws long overdue attention to the work of Marcello Virgilio Adriani--Poliziano's successor in his Chair at the Studio and Machiavelli's colleague at the Chancery of Florence. And he examines in depth the intellectual impact of Savonarola and the relationship between secular and religious and oral and print cultures. Godman shows a complex reaction of rivalry and antagonism in Machiavelli's approach to Marcello Virgilio, who was the leading Florentine humanist of the day. But he also demonstrates that Florentine humanists shared a common culture, marked by a preference for secular over religious themes and by constant anxiety about surviving and prospering in the city's dangerous political climate. The book concludes with an appendix, drawn from previously incaccessible archives, about the censorship of Machiavelli by the Inquisition and the Index. From Poliziano to Machiavelli adds new depth to the intellectual history of Forence during his most dynamic period in its history. Originally published in 1998. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.