A new history of one of the foremost printers of the Renaissance explores how the Age of Print came to Italy. Lorenz Bšninger offers a fresh history of the birth of print in Italy through the story of one of its most important figures, Niccol˜ di Lorenzo della Magna. After having worked for several years for a judicial court in Florence, Niccol˜ established his business there and published a number of influential books. Among these were Marsilio FicinoÕs De christiana religione, Leon Battista AlbertiÕs De re aedificatoria, Cristoforo LandinoÕs commentaries on DanteÕs Commedia, and Francesco BerlinghieriÕs Septe giornate della geographia. Many of these books were printed in vernacular Italian. Despite his prominence, Niccol˜ has remained an enigma. A meticulous historical detective, Bšninger pieces together the thorough portrait that scholars have been missing. In doing so, he illuminates not only Niccol˜Õs life but also the Italian printing revolution generally. Combining Renaissance studiesÕ traditional attention to bibliographic and textual concerns with a broader social and economic history of printing in Renaissance Italy, Bšninger provides an unparalleled view of the business of printing in its earliest years. The story of Niccol˜ di Lorenzo furnishes a host of new insights into the legal issues that printers confronted, the working conditions in printshops, and the political forces that both encouraged and constrained the publication and dissemination of texts.

"Despite current academic claims that the establishment of the Reformation cannot have resulted from lay religious understanding, this study offers evidence that theological ideas did reach beyond religious elites to promote various popular responses to the Reformation."--Jacket

The Handbook brings together forty articles by leading scholars of history, literature, religion, and classics, in the first full investigation of the significance of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1577, 1587), the greatest of Elizabethan chronicles and a principal source for Shakespeare's history plays.

More than 190 bibiographical entries. Full descriptions, explanatory notes, references, etc. Index and concordances.

During his early years, Franz Liszt worked as a traveling piano virtuoso, his adventures highlighted by his entrée into the literary world as a correspondent for the most popular French journals of his time. In this second volume of Janita Hall-Swadley’s The Collected Writings of Franz Liszt, Liszt’s work as a music essayist and journalist is on full display. In his essays, readers will see the influence of the revolutionary theories of Hugues-Felicité Robert de Lamennais, Victor Hugo, and François-René de Chateaubriand as Liszt boldly calls for social reforms on behalf of musicians and musical institutions, from demands for a repertoire of church music of divine praise to the timely publication of inexpensive music editions. In addition to Liszt’s scandalous review of Sigismond Thalberg and the fiery exchange that ensued, the essays include his testimonies to living composers Giacomo Meyerbeer and Robert Schumann and the recently deceased Niccolò Paganini. Alongside the essay, this new translation of Liszt’s letters opens a window onto the composer’s immersion in the Italian countryside, where he paints a portrait of a rich musical landscape. Liszt regales his correspondents with amusing anecdotes at Sand’s Italian country estate in Nohant, describes the beautiful landscape and artistic treasures of Italy from his residence on Lake Como, defends himself from Heinrich Heine’s accusations of his “ill-seated” character, discusses the religious aesthetic of Raphael’s painting, and offers his thoughts on the interconnectedness of all the arts. Including two complete facsimile reproductions of the existing manuscripts for “De la situation des artistes” and “Sur Paganini à propos de sa mort,” Essays and Letters of a Traveling Bachelor of Music is a must-read for student and scholars of 19th-century classical music.