The Italian Renaissance

Selected Library and Web Resources

Reference Sources and Books:

Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. New York : Scribner's , 1999. 6 volumes.
Ref CB 361 .E52 1999.
A Concise Encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance. Oxford University Press, 1981.
Ref DG445 .C66.
Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. New York, N.Y. : Facts on File Publications, 1987.
Ref CB361 .B43 1987.
The Hutchinson Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. Boulder, CO : Westview Press, 1999.
Ref CB361 .H88 1999.
The European Renaissance and Reformation, 1350-1600. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001.
Ref CB359 .W67 2001.
Encyclopedia of Italian Renaissance and Mannerist Art . New York : Grove's Dictionaries, 2000.
Ref N6370 .E53 2000.
Larousse Encyclopedia of Renaissance and Baroque Art. London, P. Hamlyn: 1964.
Ref N6350 .H813.
Extraordinary Women of the Medieval and Renaissance World : a biographical dictionary. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2000.
Ref: HQ1143 .E93 2000.
Renaissance Dress in Italy 1400-1500 . London : Bell & Hyman ; Atlantic Highlands, N.J. : Humanities Press, 1981.
Folio GT964 .H47 1981.
Vecellio's Renaissance Costume Book : all 500 woodcut illustrations from the famous sixteenth-century compendium of world costume . New York : Dover Publications, 1977.
Folio GT513 .V442 1977.
Cultural Atlas of the Renaissance. New York : Prentice Hall General Reference, c1993.
Folio N6370 .C84 1993.

Using OSCAR to find more books:

The books listed above are just some examples of what is available in the library. To find more books on a particular Renaissance topic, do a keyword search in OSCAR:

Ex:

Renaissance and costume
Renaissance and religion
Renaissance and Warfare
Renaissance and Venice

Databases and Other Indexes:

The following databases are the best ones to locate articles, books, and book chapters related to the Renaissance. All of them are available via the library home page at http://www.scu.edu/library . Just click on Databases A-Z and select the one you are interested in.

Iter: Bibliography of Medieval and Renaissance Europe: Includes articles and reviews published in over 300 journals from 1843 to the present, covering the cultural aspects of the Renaissance and Middle Ages.
Historical Abstracts: Historical coverage of the world from 1450 to the present. Good for most Renaissance topics.
MLA International Bibliography: If you are interested in the literature of the Renaissance, this is the database you need to use. Ultimate Index for all literary research!
Arts and Humanities Search: Includes citations to articles from 1300 world's leading arts and humanities journals.
Humanities Full Text: Citations to articles from 300 journals in history, philosophy, religion, and literature.

World Wide Web Resources:

GENERAL

The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy http://www.boisestate.edu/courses/hy309/docs/burckhardt/burckhardt.html: An extensive work by Jacob Burkhardt on nearly every aspect of Italian civilization before and during the Renaissance. Translated by S.G.C. Middlemore in 1878; placed online by Ellis Knox.
Renaissance http://www.learner.org/exhibits/renaissance/index.html: A project from the Annenberg Fundation. Mostly geared towards high school teachers , but includes good information on trade, architecture, art, and a special unit on Florence
Byzantines in Renaissance Italy http://www.the-orb.net/encyclop/late/laterbyz/harris-ren.html: "…explores the emigration of Byzantine citizens to Italy and the impact of their incursion on the Italian Renaissance".
Plague and Public Health in Renaissance Europe http://www.iath.virginia.edu/osheim/intro.html
Weddings in Renaissance Italy http://www.planetc.com/users/derwyddon/weddings.html
Renaissance Links on the WWW for Daily Life http://www.twingroves.district96.k12.il.us/renaissance/GeneralFiles/RenLinksDaily.html: Collection of links to web sites on all aspects of daily life (food, clothing, ceremonies, etc) in the Renaissance. These web sites vary greatly in quality. Be careful!
Renaissance Secrets http://www.open2.net/renaissance2/: "This Web site explores four mysteries--one concerning Venice, one about medical patients in Renaissance Italy, one about a conspiracy to poison Queen Elizabeth I, and one about Gutenberg--from an historian's point of view. Although built to support a television series on the BBC, this site can be used independently. "

ART, MUSIC, AND DANCE

The Renaissance Art Project http://www.italian-art.org/frames.html: This web site is maintained by an individual but nothing is provided regarding her credentials. The site is well designed and includes lots of information on Renaissance art but you may want to doublecheck the accuracy of the information since very little information on sources is given other than a general bibliography.
16th-Century Art Italy: the High Renaissance and Mannerism http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTH16thcentury.html#Italy16
Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Instruments http://www.s-hamilton.k12.ia.us/antiqua/instrumt.html
Renaissance Dance http://www.rendance.org/index.html

COSTUME

Italian Renaissance Costume Links http://www.costumes.org/history/100pages/italiRenlinks.htm: Collection of links to Renaissance Costume web sites

ARCHITECTURE

Italian Renaissance Architecture
http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/surveys/italren/renarch/

PLACES AND PEOPLE

Florence and Tuscany http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Student_Work/Florence96/: This is a students' project from Rice Univesity, but it is very well done. The students always provides sources for the information and credits for the images.
Florentine Renaissance Resources http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/tratte/
Italian Renaissance Gardens: Gardens, Villas, and Social Life in Renaissance Florence http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/visual_culture/projects/diva/italian.html
The Borgias: the Art of Power http://www.palazzoruspoli.it/: An online exhibit on the Borgia Family! (All in Italian!)
The Borgias: the First Crime Family http://www.crimelibrary.com/borgia/borgiamain.htm: (This is from the CrimeLibrary homepage, which is certainly not a scholarly resource, but there is information about the author and all the sources cited in the text are listed)
Leonardo da Vinci: scientist, inventor, artist http://www.mos.org/leonardo/: A resource for teachers and students developed by the Museum of Science, Boston for the Science Learning Network.
The Galileo Project http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/: From Rice University, an "hypertext source of information on the life and work of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) and the science of his time".

PRIMARY SOURCES

EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents from Western Europe http://library.byu.edu/~rdh/eurodocs/homepage.html: By selecting Europe, or a specific country, visitors to this site can connect to Web resources and primary source documents that provide insight into Renaissance times and its people.
Medieval and Renaissance Europe: Primary Historical Documents http://library.byu.edu/~rdh/eurodocs/medren.html
Internet Medieval Source Book: Renaissance Sources http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1x.html#Politics%20and%20Politicians

And just for fun:

Play a Renaissance Trivia Game at:
http://members.aol.com/worldciv/game/1.html

Maintained by Helene Lafrance and Elizabeth Fullerton
Updated on November 13, 2003