Author(s): Lisa Jardine

History

The author argues that the creation of culture during the Renaissance was inextricably tied to the creation of wealth, and that the expansion of commerce spurred the expansion of thought. The book contends that while Europe's royalty and merchants competed with each other to acquire works of art, vicious commercial battles were being fought over who should control the centres for trade around the globe. It encompasses Renaissance culture from its western borders in Christendom to its eastern reaches in the Islamic Ottoman Empire.