In The Italian Renaissance J. H. Plumb outlines the principal ideas that changed society in this period. He sets the development of these ideas in their social and historical contexts and examines the different contributions made by the four principal Italian cities: Florence, Rome, Milan and Venice. Plumb also summarizes the multiple images of humanity developed by the Renaissance and discusses how social changes affected women. In addition to Plumb's text, this edition features nine brief biographies of some of the men and women who were instrumental in creating the new vision of man and who embodied certain aspects of the various Renaissance notions of the ideal human being. Throughout the book Plumb attempts to convey a sense of the forces that produced this remarkable change in the European world. He succeeds in making the reader want to know a great deal more about the period and its influence on Western culture down to the present day.
Plumb first deals with the general subjects of politics and the arts. Our view of the Renaissance is often based on the tranquil beauty of much of its art, but Plumb quickly shows that this is, at least partially, an illusion. The opening section on the political situation in and among the cities of northern and central Italy is the most surprising and illuminating part of the book. Constant warfare ravaged Italy from 1350 to 1450 as proponents of the Popes and of the Holy Roman Empire fought for dominance. It was in this atmosphere that the cities emerged as Italy's leaders. Following a half-century of a relatively stable balance of power among the major cities, the French kings invaded Italy in 1494 and the worst wars yet consumed the peninsula until the Emperor won in 1527. It was amid this constant violence, and in contrast to it, that the ideals of the Renaissance were developed.
Both large and small Italian cities had the unusual experience of "a qualified democracy in th...