In this brilliant and widely acclaimed work, Peter Burke presents asocial and cultural history of the Italian Renaissance. Hediscusses the social and political institutions which existed inItaly during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and analyses theways of thinking and seeing which characterized this period ofextraordinary artistic creativity. Developing a distinctivesociological approach, Peter Burke is concerned with not only thefinished works of Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci andothers, but also with the social background, patterns ofrecruitment and means of subsistence of this 'culturalelite'. New to this edition is a fully revised introductionfocusing on what Burke terms 'the domestic turn' inRenaissance studies and discussing the relation of the Renaissanceto global trends. He thus makes a major contribution to ourunderstanding of the Italian Renaissance, and to our comprehensionof the complex relations between culture and society.This thoroughly revised and updated third edition is richlyillustrated throughout. It will have a wide appeal amonghistorians, sociologists and anyone interested in one of the mostcreative periods of European history.