Books by Brian Maxson
This book explores a series of common myths about early modern Europe. It combines short original... more This book explores a series of common myths about early modern Europe. It combines short original introductions and suggested readings with reprints of primary source excerpts in order to complicate many of these myths.
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This widely used guide for students has long emphasized the excitement ... more Publisher's description:
This widely used guide for students has long emphasized the excitement of historical discovery rooted in writing about the past. This new edition continues that emphasis while also affirming the contemporary significance of the search for truth in historical writing. It includes new and revised sections related to electronic technologies as well as updated examples of recent historical scholarship throughout. It maintains the welcoming, accessible, and inclusive tone of previous editions while walking students through complex ideas and established writing standards. As it has since its inception, the tenth edition of A Short Guide to Writing about History helps students confront and conquer any of the challenges they might face in writing about history.
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Bloomsbury, 2023
Publisher's Description:
The innovative city culture of Florence was the crucible within which Re... more Publisher's Description:
The innovative city culture of Florence was the crucible within which Renaissance ideas first caught fire. With its soaring cathedral dome and its classically-inspired palaces and piazzas, it is perhaps the finest single expression of a society that is still at its heart an urban one. For, as Brian Jeffrey Maxson reveals, it is above all the city-state – the walled commune which became the chief driver of European commerce, culture, banking and art – that is medieval Italy's enduring legacy to the present.
Charting the transition of Florence from an obscure Guelph republic to a regional superpower in which the glittering court of Lorenzo the Magnificent became the pride and envy of the continent, the author authoritatively discusses a city that looked to the past for ideas even as it articulated a novel creativity. Uncovering passionate dispute and intrigue, Maxson sheds fresh light too on seminal events like the fiery end of oratorical firebrand Savonarola and Giuliano de' Medici's brutal murder by the rival Pazzi family. This book shows why Florence, harbinger and heartland of the Renaissance, is and has always been unique.
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The Culture and Politics of Regime Change in Italy, c. 1494-c.1559, 2022
This volume offers the first comprehensive survey of regime
change in Italy in the period c.1494-... more This volume offers the first comprehensive survey of regime
change in Italy in the period c.1494-c.1559.
This book will appeal to researchers and students alike
interested in cultural, military and political history
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This book offers the first synthetic interpretation of the humanist movement in Renaissance Flore... more This book offers the first synthetic interpretation of the humanist movement in Renaissance Florence in more than fifty years. Florence was the epicenter of the culture produced during the Italian Renaissance, and the humanist movement underlay the style of the city's visual and literary arts. Brian Jeffrey Maxson demonstrates that the Renaissance in Florence was a far more popular movement than is usually assumed, spearheaded by scholars as well as wealthy citizens who dabbled in the reading of ancient texts and modern treatises translated from Latin into the vernacular. Indeed, only a fraction of the humanist club could read and write Latin, but these learned readers were usually the only people in cities like Florence with enough social status to put the ideas of civic humanism into practice. Maxson shows how this network of humanists enabled the launch of a cultural movement that established Florence as the preeminent center of learning in Italy and that spread beyond Italy to the rest of Europe.
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Articles and Book Chapters by Brian Maxson
The Culture and Politics of Regime Change in Italy, c. 1494-c.1559, 2022
This article examines the efforts of Pope Adrian to construct and the cardinals in Rome to oppose... more This article examines the efforts of Pope Adrian to construct and the cardinals in Rome to oppose a new regime after the death of Leo X.
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The Culture and Politics of Regime Change in Italy, c. 1494-c.1559, 2022
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Rivista di Letteratura Storiografica Italiana, 2022
An English version of "Les chanceliers entre..." with slight modifications.
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Portrait Cultures of the Early Modern Cardinal, 2021
This article argues that context helped determine the choices of artists and writers to focus on ... more This article argues that context helped determine the choices of artists and writers to focus on group or individual characteristics in works of cultural production.
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L'humanisme au pouvoir? Figures de chanceliers dans l'Europe de la Renaissance (XVe-XVIe siecles) , 2020
This article uses a case study of exchanges between Leonardo Bruni and Cristoforo Turrettini to e... more This article uses a case study of exchanges between Leonardo Bruni and Cristoforo Turrettini to explore the conception and manipulation of private and public spheres during the Italian Renaissance.
Text translated into French by Clemence Revest.
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Bullettino dell'Istituto Italiano per il Medio Evo 122, 2020
The bookseller and biographer Vespasiano da Bisticci recorded Giannozzo Manetti’s unfinished atte... more The bookseller and biographer Vespasiano da Bisticci recorded Giannozzo Manetti’s unfinished attempt to publish his correspondence. Vespasiano listed well-known books like Manetti’s On the Excellence and Worth of Man and his Translator’s Defense, as well as less popular titles like his Consolation Treatise and Life of Nicholas V. Vespasiano listed Manetti’s orations, which Manetti had published individually, as well as many other works. Within this lengthy list Vespasiano claimed that Manetti had begun to compile a book of letters but that the work was incomplete at the time of his death . This article attempts to, in some ways, complete this unfinished task by listing all the known private letters to or from Manetti and offering the first edition of four new ones. Additionally, this article offers a chronological analysis of each letter within their relevant social, political, biographical, and intellectual contexts.
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Florence in the Early Modern World, 2019
This essay looks at texts by Poggio Bracciolini, Matteo Palmieri, and Giannozzo Manetti to argue ... more This essay looks at texts by Poggio Bracciolini, Matteo Palmieri, and Giannozzo Manetti to argue that fifteenth-century Florentine culture fit into a theoretically international readership, even as the city's politics focused on much more regional concerns.
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Florence in the Early Modern World, 2019
Introduction to the volume, Florence in the Early Modern World.
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Diplomacy has never been a politically neutral field of historical research, even when it was con... more Diplomacy has never been a politically neutral field of historical research, even when it was confined to merely reconstructing the context of wars and revolutions. Since the nineteenth century, Renaissance Italy has been at the forefront of scholarship on diplomacy; today, with increasing awareness of the long history of the subject as well as a broader spectrum of case studies, the study of Italian diplomacy has become sophisticated and highly articulated, offering scholars many new directions for further exploration.
During the period ca. 1350–ca. 1520 covered by the present volume, diplomatic sources became extremely rich and abundant. This sourcebook presents a selection of primary materials, both published and unpublished, which are mostly unavailable to English readers: a broad range of diplomatic sources, thematically organized, are introduced, translated, and annotated by an international team of leading scholars of the Italian Renaissance. The aim of this volume is to illustrate the richness of diplomatic documents both for the study of diplomacy itself as well as for other areas of historical investigation, such as gender and sexuality, crime and justice, art and leisure, and medicine.
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in Languages of Power in Italy, 1300-1600, edited by Daniel Bornstein and Laura Gafurri (Turnhout: Brepols Publishing, forthcoming (awaiting proofs)
The political negotiations of fifteenth-century diplomats overlay an unstated, multi-layered exch... more The political negotiations of fifteenth-century diplomats overlay an unstated, multi-layered exchange of symbolic capital between states. First, rulers selected whether to send a letter or a diplomat to deal with an external issue. By sending a diplomat, a ruler expressed his or her real or feigned seriousness regarding the diplomat’s charge. Beyond this initial statement, rulers throughout the Italian peninsula evaluated the political and social status of the diplomats sent. Diplomats of one state had to match the quality of those sent by other powers or risk showing up allies and insulting host rulers. In addition, rulers had to weigh the power and status of the host ruler in relation to other European rulers. Diplomats to more powerful rulers had to carry more social status while less powerful rulers received less prestigious ones. Only individuals with the right amount of status, not too much and not too little, could avoid sending disastrous insults to observant third parties. To complicate matters even further, if an ally had requested a diplomatic mission, the selection process also had to factor in the status of the ally on whose behalf the diplomat would speak. This article investigates this unstated world of Renaissance power and diplomacy through a case study of a diplomatic mission from Florence to Jacopo Piccinino in 1458. In this example, the Florentines ostensibly sought to honor the Pope by sending a diplomat to Jacopo Piccinino; however, their efforts were complicated by the need to maintain a solid front with the diplomatic representation sent by Milan. As this example shows, the vacillation of their ally changed the identity of the Florentine diplomat abroad, but it did not hinder a Florentine government skilled at manipulating the usually unstated world of diplomatic gifts, symbols, and status towards practical diplomatic ends.
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This article publishes two new texts by the humanist Giannozzo Manetti as well as a detailed anal... more This article publishes two new texts by the humanist Giannozzo Manetti as well as a detailed analysis of their cultural and political contexts. The article explores the political actions, friendships, and humanist as well as artistic patronage of three generations of Pandolfini patriarchs between the 1410s and 1460s. It argues that these men defy clear categorization as "Medicean" or "anti-Medicean" and instead should be conceived as pursuing their own ends, somewhere between subservience to Florence's leading family and exile for outright opposition to them.
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Voices and Texts in Early Modern Italian Society, 2016
Full citation:
Brian Jeffrey Maxson, "The Lost Oral Performance: Giannozzo Manetti and Spoken Or... more Full citation:
Brian Jeffrey Maxson, "The Lost Oral Performance: Giannozzo Manetti and Spoken Oratory in Venice in 1448," in Voices and Texts in Early Modern Italian Society, edited by Stefano Dall'Aglio, Brian Richardson, and Massimo Rospocher, pp. 84-96 (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016).
This article uses a range of archival and literary evidence to reconstruct the content and stylistic differences between an ephemeral spoken oratorical performance by Giannozzo Manetti in 1448 and his published written version.
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Books by Brian Maxson
This widely used guide for students has long emphasized the excitement of historical discovery rooted in writing about the past. This new edition continues that emphasis while also affirming the contemporary significance of the search for truth in historical writing. It includes new and revised sections related to electronic technologies as well as updated examples of recent historical scholarship throughout. It maintains the welcoming, accessible, and inclusive tone of previous editions while walking students through complex ideas and established writing standards. As it has since its inception, the tenth edition of A Short Guide to Writing about History helps students confront and conquer any of the challenges they might face in writing about history.
The innovative city culture of Florence was the crucible within which Renaissance ideas first caught fire. With its soaring cathedral dome and its classically-inspired palaces and piazzas, it is perhaps the finest single expression of a society that is still at its heart an urban one. For, as Brian Jeffrey Maxson reveals, it is above all the city-state – the walled commune which became the chief driver of European commerce, culture, banking and art – that is medieval Italy's enduring legacy to the present.
Charting the transition of Florence from an obscure Guelph republic to a regional superpower in which the glittering court of Lorenzo the Magnificent became the pride and envy of the continent, the author authoritatively discusses a city that looked to the past for ideas even as it articulated a novel creativity. Uncovering passionate dispute and intrigue, Maxson sheds fresh light too on seminal events like the fiery end of oratorical firebrand Savonarola and Giuliano de' Medici's brutal murder by the rival Pazzi family. This book shows why Florence, harbinger and heartland of the Renaissance, is and has always been unique.
change in Italy in the period c.1494-c.1559.
This book will appeal to researchers and students alike
interested in cultural, military and political history
Articles and Book Chapters by Brian Maxson
Text translated into French by Clemence Revest.
During the period ca. 1350–ca. 1520 covered by the present volume, diplomatic sources became extremely rich and abundant. This sourcebook presents a selection of primary materials, both published and unpublished, which are mostly unavailable to English readers: a broad range of diplomatic sources, thematically organized, are introduced, translated, and annotated by an international team of leading scholars of the Italian Renaissance. The aim of this volume is to illustrate the richness of diplomatic documents both for the study of diplomacy itself as well as for other areas of historical investigation, such as gender and sexuality, crime and justice, art and leisure, and medicine.
Brian Jeffrey Maxson, "The Lost Oral Performance: Giannozzo Manetti and Spoken Oratory in Venice in 1448," in Voices and Texts in Early Modern Italian Society, edited by Stefano Dall'Aglio, Brian Richardson, and Massimo Rospocher, pp. 84-96 (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016).
This article uses a range of archival and literary evidence to reconstruct the content and stylistic differences between an ephemeral spoken oratorical performance by Giannozzo Manetti in 1448 and his published written version.
This widely used guide for students has long emphasized the excitement of historical discovery rooted in writing about the past. This new edition continues that emphasis while also affirming the contemporary significance of the search for truth in historical writing. It includes new and revised sections related to electronic technologies as well as updated examples of recent historical scholarship throughout. It maintains the welcoming, accessible, and inclusive tone of previous editions while walking students through complex ideas and established writing standards. As it has since its inception, the tenth edition of A Short Guide to Writing about History helps students confront and conquer any of the challenges they might face in writing about history.
The innovative city culture of Florence was the crucible within which Renaissance ideas first caught fire. With its soaring cathedral dome and its classically-inspired palaces and piazzas, it is perhaps the finest single expression of a society that is still at its heart an urban one. For, as Brian Jeffrey Maxson reveals, it is above all the city-state – the walled commune which became the chief driver of European commerce, culture, banking and art – that is medieval Italy's enduring legacy to the present.
Charting the transition of Florence from an obscure Guelph republic to a regional superpower in which the glittering court of Lorenzo the Magnificent became the pride and envy of the continent, the author authoritatively discusses a city that looked to the past for ideas even as it articulated a novel creativity. Uncovering passionate dispute and intrigue, Maxson sheds fresh light too on seminal events like the fiery end of oratorical firebrand Savonarola and Giuliano de' Medici's brutal murder by the rival Pazzi family. This book shows why Florence, harbinger and heartland of the Renaissance, is and has always been unique.
change in Italy in the period c.1494-c.1559.
This book will appeal to researchers and students alike
interested in cultural, military and political history
Text translated into French by Clemence Revest.
During the period ca. 1350–ca. 1520 covered by the present volume, diplomatic sources became extremely rich and abundant. This sourcebook presents a selection of primary materials, both published and unpublished, which are mostly unavailable to English readers: a broad range of diplomatic sources, thematically organized, are introduced, translated, and annotated by an international team of leading scholars of the Italian Renaissance. The aim of this volume is to illustrate the richness of diplomatic documents both for the study of diplomacy itself as well as for other areas of historical investigation, such as gender and sexuality, crime and justice, art and leisure, and medicine.
Brian Jeffrey Maxson, "The Lost Oral Performance: Giannozzo Manetti and Spoken Oratory in Venice in 1448," in Voices and Texts in Early Modern Italian Society, edited by Stefano Dall'Aglio, Brian Richardson, and Massimo Rospocher, pp. 84-96 (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016).
This article uses a range of archival and literary evidence to reconstruct the content and stylistic differences between an ephemeral spoken oratorical performance by Giannozzo Manetti in 1448 and his published written version.
https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195396584/obo-9780195396584-0283.xml
An essay reviewing the historical and literary scholarship on fifteenth-century Italy published in 2015.
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** Advance Praise
“In moving past the constraints imposed by the so-called Baron thesis, the essays in this volume allow for an innovative focus on Renaissance humanism as a set of ‘practices’ determined more by social structures and networks than by specific historical events. In so doing, a number of these studies open up new areas of scholarly exploration.”
— Scott Blanchard, Misericordia University
“The essays collected in this volume are remarkable for both the variety of their approaches and the depth of their analysis. Spanning no less than five centuries of Italian history and evaluating their interpretation by some of the most influential modern scholars, they once again prove the Renaissance to be a crucial time period when discussing such issues as the role of the humanities in shaping a state’s identity and providing paradigms of civic behaviour.”
— Stefano Baldassarri, International Studies Institute, Florence