A collection of lectures delivered by historians to the British Academy. This work demonstrates the contribution of British scholarship to Renaissance studies. It covers the period 1400 to 1520 and illustrates two aspects of Italy in this period, the political background to the great cultural flowering, and the art of Florence and Rome. In this work George Holmes ... has collected eleven gems from the British Academy's "Italian Lectures" and "Aspects of Art Lectures" series. It is an anthology that will impress the neophyte or general student of the period and edify and delight the expert.