Renaissance Era

Betrayed by the ruling families of Italy, Ezio Auditore embarks upon an epic quest for vengeance. To eradicate corruption and restore his family's honor, he will learn the art of the Assassins. Along the way, Ezio will call upon the wisdom of such great minds as Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolò Machiavelli, knowing that survival is bound to the skills by which he must live.To his allies, he will become a force for change in his fight for freedom and justice.

Published to great acclaim in 1873, Walter Pater’s compendium of idiosyncratic, impressionistic essays on the Renaissance gained him a reputation as a daring modern philosopher. Oscar Wilde called it the “holy writ of beauty.” It was Pater’s cry of “art for art’s sake” that became the manifesto for the aesthetic movement. He believed that art should be sensual and that beauty should rank as the highest ideal. Marked by elegant fluency, Pater’s essays discuss Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and other artists who, for him, embodied the spirit of the Renaissance.

Beginning in the heady days just after the First Crusade, this volume - the third in the series that began with The History of the Ancient World and The History of the Medieval World - chronicles the contradictions of a world in transition. Impressively researched and brilliantly told, The History of the Renaissance World offers not just the names, dates, and facts but the memorable characters who illuminate the years between 1100 and 1453 - years that marked a sea change in mankind's perception of the world.

In brutally repressive sixteenth-century England, artists had been frightened into dull conventionality; foreigners were suspect; popular entertainment largely consisted of coarse spectacles, animal fights, and hangings. Into this crude world came an ambitious cobbler’s son with an uncanny ear for Latin poetry―a torment for most schoolboys, yet for a few, a secret portal to beauty, visionary imagination, transgressive desire, and dangerous skepticism.

In this masterful work, listeners will encounter: the poets Petrarch and Boccaccio, the fathers of the Renaissance; the paintings, sculptures, and architecture of Milan, Florence, and Venice; the life and accomplishments of Leonardo DaVinci; the Catholic church and the popes of Avignon and Rome; the politicians and philosophers of Italy, including the Borgia family, Julius II, and Machiavelli; the Italian Wars, the conflicts with France, and the country's decline.

Empires of the Sea tells the story of the 50-year world war between Islam and Christianity for the Mediterranean: one of the fiercest and most influential contests in European history. It traces events from the appearance on the world stage of Suleiman the Magnificent through "the years of devastation" when it seemed possible that Islam might master the whole sea, to the final brief flourishing of a united Christendom in 1571.

Peter Ackroyd, one of Britain's most acclaimed writers, brings the age of the Tudors to vivid life in this monumental audiobook in his History of England series, charting the course of English history from Henry VIII's cataclysmic break with Rome to the epic rule of Elizabeth I.

“Julia Whelan skillfully narrates Sabine's story of bloodlust and decay…Katie Leung's soft Scottish accent suits the grieving Alice…Lottie is portrayed by Marisa Calin, whose crisp English accent reminds listeners of Lottie's high-society past.”—AudioFile “Julia Whelan, Katie Leung...

However, a historical transformation of similar magnitude also took place in northern Europe at the same time. This "Other Renaissance" was initially centered on the city of Bruges in Flanders (modern Belgium), but its influence was soon being felt in France, the German states, London, and even in Italy itself.

The Renaissance Diet 2.0 provides the most up-to-date scientific information to help you lose weight.

Cab Calloway changed the sound and style of twentieth-century America. From his early days in Baltimore and Chicago to the bright lights of Harlem’s Cotton Club, he rose to become one of the most dazzling and disciplined bandleaders of the Swing Era. His music, language, and performance style redefined what it meant to be an entertainer—mixing humor, intelligence, and unrelenting rhythm into an art form that united audiences across race and class. Cab Calloway: Hi-De-Ho’s Showman Supreme is the first full-length, documentary-grade chronicle of this cultural icon. Drawing on historical...

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER * #1 INDIE BESTSELLER * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “An immersive, sensual experience.” —The New York Times "Essential." —The Washington Post "Narrator Lauren Fortgang channels the currents of magic and intrigue running throughout Bardugo’s layered historical...

Like its popular and acclaimed predecessors, Restoration London and Dr Johnson's London, this fascinating evocation of Elizabethan London is the result of the author's passionate interest in the practical details of everyday life and the conditions in which most people lived, which most history books ignore: the streets, houses and gardens; cooking, housework and shopping; clothes, jewellery and make-up; medicine and sex; education, etiquette and hobbies; religion, law and crime.

For fans of ALISON WEIR and PHILIPPA GREGORY ◆ FIRST PLACE WINNER - 2023 CHAUCER Book Awards - Early Historical Fiction ◆ WINNER - 2023 READERS' FAVORITE Awards - Fiction-Historical-Personage ◆ Royalty ◆ Power ◆ Politics ◆ Love ◆ Struggle Bestselling biographer and historian Sarah Gristwood, author of Game of Queens and The Tudors in Love, calls this tale of early 16th-century Europe's most brilliant power broker “Compelling and wholly convincing—at once a vividly readable novel and a long-overdue presentation of Europe's unsung heroine to the broad audience she deserves....

A standalone audio exclusive set in the world of the Red Knight. Taking place in Etrusca, Terra Antica, thousands of miles from Alba and Liviapolis, an ancient power is rediscovered.

Benny Carter’s life reads like the score of American music itself—improvised, precise, and endlessly refined. Born in 1907 Harlem and composing well into his nineties, Carter bridged every era of jazz, from the parades of his youth to the concert halls of his late symphonic works. Benny Carter: Jazz's Renaissance Man traces this extraordinary arc with documentary precision and emotional clarity, illuminating the century-long journey of a man who turned craftsmanship into art. From the 1920s dance floors of Harlem to his groundbreaking years as an arranger for Fletcher Henderson and his ...

It is 1568 and Mary Queen of Scots flees to England in search of protection from Queen Elizabeth, but finds herself placed under arrest. One man, Two queens. Elizabeth’s most loyal subject and a man of great power and wealth, he is determined to find an answer to the dilemma his queen is facing. He must find a solution to prevent the Catholics from revolting and causing a civil war, while also keeping the Queen from harming a woman chosen by God to rule. Can his plans come to fruition, or will the trust he has placed in Elizabeth’s closest companion bring about his downfall? This short ...

Sixteenth-century Europe was a time of destabilization of age-old norms and the waging of religious wars - yet it also witnessed the remarkable flowering of a pacific culture cultivated by a cohort of extraordinary women rulers who sat on Europe's thrones, most notably Mary Tudor; Elizabeth I; Mary, Queen of Scots; and Catherine de' Medici.

Fletcher Henderson reshaped the sound of American music, yet for decades his name barely echoed beyond liner notes. Fletcher Henderson: Swing’s Foundations and the Hidden Legacy restores the story of the man who turned raw rhythm into structure, discipline into freedom, and laid the foundation for the swing era. Through archival research, historical documentation, and vivid storytelling, this definitive biography follows Henderson’s journey from a piano prodigy in Cuthbert, Georgia, to the architect behind jazz’s orchestral revolution. Across thirty meticulously crafted chapters, the ...

Libertas: The Pearl Among States is the sweeping, cinematic history of Dubrovnik — the Republic of Ragusa — a tiny but fiercely independent city-state that thrived for centuries on the Adriatic. From the marble streets of its walled city to the galleys that sailed from Gruž to Alexandria and London, this book tells the story of how Dubrovnik balanced on the knife-edge between Venice and the Ottomans, survived plagues, sieges, and the great earthquake of 1667, and built a legacy of diplomacy, trade, and freedom that endured until Napoleon’s troops lowered the banner of St. Blaise in ...