This collection of essays demonstrates the vitality of the political, cultural and religious history of Scotland in the era of the Renaissance and Reformation. It includes essays on politics, religion and towns, and on the literature and culture of the royal court and the common people. The essays all illuminate the ‘long sixteenth century’, c.1500-1650, which has been established as a distinct period. Contributors include: Sharon Adams, Steve Boardman, Jane E. A. Dawson, E. Patricia Dennison, Helen Dingwall, David Ditchburn, Julian Goodare, Ruth Grant, Theo van Heijnsbergen, Amy L. Juhala, Roderick J. Lyall, Alasdair A. MacDonald, Alan R. MacDonald, Maureen M. Meikle, Jamie Reid-Baxter, Laura A. M. Stewart, Andrea Thomas, Jenny Wormald, and Michael J. Yellowlees. Publications by Michael Lynch: Edited by A.A. MacDonald, Michael Lynch and Ian B. Cowan, The Renaissance in Scotland, ISBN: 978 90 04 10097 8

"The Renaissance in Scotland" contains original essays on the following topics of cultural history: literature; manuscripts and printed books; libraries; law; universities; music; education; social, political and ecclesiastical history. It offers fresh interpretations of many aspects of the age of humanism and reform, as this impinged on Scotland.

How did people survive in an age of private wars, foreign invasion and political uncertainty, of economic hardship and insecurity, of dislocation in religious and cultural life? How did they cope from day to day - lairds and tenants, merchants and craftsmen, rural labourers, urban-dwellers in service jobs, wives, widows and unmarried women?

A study of the actions and responsibilities of those taking temporary power during the minority of a monarch.