For centuries, the idea of a Renaissance at the end of the Middle Ages has been an active agent in shaping conceptions of the development of Western European civilization. Though the idea has enjoyed so long a life, conceptions of the nature of the Renaissance, of its sources, its extent, and its essential spirit have varied from generation to generation. Confined at first to a rebirth of art or of classical culture, the notion of the Renaissance was broadened as scholars of each successive generation added to what they regarded as the essence of modern, as opposed to medieval, civilization. Originally published in 1948, Wallace K. Ferguson's The Renaissance in Historical Thought is a key piece of scholarship on Renaissance historiography. Ferguson examines how the Renaissance has been viewed from successive historical and national viewpoints, and by canonical thinkers over the centuries, including François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire and Jacob Burckhardt. Republished as part of the Renaissance Society of America Reprint Text series (RSARTS), Ferguson's study remains an essential part of Renaissance scholarship and will once again be available for students and scholars in the field --

This 1988 Companion offers an account of philosophical thought from the middle of the fourteenth century to the emergence of modern philosophy.

Drawing on political oratory, diplomatic correspondence, crusade propaganda, and historical treatises, Meserve shows how research into the origins of Islamic empires sprang from—and contributed to—contemporary debates over the threat of Islamic expansion in the Mediterranean. This groundbreaking book offers new insights into Renaissance humanist scholarship and long-standing European debates over the relationship between Christianity and Islam.

Representing an extraordinary lifetime of scholarship, Renaissance Thought and Its Sources offers a systematic account of major themes in Renaissance philosophy, science, and literature. Here, in some of Paul Oskar Kristeller's most comprehensive and ambitious writings, is an exploration of the distinctive trends and concepts of the Renaissance, grounded in detailed historical investigation.