When considering the Italian Renaissance, the extraordinary sculptures of Michelangelo, the incomparable paintings of Leonardo da Vinci, or the immortal written works of Petrarch and Machiavelli spring to mind. Why there was such an artistic, cultural, and intellectual explosion at the start of the 14th century in Italy and not another part of Europe? Why did it ultimately fail in the middle of the 16th century? These lectures explore the underlying...