Whether you are an art lover who wants to check facts and discover the background to the masterpieces of painting and sculpture; a student who needs a guide to the complicated maze of Italian Renaissance political history; a scholar who needs a convenient, unified reference source; a traveller in Italy who wants to understand the great works of art and architecture in their context; or simply a general reader who wants to find out more about this fascinating epoch, this book stands firm within the vast literature on the Renaissance as the one indispensable volume