Renaissance

This gorgeously illustrated work elaborates on Fernand Braudel's thesis in Civilization & Capitalism (above) that the great commercial cities were at the center of the development of modern European life. Holmes argues that it was cities such as Florence and Antwerp that provided the environment necessary for the expression of the new attitudes to humanity by painters, sculptors, and writers, new attitudes "which then entered into the general European consciousness." (LJ 4/15/97) (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.