6 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
American historian and science fiction author — University of Chicago professor of Renaissance history — author of the Terra Ignota series (SF starting with Too Like the Lightning) — expert on the history of censorship, heresy, and early modern thought.
Justus Lipsius's 1584 dialogue arguing for Stoic constancy as the response to the political chaos of the religious wars — the 'constant man' maintains inner stability regardless of external turmoil — which launched the Neo-Stoic movement of the late 16th and 17th centuries.
Stephen Greenblatt's 2001 book arguing that Hamlet's ghost is Shakespeare's literary response to the Protestant abolition of Purgatory — the Catholic doctrine of a place between heaven and hell where the dead could be aided by the prayers of the living — which was abolished in England when Shakespeare was a child.
English playwright and poet — author of 37 plays and 154 sonnets — the greatest writer in the English language — whose work is the largest single influence on English literature, the English language itself, and world drama.
Giorgio Vasari's 1550 (expanded 1568) collection of biographies of Italian Renaissance artists — from Cimabue to Michelangelo — the founding text of art history and the primary source for the lives of Renaissance masters.
Gregory Zuckerman's 2019 biography of Jim Simons and Renaissance Technologies — the most complete public account of how a mathematician built the most successful trading firm in history through pattern recognition in financial data.