Renaissance Rome

· New Word City
eBook
51
Pages
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About this eBook

In the fifteenth century, Rome was reborn - not spiritually, for Renaissance popes were not men of the spirit, but physically, artistically, and politically. St. Peter's, the Vatican, the churches, the tombs, the squares, the palaces and gardens of Rome, which enchant the eye and delight the heart, encouraged the pursuit of beauty that the stern moralities of the Counter Reformation could not stop. For more than 200 years, the splendor of Rome became the pride of the papacy. The pilgrims, supplicants, and merchants returned to the city, as did the financial lifeblood of Rome - the papal tax that was harvested from Europe's peasantry. And so the Roman soil was fertilized again, for without wealth, no rebirth was possible. Here, from eminent British historian Sir J. H. Plumb, is the story of Renaissance Rome.

About the author

The award-winning British historian John Harold Plumb wrote more than thirty books, including The First Four Georges, In the Light of History, and Royal Heritage.

Born in 1911 in Leicester, England, to parents of modest means, he failed to win a place at Cambridge and earned his first degree from the University of Leicester in 1933. That year, he moved to Christ's, Cambridge.

In World War II, he worked at Bletchley Park on the top-secret project to break the Germans' Enigma code but then returned to Christ's, where he became a fellow in 1946 and spent the rest of his working life. In 1966, he was appointed professor of modern English history. He was elected master of his college in 1978 and knighted in 1982.

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