“In 1300 Russia did not exist... united only in common subjection to the Golden Horde, the chief results from this long subjection were social: the autocracy of the Moscow dukes, the servile loyalty of the people to their princes, the low status of woman, the military, financial, and judicial organization of the government on Tartar lines... The Russian people faced the most arduous conditions with silent stoicism”

Chapters:

Comments: Click to comment

“No other contemporary writer equaled his fame... One Oxford bookseller reported in 1520 that a third of all his sales were of works by Erasmus... In the field of literature, he was the Renaissance and humanism embodied”

Chapters:

Comments: Click to comment

“So prominent was the Jewish role in the foreign commerce of Europe that those nations that received the Jews gained and the countries that excluded them lost in the volume of international trade.”

Chapters:

Comments: Click to comment

“The legend of Faust came to bitter life in Henry Cornelius Agrippa... he learned that no magic or alchemy could feed his family or keep him out of jail for debt. He wrote at the age of 39 the most skeptical book of the the 16th century before Montaigne and probably had a share in forming Montaigne's skepticism.”

Chapters:

Comments: Click to comment

“the most famous philosopher of the 14th century, William of Ockham... did not wait till death to burn; his whole life was one of hot controversy, cooled only by occasional imprisonment... His life, adventures, and aims prefigure Voltaire's and perhaps his effect was a great.”

Chapters:

Comments: Click to comment

“The Renaissance was enamored of literature and style, politely interested in philosophy, almost indifferent to science... the development of the Inquisition in Italy, and the dogmatic decrees of the Council of Trent made scientific studies increasingly difficult and dangerous after 1555.”

Chapters:

Comments: Click to comment