The Italian Renaissance began in during the Middle Ages and with the Reformation in northern Europe ended the Middle Ages and brought about the beginnings of the Early Modern world that we live with today. The Renaissance is the fifth volume of Will Durant’s The Story of Civilization series as he explores the history, culture, and artistic achievements of the various Italian polities from Venice and Milan in the north to Florence and Rome in the center and Naples in the south and such individuals as Petrarch, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Titian.

Taking up the historical narrative where he left off in the previous volume, Durant presents a wide-ranging survey of nearly three centuries worth of events, individuals, and artistic accomplishments while putting them all in context with one another. Not since the volume focusing on Greece has Durant’s prose brought across his excitement for covering a subject, mostly because of his meticulous descriptions on the artistic accomplishments of so many individuals that includes not only the very well-known to those we might only read about in this volume. Yet those lesser-known individuals are given such a treatment by Durant that readers could quickly search for images of their work on the Internet today to see why he is so passionate about them. Given Durant’s issues with problematic language and his seeming contempt of religion in previous volumes, those issues didn’t really come up until close to the end of the volume with the emergence of the domination of the Italian peninsula by the Spanish at the conclusion of the Italian Wars with Valois France.

The Renaissance features the best aspects of Will Durant’s prose as he lovingly gushes over the accomplishments of nearly three centuries of Italian culture even as it was politically divided which would lead to its eventual subjection to foreign rule. ( )

The Renaissance: A History of Civilization in Italy from 1304-1576 A.D. by Will Durant (audiobook, 37 hours). This is volume 5 of Durant’s 11 volume set, The Story of Civilization. Because of the time period covered in this volume, it covers in extraordinary detail the subjects of war, death, religious war, religious death, art, artists having sex, artists avoiding war, artists dying, Popes at war, Popes having sex, Popes dying, Kings, Kings at war, Kings having sex, Kings dying, peasantry (apparently having unreported sex), diseases, and more war, sex, art (lots of art), and dying. Will Durant brings to this era the exquisite and exhausting detail for which all his books are known, so much so that in the back of my mind I was constantly wondering how can he possibly know all of this. Regardless, he does, and he fashions all that knowledge into lengthy chapters such that each part constitutes a book length disquisition on key (if not fascinatingly monotonous) aspects of Renaissance life. Now, onto volume 6, The Reformation. The Renaissance took months of listening while driving and walking, and the next shall probably take as long, but that’s good, because my brain can not possibly absorb it any quicker. FYI: every used bookstore has a set of Durant’s Opus (including work of his wife Ariel in early volumes) because it’s required by law. (The law of chance, because a gazillion sets were given away in the 1960s by the Book of the Month Club as a new member draw. Even if you don’t read them, if placed on a bookshelf on an outer wall, they provide excellent insulation.) But read them! ( )

The "Story of Civilization" was the lifetime project of Will and Ariel and it is a very large achievement. This particular volume covers the period 1350 to 1500 CE and concentrates on Florence. The series as a whole was a spine to which other forms of historical research could be related from the 1940's to the 1970's. There is a large number of useful epigrams, and the overall picture created was helpful to the students in many areas. it was a most graceful survey and this is a worthy volume of it. the Entire series became a "Book of the Month Club" loss leader, and it graces many homes yet. ( )

Too obsessed with art and architecture ( )