This open university reader is a wide-ranging interdisciplinary collection of material from primary sources, illustrating the relationship between cultural change and religious belief in sixteenth-century Europe. It contains more than eighty extracts drawn from a variety of genres including political, religious, philosophical and legal writing, diaries, letters, plays, poems and fiction. Some have never previously been published, others have not been reprinted since their original appearance in the sixteenth century, and a number are translated into modern English for the first time.
`Culture and Belief in Europe 1450 - 1600' includes writing from such renowned thinkers as Erasmus, Luther, Machiavelli, and Sir Thomas More, besides that of lesser-known authors. Works of literature also feature extensively, and writings from Cervantes, Rabelais, Edmund Spenser, and Sir Philip Sidney amongst many others are all to be found here.
A general introduction describes the anthology's central aim - to explore aspects of the interrelationship between the politics, religion and writing of the period. The book is divided into eight thematic sections.
Spelling in the extracts has been sensitively modernized throughout, and the editors provide a headnote and appropriate explanatory annotation for each item.
Table of Contents: Part I: Humanism, Popular Culture and Belief: .
1. The Spicers' Play (1463-1477).
2. The Pewterers and Founders 'Play (1463-1477).
3. Late Medieval Ghost Stories.
4. The Pilgrimage of William Wey (1456).
5. Pico: A Young Philosopher Defends his right to Dispute in Public (1486).
6. Summa Theologica: Thomas Aquinas.
7. The Profession of the Religious: Lorenzo Valla.
8. Erasmus and John Colet (1499-1516).
9. Erasmus: Colloquies and Writings (1523-1526).
10. The Prince: Machiavelli (1513).
11. The Courtier: Castiglione (1528).
12. Gargantua (1534) and Pantagruel (1532): Rabelais.
13. The Church and Discipline.
Part II: Civic Pride and Civic Patronage: Venice and Antwerp: .
14. Governing Venice: Contarini (1534).
15. Antwerp: Guicciardini (1567).
16. The Civic Inventory of Household Goods: a Sample for the Antwerp Notary (1582).
17. Inventory of Michiel's Description of the Collection of Andrea Odoni, Venice (1530).
18. The Inventory of Margaratta Boge (1574).
19. Marcantonio Michiel's Description of the Collection of Andrea Odoni, Venice (1530).
20. The Inventory of Willem Pauwels (1481).
21. Bessarion's Act of Donation (1468).
22. Bessarion's Library (1474).
23. Harmony of the World: Giorgi (1525).
Part III: Reformation: .
24. Articles of Tabor (1420).
25. Lollard Documents.
26. The Council of Trent and Religious Act (1563). 27. Against the Heavenly Prophets: Luther (1525).
28. The Old Game: Hans Sachs (1554).
29. Martin Luther (1520s).
30. John Calvin (15360.
31. William Tyndale and the Principles of Protestantism (1530).
32. 'The Wittenberg Nightingale': Hans Sachs.
33. The Vanity and Uncertainty of the Arts and Sciences (1530): Agrippa.
Part IV: Religious Reform and Cultural Change: Spain and England:.
34. Caxton's Prologue to Virgil's Aeneid (1490).
35. Dialogue Concerning Heresies: Sir Thomas Moore (1528).
36. Preface to Euclid's Elements: John Dee (1570).
37. Autobiography: Ignatius de Loyola (1553).
38. Spiritual Exercises: Ignatius de Loyola (1522-1577).
39. Life: St Teresa of Avila (1565).
40. Three Poems by Luis de Leon (1572-1577).
41. 'Whether it is Right to Destroy a Tyrant': Juan de Mariana (1599).
Part V: Europe and the Wider World:.
42. On the Netherlands (1520-1521): Dürer.
43. Travel Journal (1580-1581): Montaigne.
44. An Itinerary: Fynes Moryson (1591-1597).
45. A View of the Present State of Ireland: Spenser (1590s).
46. Letter from Isabella and Ferdinand to the Moorish King (1491).
47. Petition from Francisco Nunez Muley, Morisco Noble (1567).
48. Impressions of Turkey: Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq (1556-1564).
49. Navigations Made into Turkey: Nicholas de Nicolay (1567).
50. Accounts of Mexico: Bernal Diaz (1568).
51. Voyage to Virginia: John White.
52. Aztec Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico (1519).
53. Letter to Piero Soderini: Amerigo Vespucci (1504).
54. First Voyage: Columbus (1492-1493).
55. On the Indians: Sepulveda (1547).
56. On the Indians: Las Casas (1552).
57. On the Indians: Mendieta (1596).
58. Defence of the Indians: Vitoria (1537-1539).
59. On the Indiands and Animals of the New World: Jose de Acosta (1590).
60. Questionnaire on the Spanish American Empire (1577-1586).
Part VI: Print Culture:.
61. Le Morte d'Arthur: Sir Thomas Malory.
62. 'Sermon on the Ploughers': Hugh Latimer (1548).
63. Don Quixote: Cervantes.
Part VII: The Crisis of Authority: France:.
64. The Monarchy of France: Claude de Seyssel.
65. Restoration of the Gospel: Lefèvre d'Étaples.
66. Autobiography: Cellini (1559).
67. Claude de Seyssel Three Bridles on Princely Power (1519).
68. Strengths and Weaknesses of France: Suriano (1561).
69. Exclusion of Women: Hotman (1573).
70. Innocent Gentillet: Anti-Machiavel (1576).
71. Method: Bodin (1566).
72. Six books of the Commonwealth: Bodin.
73. Entertainment at Antwerp (1582).
Part VIII: Church, State and Literature in Britain:.
74. The Acts of Supremacy (1534, 1559).
75. The Vestiarian Controversy: Laurence Humphrey, Thomas Sampson and Bishop Grindal (1563-1566).
76. Scottish Ballards and Court Poetry.
77. Astrophil and Stella: Sir Philip Sidney (1582).
78. A Defence of Poetry: Sir Philip Sidney (1582).
Index.
