Classics, Medieval & Renaissance 2012 - University of Toronto ...

RENAISSANCE SOCIETY OF AMERICA REPRINT TEXTS
RENAISSANCE SOCIETY OF AMERICA REPRINT TEXTS
These books are specially selected and designed to keep in print the
most treasured works in Renaissance studies, modestly priced for student use.
The Treatise of Lorenzo Valla on the Donation of Constantine
Text and translation into English by Christopher Coleman
The Donation of Constantine is the most famous forgery in European history. Written in the eighth century,
it was allegedly a fourth-century document by which the Emperor Constantine the Great gave extensive
privileges and property to Pope Sylvester I.
This document was accepted as genuine for seven centuries and was cited by at least ten popes in
contentions for the recognition of papal control. Lorenzo Valla’s 1440 treatise established the Donation of
Constantine was forged, and made him a pioneer of modern historical criticism. The reprint is of the 1922
edition of Valla’s treatise and presents the Latin text and English translation of it and the forged donation
document on facing pages.
(RSART 1) 183 pp / 6 x 9 / 1993
Paper 978-0-8020-7734-9 $32.95 (£23.99)
The Italian Renaissance
Edited by Werner L. Gundersheimer
An anthology of the writings from the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries designed to illustrate the life
and thought of Italians for students and the general reader. It offers a broad sampling of humanist work by
educators, statesmen, philosophers, churchmen, and courtiers translated into English.
‘This collection of humanistic prose is invaluable to all those who contemplate the history of western civilization,
but most especially to students of the Italian Renaissance history, literature, philosophy, and art history who
will greatly benefit from this engaging scholarly survey of hard-to-find original texts of important works.’
Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier, Sixteenth Century Journal
(RSART 2) 184 pp / 6 x 9 / 1993
Paper 978-0-8020-7735-6 $21.95 (£15.99)
Religion and Economic Action
The Protestant Ethic, the Rise of Capitalism, and the Abuses of Scholarship
Kurt Samuelsson
Translated by E. Geoffrey French • Edited and with an Introduction by D.C. Coleman
Max Weber first proposed, and R.H. Tawney did much to promote, the idea that capitalism grew out of
Puritan values. In this bold essay, Kurt Samuelsson convincingly challenges that hypothesis and reassesses
the spirit and ethics of both capitalism and Puritanism, effectively dismantling any notion of a functional
relationship between Christianity and capitalism.
‘This book by an able economic historian ... does not just tinker with Weber’s hypothesis but leaves it in ruins.’
George C. Homans, Harvard University
(RSART 3) 170 pp / 6 x 9 / 1993
Paper 978-0-8020-7733-2 $20.95 (£14.99)
The Ash Wednesday Supper
Giordano Bruno • Edited and translated by Edward A. Gosselin and Lawrence S. Lerner
Giordano Bruno, a possibly mad, certainly brilliant, itinerant Italian friar was burned at the stake in 1600
for heresies, which included his rejection of the Ptolemaic cosmology. Using Copernican theory as both a
foundation of and a metaphor for his own vast philosophical-theological-political-social program, Bruno
united his own conflicting beliefs in ‘La Cena de le ceneri’ (The Ash Wednesday Supper). It was one of the
first works in which Copernican theory had impact outside the sphere of the natural sciences.
(RSART 4) 238 pp / 6 x 9 / 1995
Paper 978-0-8020-7469-0 $31.95 (£22.99)
46 University of Toronto Press