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"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Renaissance Astrology. In Act I Scene II of King Lear, the ne'er do well Edmund steps forward and rails at the weakness and cynicism of his fellow men: This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, - often the surfeit of our own behaviour, - we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains by necessity. The focus of his attack is astrology and the credulity of those who fall for its charms. But the idea that earthly life was ordained in the heavens was essential to the Renaissance understanding of the world. The movements of the heavens influenced many things from the practice of medicine to major political decisions. Every renaissance court had its astrologer including Elizabeth Ist and the mysterious Dr. John Dee who chose the most propitious date for her coronation. But astrologers also worked in the universities and on the streets, reading horoscopes, predicting crop failures and rivalling priests and doctors as pillars of the local community. But why did astrological ideas flourish in the period, how did astrologers interpret and influence the course of events and what new ideas eventually brought the astrological edifice tumbling down? With Peter Forshaw, Lecturer in Renaissance Philosophies at Birkbeck, University of London; Lauren Kassell, Lecturer in the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge; and Jonathan Sawday, Professor of English Studies at the University of Strathclyde."

"The first major exhibition in forty-five years devoted to the Burgundian Netherlandish artist Jan Gossart (ca. 1478-1532) brings together Gossart's paintings, drawings, and prints and places them in the context of the art and artists that influenced his transformation from Late Gothic Mannerism to the new Renaissance mode. Gossart was among the first northern artists to travel to Rome to make copies after antique sculpture and introduce historical and mythological subjects with erotic nude figures into the mainstream of northern painting. Most often credited with successfully assimilating Italian Renaissance style into northern European art of the early sixteenth century, he is the pivotal Old Master who changed the course of Flemish art from the Medieval craft tradition of its founder, Jan van Eyck (ca. 1380/90-1441), and charted new territory that eventually led to the great age of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). "

"Slides / Photo Cds Illustrating Maps from the Renaissance Period 1500-1700."

"Renaissance Forum is an interdisciplinary refereed journal. It specialises in early-modern English literary and historical scholarship and in the critical methodologies of these fields. The journal is published biannually by an editorial board based in the Departments of English and History at the University of Hull."

"Loyset Compère (c. 1445 - 16 August 1518) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. Of the same generation as Josquin des Prez, he was one of the most significant composers of motets and chansons of that era, and one of the first musicians to bring the light Italianate Renaissance style to France."

"Engravings are objects of exquisite beauty and incomparable intricacy whose visual language is composed entirely of lines. From 1480 to 1650 Renaissance and Baroque (Early Modern) engravers made dramatic and rapid visual changes to the technique of engraving as they responded to the demands of reproducing artworks. ‚The Brilliant Line' follows these visual transformations and offers new insight intothe special inventiveness and technical virtuosity of Early Modern engravers."

"Die Bayerische Staatsbibliothek nimmt das Jubiläum ihres 450-jährigen Bestehens zum Anlass für eine archäologische Grabung in eigener Sache: Eine Ausstellung zeigt grossartige Handschriften und Drucke aus dem reichen Gründungsbestand am Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts."

"Perhaps a native of the Vermandois region of Picardy, he was a singer at Milan Cathedral in 1459, remaining there until December 1472. By July 1474 he was one of the 'cantori di capella' in the chapel of Galeazzo Maria Sforza. Between 1476 and 1504 he passed into the service of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, whom he probably accompanied in Rome in 1484. His name first appears among the papal chapel choir in 1486 and recurs sporadically; he had left the choir by 1501. In this Italian period Josquin reached artistic maturity. He then went to France (he may also have done so while at the papal chapel) and probably served Louis XII's court. Although he may have had connections with the Ferrara court (through the Sforzas) in the 1480s and 1490s, no formal relationship with the court is known before 1503 when, for a year, he was maestro di cappella there and the highest-paid singer in the chapel's history. There he probably wrote primarily masses and motets. An outbreak of plague in 1503 forced the court to leave Ferrara (Josquin's place was taken by Obrecht, who fell victim in 1505). He was in the north again, at Notre Dame at Condé, in 1504; he may have been connected with Margaret of Austria's court, 1508-11. He died in 1521. Several portraits survive, one attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. Josquin's works gradually became known throughout western Europe and were regarded as models by many composers and theorists. Petrucci's three books of his masses (1502-14) reflect contemporary esteem, as does Attaingnant's collection of his chansons (1550). Several laments were written on his death (including Gombert's elegy Musae Jovis), and as late as 1554 Jacquet of Mantua paid him tribute in a motet. He was praised by 16th-century literary figures (including Castiglione and Rabelais) and was Martin Luther's favourite composer. Josquin was the greatest composer of the high Renaissance, the most varied in invention and the most profound in expression. Much of his music cannot be dated.

A fair maid sits at the foot of the tower and weeps and sighs and grieves full sore. Her father asks her: 'What is it, daughter? Do you want a husband, or do you want a lord?' 'I do not want a husband, I do not want a lord, I want my true love who pines in the tower!' 'By God, dear daugther, he will not be yours, for tomorrow he will be hung at dawn!' 'Father, if they hang him, bury me underneath, and people will say: '"This is true love!" (transl. Micrologus2, youtube) "Guillaume Dufay (Du Fay, Du Fayt) (August 5, 1397? - November 27, 1474 in Cambrai) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the early Renaissance. As the central figure in the Burgundian School, he was the most famous and influential composer in Europe in the mid-15th century. From the evidence of his will, he was probably born in Beersel, in the vicinity of Brussels. He was the illegitimate child of an unknown priest and a woman named Marie Du Fayt." Also cp.: http://www.hoasm.org/IIID/IIIDNetherlanderstoOckegh.html

"Examine every page of rare historic works; compare different editions side-by-side; choose standard or magnified view; read supporting material by our curators and other experts: Shakespeare in Quarto, Caxton's Chaucer, Gutenberg Bible, Magna Carta, Renaissance Festival Books, Sample: Malory's Arthurian manuscript."

"Vergesst Aeneas nicht! Enea Silvio Piccolomini - Humanist, Poet, Gelehrter, Diplomat und Papst. Vor 600 Jahren wurde Enea Silvio Piccolomini geboren, der als Papst Pius II. in die Kirchengeschichte eingegangen ist, mit seinem literarischen Werk und seinen biografischen und historischen Schriften aber wohl mehr in die Waagschale gelegt hat."

"Aside from information about the history, the objectives and the workings of our organisation, this site offers a comprehensive overview of the research projects and activities carried out since the start of the Alamire Foundation in 1991. Short summaries and practical information concerning the scientific publications are provided. If you want to stay informed of our oncoming activities, please take a look at the calendar."

"Francesco Petrarca was born on July 20, 1304. Commemorations of the 700th anniversary of his birth are taking place this year (2004), primarily in Italy but also around the world and in the United States. At Yale University, the celebration includes an international conference on Petrarch, September 23 - 25, and an exhibition at the Beinecke Library, as well as this web exhibition. The Beinecke Library is the leading institution in the United States in collecting Petrarch manuscripts (codices or fragments that contain works by or about Francesco Petrarca), from popular copies of the Canzoniere and Trionfi to the lesser-known De remediis utruisque fortune and Nota de Laura, as well as the memoirs and drawings of the English clergyman and literary editor John Mitford (1781-1859). "