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Inventing the Renaissance
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July 13, 2026
This is one of the best history books I've ever read. It is, in some ways, unusual. The style is conversational, not academic. Yet the book is clearly the result of a long career in academia and incredibly well-researched.
I'd recommend it to anyone interested in history as a subject too and not just the Renaissance. Because it is an excellent book on how history works. How it is a dynamic discipline and where theories come and go. Where even failures can contribute something to our understanding of a historical period. And how causes of events aren't always black and white. That major historical events are like rivers where little streams contribute to the rising power of the water and the river broadens and deepens.
The book isn't written in chronological order as Palmer zips backwards and forwards to talk about different people and events but she keeps them connected. I like her little touch of Homeresque tags for people who crop up again and again so that you can remember who they are - Battle Pope being one example.
The book is split into 6 sections. The first - Why You Shouldn't Believe Anyone (Including Me) About the Renaissance - is basically the historiography of the Renaissance and how we see it differently depending on which 'X Factor' we feel most contributed to its creation. This also dicusses humanism, what the Middle Ages did, and the parts of the Renaissance world that don't feel modern.
Part II is a more narrative history but still calls upon ideas and perceptions. Part III introduces us to fifteen figures from the Renaissance, from Alessandro Strozzi to Machiavelli. I should note that Machiavelli is a key figure in this book. It is him that it effectively centres on. Part IV goes into detail on 'What Was Renaissance Humanism'. Indeed, this is the section that all the others have been leading us to. Contextualising. There's a discussion about what humanism is, who qualifies, and again this is as much historiography as history. Part V is 'The Try Anything Age', which talks us through how perceptions of sources, authorities, progress, and science change. How the Renaissance starts to edge towards the Enlightenment.
It should be noted that one of Palmer's threads is the arbitrary nature of the division of history into different periods as if the boundary between the Medieval period and the Renaissance is a solid one. Like a wall. That one period changed to the other one a certain day and time. Whereas in reality change is ongoing and doesn't happen at one speed. That some ideas arrive early in one place and late in another. That history is more like a body of water flowing in one direction but broadened and fed by other times. She's also good on how Medieval Europe wasn't the 'Dark Ages' (and how much calling it that annoys Medieval historians.)
Part VI is the conclusion - 'Who Has Power In History?', which is as much about how we behave in the modern world and what the past has contributed to how we see ourselves.
It is a fascinating read. It makes the Renaissance more complex and therefore more interesting than I'd previously thought. It made me realise how ignorant I was on this and the Medieval period. My European historical knowledge isn't bad on Ancient Greece and Rome but dribbles to almost nothing after the Romans leave Britain until the Tudors and the Stuarts. This helped fill some gaps and pointed me in the direction of many other books I can read - should I choose - that would fill them further. If I only had the time.
Perhaps I do. Perhaps it is a question of priorities.
Anyway you should read this. I've always said that I've never read a single book that changed my life, it has always been more of a combination of books. But this might be the nearest I've come.
I'd recommend it to anyone interested in history as a subject too and not just the Renaissance. Because it is an excellent book on how history works. How it is a dynamic discipline and where theories come and go. Where even failures can contribute something to our understanding of a historical period. And how causes of events aren't always black and white. That major historical events are like rivers where little streams contribute to the rising power of the water and the river broadens and deepens.
The book isn't written in chronological order as Palmer zips backwards and forwards to talk about different people and events but she keeps them connected. I like her little touch of Homeresque tags for people who crop up again and again so that you can remember who they are - Battle Pope being one example.
The book is split into 6 sections. The first - Why You Shouldn't Believe Anyone (Including Me) About the Renaissance - is basically the historiography of the Renaissance and how we see it differently depending on which 'X Factor' we feel most contributed to its creation. This also dicusses humanism, what the Middle Ages did, and the parts of the Renaissance world that don't feel modern.
Part II is a more narrative history but still calls upon ideas and perceptions. Part III introduces us to fifteen figures from the Renaissance, from Alessandro Strozzi to Machiavelli. I should note that Machiavelli is a key figure in this book. It is him that it effectively centres on. Part IV goes into detail on 'What Was Renaissance Humanism'. Indeed, this is the section that all the others have been leading us to. Contextualising. There's a discussion about what humanism is, who qualifies, and again this is as much historiography as history. Part V is 'The Try Anything Age', which talks us through how perceptions of sources, authorities, progress, and science change. How the Renaissance starts to edge towards the Enlightenment.
It should be noted that one of Palmer's threads is the arbitrary nature of the division of history into different periods as if the boundary between the Medieval period and the Renaissance is a solid one. Like a wall. That one period changed to the other one a certain day and time. Whereas in reality change is ongoing and doesn't happen at one speed. That some ideas arrive early in one place and late in another. That history is more like a body of water flowing in one direction but broadened and fed by other times. She's also good on how Medieval Europe wasn't the 'Dark Ages' (and how much calling it that annoys Medieval historians.)
Part VI is the conclusion - 'Who Has Power In History?', which is as much about how we behave in the modern world and what the past has contributed to how we see ourselves.
It is a fascinating read. It makes the Renaissance more complex and therefore more interesting than I'd previously thought. It made me realise how ignorant I was on this and the Medieval period. My European historical knowledge isn't bad on Ancient Greece and Rome but dribbles to almost nothing after the Romans leave Britain until the Tudors and the Stuarts. This helped fill some gaps and pointed me in the direction of many other books I can read - should I choose - that would fill them further. If I only had the time.
Perhaps I do. Perhaps it is a question of priorities.
Anyway you should read this. I've always said that I've never read a single book that changed my life, it has always been more of a combination of books. But this might be the nearest I've come.
Displaying 1 of 1 review