"This course traces the development of the Italian city-states of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, showing how the modern nation of Italy was forged out of the rivalries, allegiances, and traditions of a vibrant and diverse people" --publisher's web site.

"The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was an era of dramatic political, religious, and cultural change in the Italian peninsula, witnessing major innovations in the visual arts, literature, music, and science. Princes of the Renaissance charts these developments in a sequence of eleven chapters, each of which is devoted to two or three princely characters with a cast of minor ones--from Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, to Cosimo I de' Medici,...

Luca and Isolde continue investigating for the Order of Darkness in the fourth book in the Order of Darkness series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Philippa Gregory. Luca has been tasked by his master to uncover the truth behind strange happenings. She travels across Europe with Lady Isolde, Ishraq, Freize, and Brother Peter seeking out the signs of the ends of days. Now they are trapped in a village possessed by a dancing madness-- and...

Luca and Isolde continue their journey searching for evil in medieval Christenndom.

In fifteenth-century Florence, the dashing Venetian ambassador commissions young Leonardo da Vinci to paint a portrait of his Platonic love, Ginevra de' Benci, a well-educated, teenaged poet in a passionless marriage, propelling her into the world of art, politics, and romance, with all of its complications.