In the fascinating Great artist series, we investigate some of the best artists in history - examining their influence, style and what exactly made them so unique. In this double package we examine two giants of the Renaissance period - Leonardo da Vinci, genius scientist, inventor, engineer and artist, and his contemporary and equal Michelangelo.

A meticulous account of Renaissance Italy during the turbulent decade around 1500, with emphasis on several important players: Alexander Borgia (also known as Pope Alexander VI) and his son Cesare, Machiavelli the philosopher-diplomat and author of The Prince, and Leonardo da Vinci--inventor, artist, and military engineer.

In the fascinating Great artist series, we investigate some of the best artists in history - examining their influence, style and what exactly made them so unique. In this double package we examine two vital instigators of the Renaissance; Giotto, with his naturalistic and emotive treatment of medieval Christian iconography, whose popularity and commissions raised the status of artists forevermore, and Piero della Francesca, creator of calm, monumental...

When Geronimo Stilton finds out that the Pirate Cats are going back in time to Venice in the year 1517, he knows they must be after one thing: The Mona Lisa! Geronimo and friends must travel to Renaissance Italy to stop the Pirate Cats from stealing the Mona Lisa and taking credit for what is arguably the world's most famous painting. But the Pirate Cats have an ace up their sleeve: someone in Geronimo's crew is an imposter!

"Lucrezia Borgia is one of the most vilified figures in modern history. The daughter of a notorious pope, she was twice betrothed before the age of eleven and thrice married--one husband was forced to declare himself impotent and thereby unfit and another was murdered by Lucrezia's own brother, Cesar Borgia. She is cast in the role of murderess, temptress, incestuous lover, loose woman, femme fatale par excellence. But there is always more than one...

French novelist Charlotte-Rose de la Force has been banished from the court of Versailles by the Sun King, Louis XIV, after a series of scandalous love affairs. At the convent, she is comforted by an old nun, Sœur Seraphina, who tells her the tale of a young girl who, a hundred years earlier, is sold by her parents for a handful of bitter greens... After Margherita's father steals parsley from the walled garden of the courtesan Selena Leonelli, he...

"The innovative city culture of Florence was the crucible within which Renaissance ideas first caught fire. With its soaring cathedral dome and its classically-inspired palaces and piazzas, it is perhaps the finest single expression of a society that is still at its heart an urban one. For, as Brian Jeffrey Maxson reveals, it is above all the city-state - the walled commune became the chief driver of European commerce, culture, banking and art - that...