We've all asked ourselves, “What should I do with my life?” “Where am I going?” “Is this what I really want?” Whether you're graduating, changing careers, getting divorced, retiring, or just confused about what's next, Your Personal Renaissance will help you find your calling. Combining the lost wisdom of the Renaissance with groundbreaking research in positive psychology, this book approaches a calling in its original definition-not just a job, but a joyous, meaningful life. The book features an innovative program of contemplative steps (Discovery, Detachment, Discernment, and Direction) and practices that help readers combat overscheduling, stress, and depression-and change their lives.

"As the sixteenth century opened, members of the patriciate were increasingly withdrawing from trade, desiring to be seen as "gentlemen in fact" as well as "gentlemen in name." The author considers why this was so and explores such wide-ranging themes as attitudes toward wealth and display, the articulation of family identity, the interplay between the public and the private, and the emergence of characteristically Venetian decorative practices and styles of art and architecture. Brown focuses new light on the visual culture of Venetian women - how they lived within, furnished, and decorated their homes; what spaces were allotted to them; what their roles and domestic tasks were; how they dressed; how they raised their children; and how they entertained. Bringing together both high arts and low, the book examines all aspects of Renaissance material culture."--BOOK JACKET.

Transform your life with passion and purpose...Italian style! This is your passport to triumph over trials, move forward with hope, and make a difference in the world. Don't wait another day for your personal Renaissance!

This manual of business and management know-how includes stories, specifics, and immediate takeaways crafted to illustrate and explain the dynamics of great teams—and how to create those change-producing forces in teams everywhere. The unconventional collection of applicable narratives, individual and team exercises, and sound management insight invites personal growth for everyone from business executives and parents to coaches and college students. Based on the Team Arch model from ArchPoint Consulting, the book provides deeper information focused on leveraging strengths and solving problems. Its whole team approach in the context of storytelling offers specific steps for individual team members to reach greater productivity and enjoyment at the workplace. The poignant real-life stories woven throughout additionally illustrate that team building and getting the job done right is not just about business plans and strategic workshops, but about the meaning that happens when people move toward each other and build relationships.

We usually see the Renaissance as a marked departure from older traditions, but Renaissance scholars often continued to cling to the teachings of the past. For instance, despite the evidence of their own dissections, which contradicted ancient and medieval texts, Renaissance anatomists continued to teach those outdated views for nearly two centuries. In Books of the Body, Andrea Carlino explores the nature and causes of this intellectual inertia. On the one hand, anatomical practice was constrained by a reverence for classical texts and the belief that the study of anatomy was more properly part of natural philosophy than of medicine. On the other hand, cultural resistance to dissection and dismemberment of the human body, as well as moral and social norms that governed access to cadavers and the ritual of their public display in the anatomy theater, also delayed anatomy's development. A fascinating history of both Renaissance anatomists and the bodies they dissected, this book will interest anyone studying Renaissance science, medicine, art, religion, and society.

After 1989, the function of transitional governance changed. It became a process whereby transitional authorities introduce a constitutional transformation on the basis of interim laws. In spite of its domestic nature, it also became an international project and one with formidable ambitions: ending war, conflict or crisis by reconfiguring the state order. This model attracted international attention, from the UN Security Council and several regional organisations, and became a playing field of choice in international politics and diplomacy. Also without recourse to armed force, international actors could impact a state apparatus – through state renaissance. This book zooms in on the non-forcible aspects of conflict-related transitional governance while focusing on the transition itself. This study shows that neither transitional actors nor external actors must respect specific rules when realising or contributing to state renaissance. The legal limits to indirectly provoking regime change are also being unveiled.

Review: "Conceived and produced in association with the Renaissance society of America, this work presents a panoramic view of the cultural movement and the period of history beginning in Italy from approximately 1350, broadening geographically to include the rest of Europe by the middle-to-late-15th century, and ending in the early 17th century. Each of the nearly 1,200 entries provides a learned and succinct account suitable for inquiring readers at several levels. These readable essays covering the arts and letters, in addition to everyday life, will be appreciated by general readers and high-school students. The thoughtful analyses will enlighten college students and delight scholars. A selective bibliography of primary and secondary sources for further study follows each article."--"Outstanding reference sources 2000", American Libraries, May 2000. Comp. by the Reference Sources Committee, RUSA, ALA.

"I libri della famiglia has long been viewed by Italians as a classic of Italian literature. It displays a variety of styles--high rhetoric, systematic moral exposition, novelistic portrayal of character--in the typical Renaissance framework of the dialogue. The chief merit of the work lies in its scope: it directly assays the personal value system of the Florentine bourgeois class, which did so much to foster the development of art, literature, and science. This translation is based upon the critical edition by Cecil Grayson, Serena Professor of Italian Studies, Oxford."--Jacket.

The dawn of print was a major turning point in the early modern world. It rescued ancient learning from obscurity, transformed knowledge of the natural and physical world, and brought the thrill of book ownership to the masses. But, as Andrew Pettegree reveals in this work of great historical merit, the story of the post-Gutenberg world was rather more complicated than we have often come to believe. The Book in the Renaissance reconstructs the first 150 years of the world of print, exploring the complex web of religious, economic, and cultural concerns surrounding the printed word. From its very beginnings, the printed book had to straddle financial and religious imperatives, as well as the very different requirements and constraints of the many countries who embraced it, and, as Pettegree argues, the process was far from a runaway success. More than ideas, the success or failure of books depended upon patrons and markets, precarious strategies and the thwarting of piracy, and the ebb and flow of popular demand. Owing to his state-of-the-art and highly detailed research, Pettegree crafts an authoritative, lucid, and truly pioneering work of cultural history about a major development in the evolution of European society.

As the transition between the Middle Ages and modern times, the Renaissance is perhaps the most distinguished age since that of Classic Greece. Moreover, the consciousness of our time was largely formed by those who were given freedom to express themselves by the rebirth of the arts and sciences of the Renaissance. The Renaissance Reader allows the men and women of that turbulent time of change to speak in their own voices--sane and insane, brilliant and mundane, inspired and possessed, oblivious and decisive. Organized chronologically and covering the fourteenth through the seventieth centuries, the book provides readers with the literary and artist; social, religious, and political; and scientific and philosophic texts that shaped Renaissance thinking from the death of Dante in 1321 to the deaths of Cervantes and Shakespeare in 1616. Selections include such familiar texts as Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur, Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier, and Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote. The book also contains works by many less familiar writers, including such prominent Renaissance women as Christine de Pizan, Isabella d'Este, and Catherine Zell. With the inclusion of the works of such brilliant artists as Giotto, de Vinci, Durer, Michelangelo, Raphael, Brueghel, and others, The Renaissance Reader brings the age to life with all its vibrance and excitement.