The Italian Renaissance Reader

A single volume introduction to the major writers of the Italian Renaissance—Petrarch, Boccaccio, Alberti, della Mirandola, da Vinci, Castiglione, Machiavelli, Buonarroti, Guicciardini, Cellini, and Vasari.Preface
Introduction
Francesco Petrarca
"Letter to Posterity"
"The Ascent of Mount Ventoux"
Selected Poems from the Canzoniere
Giovanni Bocaccio
Stories from the Decameron
Leon Battista Alberti
Selections from The Book of the FamilyGiovanni Pico Della Mirandola
Selections from The Oration on the Dignity of Man
Leonardo da Vinci
Selections from the Notebooks
Baldesar Castiglione
Selections from The Book of the Courtier
Niccolò Machiavelli
Selections from The Prince
Francesco Guicciardini
Selections from the Ricordi
Benvenuto Cellini
Selections from Cellini's Life
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Selected PoemsGiorgio Vasari
Selections from Lives of the Most Famous Artists
The Italian Renaissance: Further ReadingsMark Musa is a professor at the Center for Italian Studies at Indiana University. A former Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellow, Musa is the author of a highly acclaimed translation of Dante's Divine Comedy.