Reading and Writing History from Bruni to Windschuttle

Featuring work by researchers in the fields of early modern studies, Italian studies, ecclesiastical history and historiography, this volume of essays adds to a rich corpus of literature on Renaissance and early modern historiography, bringing a unique approach to several of the problems currently facing the field. Essays fall into three categories: the tensions and challenges of writing history in Renaissance Italy; the importance of intellectual, philosophical and political contexts for the reading and writing of history in renaissance and early modern Europe; and the implications of genre for the reading and writing of history. By collecting essays that cut across a broad cross-section of the disciplines of history and historiography, the book is able to offer solutions, encourage discussion, and engage in ongoing debates that bear direct relevance for our understanding of the origins of modern historical practices. This approach also allows the contributors to engage with critical questions concerning the continued relevance of history for political and social life in the past and in the present.

Christian Thorsten Callisen is based in Brisbane, Australia. His research focuses on interdisciplinary scholarship and the dissemination of ideas in early modern Europe. His work has appeared in the Journal of the History of Ideas and he is co-author (with Barbara Adkins) of ’Pre-digital Virtuality: Early Modern Scholars and the Republic of Letters’, in Park, Jankowski and Jones, The Long History of New Media (New York, 2011).