Handbook of European History 1400-1600: Late Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation

'"Scholars and students will welcome this enterprise as the single best summary and synthesis of a generation of historical research on the whole period..."' H.C.E. Midelfort, 1995. '"Despite its heft and cost, this is a handbook in the best sense: up-to-date, concise, well-informed, and informative. Each of the 19 central chapters is written by a leading expert in that field and has helpful notes and bibliographies to point the way to further scholarship. Historiographical problems raised by such a multiauthor, multitheme work are directly and firmly recognized, faced, and discussed so as to leave open the door to other interpretations. There are 11 "assertions" chapters that tend to the narrative style and concern the church, national histories (minus Scandinavia and Eastern Europe), warfare, taxes, and seaborne empires. The "structures" chapters--on demography, family and community, villages, economic cycles, elements of popluar belief, economies, and Jews and opposition to them--are chiefly topical and generally reveal more newly broken ground. The introduction and conclusion set the chapters in perspective, two useful appendixes detail coinages and ruling houses. A second volume will contain mosly "religious and ecclesiastical topics." Undoubtedly useful (despite languages suited for advanced students), this reference work well repays its price. Highly recommended for upper-division undergraduate and graduate collections."' P.L. Kintner, "Choice", 1995. '"Students of European history will find much to inform, challenge, and frequently enough, to illuminate."' R.J. Schoeck, "Sixteenth Century Journal", 1995. '" haben die Herausgeber der Vielfalt der Entwicklungen in bemerkenswert adaquater Weise Rechnung getragen, und ist die Qualifikation als Handbuch unbedingt gerechtfertigt."' Peter Dinzelbacher, "Mediaevistik", 1999.