Enlightening and fascinating' John Banville Wall Street Journal Through the lives of major
figures from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries including Copernicus Gutenberg
Luther Catherine de Medici Rabelais van Eyck and Shakespeare Paul Strathern tells the
fascinating story of the northern European Renaissance which rivalled its Italian counterpart.
There is no denying that many of the first developments of the Renaissance took place in Italy.
However a revolution of similar magnitude was also occurring across northern Europe which
would forever alter European culture in its own unique fashion. Initially centred on the city
of Bruges its influence was soon felt in France the German states England and even in Italy
itself. By vividly bringing to life the key players of the northern Renaissance Paul Strathern
explores some of the most significant advances of the whole era revealing how they not only
introduced new ways of thinking in art literature science philosophy mathematics and
medicine but also allowed for the evolution of an entirely different concept of life. In this
compelling and original history Strathern shows how the 'Other Renaissance' would play a role
at least as significant as the Italian Renaissance in shattering the constraints of medieval
life and bringing our modern world into being.
