Roscoe and Italy - 9781409404910

Taylor & Francis

In 1795 William Roscoe (1753-1831) published a biography of Lorenzo de' Medici, which proved so popular that it prompted claims that Roscoe had effectively invented the Italian Renaissance as it has been known by subsequent generations of readers in the English-speaking world. Despite such enthusiastic assertions, however, this collection of essays is the first systematic attempt to examine Roscoe and his contribution towards modern conceptions of the Renaissance. Covering a range of subjects from art history and literature, to politics and culture, the volume provides a fascinating picture both of Roscoe and his historical legacy. > Anglo-Italian cultural connections in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have been the subject of numerous studies in recent decades. Within that wider body of literature, there has been a growing emphasis on appreciation of the history and culture of Renaissance Italy, especially in nineteenth-century Britain. In 1954 J.R. Hale's England and the.