Innovation and Creativity in Late Medieval and Early Modern E... - 9781472439871

Taylor & Francis

Late medieval and early modern cities are often depicted as cradles of artistic creativity and hotbeds of new material culture. Cities in Renaissance Italy and in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century north-western Europe are the most obvious cases in point. But, how did this come about? Contributors to this volume set out to analyze whether, in what context and why regulation or deregulation influenced innovation and creativity in late medieval and early modern cities, and what the impact was of long-term changes in the political and economic sphere. > Late medieval and early modern cities are often depicted as cradles of artistic creativity and hotbeds of new material culture. Cities in renaissance Italy and in seventeenth and eighteenth-century northwestern Europe are the most obvious cases in point. But, how did this come about? Why did cities rather than rural environments produce new artistic genres, new products and new techniques? How did pre-industrial cities evolve into ce.