BW20: 52 Books Bingo - Renaissance

Our next 52 Books Bingo category is taking us back in time to the Renaissance which took place between the 14th to 17th centuries and began in Italy with a humanism revolution bringing changes to art, literature, music, philosophy, religion and more.

Famous writers during that period includes William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes, Niccolo Machiavelli, Francesco Petrarch, Dante Alighieri, and Geoffrey Chaucer to name a few.  Now would be a perfect time to continue my Dante's Divine Comedy read as I still haven't read Purgatorio yet and it's been glaring at me from my shelves. *grin*

Let's not forget the ladies with Shakespeare’s Sisters: A Celebration of Renaissance Women Writers

Renaissance writers who shaped the modern world

Biographies and history books on the Renaissance

Reading the Renaissance: the guilty pleasures of historical fiction

Sarah Dunant's top 10 books on the Renaissance

Popular 14th Century Novels, 15th Century, and 16th Century and popular Renaissance books.

While we are time traveling, try moving forward in time to the 1920's and the Renaissance Women: 12 Female Writers of the Harlem Renaissance.

I currently have several Renaissance books in my shelves including Dante's Purgatorio, Machiavelli's The Prince as well as historical fiction authors Sarah Dunant's Sacred Hearts as well as Stephanie Storey's Oil and Marble in my book shelves which I'm looking forward to reading soon.

Have fun armchair traveling through the Renaissance.

**********************************

Please share your book reviews and link to your website, blog, Goodreads, Google+, Tumblers, or Instagram page. If you do not have a social media account, please leave a comment to let us know what you are reading. The link widget closes at the end of each book week.

In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field paste a link to your post, then check the privacy box and click enter.

BW11: 14th Century

This month I'm jumping into the 14th century which ran from 1301 to 1400. It was the beginning of the Renaissance in Italy and later spread throughout Europe after 1450. We begin to see the rise of the alliterative verse as seen in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, along with Pearl, Purity and Patience.  Plus allegorical literature in which symbols were used to describe characters or events, such as William Langland's Piers Plowman or Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales as well as Dante's Divine Comedy.   

If you've finished reading Inferno, are you ready to tackle Purgatorio?  Me neither. I spent a good amount of time, reading through the analysis on Sparknotes and looking people up.It was educational, a bit scary, and at times made me feel woefully ignorant when it came to history. But that's not such a bad thing as I can see where it will lead me on plenty of rabbit trails. Not sure if or when I'll go on to Purgatorio. Need to clean my brain with bleach and feed my soul with something positive first.

However, if you are interested, Rod Dreher from American Conservative blog is doing a Lenten readalong of Purgatorio, so head over and check out his detailed commentary.  Very enlightening. 

Check out Goodreads list of Popular 14th Century literature which includes all the ones I mentioned above as well as Umberto Eco, Anya Seton, Bernard Cornwall and Suzanna Gregory to name a few.  If you are feeling adventuresome, delve into the historical chronicles of Froissart and Joinville. 

Join me in reading a book set in the 14th Century.

************************************************************** 

Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you don't have a blog, tell us about the books you are reading in the comment section of this post.