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Inventing the Renaissance

Ada Palmer

An irreverent new take on the Renaissance, which reveals it as anything but Europe’s golden age. From the darkness of a plagued and war-torn Middle Ages, the Renaissance (we’re told) heralds the dawning of a new world—a halcyon age of art,...

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Dedication

1/11/2026
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Epigraph

1/11/2026
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Prologue: The Great and Terrible Renaissance

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1. Machiavelli the Patriot: SPQF

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Part I: Why You Shouldn’t Believe Anyone (Including Me) About the Renaissance

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2. Everybody Wants to Claim a Golden Age

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3. The Flexible X-Factor of the Renaissance

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4. Time for a Tangent About Vikings! (It’s Relevant, I Swear…)

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5. The Quest for the Renaissance X-Factor Begins

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6. Super Sexy Secular Humanism

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7. A New X-Factor: The Baron Thesis and Proto-Democracy

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8. Another X-Factor: Enter Economists!

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9. Florence: A Self-Fulfilling Source Base

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10. What Makes People Start to Study the Renaissance

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11. Lorenzo de Medici: Hero or Villain?

1/11/2026
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12. Or Were We Brought Here by Romance?

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13. The Invention of the Middle Ages

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14. The Un-Modern Renaissance

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15. Why Did Ada Palmer Start Studying the Renaissance?

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Part II: Desperate Times and Desperate Measures

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16. Desperate Times

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17. Cruel Wars for Light Causes

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18. A Strange Peace, A Stranger War

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19. Rome: The Eternal Problem City

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20. Medieval but Ever-So-Much-More-So

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21. The Desperate Measure: Reviving Antiquity

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Intermission: Are You Remembering Not to Believe Me?

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22. Antiquity Was Not New Either

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23. The Umanista’s Rival: Scholasticism

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24. Studia Humanitatis—The Words That Sting and Bite

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25. Italian Renaissance Becomes European Renaissance

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26. The Supremacy of Antiquity

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27. Is This About Virtue or Power?

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Part III: Let’s Meet Some People from This Golden Age

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28. Patrons and Clients All the Way Up

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29. Our Friends So Far

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30. Alessandra Strozzi: Labors of Exile

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31. Manetto Amanatini: There Is a World Elsewhere

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32. Francesco Filelfo: Between Republics and Monarchies

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33. Montesecco: An Assassin Fears for His Soul

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34. Ippolita Maria Visconti Sforza: The Princess and the Peace

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35. Josquin des Prez: The International Renaissance

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36. Angelo Poliziano: Patronage Repays

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37. Savonarola: Saint or Demon?

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38. Alessandra Scala: The Girl of Our Dreams

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39. Raffaello Maffei il Volterrano: A Scholar Fears for His Soul Too

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40. Lucrezia Borgia: Princess of Nowhere - Part One

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40. Lucrezia Borgia: Princess of Nowhere - Part Two

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41. Camilla Bartolini Rucellai: Spirit of the Last Republic

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42. Michelangelo: The Great and Terrible - Part One

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42. Michelangelo: The Great and Terrible - Part Two

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Interlude: Let’s Ground Ourselves in Time

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43. Julia the Sibyl: A Prophetess in an Age of Science

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44. Our Friend Machiavelli

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Machiavelli Part 2: The Three Branches of Ethics

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Machiavelli Part 3: Enter the Prince

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Machiavelli Part 4: Julius II the Warrior Pope

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Coda: Many Machiavellis

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Part IV: What Was Renaissance Humanism?

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45. What Was Behind the Curtain? Garin vs. Kristeller

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46. Who Gets to Count as a Renaissance Humanist?

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47. Back to Our X-Factors

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48. Once Upon a Time at Vergil’s House…

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49. Follow the Money!

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50. It’s Getting Weird in Florence

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51. Scraps of Philosophia

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52. Was There Renaissance Secular Humanism?

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53. How (Not) to Dodge the Renaissance Inquisition

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54. Why We Care Whether Machiavelli Was an Atheist

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55. Was Machiavelli a Humanist? Part 1

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56. Virtue Politics

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57. Was Machiavelli a Humanist? Part 2

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Part V: The Try Everything Age

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58. An Exponential Information Revolution

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59. We Can’t Just Abelard Harder Anymore

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60. The Presumptive Authority of the Past

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61. The New Philosophy

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62. A Brief History of Progress

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63. Progresses

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Part VI: Conclusion – Who Has Power in History?

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64. Great Forces History vs. Individual Choice History

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65. The Papal Election of 2016

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66. Which Horseman of the Apocalypse?

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67. What Did the Black Death Really Cause?

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End Credits

1/11/2026