Tensions in Renaissance Cities

Rome, Florence, Geneva, London; Renaissance cities used art and literature to express their growing pains. After the Black Death, recovering cities developed in a geography of interdependence, connected by fluctuating kingdoms, mercantile networks, and the newborn printing press. Lavishly illustrated in full color, this catalog records an exhibit held at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center, which charts the tensions of capitals from Constantinople to Mexico City as they looked eastward, westward, backward toward antiquity, or upward to the celestial geographies offered by magic, science, and theology.