Introduction

George Sarton's reservations and ultimate acceptance of the Renaissance are representative of the broader course of the historiography. Few historical labels have produced more disagreement, but have proved more enduring than the Renaissance. The virulence of the rejection of the Renaissance was proportional to the enthusiasm of its prior acceptance. The Renaissance has served as an early locus for investigation of issues relating to gender and application of anthropological and psychoanalytical theory. The cultural anthropology of Clifford Geertz and his notion of "thick description" have been employed to look at Renaissance rituals and the ways people lived – helping historians move away from a static Enlightenment view of human nature to a more contextual one. The Renaissance has been the site for new historicist and postmodern approaches, which have called into question some of its most basic assumptions, including the very utility of historical categories and patterns. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.