Life in Florentine Times

What was life like in 15th-century Florence? This question could be answered very differently by different classes of people.

Index of Primary Sources and Letters

Original Essays and Art Collections:

A Renaissance Home

Lorenzo de Medici: Renaissance Prince

Tablecloths and Napkins

The Poor in Renaissance Italy

Horses in the Renaissance

The Florentine Closet

Renaissance Food Links

Women in the Renaissance

Children in the Renaissance

Art History Resources

Original Sources

The Union Catalog of Pre-1600 Books Online - a collection of resources from all over the world. Links to cookbooks, legal documents, letters, more.

Project Gutenberg - Another collection of original sources, most Victorian but some going back to Roman and earlier times.

Internet Archive - A collection of both PDF and .TXT of original primary sources.

Netserf - One of the original places to find just about everything under the sun related to early history through the Renaissance.

Letters of Alessandra Strozzi, compiled by Cesare Guasti. Why yes, they are in Italian.

A Book of Cookrye - An HTML transcription of the 1591 English cookbook.

A Forme of Cury - The original 14th-century English cookbook.

Medieval and Renaissance Food Homepage - Large link collection.

Libro de arte coquinaria - By Maestro Martino, Renaissance Italian cookbook. It's in Italian, but don't let that stop you from ogling "pasta with pine nuts" and the less savory-sounding veal brains.

Medieval Cooking Glossary - Won't teach you Italian, but very useful!

Florio's 1611 Italian/English Dictionary - amazing collection of links and original works to help transcribers. Searchable too, with this link here.

Various texts from all around Europe, plus links to lots others.

This page last updated: July 10, 2009

All text copyright Vangelista di Antonio Dellaluna, except where otherwise noted. All portraits are understood to be copyright- free and are presented as research aids only.