Italian Renaissance

The Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus was perhaps the favorite theme of Christian artists in the Middle Ages. In the Renaissance, the artistic adoration of the holy mother and child continued with masterpieces from Raphael, Botticelli and Lippi.

As we nestle into our centrally-heated houses for the winter, let's take a look at the kinds of homes and household goods Italian families had during the Renaissance.

Here's part two of the Medieval and Renaissance Herbal. These herbs were particularly useful for healing everything from bloody noses to insanity. Some are still in use today

Many old professions disappeared with the industrial revolution and handworkers were replaced by assembly lines and machines. I've found a rich source for the old world of jobs that are now obsolete.

Herbs have found a new popularity today. But in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, they were already the cooking, healing and aromatic tools of choice.

Everything. From superstitions to geography to the most beloved saints, a wealth of traditions and concerns went into choosing a newborn's name.

When Dante wrote his famous Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso, it was the 13th century and most of Europe was still medieval. But in the centuries to follow, scholars who read the Commedia declared it to be one of the first glimmers of what would soon be the Renaissance.

A Renaissance girl's role was to marry and have children. But it was usually no Romeo and Juliet story...

I'm not much of a clothes horse myself, but I'm fascinated by the fashions of the past. In the Italian Renaissance, the wealthier men and women dressed so sumptuously that there were laws against it.

In an age when piety was on the decline, Bernardino's folky preaching reminded the people of their faith.