Black Africans in Renaissance Europe

T F Earle editor K J P Lowe editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:26th May '05

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Black Africans in Renaissance Europe cover

This book, first published in 2005, is an innovative account of black African experience and representation in Renaissance Europe.

This book, first published in 2005, explores the whole range of black African experience and representation across Renaissance Europe. It offers an interdisciplinary guide to the variety and complexity of black African life in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe, and how it was affected by Renaissance ideas and conditions.This book, first published in 2005, opens up the much neglected area of the black African presence in Western Europe during the Renaissance. Covering history, literature, art history and anthropology, it investigates a whole range of black African experience and representation across Renaissance Europe, from various types of slavery to black musicians and dancers, from real and symbolic Africans at court to the view of the Catholic Church, and from writers of African descent to black African 'criminality'. The main purpose of the collection is to show the variety and complexity of black African life in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe, and how it was affected by firmly held preconceptions relating to the African continent and its inhabitants. Of enormous importance for both European and American history, this book mixes empirical material and theoretical approaches, and addresses such issues as stereotypes, changing black African identity, and cultural representation in art and literature.

'At each turn of the page, Black Africans in Renaissance Europe unravels some of the intrigues and hidden nuggets captured in the literature and artwork of the Renaissance period about black Africans. With the inclusion of a wealth of drawings, paintings, Latin, Italian and Portuguese texts of poetry, letters and inscriptions, it is impossible to do the book justice in a mere review.' Runnymede's Quarterly Bulletin
'… we must be grateful for the important dimension Black Africans in Renaissance Europe contributes to a larger subject: the embrace of human slavery which, though certainly not unique, has nevertheless sullied the history of the West.' The Times Literary Supplement
'This is an exceptionally rich anthology, well written, handsomely illustrated, and containing much of value for both specialists and a more general public.' Allison Blakely, Boston University
'This book's complex picture of black life across Europe makes it an important read not only for Renaissance scholars, but for all scholars of the early Atlantic world … a valuable book …' Catherine Molineux, H-Atlantic
'… the quality of the individual contributions is uniformly excellent. Each piece is carefully researched from both manuscript and printed sources, and each is an original contribution to scholarship … the works gathered together in this fine volume are likely to be cited and quoted for some time to come.' John Thornton, The International Journal of African Historical Studies
'This excellent volume is a striking testament to what can be achieved in uncovering the black presence in Western Europe and serves as a stirring inspiration for future work.' Philip Morgan, Princeton University
'… the volume offers an array of insights into a subject that has long deserved more attention than it has received.' Liz Horodowich, Renaissance Quarterly
'… the collection is valuable for the excellent essays it does provide and especially for the insights into attitudes toward Otherness, especially that racial biasses are the product of one's particular social and political situation, and the discourses that are constructed around them.' Mary C. Olson, Sixteenth Century Journal

ISBN: 9780521815826

Dimensions: 253mm x 198mm x 40mm

Weight: 1115g

434 pages