The Renaissance on the Road

This Element examines the material and social mechanisms that enacted mobility in the Renaissance.

This Element examines the material and social mechanisms that enacted mobility in the Renaissance and offers a new way to understand the period's dynamism, creativity, and conflict. It highlights the experiences of a wide range of mobile populations, paying particular attention to the concrete, practical dimensions of moving around at this time.The Renaissance was a highly mobile, turbulent era in Europe, when war, poverty, and persecution pushed many people onto the roads in search of a living or a safe place to settle. In the same period, the expansion of European states overseas opened up new avenues of long-distance migration, while also fuelling the global traffic in slaves. The accelerating movement of people stimulated commercial, political, religious, and artistic exchanges, while also prompting the establishment of new structures of control and surveillance. This Element illuminates the material and social mechanisms that enacted mobility in the Renaissance and thereby offers a new way to understand the period's dynamism, creativity, and conflict. Spurred by recent 'mobilities' studies, it highlights the experiences of a wide range of mobile populations, paying particular attention to the concrete, practical dimensions of moving around at this time, whether on a local or a global scale.