Renaissance Futurities: Science, Art, Invention

At publication date, a free ebook version of this title will be available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.

Renaissance Futurities considers the intersections between artistic rebirth, the new science, and European imperialism in the global early modern world. Charlene Villasenor Black and Mari-Tere Alvarez take as inspiration the work of Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), prolific artist and inventor, and other polymaths such as philosopher Giulio Delminio Camillo (1480-1544), physician and naturalist Francisco Hernandez de Toledo (1514-1587), and writer Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616). This concern with futurity is inspired by the Renaissance itself, a period defined by visions of the future, as well as by recent theorizing of temporality in Renaissance and Queer Studies. This transdisciplinary volume is at the cutting edge of the humanities, medical humanities, scientific discovery, and avant-garde artistic expression.