Renaissance Medievalisms. Ed. Konrad Eisenbichler. (Publications of the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 18). Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2009. Pp. 360. Paper $ 37.00.

• Wolfram R. Keller

As James Simpson’s Reform and Cultural Revolution (2002), Gordon McMullan and David Matthews’s anthology Reading the Medieval in Early Modern England (2007), and Kathleen Davis’s Periodization and Sovereignty (2008) amply demonstrate, the Burckhardtian veil separating the Middle Ages from the Renaissance – and with it the assumption of a radical alterity between the presumably modern and the allegedly premodern – has become subject to renewed investigation. Whereas the mentioned books primarily stem from medievalists, Renaissance Medievalisms assembles articles that were originally delivered as conference presentations and that are mainly written by Renaissance scholars. The propositions of the volume are that “there is obviously some continuity” but that “the world did change dramatically” in the so-called early modern period, and that the Renaissance was “consciously post-medieval” (20–21). The fifteen essays are organized into three sections, which will likewise structure the following overview – the table of contents is available from the publisher’s website: .

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