This biography of Macchiavelli is widely regarded as Ridolfi 's masterpiece and is based on much material drawn from private and public archives. It presents a fresh interpretation of Macchiavelli 's career and writings and here, for example the dating of the composition of such famous works as the Prince and the Mandragola is established for the first time. This English translation, when originally published in 1963 included numerous correction and additions which brought it up to date with the most recent studies on Macchiavelli and his works.

A scholarly edition of works by Francesco Guicciardini. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

Alberti wrote De Pictura in Latin in 1435 and in true Renaissance spirit made an Italian translation the following year.

He unfolds his theories step by step. In Book One he explains the process of vision, in Book Two he sets out ‘to instruct the painter how he can present with his hand what he has understood with his mind’. Book Three stipulates the moral and artistic prerequisites of the painter.

The genius of De Pictura surfaced almost immediately – signs are there in Ghiberti’s Baptistery Doors in Florence, in the paintings of Fra Angelico and Domenico Veneziano – and it remains a living classic of art theory.

This edition at last makes widely available Cecil Grayson’s translation from the Latin, the best English version of Alberti’s text. It contains diagrams integrated into the text and an introduction by Martin Kemp which discusses De Pictura in the light of Alberti’s life and philosophy.