The Italian Renaissance was preceded, structured, and, to a significant extent, determined by the Renaissance of the twelfth century which saw the culmination of Romanesque art and the beginnings of the Gothic; the emergence of vernacular languages; the revival of Latin classics, poetry, and Roman law; the recovery of Greek Science and much Greek philosophy; the origins of universities, towns, and the sovereign state.

It is not only exquisitely written but it is solid and profound.
-- Yale Review