Vainglorious Death: A Funerary Fracas in Renaissance Brescia

In 1505 the Italian city of Brescia was divided by a dispute about costly funerals, greed, and ambition. These themes are explored in two pamphlets written by prominent humanists involved in that dispute and presented here for the first time together with substantial appendices. This translation has been undertaken by a trained classical scholar and experienced translator of Renaissance texts in consultation with a historian of Renaissance Italy. Vainglorious Death offers students and academics interested in early modern Europe a fascinating insight into aspects of life in a Renaissance city such as material culture, sumptuary legislation, Christian humanism, gift relations, solidarity between the living and the dead, and civic puritanism.

Translated and annotated by J. Donald Cullington
Edited and introduced by Stephen Bowd