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The Renaissance was one of the greatest flowerings of artistic works in history. Artists such as Michelangelo and Raphael, to mention just two. The reasons behind this cultural flowering are still much debated. The following list of books offer some theories on the reason for this period of artistic and cultural achievement.
1. Gene Bruckner, ''Renaissance Italy''. (University of California Press: Stanford, 1983).
This work offers a survey of the Renaissance in Florence, which was one of the great artistic and cultural centres of the time. Bruckner argues that the Renaissance in Florence was a result of a new elite of merchants and lawyers and their fascination with Ancient Rome and Greece. The believed that the past was a golden age and in trying to revive the culture of Rome and Greece, they helped to initiate the Renaissance in Florence and also in Italy.
[[File:Piero,_ritratto_di_sigismondo_malatesta.jpg|thumbnail|150px250px|left|image of Pietro Malatests- a mercenary and ruler of Rimmini, typical of the Renaissance elite.]]
2. Peter Burke, ''The Italian Renaissance, Culture and Society''. (Princeton University Press: Princeton, 2014).
