The Firearm Revolution
From Renaissance Italy to the European Empires
$61.05
- Hardcover
352 pages
- Release Date
21 July 2026
Summary
A groundbreaking account of how firearms changed Europe and the world.
In Renaissance Italy, the gun was not only a tool of war but also a desirable object, a luxury item carried at court. Guns were in use on the battlefield by 1440; later in that century Leonardo da Vinci sketched a design for a faster-firing, more portable handgun that could be hidden beneath a cloak. As the gun proliferated in society, it became both a means of self-defence and a threat to civic or…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780691272672 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0691272670 |
| Author: | Catherine Fletcher |
| Publisher: | Princeton University Press |
| Imprint: | Princeton University Press |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 352 |
| Release Date: | 21 July 2026 |
| Weight: | 520g |
| Dimensions: | 26mm x 152mm x 228mm |
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Critics Review
“An engaging read… . It casts valuable new light on the problems of gunmaking and gun control in one of the more highly contested areas of Renaissance Italy.”—Alexander Lee, Literary Review
“A wide-ranging and sophisticated treatment of the effect of firearms on early modern Italy and beyond.”—Stephen Brumwell, Wall Street Journal
”[A] fascinating book on the social impact of guns in Europe.”—J.D. Tuccille, Reason
“Fascinating.” * Paradigm Explorer *
Catherine Fletcher
Catherine Fletcher is professor of history at Manchester Metropolitan University. She is the author of several books on early modern Italy, including The Roads to Rome, The Beauty and the Terror: An Alternative History of the Italian Renaissance, and The Black Prince of Florence: The Life of Alessandro de’ Medici.
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