The Foundations of Early Modern Europe 1460 to 1559

The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460–1559 by Eugene F. Rice, Jr. (first edition 1970, W.W. Norton; revised second edition 1994 with Anthony Grafton) is a thematic synthesis of Europe’s transition from medieval to modern. The book examines technological breakthroughs and their social consequences, the interplay between the discovery of new lands and the recovery of ancient learning, economic expansion, the rise of humanist culture, the formation of the early modern state, and reform and revolution in the Church.