Bibliography

History and Culture

• Baumgartner, Frederic. France in the Sixteenth Century. NY: St. Martin's Press,1995. - an excellent overview overviews, analysing the times from the point of view of the estates -- the nobility, the clergy, the commons, as well as the monarchy and the institutions of justice. It has the clearest explanation of "money of account" to be found anywhere.
• Bitton, Davis. The French Nobility in Crisis: 1560-1640. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1969.
• Braudel, Fernand. Civilization and Capitalism, 15th to 18th Centuries, Vol. 1: The Structures of Everyday Life. NY: Harper & Row, 1981. In indispensible classic on material life.
• Buisseret, David. Henri IV, King of France. London: 1984. - focusses on Henri IV's military exploits and role as king.
• Burke, Peter. Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe. NY: Harper & Row, 1978.
• Coudy, Julien. The Huguenot Wars (trans. by Julie Kernan, originally published as Les Guerres de Religion), NY: Chilton Book Co, 1969. A collection of eyewitness accounts of the events surrounding the wars.
• Corvisier, André. Armies and Society in Europe 1495-1789. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1979. trans. by Abigail Siddall.
• Davis, Natalie Zemon. Society and Culture in Early Modern France. Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1987. - a series of very insightful essays on various aspects of 16th c. culture.
• Davis, Natalie Zemon and Farge, Arlette, editors. A History of Women in the West: Volume III, Renaissance and Enlightenment Paradoxes, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.
• Delbruck, Hans. The Dawn of Modern Warfare (History of the Art of War, Vol 4). Univ of Nebraska Press: 1990.
• Diefendorf, Barbara. Beneath the Cross- Catholics and Huguenots in Sixteenth Century Paris. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1991. - one of the best studies of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre and the social circumstances leading up to it.
• Erlanger, Philippe. La Vie Quotidienne sous Henri IV. Paris: Librairie Hachette,1958.
• Febvre, Lucien (trans. Beatrice Gottlieb). The Problem of Unbelief in the Sixteenth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1982. - an interesting perspective on the mentality of the 16th c.
• Febvre, Lucien. Life in Renaissance France. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1977.
• Fedder, Katharine. Manor Life in Old France - From the Journal of Sire de Gouberville for the Years 1549-1562. NY: Columbia Univ. Press, 1933. - excerpts from Gouberville's Journal, arranged around topics ("food", "money", etc.)
• Flandrin, Jean-Louis. Families in Former Times. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1976. - some insights into the concept of "family" as it evolved in the early modern period in France.
• Garrisson, Janine. A History of Sixteenth-Century France, 1483-1598 : Renaissance, Reformation and Rebellion, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995. See Review.
• Greengrass, Mark. France in the Age of Henri IV. NY: Longman, 1995. - a lot of different insights into Henri IV's achievement of bringing stability to France.
• Hale, J. R.War and Society in Renaissance Europe, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ Press, 1985. -- This is a great book bringing together many aspects of war, culture, and society.
• Holt, Mack P. The French Wars of Religion 1562-1629. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995. - a good overview of the wars, and a great bibliography.
• Holt, Mack P. , ed. Society and Institutions in Early Modern France. Athens: Univ. of Georgia Press, 1991. - a series of essays
• Hufton, Olwen. The Prospect Before Her: A History of Women in Western Europe 1500-1800. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.
• Kamen, Henry. The Iron Century: Social Change in Europe 1550-1660. NY: Praeger Publishers, 1971.  This is a wide-ranging analysis of the second half of the century. This is a great divide between the first half of the sixteenth century (the reigns of François I and Henri II), and the second half, consumed as it was by war, social instability, and economic stress.
• Ladurie, Emmanuel LeRoy (trans. John Day). The Peasants of Languedoc. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1976. - useful analysis of peasant life, looking at food consumption, prices, etc.
• Mandrou, Robert (trans R.E. Hallmark). Introduction to Modern France 1500-1640: An Essay in Historical Psychology. NY: Holmes & Meier, 1976. - a very useful analysis of society and culture, inspired by the "total history" approach of Febvre.
• Montaigne, Michel de. The Complete Works, Trans. by Donald M. Frame. Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1971.
• Neuschel, Kristen B. Word of Honor: Interpreting Noble Culture in 16th century France, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989.
• Oman, Sir Charles. The Art of Warfare in the Sixteenth Century. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1937. A greatly sought-after classic for anyone interested in military history.
• Ozment, Steven. Magdalena & Balthasar, Yale University Press, 1989. These are letters exchanged over many years between a travelling Nuremburg merchant and his wife. An interesting insight into everyday life in the 16th century..
• Poortvliet, Rien (trans. by Karen H. Ford). Daily Life in Holland in the Year 1566; and the story of my ancestor's treasure chest. NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1992. A wonderful book with beautiful drawings of realistic people, clothes, furniture, etc. Not a scholarly work (there is no bibliography) but the drawings come from good source materials, if you can recognize them. Mostly, this is just a lovely work of art.
• Roeder, Ralph. Catherine de Medici and The Lost Revolution. NY: Viking Press, 1937. - an interesting bio of one of the key figures of the age.
• Russell of Liverpool, Lord. Henry of Navarre. NY: Praeger Publishers, 1970. - a traditional bio of Henri IV.
• Salmon, JHM. Society in Crisis, France in the Sixteenth Century. NY: St. Martin's Press, 1975. - This is one of the very best overviews of the period, and it has a magnificent bibliography.
• Smith, Lacey Baldwin, The Elizabethan World, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991.
• Wiley, William Leon. The Gentleman of Renaissance France. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1954.
• Web Resources:
• Montaigne on the Web
• French Heraldry page (Includes Genealogy of the Kings of France)
• Armory of the French Provinces
• Arisitum: Historie et Archeologie en France
• Creating French Culture: the Renaissance and Early 17th Century
• The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre
• The Protestant Reformation
• The Catholic Reformation
• Reformation texts (Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, Zwingli, Bullinger)
• Loyola's Spiritual Exercises
• French Resources from the University of Washington, St. Louis
• Library of Congress Special Collections: Sixteenth Century
• The Measurers: A Flemish Image of Mathematics in the Sixteenth Century
• France à travers les âges
• Histoire de France

Food and Dining

• Brett, Gerard. Dinner is served; a study in manners. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1969.
• Conseil National Des Arts Culinaires. Nord, Pas-de-Calais: Produits du terroir et recettes traditionelles. Paris, 1994.
• Clark, Peter. The English alehouse : a social history, 1200-1830. London ; New York : Longman, 1983.
• Dawson, Thomas. The Good Huswife's Jewell. London, 1596. A historical reprint is available from The New England and Virginia Company, P.O. Box 8511, Salem, MA 01971-8511.
• Mennell, Stephen. All manners of food : eating and taste in England and France from the Middle Ages to the present. Oxford, UK ; New York, NY, USA : B. Blackwell, 1985.
• Paston-Williams, Sara. The Art of Dining: A History of Cooking and Eating. Harry N. Abrams, 1994.
• Scully, D. Eleanor, Terrence Scully, J. David Scully (illus.). Early French Cookery: Sources, History, Original Recipes and Modern Adaptations. University of Michigan Press, 1995.
• Scully, Terrence. The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages. University of Rochester Press, 1995.
• Toussaint-Samat, Maguelonne, trans. Anthea Bell, History of Food, Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1993.
• Wheaton, Barbara Ketcham. Savoring the past : the French kitchen and table from 1300 to 1789. Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983.
• Web Resources:
• Culinary History Page
• Medieval and Renaissance Cooking

Costuming

• Arnold, Janet. Patterns of Fashion -- the cut and construction of clothes for men and women c. 1560-1620. NY:Drama Book, 1993. This book has detailed diagrams of actual surviving garments, many of which have become so fragile they are no longer on public display in the museums that own them. Janet is a goddess in costuming circles.
• Cunnington, C. Willet and Phillis Cunnington, Handbook of English Costume in the Sixteenth Century. Boston: Plays, Inc., 1970.
• Davenport, Millia, The Book of Costume. NY: Crown, 1948. This has a great many b&w photos of paintings, sculptures and surviving garments. It is one of the classics in the field, and is sadly out of print (see our Suppliers for G.F. Armoury Books, one of our sources for out-of-print books. Also, Blake's Books, on the web, is an excellent source, provider of many loved volumes!).
• Kelly, Francis M. and Randolph Schwabe. Historic Costume. NY: Charles Scribner and Sons, 1929. Another out-of-print classic. Includes patterns of actual garments.
• Norris, Herbert. Costume and Fashion, Vol. 3, The Tudors Book II: 1547-1603.  Facsimile reprint Falconwood Press. This source cannot be relied on without corrobation from another source (the Victorian author politely omits codpieces from his drawings, for example), but the line drawings are easy to reproduce and without copyrights.
• Piton, Camille, Le Costume Civil en France de XIII au XIX Siècle. Paris: Flammarion. no date. This is an excellent work, with many pictures that have not been reproduced elsewhere. Davenport uses it as a source. (out of print).
• Willet, C. and Phillis Cunnington.  The History of Underclothes. NY: Dover, 1992. Pictures of shirts, chemises, etc.
• Web resources:
• Costuming
• History of Costume
• The Costume Page
• How to Make Basic Shirts and Smocks
• Elizabethan Costuming Homepage
• Elizabethan Blackwork
• The Costume Site
• Renaissance Costume Guide

Fencing

• Web resources:
• Fencing and Historical Recreation
• Fencing, Primary Sources
• Blade Specifications
• Fencing Bibliography

Paintings

• Aertsen
• Bruegel, Pieter the Elder
• Clouet
• Vermeer
• <A H