This work is a classic -- a thorough examination of life and culture in the Middle Ages as it progressed toward the Renaissance. The author shows how the 14th and 15th century history marked not only the birth of a dramatically new era -- the Renaissance -- but the fullest, ripest phase of medieval life and thought.This work is a classic -- a thorough examination of life and culture in the Middle Ages as it progressed toward the Renaissance. The author shows how the 14th and 15th century history marked not only the birth of a dramatically new era -- the Renaissance -- but the fullest, ripest phase of medieval life and thought.