Introduction; 1. The court of the Spanish Habsburgs: a peculiar institution? J. H. Elliott; 2. The magnificent Lorenzo de' Medici: between myth and history Melissa Meriam Bullard; 3. Political rhetoric and poetic meaning in Renaissance culture: Clément Marot and the Field of Cloth of Gold Phyllis Mack; 4. The unlikely Machiavellian: William of Orange and the princely virtues Guy Wells; 5. The Estates of Brabant to the end of the fifteenth century: the make-up of the assembly Emile Lousse; 6. Presents and pensions: a methodological search and the case study of Count Nils Bielke's prosecution for treason in connection with gratifications from France Ragnhild Hatton; 7. Between Bruni and Machiavelli: history, law and historicism in Poggio Bracciolini Frederick Krantz; 8. Constitutional discourse in France, 1527–1549 Sarah Hanley; 9. Lieuwe van Aitzema: a soured but knowing eye Herbert H. Rowen; 10. John Calvin's contribution to representative government Robert M. Kingdon; 11. Luther and the humanists A. G. Dickens; 12. Scholars and ecclesiastical history in the Early Modern period: the influence of Ferdinando Ughelli Denys Hay; 13. 'By an Orphean charm': science and the two cultures in seventeenth-century England James R. Jacob; 14. The crisis of the European mind: Hazard revisited Margaret C. Jacob; 15. Isaac Beeckman and music D. P. Walker; 15. Decadence, shift, cultural changes and the universality of Leonardo da Vinci Dorothy Koenigsberger; 16. Bibliography of the writings of Helmut Georg Koenigsberger; Index.