Night after night, a ghost appears in the royal castle of Pergamontio, terrifying the princess. Mangus the Magician doesn't believe in ghosts, but still the King charges him with finding this one and freeing his daughter from its torment. If he can't, Mangus will pay with his life. The magician's only hope is his faithful, street-smart servant boy, Fabrizio, who must solve the mystery of the ghost using logic and reason -- and a bit of magic of his...

Professor Kenneth Bartlett helps you appreciate the Italian Renaissance as the moment in history when culture reached a point that is still very much with us, in the way we live our modern lives and in the extant Renaissance cities of contemporary Italy. You will gain an understanding of the underlying social, political, and economic forces that made such exceptional art and culture possible. In this course, you will learn from two masters: Professor...

"When King Claudio sends Mangus the Magician and his faithful servant, Fabrizio, to Venice to steal a manuscript that explains a magic method of making money, they must succeed in their mission or risk death. The manuscript is key to obtaining great profits for the king -- and a secure future for Mangus and Fabrizio. But Venice in 1492 is a dangerous place, full of foggy canals, cunning informers, and harsh punishments for those who steal its secrets....

"Some five hundred years ago, Sandro Botticelli, a painter of humble origin, created works of unearthly beauty. A star of Florence's art world, he was commissioned by a member of the city's powerful Medici family to execute a near-impossible project: to illustrate all one hundred cantos of The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, the ultimate visual homage to that "divine" poet. This sparked a gripping encounter between poet and artist, between the religious...

At the art museum, while her grandmother dozes, Katie steps into the painting of the Mona Lisa and together they have adventures with the characters from four other well-known Renaissance paintings. Includes informationabout the artists.

"The glorious and infamous history of the Borgia family--a world of saints, corrupt popes, and depraved princes and poisoners--set against the golden age of the Italian Renaissance."--Amazon.com

"The Renaissance in Florence conjures images of beautiful frescoes and elegant buildings-the dazzling handiwork of the city's skilled artists and architects. But equally important for the centuries to follow were geniuses of a different sort: Florence's manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars, and booksellers, who blew the dust off a thousand years of history and, through the discovery and diffusion of ancient knowledge, imagined a new and enlightened...