Polydore Vergil
Italian humanist scholar and historian, author of De Inventoribus Rerum and the Anglica Historia, an influential early history of England; he spent much of his career in England before retiring to Urbino.
Books
This list of books are ONLY the books that have been ranked on the lists that are aggregated on this site. This is not a comprehensive list of all books by this author.
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1. On Discovery
A Renaissance humanist compendium that traces the origins and first inventors of the arts, sciences, and institutions, synthesizing classical learning and contemporary reports to explain how customs, technologies, and beliefs came to be. Organized by topic, it catalogs notable “firsts”—from letters and laws to warfare, navigation, and printing—while weighing legendary accounts against critical inquiry. The result is both a wide-ranging reference and an early exercise in evidence-based historiography that influenced later histories of inventions and ideas.
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