The leading Renaissance scholar of her time, Frances Yates revolutionised the study of the history of art, science and ideas. She demonstrated that ideas and practices once considered marginal such as hermeticism and alchemy were actually at the forefront of the renaissance mind. Yates was a pioneer in her emphasis on visual culture and many of her works are richly illustrated with the iconography of symbolism of occult philosophy. Her magisterial studies address subjects as diverse as: Shakespeares last plays late medieval tapestry Italian renaissance philosophy the Rosicrucians For forty years of her life Frances Yates was associated with the Warburg Institute. Awarded a DBE for services to renaissance studies in 1977, she was a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Literature. This set provides immediate access to the work of this most important of late twentieth century philosophers. Volumes are also available individually. The Valois Tapestries 0415-22044-0 This extensively illustrated volume presents the extravagant tapestries of the Uffizi as documents, subtly woven into the fabric of cultural and political history. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition 0415-22045-9 Giordano Bruno, perhaps the best-known philosopher of the Italian Renaissance, is here, for the first time, placed within the context of the Hermetic-Cabalist tradition. Yates explores how Renaissance Hermeticism stimulated new attitudes towards the cosmos and towards working with cosmic forces. Bruno emerges as a Hermetic Philosopher and magician with an unorthodox religious message. Even his support of Copernicus is associated with solar magic. This revolutionary reinterpretation profoundly affects our understanding of Bruno and of his death at the stake. The Art of Memory 0415-22046-7 Trained memory was of first importance in the ancient world before printing and paper for taking notes or writing down lectures were available. An art rose in response to this need which relied on architecture and could depend on faculties of intense visual memorization. In this volume, Yates traces this art of memory from Simonides through Aquinas to the Renaissance and the growth of scientific method. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment 0415-22047-5 The Rosicrucian Enlightenment is an enthralling reconstruction of an important yet largely forgotten phase in European thought. A stage between the Renaissance and the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century, the Rosicrucian Enlightenment was a striving for spiritual illumination as well as an attempt to advance scientific and intellectual knowledge. This book is the definitive work on the origins of Rosicrucian thought and its influence on politics and great thinkers in seventeenth-century Europe. Frances Yates focuses on the short-lived reign of Frederick, Elector Palatine, and his wife, the daughter of James I, as Winter King and Queen of Bohemia showing that this brief period was a Hermetic golden age, inspired by the Rosicrucian movement. The reconstruction of this phase of European history takes Rosicruianism beyond occult studies and makes it a concern for serious historical enquiry. The intellectual giants of this era, including Francis Bacon, Descartes and Newton, are seen here in new contexts that provide fresh insight into their thought. Among the many other personages and themes discussed are John Dee, Robert Boyles Invisible College, and the rise of the Royal Society and of Freemasonry. Astraea: The Imperial Theme in the Sixteenth Century 0415-22048-3 In this volume, Frances Yates attends to the political dimension of Renaissance thought. She examines the images and symbolism of religion and monarchy, especially in relation to the myth of Astraea. As well as being essential reading for historians of the Renaissance period, the book is of fundamental importance for students of the literature of the Elizabethan period. Frances Yates shows how Spensers Fairie Queene E grew out of the Accession Day Tilts and the imagery deployed in them, and demonstrates that Shakespeares preoccupation with Monarchy, with a rule of justice and purity as opposed to the forces of evil, grew out of the contemporary preoccupation with a religious imperial theme. The book as a whole forms a unity - an approach to history through imagery - and includes many illustrations, which are in themselves historical documents. Shakespeares Last Plays: A New Approach 0415-22049-1 Drawing together many years of research on Renaissance symbolism and the Hermetic tradition, Frances Yates tackles Shakespearean problems, with startlingly original results. Her approach makes possible a new interpretation of Cymbeline, relating its imagery to the revival of Tudor mythology the influence of the Tudor imperial reform and religious toleration in Henry VIII the role of magic in the last plays whose magical-mystical atmosphere is compared with that of the Rosicrucian movement in Germany with which it is suggested that Shakespeare was in sympathy Ben Jonsons attitude to Shakespeare. The book connects closely with Astraea and The Rosicrucian Enlightenment and it suggests entirely new and exciting routes into the understanding of Shakespeares attitude to the religious problems of his age. The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age 0415-220505 A central theme of this book is the history of Christian Cabala, the Christian interpretation of the Jewish mystical tradition. It was believed that when God gave the Law to Moses, he also gave a revelation of the secret meaning of the Law. This esoteric tradition was interpreted in a Christian sense by Pico della Mirandola, the founder of Christian Cabala, with which he associated Hermeticism. Part I discusses the occult philosophy in Renaissance and Reformation, showing its wide influence and reactions against it as magic. Part II traces the influence of the occult philosophy on major Elizabethan writers such as Spenser, Marlowe, Chapman and Shakespeare. A major theme throughout the book is the importance of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 in spreading Cabalist notions among Christians. The presence of Jewish influence in the Elizabethan age is hinted at, and the return of the Jews to England in the reign of Charles II is seen as the culmination of trends linking Albion with Jerusalem, even in the Elizabethan age. This is discussed in Part III. The book uses Frances Yatess other works on the Hermetic-Cabalist tradition, whilst attempting a new presentation of Christian Cabala. In her study of the imagery with which the poets express occult philosophy, she draws on her work Astraea E on the Elizabethan imperial reform. Lull & Bruno (Collected essays) 0415-22051-3 The essays collected here reprint the first sketches, dating from 1939 to 1960, which were to form Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. They contain much material not used in that book, however, and they also look forward to what became The Art of Memory. Renaissance and Reform: The Italian Contribution (Collected essays) 0415-22052-1 This book brings together Frances Yatess research on Italian subjects, drawn from all periods of her long and distinguished career. Beginning with an account of how she first became involved with Italian cultural and intellectual history, the essays collected here cover a wide range of topics, some taking up and adding to themes explored in her books, others breaking new ground. Included are articles on aspects of Giordano Bruno, teachers of Italian in sixteenth and seventeenth-century England, Shakespeare and the Platonic tradition, and a fourteenth century treatise on artificial memory, as well as essays on Paolo Sarpi, Machiavelli, Guicciardini, and on the Hebrew teachers of Pico della Mirandola and other philosophers of the Italian Renaissance. Ideas and Ideals in the North European Renaissance 0415-22239-7 This volume comprises Yatess papers and reviews on topics concerning England, France, the Netherlands and Germany during the epoch of the Renaissance and Reformation. The essays are drawn from all periods of Yatess long career and cover a wide range of subjects: English allegorical portraiture in the Elizabethan age Yatess early and late contributions on Shakespeare, Jonson, John Dee and Francis Bacon English Protestant attitudes to religious images and to martyrdom French drama Theocratic and apocalyptic politics European influence of printing and of Erasmus, Cornelius Agrippa, Copernicus and Newton. Also included is a selection from Yatess notes on her early publications and first acquaintance with the Warburg Institute as well as a brief autobiographical account of her early life. A full list of her writings completes the book and rounds out the picture of a remarkable historian.