Volume One contains thirteen essays on European princes and princely culture between 1450 and 1650. Many products of medieval and renaissance culture – literature, music, political ideology, social and governmental structures, the fine arts, and even forms of devotional practice – found their best expression in the context of the courts of greater and lesser princes. This first of two volumes concentrating on the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era, has essays on selected courts north of the Alps and the Pyrenees: the court of Burgundy under the Valois dukes, that of France under Catherine de Médicis and of Henry IV, that of Scotland under Jameses III, IV, V, VI and of Mary, Queen of Scots, that of Margaret of Austria at Mechelen, of Scandinavia, of Heidelberg under Frederick the Victorious and Philip the Upright, and that of Maximilian I.

Many products of medieval and renaissance culture – literature, music, political ideology, social and governmental structures, the fine arts, forms of devotional piety, and also the social, political and literary self-representation of rulers – found their best expression in the context of the courts of greater and lesser princes. The second volume on princes and princely culture between 1450 and 1650 contains twelve essays. These are focused on England under Edward IV, Henrys VII and VIII, Elizabeth I, and under James I and Charles I. The late fifteenth-century imperial court is treated in a piece on Matthias I Corvinus. The courts of Italy are represented by chapters on those of the Po Valley, the Medici of Florence, the Papal courts of Pius II and Julius II, and of Naples. Spanish court culture is discussed in contributions on Charles V, Philip II, and of Philip IV.

With contributions by D’Arcy Jonathan Dacre Boulton, Gayle K. Brunelle, Davide Canfora, Dagmar Eichberger, Annette Finley-Croswhite, Martin Gosman, Margriet Hoogvliet, Volker Honemann, Jonathan Hughes, Richard L. Kagan, Michael Lynch, Alasdair A. MacDonald, Zweder von Martels, José Martínez Millán, Olaf Mörke, Jan-Dirk Müller, Rinaldo Rinaldi, Rita Schlusemann, Christine Shaw, Jane Stevenson, Alan Swanson, Arjo Vanderjagt, Henk van Veen, Rina Walthaus, and Janet Hadley Williams.