The essays collected here reflect the author's work over three decades on the history and cultural life of the early Renaissance in Italy, focusing upon the city of Padua. The first section opens with studies on the place of the humanist Petrarch in Paduan culture, then looks at the life, works and manuscript tradition of one of his principal followers, Giovanni Conversini da Ravenna. These are followed by articles on the art of Giusto de' Menabuoi and the changing use of the term 'studia humanitatis' in early Renaissance Italy. The second part, complementing the author's monograph on politics and society in Carrara Padua (1318-1405), seeks to illuminate the social composition and political values of the city's governing elite.