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History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750) — page 3
111 public-domain history - early modern (c. 1450-1750) books, summarised. Page 3 of 3.

History of the Conquest of Mexico
William Hickling Prescott
A relentless pursuit of empire drives a small band of Spanish adventurers to dismantle the vast, sophisticated Aztec monarchy. This chronicle captures the collision of two worlds through military precision, diplomatic intrigue, and the tragic collapse of an ancient civilization.

Books and their makers during the Middle Ages
George Haven Putnam
The hand-copied manuscript and the printed page shaped the preserve of human thought across thirteen centuries of European history.

History of Central America, Volume 1, 1501-1530: The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume 6
Hubert Howe Bancroft
A handful of Spanish adventurers, driven by gold and glory, march across the Isthmus of Darien and the forests of Central America, upending native civilizations and battling each other for imperial spoils.

History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century, Volume 1
J. H. (Jean Henri) Merle d'Aubigné
Faith in divine grace cannot survive when human institutions demand that believers purchase their own salvation.

The Court of Philip IV.: Spain in Decadence
Martin A. S. (Martin Andrew Sharp) Hume
A proud empire crumbles under the weight of its own illusions while its courtiers indulge in extravagant spectacles and hollow pageantry.

The Conspiracy of Gianluigi Fieschi, or, Genoa in the sixteenth century
Emanuele Celesia
In the shadow of the Renaissance, a young nobleman dares to challenge the most powerful figures of his age, igniting a desperate struggle for Genoa’s lost liberty. This historical inquiry peels back the layers of a sixteenth-century political crisis to reveal the human cost of ambition and imperial intrigue.

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 36, 1649-1666: Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century
Unknown
These archival records document the volatile intersection of Spanish colonial ambition, religious factionalism, and the struggle for administrative control within the Philippine archipelago during the mid-seventeenth century.

A Treatise of Witchcraft
Alexander Roberts
The devil’s reach is long, yet his power is limited to the permissions granted by a higher authority. To understand his influence is to recognize the absolute necessity of anchoring one’s faith in God alone.

Chronicles of the house of Borgia
Frederick Rolfe
A sprawling, idiosyncratic defense of a maligned dynasty, this work reclaims the notorious figures of the Renaissance from centuries of hostile myth-making. It challenges the conventional image of a blood-soaked, poisoning family by meticulously re-examining the primary historical record.

History of the Great Reformation of the Sixteenth Century in Germany, Switzerland, &c., Volume 4
J. H. (Jean Henri) Merle d'Aubigné
The Reformation is not merely a theological shift, but a dramatic struggle for the soul of Europe, where the clash of kings and the conviction of reformers decide the fate of nations.

History of Friedrich II of Prussia
Thomas Carlyle
The life of a legendary monarch unfolds here, tracing the harsh, transformative crucible of his youth and the iron-willed foundations of his eventual reign. This expansive history examines the collision of private anguish and public duty, detailing the volatile, often brutal, relationship between a stern father and…

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898
Unknown
HOOK This collection of seventeenth-century colonial records offers a stark, unvarnished window into the daily friction between Spanish civil authority and the religious orders operating in the Philippine archipelago.

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898
Unknown
Colonial officials, Jesuit missionaries, and royal decree-makers scramble to defend, maintain, and govern a precarious Pacific outpost.

Queens of the Renaissance
M. Beresford Ryley
Six portraits of remarkable women trace the emergence, triumph, and spiritual fracturing of the European Renaissance through the intimate realities of private character and public trial.

The censorship of the Church of Rome and its influence upon the production and distribution of literature, volume 1 (of 2)
George Haven Putnam
A bureaucratic history of institutional fear, this study shows how the Catholic Church sought to govern the intellect of Europe through the systematically organized suppression of books.