Alan Bryson

In Renaissance England and Scotland, verse libel was no mere sub-division of verse satire but a fully-developed, widely-read poetic genre in its own right. This fact has been hidden from literary historians by the nature of the genre itself: defamation was rigorously prosecuted by state and local authorities throughout the period. Thus most (but not all) libelling, in verse or prose, was confined to manuscript circulation. This comprehensive survey of the genre identifies all sixteenth-century verse libel texts, printed and transcribed. It makes fifty-two of the least familiar of these poems accessible for further study by providing critical texts with glosses and explanatory notes. In reconstructing the contexts of these poems, we identify a number of the libellers, their targets, the circumstances of attack, and the workings of the scribal networks that disseminated many of them over wide areas, often for decades. The book's concentration on poems restricted to manuscript circulation throws substantial new light on the nature of Renaissance scribal culture. As poetic technicians, its practitioners were among the age's most experimental and creative. They produced some of the most popular, widely read works of their age and beyond, while their output established the foundation upon which the seventeenth-century tradition of verse libel developed organically.

In the middle of the 19th century in Persia, the founder of the Baha'I Faith described fanaticism as a world-devouring fire. This declaration produced a fanatical reaction in Persia, where over 20,000 people who answered the call were murdered. Over a century later, millions have embraced this vision. This book attempts to help you understand why.

Throughout recorded history there are only a handful of instances wherein the founder of a world religion has appeared. This book portrays the appearance of these truly unique individuals as milestones in the development of humanity, and their teachings as the greatest treasure available to mankind.