nurbook
Renaissance Dogs: A Litter of Hilarious Pups, Mutts, and Hounds
Author(s): Taylor Wagmore (Author)
- Publisher: Ten Speed Press
- Publication Date: June 16, 2026
- Language: English
- Print length: 208 pages
- ISBN-10: B0FHJY869Y
- ISBN-13: 9798217273133
Book Description
Our four-legged friends have witnessed the creation of some of history’s greatest works: Shakespeare’s plays, da Vinci’s masterpieces, the Sistine Chapel, the first printed book, and even the flushable toilet. Behind the achievements of every great innovator is their dog: sometimes enthusiastically looking on, at other times asleep. Or chewing a bone. Or sniffing another dog’s bum…
Renaissance Dogs celebrates not just the delightfully odd-looking doggy depictions of the era but also our insistence on ensuring our furry friends’ place in history alongside our own. This carefully curated, full-color compendium of over 100 canine portraits immortalizes a wide array of pups, from the creepily humanoid dogs of the early Renaissance period (painted by artists who, clearly, had never seen a dog in their life) to the beautifully rendered canines of the Enlightenment.Enjoy a humorous peek into Renaissance art and literature with witty captions, interesting dog facts, and excerpts from famous literary works accompanying astoundingly funny portrayals of our favorite canine companions.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Ah, the Renaissance. The Golden Age. If you’re looking for humanity’s greatest hits—art, astronomy, literature, science, education, medicine, etc.—the moments when we truly pulled our fingers out from the smelly crevices of the Middle Ages, then the Renaissance is it. Between 1400 and 1700(ish)—we’ve thrown in a little Reformation and Enlightenment-era art, too, because, well, why not—opening your eyes in the morning was transformed from a rather bleak experience to being a quite pleasant one, all thanks to a wealth of life-changing inventions: the pencil, the microscope, the telescope, the printing press, and even the flushable toilet. These instruments truly dragged us from the Dark Ages into the light. And, boy, what a breath of fresh air it was.
The Renaissance was so revolutionary, in fact, that it birthed the discovery of gravity. (Before Isaac Newton came along in 1666, everything was just floating in the air for no reason at all, which is crazy when you think about it.) Newton was just one of the many magnificent mortals who defined these immortal times. Shakespeare, da Vinci, Galileo, Machiavelli, Copernicus, Magellan, Bacon, Petrarch . . . and that guy who mistook America for India . . . all ran so the rest of us could now walk. Sure, the
Renaissance had its downsides—the constant warring, the never-ending pestilence, and the eternal religious persecution—but let’s forget about that. Ooh, look—a cute little doggy!
By our side every step of the way through this crazy period were, of course, dogs. Forever loyal and loving, these faithful companions and protectors witnessed humankind’s first steps toward greatness, without ever once complaining about our smell when we were too busy to take a shower (invented in 1767, FYI), despite having the most powerful noses on the planet. That’s love, right there. For three centuries or so, these furry, four-legged friends, with their dedication to pure joy and play (and eating literally anything that isn’t nailed down), have taught us how to be a little less like a wild animal and a little more like them. This dog-eared collection of canines—a
dogalog, if you’ll permit—celebrates these colorful creatures in all their silliest shapes and sizes.As repayment for their service and loyalty during this period, the world’s greatest art masters painted pooches, poodles, and pups ever more imaginatively, and often ridiculously, into every frame of our lives—through the painting techniques the era pioneered (google it, I’m running out of space here). This ensured their place in the pantheon of recorded history alongside us, even if they didn’t sit still for one second of it.
So, welcome to the Renaissance. Grab a shovel, because you’re about to scoop up a
lot of silly doggy fun. Now, tell me, which Renaissance dog is your favorite?{“@context”:”:”:”https://schema.org”,”@type”:”Book”,”name”:”Renaissance Dogs: A Litter of Hilarious Pups, Mutts, and Hounds”,”image”:”https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81PREU7zKCL._SY385_.jpg”,”author”:{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Taylor Wagmore (Author)”},”publisher”:{“@type”:”Organization”,”name”:”Ten Speed Press”},”datePublished”:”June 16, 2026″,”isbn”:”9798217273133″,”numberOfPages”:208,”inLanguage”:”English”,”description”:”Delight in over 100 hilarious depictions of man’s best friend—from sweetly puppish to downright demonic—produced between 1400–1700 by the Renaissance’s greatest painters.Our four-legged friends have witnessed the creation of some of history’s greatest works: Shakespeare’s plays, da Vinci’s masterpieces, the Sistine Chapel, the first printed book, and even the flushable toilet. Behind the achievements of every great innovator is their dog: sometimes enthusiastically looking on, at other times asleep. Or chewing a bone. Or sniffing another dog’s bum…Renaissance Dogs celebrates not just the delightfully odd-looking doggy depictions of the era but also our insistence on ensuring our furry friends’ place in history alongside our own. This carefully curated, full-color compendium of over 100 canine portraits immortalizes a wide array of pups, from the creepily humanoid dogs of the early Renaissance period (painted by artists who, clearly, had never seen a dog in their life) to the beautifully rendered canines of the Enlightenment.Enjoy a humorous peek into Renaissance art and literature with witty captions, interesting dog facts, and excerpts from famous literary works accompanying astoundingly funny portrayals of our favorite canine companions.”,”url”:”https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FHJY869Y/”,”bookFormat”:”http://schema.org/EBook”,”additionalType”:”http://schema.org/PDF”,”fileSize”:”21 MB”,”accessibilityFeature”:[“login required”,”member access only”],”accessibilitySummary”:”PDF version available to authenticated members only. File size: 21 MB.”}
