This volume addresses the multiple, complex and sometimes contradictory forms of knowledge in circulation during a period recognized as a turning point in the intellectual history of Western Europe, and described today alternatively as "early modern" or "Renaissance." The problems of the label "early modern" are discussed, including the implied rupture with earlier periods, and the consequent denial of the difference or "otherness" of the textures of these forms of knowledge. Drawing on a range of critical discourses, the essays collected here engage with these textures in the more nuanced styles of interpretative practice which are emerging in the wake of new historicism and cultural materialism, and which represent a significant shift in critical approach and focus.