[...] A volume covering the period from the extinction of the Hohenstaufen line of emperors to the Holy Roman Empire of the end of the religious wars on what is academically known as the upper-division level [...] The present book is an effort to portray this middle period of [the] European tradition within the framework of the accepted results of recent study and research [...] this period, from Dante to Westphalia, is peculiarly an epoch of endings and beginnings in almost every area of European life: society, economy, religion, art, education, and letters. It has been my effort, therefore, to present an overall picture [from the "Preface"]