Art, education, and culture became very prominent and significant in Italy during the 1300's. This artistic, intellectual and cultural movement is what is known to be as the 'Italian Renaissance', which translates to the rebirth of Italy. This movement starting in Italy spread throughout Europe and allowed for a period of expansion and global conquest (Cole and Symes, 365). Thomas V. Cohen constructs a historical story-telling book out of six trials that during this time of rebirth in Italy. The major theme of love and death is right in the title: “Love and Death in Renaissance Italy”. Cohen covers the theme of love and death in Renaissance Italy through six chapters of trial documents put together to tell a story. The chapters each tell a story that reveals the politics of family life in Italy during the time of the Renaissance. The first chapter for example, tells a story of a husband who had murdered both his wife and her mistress when finding out about her affairs (Cohen, 13). Another chapter tells a story of brothers who persuade their dying sister to exclude a sibling out of her will while leaving the rest of her possessions in their favour (Cohen, 83). This chapter provides a look into the making of a will during…show more content… In chapter 3, Cohen was even able to create a play based on the voices of the trial from the documents provided to him . He also supplies a backdrop prior to the play to allow the reader a better understanding of what is happening before, during and after the trial (Cohen, 62). He uses the documents of the trials to recreate the event that happened. For instance, in Chapter one Cohen recreates the scene in where the husband finds his wife with his mistress in bed and then murders both of them (Cohen, 13). He took the primary sources of the trial, what has been said by witnesses and the murderer himself and told his story of how it