Historical writing on the Renaissance has usually focused on the social extremes that co-existed in the great metropolitan centers - on either elites or the underclass. As a result, the world of unexceptional families and provincial societies remains largely unexplored. Daily experiences in the lesser cities are, however, no less rich and revealing than those of Florence, Venice, and Milan.

In addition, writes historian James Grubb, these experiences offer new perspectives from which to reassess familiar assumptions about domestic life in the fifteenth century.

Based on memoirs and other records left by thirteen merchant families from the Veneto cities of Verona and Vincenza, Provincial families of the Renaissance is an engrossing study of daily lives that have until now been overlooked by scholars.

Grubb examines the attitudes and experiences of families undistinguished in their modest means and local ambitions from the majority of their compatriots, uncovering a detailed historical landscape rich in social obligations, commercial activities, and religious beliefs.