Dr. Brian Maxson’s research focuses on medieval and early modern Europe, especially the Italian Renaissance. He is a current articles editor of Renaissance Quarterly and co-organizer of both the online ePublic of Letters and the more regionally based Appalachian Premodernists. His work has been funded by the American Philosophical Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, Villa I Tatti  (the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies), the Fulbright Program, and others. Over a six-month period between 2022 and 2023 he published four different books, including A Short History of Florence and the Florentine Republic. He is currently working on a new project focused on the creation and influence of the idea of the Italian Renaissance in the United States from the fifteenth century to the present. His presentation for FSU draws on research from this project.