"I had determined to go as far as declaring in abstruse and puzzling utterances the future causes of the 'common advent', even those truly cogent ones that I have foreseen. Yet lest whatever human changes may be to come should scandalise delicate ears, the whole thing is written in nebulous form, rather than as a clear prophecy of any kind." (Nostradamus)

A lot of time has been spent covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? When historians are asked to pick a point in history when Western civilization was transformed and guided down the path to modernity, most of them point to the Renaissance. Indeed the Renaissance revolutionized art, philosophy, religion, the sciences, and math. Individuals like Galileo, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Dante, and Petrarch bridged the past and modern society. In Charles River Editors' Legends of the Renaissance, listeners can get caught up on the lives of the most important men and women of the Renaissance in the time it takes to finish a commute. And they can do so while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.

It's safe to say there have been countless prophets and seers throughout history, but only one Nostradamus (1503-1566). Nostradamus has become a pop-culture fixture even among those who find nothing of note in his work. He is a cult figure among those who pore through his prophecies to look for proof that he foresaw major world events centuries ahead of time.