James R. Farr is the Germaine Seelye Oesterle Professor of History at Purdue University, USA. He is the author of several books and articles on European history.Guido Ruggiero is the College of Arts and Sciences Cooper Fellow and Professor of History at the University of Miami, USA. He has published numerous articles and books on Italian Renaissance history and culture.

• 1. Introduction - James Farr and Guido Ruggiero .- 2. The Elusive Self: An Essay - John Jeffries Martin .- 3. The Life Enhancing Value of Life-Writing: On the Uses and Disadvantages of History in Vasari's Lives of Artists - Douglas Biow .- 4. Benvenuto Cellini Magnanimously Corrects the Irritating Ignorance of Life Writers in General and in Regard to My Vita - Guido Ruggiero .- 5. Conversions and Crossing Frontiers: The Lives of Two Spanish Monks - James Ameland .- 6. Everard Nithard’s Memoria: The Jesuit Confessor’s Quest for Re-fashioning the Self, People and Events - Silvia Z. Mitchell - 7. Egodocument History and the Diary of Constantijn Huygens, Jr. - Rudolf Dekker .- 8. Dimensions of the Self in Autobiographical Life-Writing: James Boswell’s Journals and William Hickey’s Memoirs - James R. Farr .- 9. Our Letters, Our Lives: Self-Performance as Life-Writing in Italian Renaissance Correspondence - Deanna Shemek .- 10. Writing About the “Other” in One’s Life: Life-Writing and Egodocuments of King Frederick William I of Prussia (1713-40), Frederick II of Prussia, and Wilhelmina of Bayreuth - Benjamin Marschke .- 11. A Dutch Notary and His Clients - Mary Lindemann .- 12. The Genres and Modes of Early Modern Women’s Life-Writing: Anne Clifford and Anne Marie Louise d’Orleans - Mihoko Suzuki.

“Editors James R. Farr and Guido Ruggiero have fashioned a compelling collection of essays that explore and enlighten on a subject … . I found the variety of treatments of the general theme not only interesting but helpful and revealing. The distinct methods and points of view that each of these contributors brought to bear on their subjects has created a series of essays that, collectively, provide a greater depth of understanding of the general theme.” (Alex Hunnicutt, H-Net Reviews, h-net.org, March, 2023)