In his article in Fredi Chiappelli’s seminal 1976 volume, First Images of America: The Impact of the New World on the Old, Donald Robertson tried to answer the fundamental question, “But what influence, if any, did the discovery of America and pre-conquest art have on European art? Growing up with an English florin in my pocket before the self-inflicted inflationary ruin of decimalization was introduced shortly after my 14th birthday, I had no idea that this ‘two bob bit’ was named after the famous gold coin of Florence.

Even when he’s writing about a subject as complex as the economy and the Florentine Renaissance, he manages to make it enjoyable. For instance, in the 1570s Francesco de’ Medici commissioned court artist Jacopo Ligozzi to create naturalistic works on paper to document the plants and animals from the New World entering the court. It’s a book that almost feels as if you’re peering behind the curtain of the family and getting a deeper look at what it was like to come from a place of so much power just to lose your reputation. Manuel Blasco de Nebra and Antonio Soler take us far from Martini’s sophisticated counterpoint and Bolognese polish to a proud and fiery music. Amidst the chaos, five women and the legendary artist Leonardo da Vinci weave together a dangerous plot that could bring peace or get them all killed.

To enable personalised advertising (like interest-based ads), we may share your data with our marketing and advertising partners using cookies and other technologies. As one of the most powerful and influential dynasties during the Renaissance period, ruling for over three centuries, you can be certain that there are plenty of great Medici books detailing the family’s rise and fall. Fleeing Venice together, Luciana and Guido race through the nine cities of Renaissance Italy, pursued by ruthless foes who are determined to keep them from decoding the painting’s secrets. On the bright side, the author’s ability to interlace the lives of so many eminent figures surrounding the Medici family is highly commendable.

With many interesting details and colourful descriptions, this isn’t a dry historical account but a vivid painting of a family that straddled centuries. In Medici, the charismatic monk Savronarola is shown urging Florentines to rise up against the Medici family and empty their homes of riches, jewels, and art. You can’t expect to really appreciate Florence without first acquiring some understanding of the Medici dynasty, especially the early years filled by Cosimo the Elder and Lorenzo the Magnificent . Gloriously fresh and vivid, with a deliciously irreverent heroine, The Botticelli Secret is an irresistible blend of history, wit, and suspense. Paul Strathern’s The Medici: Power, Money and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance, is a fast paced book which has much to merit its fame.And if you want to understand the past of Florence, you must learn more about the Medici, the family that really shaped the city.

The novel entertains while it delves deeply into both the sacred and the profane in Florence, one of the Italian Renaissance’s most consequential cities. Death in Florence revolves around the dichotomy and rivalry between Lorenzo de ‘Medici, heart and mind of the Renaissance culture, and his nemesis Savonarola, the friar who literally wanted to burn Renaissance in a bonfire of vanity.Daughter of Cosimo I de’ Medici and Eleanor of Toledo, Isabella was cultured, independent, free and unconventional woman who sought sexual parity. Historians often referred to Lorenzo as Il Magnifico, or “The Magnificent,” as he was a well-renowned poet and philosopher. You’ll learn what was it like to live in Florence, and why they had so many enemies like the Albizzi. For most of Europe’s population, who did not travel to the New World or participate in its violent conquest, the Americas had to be imagined at home.