05/03/2021
Novelist and historian Strathern (The Borgias ) paints an accessible portrait of Renaissance-era Florence as a city of “revolutionary” ideas where geography, a burgeoning banking industry, and luck contributed to the evolution of humanism, artistic breakthroughs, and the scientific revolution. Strathern notes that Florence had the good fortune to be the birthplace of Renaissance figures including Dante, Petrarch, and Leonardo da Vinci, and benefited from its proximity to the Mediterranean Sea, with knowledge from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East passing through the city-state. Vivid biographical sketches cast famous Florentines in a more dynamic light than most modern portrayals. Galileo, for instance, emerges as a brilliant and stubborn youth who “roistered in taverns and bordellos,” while the “prickly” architect Filippo Brunelleschi hid his ambition to unlock the secrets of Rome’s Pantheon even from his traveling companion, the artist Donatello. Strathern draws from the marital correspondence of middle-class merchant Francesco Datini to illustrate the city’s vitality as a trading hub, and lucidly describes the impact of new technologies such as Arabic numerals and oil paints. Buoyed by incisive details and a brisk pace, this is a welcome introduction to the city and the personalities behind the Renaissance. Agent: George Lucas, InkWell Management. (July)
The Florentines [is] a thought-provoking re-examination of the great Florentine artists, scientists and business wizards of the Renaissance. Mr. Strathern’s book is a work of dissemination, a popular introduction to its subject...[it provides] its author with the option to recast an entire field of study in a somewhat unexpected way, as if seen from an altered angle. Strathern has an engaging habit of dwelling on the close connection in the Florentine cultural sphere between art and money, matters seldom so intimately juxtaposed...his prose glimmers with the spark of rekindled discovery.
The Wall Street Journal - Dan Hofstadter
"Paul Strathern’s The Florentines is probably the best current, general interest book on its (very important) topic."
Marginal Revolution - Tyler Cowen
An engaging and informative history of a notorious family. A magnet for all who are intrigued by this infamous clan and everyone versed in European history who is looking for a new perspective, this is an outstanding account.
Praise for Paul Strathern’s The Borgias :
"Novelist and historian Paul Strathern (The Venetians , The Medicis ), has written a marvelous, wide-ranging, and accessible history of Florence and the historical giants from the city that have influenced the course of western civilization. There should be more history books like The Florentines to delve in specific time periods and geographic locations. It is not just the intrinsically interesting period that Strathern delves into that makes this a truly excellent book, but his skill at understanding and connecting the people and ideas of the time."
Book of the Week The Interim
"Historians who seek a wide readership, while giving their readers the drama they crave, must honor the historical record in all its complexity. The Borgias presents just such a nuanced account. Authoritative and well-written. Strathern has an admirable talent for the biographical sketch, particularly of artists and writers.
"Rich in telling details. The Borgias’ ambition was boundless; their legacy proved to be enormous. Not without reason did Machiavelli make Cesare the hero of The Prince. "
05/21/2021
During the medieval era, much of the European world was lost in a darkness characterized by an absence of advancements in intellectual discovery and development. People's lives were guided by communal means of survival that consisted of small trades, farming, and following strictly ordered religious guidelines. Even amongst scholars, the works of ancient Greek philosophers were missing, and many medieval scholars' questions about the meaning of life and earthly existence were quickly satisfied by previously provided answers. Novelist and nonfiction author Strathern (The Medici ; The Borgias ) demonstrates how humanity's unquenchable curiosity and need for understanding brought this era to an end in the heart of Tuscany, in the city of Florence. Drawing on subjects covered in previous books, Strathern meticulously guides readers through the lives of famous Renaissance visionaries such as Dante Alighieri, Leonardo da Vinci, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Galileo Galilei. This book doesn't just describe each individuals' accomplishments, but also shows how their lives full of shared experiences and unique circumstances were intricately intertwined in a way which positioned them to lead Europe into the Renaissance. VERDICT Bringing the Renaissance into better focus, this well-researched work is highly recommended for readers with an interest in the era, art history, and Italian history.—Monique Martinez, Univ. of North Georgia Lib., Dahlonega
Like a deep-voiced Oxford don, narrator Roger Clark passionately describes Renaissance Florence from the birth of Dante in 1265 to the death of Galileo in 1642. Historical giants such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Machiavelli, and Lorenzo the Magnificent thronged the narrow streets. Painting gained perspective. Prayer gave way to logic. Our world was born, but it was a bloody delivery. War, rebellion, and religious extremism lit up a city that was sucker punched by the Black Death. “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it,” we were taught. Despite Clark’s superb presentation, history seems to be repeating itself. Galileo was forced to recant. Are we standing with Dante then, about to follow Virgil into hell? I trust Clark will come along. Great pipes. Nobody can say “haughty” with more hauteur. B.H.C. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Like a deep-voiced Oxford don, narrator Roger Clark passionately describes Renaissance Florence from the birth of Dante in 1265 to the death of Galileo in 1642. Historical giants such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Machiavelli, and Lorenzo the Magnificent thronged the narrow streets. Painting gained perspective. Prayer gave way to logic. Our world was born, but it was a bloody delivery. War, rebellion, and religious extremism lit up a city that was sucker punched by the Black Death. “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it,” we were taught. Despite Clark’s superb presentation, history seems to be repeating itself. Galileo was forced to recant. Are we standing with Dante then, about to follow Virgil into hell? I trust Clark will come along. Great pipes. Nobody can say “haughty” with more hauteur. B.H.C. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
2021-04-28
If Vanity Fair magazine had existed during the Renaissance, every issue might have brought tales of Florentine A-listers and their power plays, artistic triumphs, sexual exploits, and financial chicanery. Strathern aims to show how such Florentines paved the way for a global humanism focused on people’s lives on Earth instead of on the medieval view that existence was only preparation for an afterlife. The author begins with Dante’s boldness in writing in a Tuscan dialect, rather than Latin, and ends with Galileo’s trial for heresy, which spared him the fate of an earlier heliocentrist who was burned at the stake—“naked, upside down, and with his mouth gagged so that he could not make public his beliefs.” Between the two events, Strathern gives a no-frills, nuts-and-bolts account of the era in which Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa , Machiavelli wrote The Prince , Michelangelo created David, Brunelleschi designed the world’s largest brick-and-mortar dome, and Savonarola planned his “bonfire of the vanities.” Never far from the action were Lorenzo the Magnificent and other Medici bankers whose patronage of artists vastly enriched the city’s glories. This story will be broadly familiar to readers of Strathern’s The Medici and Death in Florence . The author slightly overstates Florence’s impact on the world when epochal upheavals were also occurring elsewhere: the Reformation, Columbus’ voyages, Gutenberg’s printing press. But Strathern is an intellectually agile writer who covers four centuries briskly—an approach well suited to first-time visitors to Florence, if not to scholars—and serves up occasional surprises. Other authors have argued that Leonardo and Michelangelo were gay, but Strathern adds context by noting that Florentines had a “relaxed” view of homosexuality evident in their startling proverb: “If you crave joys fumble some boys.”
A book that will have greater appeal to educated travelers to Florence than to specialists in the city.
