The Medici: Power, Money, and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance

by Paul Strathern Narrated by Derek Perkins

Overview

A dazzling history of the modest family that rose to become one of the most powerful in Europe, The Medici is a remarkably modern story of power, money, and ambition. Against the background of an age that saw the rebirth of ancient and classical learning Paul Strathern explores the intensely dramatic rise and fall of the Medici family in Florence, as well as the Italian Renaissance which they did so much to sponsor and encourage. Interwoven into the narrative are the lives of many of the great Renaissance artists with whom the Medici had dealings, including Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Donatello, as well as scientists like Galileo and Pico della Mirandola.



In his enthralling study, Strathern also follows the fortunes of those members of the Medici family who achieved success away from Florence, including the two Medici popes and Catherine de' Medici, who became queen of France and played a major role in that country through three turbulent reigns.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"A fantastically comprehensive history covering the breadth of the great learning, art, politics, and religion of the period." ---Kirkus Starred Review

The Sunday Times (London)

An excellent history. An entertaining tale of the rise and fall of an ambitious banking family.

Booklist

A compelling multigenerational history of the family whose enlightened patronage gave the world that timeless art. Rich in incident and character, this engrossing narrative offers impressive portraits of dynastic figures who usher in a new era aflame with individualistic ambition. Lineal history pulsing with epoch-making energy.

The New York Times

The Medici highlights [the family’s] literary accomplishments in detail, as well as the story of how the Medici became the Renaissance’s most influential family.

The Sunday Telegraph

Strathern has done his research thoroughly, and tells a good story well.

The New York Times

"The Medici highlights [the family’s] literary accomplishments in detail, as well as the story of how the Medici became the Renaissance’s most influential family."

Booklist

"A compelling multigenerational history of the family whose enlightened patronage gave the world that timeless art. Rich in incident and character, this engrossing narrative offers impressive portraits of dynastic figures who usher in a new era aflame with individualistic ambition. Lineal history pulsing with epoch-making energy."

From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY

"A fantastically comprehensive history covering the breadth of the great learning, art, politics, and religion of the period." —Kirkus Starred Review

The Washington Post

Strathern has a novelist's eye and a historian's sweep.

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2015-11-19
The prolific author continues to do what he does best—bring history to wondrous life—with this thorough history of the Medici family, the stimulus and backbone of the Renaissance. Strathern (Death in Florence: The Medici, Savonarola, and the Battle for the Soul of a Renaissance City, 2015, etc.) begins this bright, novelistic history with the 14th-century banker Giovanni di Bicci, who laid the groundwork for his family's wealth. The Italians invented banking and double-entry bookkeeping, and to avoid accusations of usury, Giovanni charged only a percentage for "risk." Eschewing politics, he concentrated on building wealth. It was his son Cosimo who took advantage of the erudite refugees from the fall of Constantinople to promote ancient Greek and Roman writings. He supported the arts and began dominating Florentine politics. Cosimo ruled without appearing to rule, with the family always supporting the working class. In addition to economics lessons, Strathern provides wonderful thumbnail sketches of the great artists and writers of the time. One of the Medici's best moves was supporting the papal candidates, realizing that having the popes' backing, as well as their lucrative banking, would provide strength. Through unrest, church schisms, invasion by the Holy Roman Empire and France, the Medici flourished, none more so than the flamboyant Lorenzo. This was the time of Savonarola, the fiery anti-humanist, but also Botticelli, Brunelleschi, and Machiavelli. The strength of the Medici continued with the papacies of Leo X and Clement VII. The author dubs the Medici godfathers to the Renaissance, but it was Clement's dawdling over the divorce of England's Henry VIII that unwittingly led to the final break with the church and the Reformation. The ladies of the family played their own parts, with Catherine de Medici dominating the Valois of France, followed to the throne by her cousin Marie. A fantastically comprehensive history covering the breadth of the great learning, art, politics, and religion of the period.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170631490
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	03/15/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

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