The Building of Renaissance Florence: An Economic and Social History

Hardcover. ISBN 0801823420. 459 pages, with appendices and index. A Very Good hardcover with dust jacket, with a small closed tear at the top and the bottom of the front panel. No markings inside or out, and binding is tight and square. From the inner flap: "Picture the city of Florence in the fifteenth century - its great cathedral, with the Brunelleschi dome and baptistry with the Ghiberti doors, its Palazzo dei Priori, the prototype of the patrician palace, its monumental grain market, the Orsanmichele, its many public buildings, churches, chapels, and homes embellished with sculpture, pictures, and other works of art. "To study the buildings of Florence,? writes historian Richard Goldthwaite, "is to learn much of the city's economic, social, and cultural foundations." Thus, by examining the microcosm of a single, vital industry - construction ? Goldthwaite develops a total picture of Florentine society. It was, says Goldthwaite, a city shaped by the forces of supply and demand. The accumulation of wealth in the hands of an unusually high number of Florentines, coupled with a growing awareness of architecture ? be it a civic monument, chapel, or private home ? as a statement of that wealth, created the demand. A construction industry composed of artisans and possessing a remarkable variety of skills grew to meet the demand for buildings and all their attendant furnishings. The interaction of these two forces, Goldthwaite shows, transformed forever the city of Florence and the lives of its citizens.".…