Death in Florence: The Medici, Savonarola and the Battle for the Soul of the Renaissance City - Hardcover

Paul Strathern

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224089781 ISBN 13: 9780224089784

Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 2011

Synopsis

By the end of the fifteenth century, Florence was well established as the home of the Renaissance. As generous patrons to the likes of Botticelli and Michelangelo, the ruling Medici embodied the progressive humanist spirit of the age, and in Lorenzo the Magnificent they possessed a diplomat capable of guarding the militarily weak city in a climate of constantly shifting allegiances between the major Italian powers. However, in the form of Savonarola, an unprepossessing provincial monk, Lorenzo found his nemesis. Filled with Old Testament fury and prophecies of doom, Savonarola's sermons reverberated among a disenfranchised population, who preferred medieval Biblical certainties to the philosophical interrogations and intoxicating surface glitter of the Renaissance. Savonarola's aim was to establish a 'City of God' for his followers, a new kind of democratic state, the likes of which the world had never seen before. The battle which this provoked would be a fight to the death, a series

About this title

About the Author:

Paul Strathern studied philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin. He has lectured in philosophy and mathematics. He is a Somerset Maugham Prize-winning novelist; author of two series of books - Philosophers in 90 Minutes and The Big Idea: Scientists who Changed the World; Mendeleyev's Dream (shortlisted for the Aventis Science Book Prize); Dr. Strangelove's Game: A History of Economic Genius, The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance and The Artist, the Philosopher and the Warrior (published by Cape and Pimlico).

Review:

"A vivid tale in great detail" -- Alexander Cowan Times Literary Supplement

About this edition

• Publisher: Jonathan Cape
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0224089781
• ISBN 13: 9780224089784
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 448