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Paul Strathern is a Somerset Maugham prize-winning novelist, and his nonfiction works include The Venetians; The Artist, the Philosopher and the Warrior; Napoleon in Egypt; and Mendeleyev’s Dream: The Quest for the Elements. He lives in England.
Death in Florence: The Medici, Savonarola, and the Battle for the Soul of a Renaissance City
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ISBN-13:
9781605988276
- Publisher: Pegasus Books
- Publication date: 08/08/2015
- Series: Inspector Bordelli Mysteries
- Sold by: Barnes & Noble
- Format: eBook
- Pages: 448
- Sales rank: 253,624
- File size: 1 MB
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One of the defining moments in Western history, the bloody and dramatic story of the battle for the soul of Renaissance Florence.
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 de' Medici (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 between these two men would be a fight to the death, a series of sensational events—invasions, trials by fire, the 'Bonfire of the Vanities', terrible executions and mysterious deaths—featuring a cast of the most important and charismatic Renaissance figures.
Was this a simple clash of wills between a benign ruler and religious fanatic? Between secular pluralism and repressive extremism? In an exhilaratingly rich and deeply researched story, Paul Strathern reveals the paradoxes, self-doubts, and political compromises that made the battle for the soul of the Renaissance city one of the most complex and important moments in Western history.
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Times Literary Supplement
A vivid tale told in great detail.The Financial Times
Strathern combines diligent research with an exemplary narrative verve and keeps the pages turning.The New Statesman
Grips the reader from the first page. It is an arresting and horrifying tale and Strathern tells it with immense skill and verveBooklist (starred review)
This ismore than a dual biography. It’s a social and religious history,showing the tension that still holds betweensecularism and religion. A
riveting narrative history.
Providence Journal
This massive, mesmerizing, detail-rich, compulsive narrative of the collision between silver and the soul, Mammon and religious mysteries, will keep you turning the pages like the most propulsive of historical thrillers. Strathern balances both detail and narrative drive, so that you never lose sight of either one. The stories and intrigue and behind-the-scenes maneuverings will chill your blood as much as they excites it.Shelf Awareness
Savonarola's brief reign is often treated as an interlude of religious fanaticism within the enlightened secularism of the Renaissance. InDeath in Florence, Paul Strathern paints a more complicated picture, placing Savonarola within a broader context.”The Dallas Morning News
DeMedici alone is a fascinating and complicated figure, and Strathern draws a finely shaded portrait of a man who was both connoisseur of the arts and mob boss. But in his final years, de Medici encountered his one serious threat to perpetuating his family's rule: 'the little friar' Girolamo
Savonarola. For Strathern, the battle was between Renaissance humanism and medieval absolutism, as Strathern illustrates in the climactic scene.
The Washington Post
What stands out as much as anything here is the spark and quality of Strathern's writing, its wonderful ability to combine the sweep of history withthe intenselypersonal. Ina single sentence, Strathern captures the broad currents of civic history, the magnetic presence of a remarkable individual, and the specificity of a liturgical and biographical occasion. An engrossing narrative of power, corruption and civic life, a vivid portrait of a city in crisis and the spiritual leader who embodied its aspirations and flaws.