Lauro Martines' exhaustive search of manuscript material in the state archives of Florence is the basis for a fascinating portrayal of representative humanists of the period. The Social World of the Florentine Humanists explores the wealth, family tradition, civic prominence, and intellectual achiev[...]
We think of the Renaissance as a shining era of human achievementa pinnacle of artistic genius and humanist brilliance, the time of Shakespeare, Michelangelo, and Montaigne. Yet it was also an age of constant, harrowing warfare. Armies, not philosophers, shaped the face of Europe as modern nation-st[...]
In April 1478, a plot to murder the two heads of the powerful Medici family miscarried dramatically in the cathedral of Florence. A bloodbath followed in reprisal. All Italy was affected as it emerged that the Pope, the King of Naples and the Duke of Urbino were deeply implicated in the plot.[...]