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.Scourge and Fire: Savonarola and Renaissance Italy

by: Lauro Martines

May 03, 2007
This is undoubtedly a thoroughly researched effort from Martines, as one would expect. There is plenty of detail included from a variety of sources but it is the interpretation and use of these sources which is unconvincing and inconsistent. Too often the author decides that certain sources can be dismissed in certain situations but held to in others - at one point he claims that Macchiavelli's impression as a witness of events cannot be trusted as he didn't write them down until 15 years later, however at a distance of half a millenium Martines has better insight! There are a great number of incidents like this in the text and leaves the reader with the impression that this is revisionism for the sake of it. Far too many attacks on the Compagnacci, ... Read More:
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Used Price: £4.58

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.April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medici

by: Lauro Martines

January 01, 2004
This book belongs in an academic library, and should not be sold to an interested general audience (like me)

It is confused, illogical and frustrating.

I took this book with me to Florence - my wife had 'Rise and Fall of the Medici' by Hibbert. I ended up sharing my wife's book - which was interesting and well laid out

This author skips between vignettes, without fleshing them out, and then at other times burdens the reader with unneccessary detail. At one point he admonishes the reader to take careful account of endless detail about Tax bills (without ever relating them to modern money, to help the reader), and then does not use them to come to any useful point.
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Used Price: £0.44

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.Loredana: A Venetian Tale

by: Lauro Martines

March 25, 2004
This book belongs in an academic library, and should not be sold to an interested general audience (like me)

It is confused, illogical and frustrating.

I took this book with me to Florence - my wife had 'Rise and Fall of the Medici' by Hibbert. I ended up sharing my wife's book - which was interesting and well laid out

This author skips between vignettes, without fleshing them out, and then at other times burdens the reader with unneccessary detail. At one point he admonishes the reader to take careful account of endless detail about Tax bills (without ever relating them to modern money, to help the reader), and then does not use them to come to any useful point.
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Used Price: £0.01

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.The Social World of the Florentine Humanists,1390-1460

by: Lauro Martines

1963
This book belongs in an academic library, and should not be sold to an interested general audience (like me)

It is confused, illogical and frustrating.

I took this book with me to Florence - my wife had 'Rise and Fall of the Medici' by Hibbert. I ended up sharing my wife's book - which was interesting and well laid out

This author skips between vignettes, without fleshing them out, and then at other times burdens the reader with unneccessary detail. At one point he admonishes the reader to take careful account of endless detail about Tax bills (without ever relating them to modern money, to help the reader), and then does not use them to come to any useful point.
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.Fire in the City: Savonarola and the Struggle for the Soul of Renaissance Florence

by: Lauro Martines

July 10, 2007
This book belongs in an academic library, and should not be sold to an interested general audience (like me)

It is confused, illogical and frustrating.

I took this book with me to Florence - my wife had 'Rise and Fall of the Medici' by Hibbert. I ended up sharing my wife's book - which was interesting and well laid out

This author skips between vignettes, without fleshing them out, and then at other times burdens the reader with unneccessary detail. At one point he admonishes the reader to take careful account of endless detail about Tax bills (without ever relating them to modern money, to help the reader), and then does not use them to come to any useful point.
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Used Price: £5.67

Average Rating:

.Scourge and Fire: Savonarola and Renaissance Italy

by: Lauro Martines

March 02, 2006
This is undoubtedly a thoroughly researched effort from Martines, as one would expect. There is plenty of detail included from a variety of sources but it is the interpretation and use of these sources which is unconvincing and inconsistent. Too often the author decides that certain sources can be dismissed in certain situations but held to in others - at one point he claims that Macchiavelli's impression as a witness of events cannot be trusted as he didn't write them down until 15 years later, however at a distance of half a millenium Martines has better insight! There are a great number of incidents like this in the text and leaves the reader with the impression that this is revisionism for the sake of it. Far too many attacks on the Compagnacci, insufficient ... Read More:
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Used Price: £5.74

Average Rating:

.April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medici

by: Lauro Martines

February 20, 2003
Even a newcomer to Italian Renaissance politics will enjoy this account of the attempted putsch against Lorenzo the Magnificent in Florence in 1478. It is, in fact, more than a study of the failed coup itself. It provides intriguing character sketches of many of the main actors in Florentine public life in the 15th century, and gradually fills out the picture of a sophisticated society grappling with the problem of how to preserve tried and tested "representative institutions" against encroaching Medici "tyranny". Elegantly written, a pleasure to read.
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Used Price: £3.45

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.Power and Imagination: City-states in Renaissance Italy

by: Lauro Martines

May 02, 2002
This fascinating book picks apart the mechanisms which drove the Italian Renaissance. Surprise, surprise, it wasn't the product of a bunch of guys inspired by artistic beauty but of the money of patrons who saw art, and especially public art, as a means of political and social competition and legitimation. A core reading for understanding the Renaissance.
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Used Price: £58.19

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.Violence and Civil Disorder in Italian Cities, 1200-1500

by: Lauro Martines

December 28, 1899
This fascinating book picks apart the mechanisms which drove the Italian Renaissance. Surprise, surprise, it wasn't the product of a bunch of guys inspired by artistic beauty but of the money of patrons who saw art, and especially public art, as a means of political and social competition and legitimation. A core reading for understanding the Renaissance.
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Used Price: £42.93

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.Not in God's Image: Women in History from the Greeks to the Victorians

from: Ashgate

December 31, 1973
This fascinating book picks apart the mechanisms which drove the Italian Renaissance. Surprise, surprise, it wasn't the product of a bunch of guys inspired by artistic beauty but of the money of patrons who saw art, and especially public art, as a means of political and social competition and legitimation. A core reading for understanding the Renaissance.
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Used Price: £6.95