The innovative city culture of Florence was the crucible within which
Renaissance ideas first caught fire. With its soaring cathedral dome and
its classically-inspired palaces and piazzas, it is perhaps the finest
single expression of a society that is still at its heart an urban one.
For, as Brian Jeffrey Maxson reveals, it is above all the city-state -
the walled commune which became the chief driver of European commerce,
culture, banking and art - that is medieval Italy's enduring legacy to
the present.
Charting the transition of Florence from an obscure Guelph republic to a
regional superpower in which the glittering court of Lorenzo the
Magnificent became the pride and envy of the continent, the author
authoritatively discusses a city that looked to the past for ideas even
as it articulated a novel creativity. Uncovering passionate dispute and
intrigue, Maxson sheds fresh light too on seminal events like the fiery
end of oratorical firebrand Savonarola and Giuliano de' Medici's brutal
murder by the rival Pazzi family. This book shows why Florence,
harbinger and heartland of the Renaissance, is and has always been
unique.