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The Intellectual Struggle for Florence is an analysis of the ideology that developed in Florence with the rise of the Medici, during the early fifteenth century, the period long recognized as the most formative of the early Renaissance. Instead of simply describing early Renaissance ideas, this volume attempts to relate these ideas to specific social and political conflicts of the fifteenth century, and specifically to the development of the Medici regime. It first shows how the Medici party came to be viewed as fundamentally different from their opponents, the "oligarchs," then explores the intellectual world of these oligarchs (the "traditional culture"). As political conflicts sharpened, some humanists (Leonardo Bruni and Francesco Filelfo) with close ties to oligarchy still attempted to enrich traditional culture with classical learning, while others, such as Niccolo Niccoli and Poggio Bracciolini, rejected tradition outright and created a new ideology for the Medici party. What is striking is the extent to which Niccoli and Poggio were able to turn a Latin or classical culture into a "popular culture," and how the culture of the vernacular remained traditional and oligarchic.
Mining the rich documentary sources housed in Tuscan archives and taking advantage of the breadth and depth of scholarship produced in recent years, the seventeen essays in this Companion to Cosimo I de' Medici provide a fresh and systematic overview of the life and career of the first Grand Duke of Tuscany, with special emphasis on Cosimo I's education and intellectual interests, cultural policies, political vision, institutional reforms, diplomatic relations, religious beliefs, military entrepreneurship, and dynastic concerns. Contributors: Maurizio Arfaioli, Alessio Assonitis, Nicholas Scott Baker, Sheila Barker, Stefano Calonaci, Brendan Dooley, Daniele Edigati, Sheila ffolliott, Catherine Fletcher, Andrea Gáldy, Fernando Loffredo, Piergabriele Mancuso, Jessica Maratsos, Carmen Menchini, Oscar Schiavone, Marcello Simonetta, and Henk Th. van Veen.
Cosimo dei Medici stabilized ducal finances, secured his borders, doubled his territory, attracted scholars and artists to his court, academy, and universities, and dissipated fractious Florentine politics. These triumphs were far from a foregone conclusion, as Gregory Murry shows in this study of how Cosimo crafted his image as a sacral monarch.
Part I. The eleven-year exile -- Part II. Anatomy of a murder.
Leonardo da Vinci is often presented as the 'transcendent genius', removed from or ahead of his time. This book, however, attempts to understand him in the context of Renaissance Florence. Larry J. Feinberg explores Leonardo's origins and the beginning of his career as an artist. While celebrating his many artistic achievements, the book illuminates his debt to other artists' works and his struggles to gain and retain patronage, as well as his career and personal difficulties. Feinberg examines the range of Leonardo's interests, including aerodynamics, anatomy, astronomy, botany, geology, hydraulics, optics, and warfare technology, to clarify how the artist's broad intellectual curiosity informed his art. Situating the artist within the political, social, cultural, and artistic context of mid- and late-fifteenth-century Florence, Feinberg shows how this environment influenced Leonardo's artistic output and laid the groundwork for the achievements of his mature works.
There were many writers other than John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton who, in 1787 and 1788, argued for the Constitution's ratification. In a collection central to our understanding of the American founding, Friends of the Constitution brings together forty-nine of the most important of these "other" Federalists' writings. Colleen A. Sheehan is Professor of Political Science at Villanova University. Gary L. McDowell is the Tyler Haynes Interdisciplinary Professor of Leadership Studies, Political Science, and Law at the University of Richmond in Virginia. From 1992 to 2003 he was the Director of the Institute of United States Studies in the University of London.
Dr. Worden traces the historical shift through the centuries of how Christian thinkers have assumed profit-seeking and wealth are related to the sin of greed. For centuries, the dominant view was that making and accumulating money instantiates the presence of greed. The uncoupling of greed from its assumed external manifestations began to take hold with Aquinas and was complete a century before the Protestant Reformation and its famed work ethic. Rather than viewing the Reformation as pro-wealth, Worden characterizes the reformers broadly as applying the brakes to various degrees in hopes that Christianity would not lapse into accepting greed.In the final chapter, Worden proffers an explanation to account for the shift from the anti- to pro-wealth position. He examines the core of Christian theology and finds a very subtle pro-wealth bias, and provides two remedies.
First published in 1932, this book looks at a period that has often been thought of as a time of general decline in the most characteristic features of medieval civilisation. While acknowledging decline in many areas during this period — the power of the Church, feudalism, guilds, the Hanseatic League, the autonomy of towns and the end of the two Roman empires — the author argues that there was also signs of development. National consciousness, the power of the bourgeoisie and trade and industry all rose markedly in this period alongside intellectual and artistic achievements outside of Italy. This book asserts that in amongst the failure and decline new forces were creating new substitutes.
Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent is a two-part biography on the life and achievements of Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492), an Italian administrator, leader of the Florentine Republic and one of the most influential benefactors of Renaissance culture in Italy. Also known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, he is recognized for his patronage of artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo. His life spanned concurrently with the stable part of the Italian Renaissance and the Golden Age of Florence.
Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent is a two-part biography on the life and achievements of Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492), an Italian administrator, leader of the Florentine Republic and one of the most influential benefactors of Renaissance culture in Italy. Also known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, he is recognized for his patronage of artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo. His life spanned concurrently with the stable part of the Italian Renaissance and the Golden Age of Florence.