What do you think?
Rate this book
Savonarola: The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Prophet
A deeply considered new biography of the visionary Dominican by a leading Renaissance scholar
Girolamo Savonarola, the fifteenth-century doom-saying friar, embraced the revolution of the Florentine republic and prophesied that it would become the center of a New Age of Christian renewal and world domination. This new biography, the culmination of many decades of study, presents an original interpretation of Savonarola's prophetic career and a highly nuanced assessment of his vision and motivations. Weinstein sorts out the multiple strands that connect Savonarola to his time and place, following him from his youthful rejection of a world he regarded as corrupt, to his engagement with that world to save it from itself, to his shattering confession—an admission that he had invented his prophesies and faked his visions. Was his confession sincere? A forgery circulated by his inquisitors? Or an attempt to escape bone-breaking torture? Weinstein offers a highly innovative analysis of the testimony to provide the first truly satisfying account of Savonarola and his fate as a failed prophet.
Girolamo Savonarola, the fifteenth-century doom-saying friar, embraced the revolution of the Florentine republic and prophesied that it would become the center of a New Age of Christian renewal and world domination. This new biography, the culmination of many decades of study, presents an original interpretation of Savonarola's prophetic career and a highly nuanced assessment of his vision and motivations. Weinstein sorts out the multiple strands that connect Savonarola to his time and place, following him from his youthful rejection of a world he regarded as corrupt, to his engagement with that world to save it from itself, to his shattering confession—an admission that he had invented his prophesies and faked his visions. Was his confession sincere? A forgery circulated by his inquisitors? Or an attempt to escape bone-breaking torture? Weinstein offers a highly innovative analysis of the testimony to provide the first truly satisfying account of Savonarola and his fate as a failed prophet.
399 pages, Hardcover
First published August 28, 2007
15 people are currently reading
261 people want to read
About the author
Donald Weinstein
14 books6 followersDonald Weinstein was a leading USA historian of the Italian Renaissance.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 6, 2012
The stones of Florence are suffused in history. The traces of the past are everywhere, the traces of the Medici, from magnificent beginnings to a wretched and degenerate end. The traces are there, too, of Girolamo Savonarola, the Dominican friar who became, for a brief season, the avatar and prophet of the Florentine republic. I had a sense of him in his cell in the Convent of San Marco, where his eagle-beaked portrait hangs on the wall. I had a sense of him standing in the Piazza della Signoria, the site of his famous Bonfire of the Vanities, where he himself was consumed by a great bonfire in May, 1498.
He was an extraordinary figure, one of the meteors of history. He came seemingly as a prophet armed only to end as a prophet outcast. In a sense he was the Catholic Martin Luther, condemning the many abuses of the Church, particularly bad during the pontificate of the Borgia Pope Alexander VI, his nemesis. Florence was his celestial city, one that was destined to inherit the legacy of Classical Rome, reforming and renewing the purity of Catholic Christianity.
Born in Ferrara, Savonarola, full of messianic vision, came to Florence at just the right time. The sun of the Medici Renaissance was in eclipse. A new and terrifying disease had come to Italy with the invading French army of Charles VIII. Not yet known as syphilis, it was simply called the French pox. The half millennium was approaching, giving all the more force to Savonarola’s message of the Last Days. Florence was to be the New Jerusalem. Alas, in the end, by his own admission, he was a false prophet, no more than a ravening wolf. Or was he?
In Savonarola: the Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Prophet Donald Weinstein, an expert on the period, has compiled a meticulous and commendably objective biography. He has a fine eye for the man, the place and the times. He also has a talent for pithy and memorable phrases. Savonarola appealed to what he calls the ‘myth of Florence’, a city he mesmerised by his ‘charisma of grace.’
The book does an excellent job in tracing the evolution of the Dominican’s message, moving by stages from one of Christian renewal to outright millenarianism. With the army of Charles VIII, Savonarola’s ‘New Cyrus’, threatening the city, people were more and more willing to hear what God had in store for them. The Medici were exiled. The myth of Florence and the myth of Savonarola came, for a time, into perfect harmony. Cometh the hour, cometh the man.
The history of Florence, and the biography of Savonarola, in the years between 1494 and 1498 is worthy of a Shakespearean tragedy. It’s a complex tale of faction, counter-faction, intrigues, feuds and wars, the stuff of high Renaissance politics, a labyrinth through which the author spins a fine thread.
In his consistent determination to avoid bias Weinstein lays every fact before us, building his structure brick by brick. He makes it clear that Savonarola, contrary to appearances, was always a prophet unarmed (he was never the city republic’s political master). His power was one of persuasion, a message supported up by the coincidences of the times, the key to his initial success and his ultimate failure. It was his tragedy that he found a power within himself only to denounce it in the end, not only a result of torture but also of an acute loss of self-belief.
Sober and scholarly, Weinstein also has a talent for weaving a gripping story, full of the most memorable characters, all set against the background of papal politics, foreign invasion and Renaissance humanism. Savonarola treats the subject sympathetically, even with a degree of admiration, without falling into the dangers of complete seduction. I’ve certainly come to understand the man much better from a reading of this book, though any personal sympathy I have for him is arrested by the fact he is alleged, personally, to have consigned paintings by Sandro Botticelli to the Bonfire of the Vanities!
I love irony and I love anecdote, and the author also has a taste for both. For example, I was fascinated to discover that Charles VIII, upon whom Savonarola placed so much faith, died after banging his head on a doorframe the same day that the friar was arrested, a strange turn of fate, particularly fateful as the king was short so the door must have been even shorter!
This is a good story, lucid, meticulous and exhaustive. If you have any interest at all in biography, in history, in a fascinating life and in the even more fascinating canvas of Renaissance Italy I can assure you that there is no vanity in reading Savonarola.
He was an extraordinary figure, one of the meteors of history. He came seemingly as a prophet armed only to end as a prophet outcast. In a sense he was the Catholic Martin Luther, condemning the many abuses of the Church, particularly bad during the pontificate of the Borgia Pope Alexander VI, his nemesis. Florence was his celestial city, one that was destined to inherit the legacy of Classical Rome, reforming and renewing the purity of Catholic Christianity.
Born in Ferrara, Savonarola, full of messianic vision, came to Florence at just the right time. The sun of the Medici Renaissance was in eclipse. A new and terrifying disease had come to Italy with the invading French army of Charles VIII. Not yet known as syphilis, it was simply called the French pox. The half millennium was approaching, giving all the more force to Savonarola’s message of the Last Days. Florence was to be the New Jerusalem. Alas, in the end, by his own admission, he was a false prophet, no more than a ravening wolf. Or was he?
In Savonarola: the Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Prophet Donald Weinstein, an expert on the period, has compiled a meticulous and commendably objective biography. He has a fine eye for the man, the place and the times. He also has a talent for pithy and memorable phrases. Savonarola appealed to what he calls the ‘myth of Florence’, a city he mesmerised by his ‘charisma of grace.’
The book does an excellent job in tracing the evolution of the Dominican’s message, moving by stages from one of Christian renewal to outright millenarianism. With the army of Charles VIII, Savonarola’s ‘New Cyrus’, threatening the city, people were more and more willing to hear what God had in store for them. The Medici were exiled. The myth of Florence and the myth of Savonarola came, for a time, into perfect harmony. Cometh the hour, cometh the man.
The history of Florence, and the biography of Savonarola, in the years between 1494 and 1498 is worthy of a Shakespearean tragedy. It’s a complex tale of faction, counter-faction, intrigues, feuds and wars, the stuff of high Renaissance politics, a labyrinth through which the author spins a fine thread.
In his consistent determination to avoid bias Weinstein lays every fact before us, building his structure brick by brick. He makes it clear that Savonarola, contrary to appearances, was always a prophet unarmed (he was never the city republic’s political master). His power was one of persuasion, a message supported up by the coincidences of the times, the key to his initial success and his ultimate failure. It was his tragedy that he found a power within himself only to denounce it in the end, not only a result of torture but also of an acute loss of self-belief.
Sober and scholarly, Weinstein also has a talent for weaving a gripping story, full of the most memorable characters, all set against the background of papal politics, foreign invasion and Renaissance humanism. Savonarola treats the subject sympathetically, even with a degree of admiration, without falling into the dangers of complete seduction. I’ve certainly come to understand the man much better from a reading of this book, though any personal sympathy I have for him is arrested by the fact he is alleged, personally, to have consigned paintings by Sandro Botticelli to the Bonfire of the Vanities!
I love irony and I love anecdote, and the author also has a taste for both. For example, I was fascinated to discover that Charles VIII, upon whom Savonarola placed so much faith, died after banging his head on a doorframe the same day that the friar was arrested, a strange turn of fate, particularly fateful as the king was short so the door must have been even shorter!
This is a good story, lucid, meticulous and exhaustive. If you have any interest at all in biography, in history, in a fascinating life and in the even more fascinating canvas of Renaissance Italy I can assure you that there is no vanity in reading Savonarola.
Read
October 3, 2015If you only read one Savonarola book... but why would you only read one Savonarola book? Are you not obsessed with Savonarola?
This is a good comprehensive biography, it's well written and I enjoyed it. I don't really have a rational opinion on what I'd think of it if it were the first Savonarola bio I'd read. It quoted a Ficino letter I hadn't read. How about a Ficino biography? How about a biography of Pico della Mirandola? Meanwhile, give me all the Savonarola biographies. And this is one of the best.
This is a good comprehensive biography, it's well written and I enjoyed it. I don't really have a rational opinion on what I'd think of it if it were the first Savonarola bio I'd read. It quoted a Ficino letter I hadn't read. How about a Ficino biography? How about a biography of Pico della Mirandola? Meanwhile, give me all the Savonarola biographies. And this is one of the best.
December 14, 2015
1) se per qualche strana ragione volete sapere vita, morte e miracoli di Savonarola leggetelo (non so perché dovreste volerlo, ma...de gustibus)
2) il momento topico del libro per me sono stati i fiorentini in piazza che urlavano "Palle, palle, palle!"
3) non capisco perché nessuno abbia ancora ipotizzato che il nostro fraticello fosse fortemente represso, considerate tutte le prediche sulla "sodomia" e sulle donne fiorentine.
4) non mi capacito di come il vecchio Sav sia potuto diventare frate, considerate la megalomania, l'egoismo e la poca sensibilità a certe cose (mai sentito un frate dire che i poveri dovrebbero guardare coloro che vengono alle prediche che hanno la pancia piena)
5) quando lo hanno impiccato e bruciato ho provato un piacere perverso
2) il momento topico del libro per me sono stati i fiorentini in piazza che urlavano "Palle, palle, palle!"
3) non capisco perché nessuno abbia ancora ipotizzato che il nostro fraticello fosse fortemente represso, considerate tutte le prediche sulla "sodomia" e sulle donne fiorentine.
4) non mi capacito di come il vecchio Sav sia potuto diventare frate, considerate la megalomania, l'egoismo e la poca sensibilità a certe cose (mai sentito un frate dire che i poveri dovrebbero guardare coloro che vengono alle prediche che hanno la pancia piena)
5) quando lo hanno impiccato e bruciato ho provato un piacere perverso
July 25, 2016
The life of Savonarola has interested me for a long time, although it has become especially fascinating in the context of the current political season. I am not sure what is most interesting -- the skilled preacher, the prophet of doom and the promise of salvation, the political theorist, the arbiter of morals and tastes, or the opponent of Rome. Donald Weinstein, who passed away last year, has written a definitive one volume account of the Dominican monk who preached that disaster was coming to Florence and the Roman Church and that the only way to escape from this came from Florence reforming itself into a republic (throwing out the Medici) and foster the pursuit of a holy life by its citizens - a theocracy as well as a republic. This happened during the Italian Renaissance in the most sophisticated city of Italy, and involved taking on the Pope (a Borgia Pope no less) and looking for an alliance with the French to maintain Florence's security and prosperity on the Italian peninsula. This is a very complex story involving theological arguments that anticipated the Reformation and political machinations worthy of Machiavelli, who watched this story unfold as a young 20 something and whose experience in the government of Florence (and in prison) shaped his later political and historical writings.
Weinstein has told a wonderful story and is fairly thorough in working through the case. The book is a demanding read, but the author has done a good job in telling the story (and in doing his homework). This is not just a political footnote, but is thoroughly relevant in an election year featuring appearances from political strongmen, religious factions, warring wealthy families, lots of betrayals, threats from foreign rivals, visions from God, mob violence, and trial by fire. The next time one is tempted to wonder about the political prospects of a talented outsider who gives a good stock speech and sees the world as doomed and the establishment as corrupt and in thorough need of reform, it would be advisable to consider the situation of Florence between 1494 and 1498.
Weinstein has told a wonderful story and is fairly thorough in working through the case. The book is a demanding read, but the author has done a good job in telling the story (and in doing his homework). This is not just a political footnote, but is thoroughly relevant in an election year featuring appearances from political strongmen, religious factions, warring wealthy families, lots of betrayals, threats from foreign rivals, visions from God, mob violence, and trial by fire. The next time one is tempted to wonder about the political prospects of a talented outsider who gives a good stock speech and sees the world as doomed and the establishment as corrupt and in thorough need of reform, it would be advisable to consider the situation of Florence between 1494 and 1498.
March 11, 2020
Well written history. Unfortunately, I was more interested in the spiritual growth that Savonarola may have kindled in himself and those who were his disciples. Detailed Renaissance history, not personal Spiritual growth was the purpose of this book and if that is what you are looking for, then you will enjoy this book.
June 9, 2021
what a guy
August 17, 2013
This is a well reasoned, well written and organized study that neither demonizes Savonarola nor writes a hagiography but places him in the context of Florentine anti-Medici republicanism. This nuanced treatment also examines the role of ecclesiastical corruption and European politics in his rise and fall that only a few years after his death would erupt in the Protestant Reformation.
Want to read
July 30, 2013He is one of the main characters in Romola.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews