The Florentines: From Dante to Galileo: The Transformation of Western Civilization

by Paul Strathern

A sweeping 400-year history of the Florentines who gave birth to the Renaissance, by the author of The Medici and The Borgias.

Between the birth of Dante in 1265 and the death of Galileo in 1642 something happened that transformed the entire culture of Western civilisation. Painting, sculpture and architecture would all visibly change in such a striking fashion that there could be no going back on what had taken place. Likewise, the thought and self-conception of humanity would take on a completely new aspect. Sciences would be born or emerge in an entirely new guise.

The ideas that broke this mould largely began, and continued to flourish, in the city of Florence in the province of Tuscany in Northern Central Italy. These ideas, which placed an increasing emphasis on the development of our common humanity - rather than other-worldly spirituality - coalesced in what came to be known as humanism. This philosophy and its new ideas would eventually spread across Italy, yet wherever they took hold they would retain an element essential to their origin. And as they spread further across Europe this element would remain.

Transformations of human culture throughout Western history have remained indelibly stamped by their origins. The Reformation would always retain something of Central and Northern Germany. The Industrial Revolution soon outgrew its British origins, yet also retained something of its original template. Closer to the present, the IT revolution that began in Silicon Valley remains indelibly coloured by its Californian origins. Paul Strathern shows how Florence, and the Florentines, played a similar role in the Renaissance.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Italy, Renaissance, Art, Biography, European History

1 pages, Audio CD

First published April 1, 2021

About the author

Paul Strathern (born 1940) is a English writer and academic. He was born in London, and studied at Trinity College, Dublin, after which he served in the Merchant Navy over a period of two years. He then lived on a Greek island. In 1966 he travelled overland to India and the Himalayas. His novel A Season in Abyssinia won a Somerset Maugham Award in 1972.

Besides five novels, he has also written numerous books on science, philosophy, history, literature, medicine and economics.

Reviews

[Abeselom Habtemariam · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘’Between the birth of Dante in 1265 and the death of Galileo in 1642, something happened which would transform the entire culture of western civilization.’’

So begins the prologue to this book by Paul Strathern on the Italian city-state of Florence and the disproportionately huge role it played in the cultural revitalization of Europe we now know as The Renaissance. This was a period in which people were looking back towards knowledge from classical antiquity that had been obscured in the dark ages. This book is on the painters, sculptors, poets, statesmen, cartographers, architects, bankers and scientists that made this city in northern central Italy the definitive icon of The Renaissance.

When I saw him in that vast wilderness,
‘’Have pity on me,’’ were the words I cried,
‘’Whatever you may be - a shade, a man’’
He answered me: ‘’Not man; I once was man.
Both of my parents came from Lombardy,
And both claimed Mantua as native city.

Dante Alighieri’s La Divina Commedia, Inferno, Canto I, lines 64-70

The first chapter is dedicated to Dante Alighieri, and it opens by describing the first Canto of Inferno, where the poet writes about being lost in a gloomy forest surrounded by wild beasts until he is rescued by his idol, the ancient Roman poet Virgil. Virgil promises to show him hell, the afterward of Purgatory, and deliver him to Beatrice so that she can conduct him into Paradise. And thus Dante’s journey begins, giving birth to La Divina Commedia, which is universally regarded as one of the most sublime works of poetry in western literature. Written in the Tuscan dialect of Dante’s native Florence, La Divina Commedia is credited with establishing the basis for present day Italian language. The chapter examines the economy, politics and demography of Florence by the time Dante was born in 1265. The Florentine republic was one of the most prosperous city-states in the Italian peninsula, due in part to its active wool trading and banking industries.

Among the litany of Greek and Roman mythological characters, ancient Greek and Roman historical figures, Biblical characters and his own ancestors, Dante’s La Divina Commedia also presents his contemporary Florentines as characters in his narrative of the afterlife. In his vivid depiction, he writes about his friends, people from opposing political factions, people he looked up to and people whom he despised. But chief among them is Beatrice, the woman whose love haunted him throughout his life. He envisioned his love for Beatrice to be divine, and indeed in Paradiso, the third book of La Divina Commedia, she would guide and protect Dante through paradise after Virgil leaves him in Purgatory.

As was the case for much of Western Europe in the first half of the 13th century, Florence was experiencing a violent conflict between the Pope and the Holy Roman Empire. On top of that, the various aristocratic families were mired in their own battles among themselves. The most infamous of these battles was the one between the Buondelmonti and the Uberti families (Dante mentions this conflict in Paradiso, Canto XVI, lines 136–148). By the time Dante was born, Florence was experiencing prosperity and relative peace. Strathern goes over Dante’s life, from his enrolment into the prestigious Guild of Physicians and Apothecaries to his death in exile in 1321. This helps to understand Dante’s work and put into context the influence his beloved Florence had on him. Dante has an immeasurable impact on Italian culture and identity. The picture below is a picture of the statue of Dante and scenes from La Divina Commedia in the city centre of Trento, a city in Northern Italy where I lived for nearly four years.



After a chapter discussing how wealth, freedom, talent and timing resulted in Florence being the home of the Renaissance, the book introduces three important Florentine figures of the time, the painter Giotto di Bondone, the poet and scholar Francesco Petrarch and the writer Giovanni Boccaccio. Giotto’s works, especially the Arena chapel frescoes depicting the life of Christ and the Last Judgment, infused naturalism and dimensionality to the largely Byzantine style that was popular at the time in Italy. Of a special importance is his fresco of Dante, which is said to be the most accurate depiction of the poet. Dante wrote about Giotto’s acclaim in Purgatorio, the second book of La Divina Commedia (Purgatorio, Canto XI, lines 94–97). Boccaccio was one of the most venturesomely bold writers in early Renaissance Florence, who is of course today widely known for his Decameron, a collection of 100 tales as explicit as La Divina Commedia was a work of reverence. Francesco Petrarch was a transformative figure of the early Renaissance period who had a profound influence on education and humanism.

The subsequent eight chapters cover Florentines that were instrumental in bringing about the high renaissance period. These include the brilliant architect Filippo Brunelleschi, who designed the dome of the famous Florence Cathedral; Three innovators of the arts (Antonio Manetti, Paolo Uccello and Piero della Francesca) that Strathern collectively dubs ‘’The Mathematical Artists’’; The founders of the powerful de Medici family; Amerigo Vespucci, a passionate explorer who was invaluable in the discovery of ‘’The New World’’ and from whose name the term "America" is derived; The monumental painter Sandro Botticelli whose two famous paintings, The Birth of Venus and Primavera, are giants of the period; and The banker, de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic, and the most enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy, Lorenzo de’ Medici il Magnifico. Below is a picture of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, currently located in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.





The next two chapters discuss Leonardo da Vinci, the man who perhaps embodies the image and ethos of The Renaissance more than any other human being. The chapters go briefly through young Leonardo’s apprenticeship under Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence, his early involvement with Lorenzo il magnifico and his Milan years. Afterwards, an important event in Florentine political history is discussed. This was a period when Lorenzo il magnifico’s son, Piero, capitulated to king Charles VIII of France and abandoned the city (This period is referenced repeatedly by Niccolò Machiavelli in The Prince). An important figure that emerges here is the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola (whom I suspect might have served as an inspiration for the High Sparrow character in the Song of Ice and Fire book series and the subsequent HBO TV series Game of Thrones). For a while, Friar Savonarola had managed to build a popular republic based on Christian moralistic virtues, as opposed to the secular decadence of the de Medici’s. He organized devout young men to patrol the streets for immodest outfits, gambling, adultery and public drunkenness. However, Savonarola’s de facto rule of Florence wouldn’t survive public discontent and his excommunication by Pope Alexander VI for his strong criticism of the church.

Strathern then focuses his attention on Niccolò Machiavelli, a man whose very name in our current lexicon has become a byword for someone capable of unscrupulous canning. He discusses Machiavelli’s early diplomatic career, his extensive diplomatic missions to France and to Pope Alexander VI’s illegitimate son Cesare Borgia, his exile from Florence and his brief and unspectacular return to public life. In his most famous work, The Prince, Machiavelli sought to establish the underlaying frameworks of a state’s internal and external affairs and within these frameworks he supplied reinforcing examples from antiquity, The Bible and the contemporary politics of Italy and Europe.

Drawn from his diplomatic experience, Machiavelli’s The Prince is a guide for those who want to ruthlessly gain and retain state power. He writes on organization of a state’s army and militia, the involvement of foreign armies in internal affairs of a state, how a leader should balance generosity with parsimony, how a leader must handle his personal business apart from state business, how the employment of mercenary armies can backfire on a state, whether a leader should be loved or feared and many other political thoughts. For instance, on whether a leader should be loved or feared, Machiavelli held a slightly different view from Michael Scott of The Office, who true to his characteristically naive fashion wanted people ‘’ to be afraid of how much they love him’’. Machiavelli instead writes;

‘’On the question of whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the reverse, the answer is that one would like to be both the one and the other; but because it is difficult to combine them, it is far better to be feared than loved if you cannot be both…….. The prince must nonetheless make himself feared in such a way that, if he is not loved, at least he escapes being hated’’.

The Prince, Chapter XVII, Cruelty and compassion; and whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the reverse

Aside from The Prince, in his latter years Machiavelli would write the more nuanced political treatise known as The Discourses and the Medici family commissioned Florentine Histories. However, none of his works would come close to the fame The Prince would posthumously achieve.

The next Florentine given coverage in this book is Michelangelo, who together with Raphael and Leonardo de Vinci form the trinity of the great masters of the Renaissance. The details of Michelangelo’s life are well documented as compared to the other Florentines in this book due to the sheer volume of first-hand correspondences and notes he left behind. And most importantly, his works ranging from the Madonna della Pietà to David, from paintings of scenes from Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to his sculpture of Moses in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, make Michelangelo’s transcendent art one of the most influential in the history of humanity.

Galileo Galilei brings to conclusion the exploration of Renaissance Florence discussed throughout the book. Galileo was early on driven to Mathematics through exposure to Euclidean Geometry. Just like the Renaissance artists looked for inspiration from ancient Greek and Rome, he was inspired by the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid and his method of using rigours proof to build theorems from a small set of axioms. This would greatly influence the emphasis he placed on experiments and measurement to verify his scientific theories in engineering, astronomy and physics. His insistence on the verifiable scientific evidences supporting Copernican heliocentric world view would of course famously bring him an unwanted attention from Pope Urban VIII. But perhaps Galileo’s great contribution might just be his assertion that the laws of nature are written in the language of Mathematics.



The central idea the book set out to present is how in a space of about 400 years, in a bid to get inspiration from classical wisdom, Florentines had managed to exceptionally advance human knowledge in literature, architecture, politics, the visual arts, cartography and the sciences. The Renaissance would give birth to the Age of Enlightenment, which in turn became the Industrial Revolution. The book has for the most part accomplished its goal in delineating these transformations, thus linking the classical ages with our modern times. A minor complaint might be the fact that it absolutely shows that Strathern is trying to fit a long and rich historical period of Florentine history in just under 400 pages. I believe with about 200 pages more, a wide-angle perspective could’ve been achieved, although I do acknowledge that would bring its own drawbacks. Overall, a very enjoyable book.

Endnotes

1. For references to Dante’s La Divina Commedia, the edition I used is The Everyman’s Library Edition translated by Allen Mandelbaum
2. For references to Machiavelli’s The Prince, the edition I used is The Penguin Classics Edition translated and Introduced by George Bull

[looneybooks79 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 50 of 2021 (believe it or not! Before Covid, that would have been the max number of books I read in a year)

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙁𝙡𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨: 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝘿𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙂𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙤 by Paul Strathern

My love for Italy, especially Tuscany (Firenze being my favourite city), is huge! And my favourite period in history is the Renaissance (new discoveries, great art and architecture) so when I saw this book, I was curious!

And although I already knew a lot of Florentine history, it still captivated me. It was very well written in twenty something chapters, each chapter about a certain character or event in Firenze’s history. And as you can see in the picture, I combined this book with some of my previous non-fiction books that talk about the same period in time (albeit in a very different place or about one certain man, in this case Leonardo da Vinci) and it won’t be my last because I plan on expanding my knowledge!

[Anisha Inkspill · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I saw this book by Paul Strathern, I flicked through it where it seemed like maybe it would fill in a few more gaps for me about the Renaissance. The book’s focus is Florence, and gives a flavour of its literature, art and science during these times. It also highlights cultural developments, including the calendar, the banking system and the political landscape. The latter is mostly through the emergence of the Medici family.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this, and it was also handy in giving me background on two reads that have been parked in my tbr for quite some time: The Divine Comedy and The Decameron.

And though in places it was bitsy (where it moved on quickly to the next point or subject), I have still come away with a better understanding of the Renaissance than before.

[Wee Lassie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The things I’ve learned from this book: 1) Most of the major figures in the Renaissance all came from the same place in Italy and 2) Bankers had a lot more to do with that same Renaissance than you would have suspected 😁

[Steve Greenleaf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul Strathern’s The Florentines provides a succinct and informative tour of Florentine history through some of its most significant personages. Strathern begins with the High Middle Ages (if we may still use this term) of Dante (1265-1321) and concludes with Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) and the Scientific Revolution. Between these two figures lies the Florence of the Italian Renaissance, populated by names most will recognize: Boccaccio, Petrarch, Brunelleschi, Alberti, Botticelli, the Medici, Ficino, Savonarola, Machiavelli, Donatello, Leonardo, and Michelangelo. The list could go on, but you get the point. These individuals and their contemporaries in and around Florence in a period from the mid-15th to the mid-16th centuries changed the course of Western civ (no, the book title is not puffery). And these individuals ignited cultural changes that spread quickly beyond Italy into Northern Europe.

In anticipation of a trip to Italy later this year provided me with a good excuse to dive into all things Renaissance (and Italian). I had the good fortune to have taken a course in Renaissance history as an undergrad, and I learned a lot. But I have to admit that now almost 50 years later, some details are, shall we say, a bit hazy. I was therefore seeking a single volume work that would tie individuals, events, and dates together in one easily accessible work. (N.B. Like any serious student of history, I abhor the thought that some teach history simply as a sequence of dates and test their students accordingly, thereby promoting the memorization of dates. Dates are mere placeholders for the sequence of events. Dates serve as the skeleton of any narrative or analysis. I remember dates, roughly at least, if not always perfectly, because they serve to create the chronology necessary for a narrative or analysis. Otherwise, the past would only be a collection of indistinguishable goo.)

By focusing on key individuals and their environments, Strathern allows a narrative of Florence as a city, as a community, to emerge throughout the book. Strathern doesn’t address non-elites in any depth. The shopkeepers, artisans, workers, and the destitute serve, like the chorus or the “mob” in a play or opera. The leads (elites or “stars”) recite the soliloquies or sing the arias. But we don’t remember Florence for what made it typical, but for what made it unique. On the other hand, the acts of great figures, especially those of the great public figures, like the Medici, and political actors like Machiavelli, are always engaged in a complicated dance with the common people. And, despite a lack of education, the common people had a sense of when they were getting the short end of the stick or when the culture was changing too much for comfort. (On occasion they would participate in book burnings (see Savonarola and the “bonfire of the vanities”), or they would trash artworks.)

To be clear, this is a popular history. It is not the result of searching through dusty, decaying archives or engaging first-hand with ancient texts. It is a narrative built on the foundational work of others. Yet, although it’s not the stuff upon which dissertations are written, it nevertheless serves a very useful purpose. It provides an easy-to-read and comprehend guide to this far-away land and time when the course of history changed dramatically. I don’t know that there could be a more accessible guide to the Florentine Renaissance for someone wanting to get an overview of this fascinating era. Or for someone who wants to dust away nearly 50 years of cobwebs on his knowledge of this fascinating time.

[Sebastian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great popular history of the Renaissance. It's sort of like a Brueghel scene: a picture painted through smaller vignettes of some of the great artists, writers, engineers, scientists [many were all four of these things], and political leaders of the era.

Both the micro (stories of Lorenzo de'Medici, Boccaccio, Brunelleschi) and the macro (how these individuals added up to a Renaissance) are fascinating. At a time where there is lots of discussion around how to revitalize our scientific institutions and possibly our artistic sensibilities, I read the book with an eye towards the latter and lessons we may glean.

The story goes something like this:

Some time in the early 1300s, there's a small republic in Tuscany with this pretty impressive author, Dante Alighieri (died 1321) and two pretty impressive artists, Cimabue (died 1302) and Duccio (died 1318). It's odd that it's a republic in a world of kingdoms and dukedoms -- though not wholly unprecedented, the other notable example being Venice [30]. It's also notable for a thriving textile industry that makes the city wealthy. Strathern covers neither the history of the republic nor the background on the wool trade but I would have been interested to hear about both. Anyway the point is that it's quite a different place from say Milan, Naples, France, England, or Aragon and that there are couple of notable creatives that show up in this unique city-state.

Black Death arrives in 1348 which is well after the first wave of Florentine greats. There's a popular meme that the plague triggers the Renaissance. It may have been an accelerant, but it can't have been the only thing.

In the late 1300s and early 1400s we see the rise of the Medici clan and a further wave of great men in Petrarch, Boccaccio, Brunelleshi, Uccello, Toscanelli, and more. Virtually all of these men had personal relationships with at least some other Renaissance thinkers and through the book it was clear that something magic happened through the informal networks and friendships of the period. One of my favorite anecdotes was of a young Brunelleschi and a younger Donatello taking a trip to Rome together to wander the ruins and study the art and architecture in 1403 [105]. It was a circle of thinkers that riffed off one and other, collaborated, and competed for cultural clout.

The height of the Italian Renaissance truly begins [from my perspective] in 1424 when de Medici patriarch Giovanni di Bicci and his son Cosimo win a monopoly on papal banking from Martin V [149]. This would guarantee a steady flow of gold to the Medici coffers for about 100 years as Medici men skimmed collection fees from all of Christendom. It would also ensure a flow of information both in and out of Florence [which constantly surprised me for its cosmopolitanism] as bankers traveled back and forth from branches in Venice, Bruges, Paris, London, and beyond. One of my favorite small anecdotes is of a Chinese delegation visiting Rome in 1432, a meeting to which the worldly Florentines were of course invited [166].

This money poured gasoline on kindling: by the mid-15th century we get Brunelleschi's dome, Botticelli, da Vinci, Donatello, Verrochio, not to mention Amerigo Vespucci. Cosimo and his successors Piero and Lorenzo would host the Florentine Academy [185], and begin their golden period of patronage so often discussed.

Two questions occurred to me as I was reading this section:

(1) Where were the universities in all of this? Italy of the 15th century actually had a number of major universities that survive to this day. Wholly unclear what their role in society was. I don't know if any of the names mentioned above ever interacted with a university at all. It seems like progress came through tutoring, informal circles like the Florentine Academy, patronage, and actually trying to do things in the world and solve problems [e.g. Brunelleschi invented paddle boats for construction of his dome, having to move significant amounts of stone up the Arno from Pisa... not in some lab where he published "A Boat With A Spinning Paddle With Properties Of Being Able To Move Quantities Of Marble Against The Current In A Flowing River"].

(2) I'm not sure why the rich and curious Italian states did not finance more expeditions in the Age of Discovery. Vespucci, Columbus, and others clearly played crucial roles in exploration of the New World. But it doesn't seem crazy to me that a good chunk of South America would be speaking Italian with a few small changes. [172-173]

The final 1/3 or so of the book chronicles the political fighting of the late 15th century as Medici bank income waned and rivals began fighting for control of the city. Savonarola gets a bad rap for his Bonfire of the Vanities but in 1494 he truly saved Florence from desecration at the hands of French king Charles VIII. Anyway, the Medici actually recover from a true sh*tshow of a 30-40 year period in the late 1400s / early 1500s with a Medici Pope (Leo X) and control of the French throne via Catherine and Marie, and establish a hereditary dukedom in 1532 that would last until the age of Napoleon.

By then, Renaissance ideas had permeated through the continent and great thinkers and artists were cropping up across France and the low countries. But there was still toothpaste left in the tube! Machiavelli, Galileo, and Michelangelo all did their greatest work well after Lorenzo il Magnifico had passed and even long after Savonarola's reign of terror.

----------

Florence in most of this period was a city of little more than 70,000 residents. It was a small place with an even smaller intellectual community that produced ideas that permeated the west and later the world. A bunch of creative people decided they wanted to live in a different sort of world and they did and won not through force but through performance the minds of leaders across Europe.

The 15th century didn't necessarily have pervasive intellectual authorities. Yes there was the church (and occasional friction between the Florentines and the church), but a lot of Renaissance thinking was applied to glorify the church or simply was orthogonal to any of its teachings. Good ideas can spread quickly -- they are free to replicate -- but only if they are allowed to blossom in the first place.

One of the things I worry most about in the west today is the intolerant monolith of academia, media, and administrative agencies. Small groups of people with the right idea can transform society for the better, but not if they are shot dead and told to "believe the science".

[Gijs Limonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid overview of the who’s who in renaissance Florence; recommended.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

fascinating story of 350 years of Florence's most notable citizensMr

Admittedly I was a bit hesitant when I started this book: 350 years of history in 350 pages? Won't it be dry and superficial accounts of the lives of Dante, Brunelleschi, Donatello, and so many great other artists and leaders?

It isn't! The author succeeds brilliantly in weaving the stories of all those great artists, not to mention the all-present Medici family, in a fascinating, educational and highly enjoyable book. Sometimes I felt like I was reading fiction instead of historical fact. The chapter about Fra Girolama Savonarola was just riveting; how one man succeeded in bringing down the mighty Medici family and finally ended on the stake himself. Also Brunelleschi's work on the dome of Santa Maria dei Fiori had me glued to my seat.

The whole book is filled to the brim with stories about artists, popes, noblemen, warriors, priests, ... What a strange time and place it must have been to live in. On the one hand there were all these very talented artists on the other hand there was a constant threat of war, plague, internal strife.

If you are even slightly interested in the Italian renaissance, I highly recommend this book.

[Theo Mellor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book as a good overview of the Renaissance centred around Florence, even though sometimes I cringed a little bit and some of the description of paintings was a bit tedious and too much art history. Overall the writing was engaging and did a good job of realising the characters that drive this book. I’m going to go chapter by chapter so I remember what happened.

—————————————————————————————

Chapter One: Dante and Florence

Not a lot about Dante and what there was wasn’t very interesting but I will probably read the Divine Comedy, the rest of the chapter introduced Florence providing a background for how the city functioned as well as some historical and religious context.

Chapter Two: Wealth, Freedom and Talent

It was interesting to learn about how a lot of early Renaissance ideas came from the Arabic world, with Fibonacci importing the numerical system which helped with banking, which is introduced in this chapter. Also Arabic copies of classic texts such as Plato inspired the humanist thinking.

Chapter Three: A Clear Eye Amidst Troubled Times

Giotto the artist dwarf and Boccaccio introduced in this chapter. However, mostly about the troubled 1330s-40s which involved the leader of Florence being torn apart in the streets and the great collapse of the banks which had flourished in the last 60 years. First of a few chapters that mention how poor people didn’t benefit from the Renaissance. Ends with the Black Death.

Chapter 4: Boccaccio and Petrarch

Boccaccio basically writes The Canterbury Tales during lockdown, Petrarch is “the first tourist” and goes around finding old classics test and being known as the smartest guy around at the time. Also has an epiphany atop Mount Ventoux?!?!

Chapter 5: War and Peace

This chapter deals with the mercenaries roaming Italy at this time, detailing their wild nature and fighting with no bloodshed. Sir John Hawkwood protects Florence after trying to loot them. Talks about the Merchant of Prato, another book about typical middle class man.

Chapter 6: The Dome

Brunelleschi goes around Rome taking notes in code and ends up building a massive dome in Florence, his pettiness is admirably large, claiming to be ill for multiple years.

Chapter 7: The Mathematical Artists

The main people in this chapter are Uccello and della Francesca and della Francesca’s the flagellation of Christ is really good but basically they just worked on perspective in paintings.

Chapter 8: Those Who Paid the Bills

In this chapter we see the beginning of the Medici bank under Giovanni do Bisci who was basically really good at being a banker, got super wealthy but stayed humble.

Chapter 9: The Renaissance Spreads Its Wings

In this chapter we see Alberti who was basically good at everything, may have had African heritage, and made the Trevor Fountain. We also see Toscanelli who predicted the Americas and drew theoretical maps, as well as being an astronomer. And finally we see Amerigo Vespucci who was a banker sent to Cadiz who ended up overseeing/funding the next expeditions to the Americas after Columbus, being the first to realise it was a new world, with America being named after him (maybe).

Chapter 10: Medici Rising

In this chapter we learn about Cosimo de’ Medici, who became the Godfather of Florence. He began influencing elections to protect the Medici wealth however a rival faction was able to arrest him and lock him in the tower. He was able to survive and only be exiled due to his family’s legacy of supporting the poor following a Medici’s actions in the brief period the poor took over Florence in the 1300s, and returned to Florence after 11 months in Venice after the Albizzi failed, and he became the main authority. Sforza, a mercenary leader took over Milan thanks to Cosimo’s manoeuvrings. The Renaissance began to flourish due to the Medici prosperity.

Chapter 11: A Medici Artist

Sandro Botticelli was a very talented artist funded by the Medici who died poor due to his religious fanaticism during a later period. Piero the Gouty made several mistakes before Lorenzo took over.

Chapter 12: Il Magnifico

Lorenzo managed to defeat one rebellion during his fathers time cleverly, and generally was acting impressively, even though he used Florence town funds as his personal funds. They hosted a Milanese delegation for several months. Mercenaries he hired slaughtered a town they besieged which may or may not have been what he wanted, but he gained admiration.

Chapter 13: Leonardo

Leonardo da Vinci was shy and liked to work alone in peace, he was also a perfectionist who enjoyed lying in his letters. Lorenzo saved Florence by sailing to Naples to dissuade the crazy King from destroying them in alliance with other city states.

Chapter 14: Shifting Ground

The Medici bank was beginning to go bankrupt, da Vinci’s cow was destroyed, the whole Medici family had gout, and Giovanni became a Cardinal through the Medici’s increasing role in European politics.

Chapter 15: Undercurrents

Savonarola was a preacher who began to rise to fame in the early 1490s, he moved around before ending up in Florence, and was very shouty and intense, having constant visions and through a successful (fairly obvious) prediction preached in the cathedral to most of Florence. When Charles VIII of France took Milan, the new Medici Piero tried to replicate Lorenzo’s ride to Naples, but failed spectacularly and was soon forced to flee for his life out of Florence.

Chapter 16: The Bonfire of the Vanities

In this chapter, the story of Savonarola reaches its climax as he walks around Italy looking for the King of France, impressing him with his fiery beliefs meaning the King came to Florence and was allowed in. Having been paid 120,000 by Capponi and the city for not sacking it, he then decided to sack it anyway, but Savonarola went and shouted at him, convincing him God would not want that. Savonarola then created a city of God that lasted 2 years, including the burning of many works of art and other “vanities” before he went after the Pope, Cesare Borgia. Economic hardship also began to strike the city due to inclement weather, and through a sequence of events started by attempting to do a miracle Savonarola and 2 supporters were hung and burned in the town square.

Chapter 17: Machiavelli

Machiavelli was a very successful diplomat for the brief republican government in Florence, first when dealing with the new King of France, and later dealing with Cesare Borgia, successfully defending Florence. However, when Cardinal Giovanni Medici retook Florence with the papal troops Machiavelli was tortured and exiled, whereupon he wrote his works, frustrated as he yearned to return to diplomacy, and Florence.

Chapter 18: Michelangelo

Michelangelo always comes off as a very intense character in this book, doing nothing by half. He ran away from painting the Sistine Chapel to sculpt, which was his true passion. The Medicis became the it family in Europe. Vasari wrote his history of the Renaissance artists, frequently referenced in this book.

Chapter 19: Galileo

Galileo was always in need of money throughout a lot his early life, and angered many through being too proud about his own intelligence.

[Brandon Dalo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Florentines tells the history of Florence and through it, the history of the Renaissance. The history is told in chronological order and through the stories of some of its most illustrious citizens. At about 350 total pages, the author's stated intent was to write an entertaining book and not a scholarly encyclopedic look at all things Renaissance and I think that strategy worked here.

The book begins with Dante, and of course we read about all the heavy hitters like Leonardo da Vinci, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Galileo, etc. but also so many more who contributed so much to humanity and aren't as well known. For the most part, this book remains entertaining and informative throughout. As someone who will be visiting Florence this fall, it gave me such an appreciation for what I'll be seeing and experiencing there. I also gained an appreciation for how the Renaissance was such an important turning point from everything that had come before it and how it directly led to the Age of Enlightenment and then to the Industrial Revolution and beyond.

One place where the book did drag just a bit was in all the talk of the banks in Florence throughout history. I totally understand that it is largely because of the wealth these banks brought into Florence that the Renaissance took place, but the banks and those that owned them, were talked about over and over again. Leonardo da Vinci got such a short amount of space in the book compared to some of the bank owners for example. But that was my only big gripe.

I'd recommend this to anyone interested in Florence, western culture, history, art lovers, etc.

[Filip · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about the beginnings of the Renaissance, shown through the lives of famous people born in or living in Florence. The construction of the book, with each chapter being about a particular characters, that plenty of times we received the same information twice or three times when the paths of various characters crossed. Some stories were more interesting than others, while others less so. The part about what was the diameter of domes in each city wasn't of particular interest to me, but the latter part, especially the chapters about Galileo and Machiavelli were really interesting.

It was amusing how the book stated that Florence influenced the birth of Renaissance so much, because it was a city with high individual freedom, where talent was cultivated... and then described talented people who were mostly at some point in their lives exiled from the city.

Quite an uneven book that dragged for too long in some parts, but generally quite interesting and providing a nice perspective on the change of eras.

[Noah Goats · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really hope I have a chance to visit Florence one day. In the meantime, I have this book and it's a good one. Florence has had an outsized influence on the history of the West. It is the birthplace of the Renaissance and was also the birthplace (or at least the stomping ground) of all kinds of interesting people ranging from writers like Dante and Boccaccio, to politicians and business men like the Medicis, to, of course, the artists who are still considered some of the word's greatest.

Paul Strathern has lots of great material to work with here, and he doesn't waste the opportunity. He tells the history of Florence through its most interesting people and the result is a very readable piece of history.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging sweep of Florentine history from the 13th- early 17th century - was a bit rushed at times, but I guess it had to be to cover such a vast era.

[Annika Unterberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

People want to buy books about what they've seen in the museum/castle/etc. in its gift shop and not some cheap souvenirs from China. At least, I do and I was so happy that the Italians seem understand this! During our mother-daughter trip to Florence this February I bought a handful of books in gift shops, for example The Florentines in Palazzo Pitti.

I've always found the Renaissance to be absolutely fascinating, mainly because I love antiquity and during this period the ancient masters were rediscovered. And while I knew that the Renaissance had its origin in Italy, it was new to me that all the major names like Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Galileo all came from Florence or had a deep relation to the city. But as it seems Florence and Renaissance were synonyms during the 13-16th centuries.

Paul Strathern teaches us about this period in history one individual at the time. This way we not only come to understand the artists, scientists and business men of the Renaissance (and I loved all the mini-biographies) but also Florence as a whole.

—> 3,5 stars

[Daniel O'Grady · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic insight into the people of Florence who acted as the impetus behind the Renaissance and the development of the city.

This book earns 5 stars (for me) because:
It is very-well structured and focuses on each new character in well paced succession.
It goes into an unusually comfortable amount of detail with each topic; enough to arouse one’s interest yet not too extensive so as to become deterring.
Having that said, this book is an exceptionally light read for a history book, which surprised me. It really is the perfect balance of entertainment and education.
It is clear and well-written with virtually no nebulous periods of storytelling.
The author does a remarkable job of explaining the revolutionary transition from medieval, religiocentric thought to humanist, scientific thought, with demonstrations of this throughout each topic.

It is most definitely worth the effort to read.

[Matilda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was actually not as bad as I had thought it would be but that does NOT mean I forgive you Theo (don't you dare pull a stunt like this again).

It was pretty readable and I liked learning more about well-known characters. Cosimo is also very cool and the Medicis were a whole vibe in themselves.

Also very happy to finally know what Machiavellian actually refers too.

If you want a readable Renaissance / Art History book I would recommend (although I'm not especially interested in either of those and enjoyed it despite that).

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. An interesting collection of brief biographies of famous Florence men during the Renaissance period, including Dante, (born 1265), Leonardo da Vinci, the Medici bankers, Brunelleschi, Machiavelli, Botticelli, Michelangelo, and Galileo, (died 1642).

This book was first published in 2021.

[Isabella · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really interesting narrative to view Florentine history from! I enjoyed the personal perspectives and how everything was built up together into a bigger picture

[Yuliya Blaser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wasn’t my book, I nicked it from my hubby who got it from the Hatchards in hope of reading it prior to his trip to Florence. Ha, I thought, it would have taken him a year and a half to read Still Life which is light and hilarious, but this book would have taken him as long as it took Michelangelo to paint 300+ figures on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (4 years).
It is absolutely amazing to have learned so much about the famous people of Florence during the Renaissance time. You know, Renaissance wasn’t called Renaissance for 500 years or more. It wasn’t called anything as such.
I must admit I had purchased Divine Comedy by Dante long time ago but never bothered to read it, yet after reading about Dante himself I feel like it will add significantly to my life’s accomplishments. What a guy!
Was a bit disappointed with Leonardo. Was obsessed with the TV series about his life, but he was a fantasist and perfectionist, didn’t accomplish much, even his Mona Lisa wasn’t completed according to him. He used to take it with him on his travels. Ended up on some Pope’s wall…
Michelangelo, on the other hand, not only a phenomenal sculptor, also a painter and a poet. Just how talented and underrated he was.
Botticelli is a little barrel. Sounds so beautiful in Italian, yet he died very poor and forgotten. To see Birth of Venus in Uffizi will be the highest point of my entire life.
Medici, Medici, Medici is everywhere in the book. Crafty bankers and rulers of Florence, supporters of art and science and to be honest the ugliest bunch with one horrible disease attached to them - gout.
I read it chapter by chapter using highlighters and annotations and will take it to Florence with me as my lucky charm, because I am educated person that I am.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is like an All Star game of the art and science masters in a great pivotal moment in time: Dante, Boccaccio, Vespucci, Petrarch, Brunelleschi, Alberti, Botticelli, the Medici, Fucino, Savonarola, Machiavelli, Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Galileo. Artists, politicians, noblemen, warriors, priests, popes. All with fascinating backstory and play by play, from freedom of thought to the Bonfire of the Vanities, and back again.

Roger Clark’s narration brings gravitas, but is bone dry and does not always do justice to Strathern’s storytelling (I found the skirmishes and wars a yawn), but any curiosity about this far away place and time, when human history changed forever, will see you through.

A reader’s (and traveler’s) “why,” summed up by the Epilogue:

“What had begun in Florence as a rebirth of classical knowledge, at first affecting architecture and inspiring humanist thought, had been reinforced in a new style of painting. A greater reality had entered humanity’s vision of the world and had quickly spread to all manner of human knowledge and endeavor. Not for nothing would Galileo be compared to Columbus setting foot on a new world.

Out of its first inklings in Florence the Renaissance had spread its wings, enabling the modern age to take flight across the continent. Western Europe was now open to utilizing new ideas and testing those new ideas. It was this openness that was the key: the openness which arose in a small Italian city state whose citizens believed in its somewhat corrupt democracy. Ironically, it may have been the corruption which provided the city with sufficient stability. The world to which these new ideas gave birth remained open to new ideas from other cultures. From Arabic mathematics to Chinese printing and gun powder. From Far East spices to the New World vegetables. Every aspect of human life, especially in the West, was transformed. Cartography, politics, astronomy, philosophy, indeed, all the arts and sciences would never be the same again. “

[Ksiazkowa_dieta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Byliście we Włoszech? 🏛️
Ja jeszcze nie - jeszcze, bo po lekturze tej książki już planuję podróż ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem Florencji! 🏛️
"Florencja" to książka o włoskim mieście, w którym narodził się renesans. To jednocześnie opowieść o mieście-państwie, ale i o ludziach, którzy byli z nim związani - od tytułowych Dantego i Galileusza, ale też Michała Anioła, Leonarda da Vinci czy cały ród Mecydeuszy 🏛️
Co prawda w szkole nigdy nie było mi po drodze z historią, to jednak dzięki "Florencji" jestem naprawdę zaintrygowana i żałuję, że nie było tej książki wcześniej 🏛️
Książka jest idealną lekturą dla wszystkich miłośników ciekawostek. Autor przytacza wiele różnych informacji, nie zatrzymując się tylko na tytułowym mieście, ale wspomina też o całych Włoszech, jak i Europie (pojawił się też Kraków!) 🏛️
Muszę przyznać, że książka wydana jest przepięknie. Twarda oprawa i cudowne złote zdobienia - niestety trzeba uważać podczas czytania, bo napis na grzbiecie się ściera. W środku są dwa przerywniki ze zdjęciami (portrety omawianych postaci, obrazy, budynki). Wklejka również jest fantastyczna! Warto mieć tę książkę dla samego wyglądu 🏛️
Bardzo dziękuję wydawnictwu Hi:story za egzemplarz. Książka była naprawdę fantastyczna - polecam! 🏛️

[Leah K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This history book focuses on Florence, Italy during the Renaissance period. We get a look at the Medicis (a good chunk of the book focuses on the family), Dante Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Galileo, and many other people and events. It's a good beginners book into the Florentines of the 15th and 16th century. It well researched, interesting, and easy to read. At 371 pages it obviously skims over the history of the time. If one is looking for a more indepth academic book, this isn't the book to dive into.

[Marie-Josee Leblond · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Florentines" by Paul Strathern is a captivating exploration of the lives and legacies of Florence's most influential figures during the Renaissance.

An essential read for anyone planning to visit Florence, the book provides a profound understanding of the city's impact on the world since the Renaissance. Strathern presents detailed profiles of notable individuals such as Dante, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Galileo, and the Medici, providing rich historical context and engaging narratives. With an accessible yet scholarly writing style, the book highlights the connections among these great minds and their role as catalysts for the profound changes of the Renaissance.

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blurb said this is a "sweeping" look at 400 years of Florentine history. That's the truth--not a straight history but just the highlights. So you get the Medicis and Boccaccio and Dante and Michelangelo and Leonardo and Galileo and so on and so forth. Very engaging reading here, even if the subtitle is quite oversold. Strathern doesn't try very hard to get at the roots of the Renaissance, but he does enjoy its fruits, to stretch the metaphor. And best of all, he never refers to Leonardo simply as "da Vinci."

[Weronika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Niesamowicie ciekawa książka. Jest to pewnego rozdziału biografia miasta, gdzie znajdziemy mnóstwo ciekawych opowieści. Sztuka, polityka, ekonomia, nauka i wiele, wiele więcej!

[John J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one goes on my bookshelf for posterity.
Extremely well written, not boring and over-academic in style. It feels like the author gives just the right amount of information to explain the situation, the sequence of events that describe the events, and the the outcome. Just my style.
In includes a lot of information that I was unaware of, although I prided myself with having a better-than-average knowledge of the history and art in Florence. Well, I realize how little I really knew, nor how poorly I connected the histories of all the neighboring kingdoms and city-states (including the Papal States).
I am looking forward to his book, The Borgias.

[Jade Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book with information on the key figures within the Florence renaissance. The book was organised in chapters on different individuals and followed a roughly chronological order, sometimes briefly restating events if they occurred during the lives of more than one of the artists in the book. I enjoyed this book very much and feel it has prepared me well for my upcoming trip to Italy.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the historic sweep, from Dante to Galileo, with artists, Medicis and Popes along the way. Juicy tidbits were mixed with historical actions, which helped keep me awake despite being a nonfiction book. Life was brutal back then. Violence was the norm. Piero was gouty. Botticelli was sad. Galileo was a bit obnoxious.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems to me that Paul Strathern is a polymath, or at least an extremely accomplished historian with an incredibly wide range of interests and expertise. He manages to pick out just the right characteristics of his subjects to make them live again; and he ties them together with linkages that make the massive disciplinary leap of this period; of people based in or originating from Florence during the period just preceding and into the Renaissance.
In this volume, he covers politicians, philosophers, artists and scientists, managing to make history read like fiction; full of interest and intrigue. Looking at the range of topics he has covered in the rest of his books, I'm filled with inspiration for future reading, and excitement at having found such a mind, who makes the subjects of his studies so fascinating.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Florentines Paul Strathern takes you along through a part of epic history of the Italian city Florence, explaining how the Renaissance started and which figures played an important role. We get a glimpse of the lives of figures like Dante Alighieri, Leonardo da Vinci, Sandor Botticelli, Michelangelo and a lot of the prominent members from the powerful Medici family.

I absolutely loved this; so interesting and detailed, yet not too detailed for the book to become boring.