Lou Thomas

“dominated other cultural spheres as well. Italian cuisine served as the touchstone for the European courts, with Italian cooks the most creative in Europe. The first cookbook ever printed (in 1470) had been Bartolomeo Platina’s De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine”
― Ross King, The Shortest History of Italy: 3,000 Years from the Romans to the Renaissance to a Modern Republic - A Retelling for Our Times

“vocabulary of semicircular arches over round columns topped by Corinthian capitals, and by its adherence to a modular plan by which the dimensions of every part (columns, arches, windows) bore a proportional relation to every other part. Architects who followed Brunelleschi would substitute these antique forms and decorative motifs in place of those (pointed arches, capitals decorated with gargoyles, and dragons) borrowed from France or Germany.”
― Ross King, The Shortest History of Italy: 3,000 Years from the Romans to the Renaissance to a Modern Republic - A Retelling for Our Times