The Medici / Mary Hollingsworth.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hollingsworth, Mary, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Medici, House of.

Renaissance--Italy.

Renaissance.

Italy.

Florence (Italy)--History--1421-1737--Biography.

Florence (Italy).

Florence (Italy)--Politics and government--1421-1737.

Politics and government.

Italy--Florence.

Genre:

Biographies.

History.

Physical Description:

480 pages : color illustrations, maps, genealogical tables ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Head of Zeus Ltd, 2017.

Summary:

"Wealthy bankers, wise politicians, patrons of the arts, glittering dukes ... the Medici family ruled Florence from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. As enlightened rulers of that city, they created an environment where art and humanism could flourish, thereby fostering and inspiring the birth of the Italian Renaissance. Or so runs the traditional telling of the Medici story. ... Mary Hollingsworth argues that the claim the Medici were fathers of the Renaissance, and Florence its cradle, is in large part a fiction; a legend created in the sixteenth century to enhance the Medici name - and a myth that has overshadowed the contributions made by the Church and by the rulers of other Italian cities. Drawing on a plethora of documents, including state papers, inventories, wills and banking records, she reveal the Medici to be as devious as the Borgias: tyrants loathed in the city they illegally made their own and which they beggared in their lust for power. ... Mary Hollingsworth explodes our gilded image of the Medici to reveal how they exploited the arts as propaganda for their cause and crated the myth that has successfully masked our knowledge of an extraordinary - and entirely unscrupulous - family."--Book jacket.

Contents:

A note to the reader

Prologue: A city under siege: 'Florence in ashes rather than under the Medici'

1. Migrants: Bonagiunta, Chiarissimo and their descendants, 1216-1348

2. Survivors: Salvestro, Foligno, Bicci and Vieri, 1348-1400

3. The fortune: Giovanni di Bicci, 1400-1425

4. Politics: Giovanni di Bicci, Averardo and Cosimo, 1426-1433

5. For honour and profit: Cosimo the banker, 1434-1450

6. The republican toga: Cosimo the politician, 1451-1464

7. The succession crisis: Piero the Gouty, 1464-1469

8. Youth at the helm: Lorenzo and Giuliano, 1469-1479

9. Pride: Lorenzo the Magnificent, 1480-1492

10. Nemesis: Piero and Cardinal Giovanni, 1492-1503

11. Exile: Cardinal Giovanni, Giulio and Giuliano, 1504-1512

12. Age of gold: Pope Leo X, 1513-1521.

13. Age of iron: Pope Clement VII, 1521-1530

14. Imperial poodles: Pope Clement VII, Ippolito, Alessandro and Cosimo, 1531-1543

15. The new Augustus: Cosimo I, 1544-1559

16. Grand Duke: Cosimo I, 1560-1574

17. Adultery: Francesco I and Cardinal Ferdinando, 1574-1587

18. Cardinal to Grand Duke: Ferdinando I, 1587-1609

19. The unlucky prince: Cosimo II, Christine of Lorraine and Maria Magdalena of Austria, 1609-1668

20. Science and religion: Ferdinando II, 1628-1670

21. Vanity: Cosimo III, 1670-1723

22. Extinction: Gian Gastone, 1723-1737

Epilogue: Revival.

Notes:

Map of Renaissance Florence on lining-papers.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 452-465) and index.

ISBN:

9781786691521

1786691523

OCLC:

964545537