Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici and the crisis of Renaissance Italy / Alison Brown.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, Alison, 1934- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Medici, Piero di Lorenzo de', 1472-1503.

Medici, Piero di Lorenzo de'.

Florence (Italy)--Biography.

Florence (Italy).

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

Politics and government.

Italy--Florence.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xiii, 338 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2020.

Summary:

"This biography brings to life an important but little known Renaissance figure and also fills a gap in the history of Florence and Italy after the death of Lorenzo il Magnifico in 1492. As Lorenzo's eldest son, Piero enjoyed two years in power as Florence's unofficial ruler before the French invasion of 1494 brought down his regime and led to his nine-year exile. Although condemned as a tyrant and criticized for his princely behaviour as an Orsini, his life and letters reveal an interesting but divided personality: clever and cultured as a scholar, confidant as a patron and sportsman, but diffident as a city-politician and often cowardly in times of crisis. He provides a valuable lens through which to view many aspects of Renaissance society - its social life and marriage rituals, its art, music and cultural patronage, its sports - and especially its politics. As well as shedding new light on his father's double politics, which Piero continued, his life suggests how in less fraught times he might have provided Florence's expanding state with the new sort of leader it needed, more of a patron and mediator than a city politician or prince"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Piero's childhood

Family backgrounds

Education under Poliziano's tutelage

Political tyro at home and abroad, 1484-86

Marrying into the Roman aristocracy, 1487-88

The choice of Hercules : between duty and pleasure, 1488-89

Piero as Lorenzo's deputy, 1490-91

Cultural patronage and sportsmanship

Ruling as patrons in Florence's dominium and beyond

Lorenzo's death and its aftermath, 1492

Balancing power in Italy, 1493

The Viper with its tail in Florence, 1493

The crux :1494

The French Descent

Revolution in Florence

Perambulating Italy, 1494-97

'Contamination in the labyrinth' : networking in exile

The Last Years, 1498-1503

Piero's burial and legacy

Power and legitimacy in Renaissance Italy.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 308-324) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Brown, Alison, 1934- Piero de Medici and the crisis of Renaissance Italy

ISBN:

9781108489461

110848946X

9781108746571

1108746578

OCLC:

1112375973