Product Description
The Italian Renaissance was a pivotal period in the history of Western culture during which artists such as Masaccio, Donatello, Fra Angelico, and Leonardo created some of the world's most influential and exciting works in a variety of artistic fields. Here, Evelyn Welch presents a fresh picture of the Italian Renaissance by challenging traditional scholarship and placing emphasis on recreating the experience of contemporary Italians:the patrons who commissioned the works, the members of the public who viewed them, and the artists who produced them.Art in Renaissance Italy 1350-1500 dramatically revises the traditional story of the Renaissance and takes into account new issues that have greatly enriched our understanding of the period. From paintings and coins to sculptures and tapestries, Welch examines the issues of materials, workshop practices, and artist-patron relationships, and explores the ways in which visual imagery related to contemporary sexual, social, and political behavior. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Exelent book great images
I couldn't put it down.I am glad to add it to my library of art history books.The images are detailed.

Interesting
A very interesting book if you are brushing up on Italian Art and paintings.

Dense and anachronistic
I think the reader will get lost here and possibly come away with a misapprehension about the times unless they have a fairly strong background in European history.Overall, it was a bit puzzling.

You really have to read this book critically because some parts are bizarre.I remember at one point she describes artists as being involved in several businesses, with the aim of providing for their retirement.While in individual cases, it is likely true that successful artists owned rental property and so forth, but "providing for retirement" certainly sounds like an anachronism.It's not immediately clear what is meant by "retirement" in a time when several generations of a family might live in the same house, and work work together in the same artists' workshop.

Great Overview
Well written and researched, Ms. Welch does a very good job of giving an overall view of an important period of history - both artistic and political. Good jumping off point for more specific studies in Italian Renaissance history. ... Read more

Product Description
The 14th century in Italian art is a very rich one, and Professor White's book gives architecture equal weight with painting and sculpture. The story of the Gothic style and the prehistory of the Renaissance is given: all the facts are related, but also the works of art are described with insight and for their own sakes, and not simply as data for fitting into schemes and theories. Among the great names are those of Arnolfo di Cambio, the Pisani, Cavallini, Cimabue, Duccio, Giotto, Simone Martini, and the Lorenzetti; among the buildings S. Croce, S. Maria Novella, the cathedral and the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, and the cathedrals of Siena, Orvieto, and Milan, as well as churches, castles, and civic buildings from the Val d'Aosta to Sicily. The third edition of this work includes colour illustrations and incorporates textual revisions and an updated bibliography. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

preparation
It is a kind general book on the art history of Italy, but it is a very good introduction to it and it will certainly serve a new student. ... Read more

Product Description
1972 hardcover depicting history and the art of Italy ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

From Caves to the Common Market
Most of my readings in European History have been large in scope, covering periods rather than specific countries.Thinking that I really did not have a good, continuous picture of Italian history---other than the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, some idea of the Renaissance, and then Garibaldi to Mussolini---I decided to remedy the situation with Cronin's volume.I'm glad I did.I found it excellently written in clear language without a huge number of kings, dates, and battles to wade through.The continuity or discontinuity of Italian history is very well discussed and Cronin brings in social, economic, and cultural life often---not emphasizing purely the political as some older historians were wont to do.The volume is profusely illustrated with pictures of the art and architecture of various periods.While this is definitely a plus, I would have liked to sacrifice a few of these pictures for some more maps; there is only one general map of Italy in the front.I was particularly impressed by the way the author covered Rome in about 50 pages.That's obviously just a beginning, yet I found there many patterns and trends that had never been clear to me before.Equally his coverage of the Dark Ages and the transition to City States and the Renaissance got right to the point.He picked Florence as a model of how things developed in the Italian Renaissance and delved more into that city than the others, an effective method when you are describing 2,500 years of history in 217 pages.The reasons for Italy's north-south divide became clear to me for the first time.Finally, the twentieth century got short shrift.The book really comes to an end around 1950.Never mind.For a person looking for a succinct book on Italian history, written in popular style, this is a good candidate.I give it five stars because it is an excellent example of what it is meant to be--not the comprehensive, earth-shattering history of Italy, but a useful addition to a non-academic library.I strongly recommend it.

Good overview of Italian history
This is an informative and easy to read overview of Italian history. It covers ancient through modern Italy and all facets of Italy's development from war and government to art and religion, without going into boring detail. It is a good introduction to Italian history and excellent background material for someone planning a trip to Italy. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

INformative and interesting read
Having just been to Venice this book is an easy read about the history.Found it very interesting and informative

Enjoyable, breezy chronicle retracing the full arc of this great city's history
For newcomers to Venice, as I am, this book offers a lightweight, panoramic introduction to its 1500-year history in just over 200 pages. It's basically a chronicle that retraces the city's ups and downs from its inauspicious beginnings during the aftermath of the Roman empire to its rise as a maritime superpower in the early Middle Ages and onwards to its nadir when it was ransacked by Napoleonic troops (who in their frenzy destroyed around 90 churces and 100 palazzi) in the early 19th century. The final 200 years constitute a rather less illustrious epilogue to this long and distinguished history. A short concluding chapter recounts Venice's complicated relationship with the water surrounding it and the many challenges (climate change, tourism, depopulation, ageing, pollution) that beset the city in our days. The book is largely a political history, with an occasional nod to social and cultural themes. Horodowich does a good job in concisely explaining the salient features of the unique and complicated governance structure of republican Venice. On art and architecture there is relatively little. Nevertheless, it seems that there is currently no other book for the general reader that has a similarly wide scope, exposing the full arc of Venetian history. Horodowich's prose is clear and supple (despite some editorial slips) making this short romp through old world history all the more enjoyable.



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Product Description

During the Renaissance, there were two centres of art, culture and mercantile power in Italy: Florence, and Venice.This is a sourcebook of promary materials, almost none previously available in English, for the history of the city-state of Venice.The time period covers the apogee of Venetian power and reputation to the beginnings of its decline in the 1630s.Sources used include diaries, chronicles, Inquisitorial records, literature, legislation, and contemporary descriptions, and are organized in sections by theme and accompanied by brief introductions.

Product Description
The twelve essays in this volume, each written by a leading specialist, present an accessible and comprehensive introduction to Italian Renaissance society, intellectual history, and politics, with each contribution reflecting the most recent innovations in the way that historians view and study the period. ... Read more

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Intended for the student of Italian history and culture as well as the general reader, this new edition presents a clear and concise account of the principal developments in Italian history from the Ice Age to the present day. Dr. Jonathan Morris has updated the late Professor Hearder's long-established and highly successful work with an authoritative account of development in Italy over the past decade. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Italian history in fast forward
I read this book, thinking that despite the bad reviews, it would serve as an adequate preliminary read on the subject and would at least give me a better sense of the italian history's outline. I was proven wrong - reading the book feels like watching a movie in fast forward - events and names fly by with inadequate explanation, or sometimes seemingly with hardly any explanation at all. There is constant refference to places, names and historical events & terms which the not-especially-well-schooled-in-european-history reader (like me) doesn't necessarily know. I do not know if an attempt to encompass such a large history in such a short book can be successful - this one definitely isn't.

History of a famous country.
When one thinks of Italy, one thinks of Rome and Mussolini.The author dispels these notions and shows us the true Italy.This is the birthplace of civilization and Empire.It was also the scene of the Black Death, city states, and the battleground of Europe.The author stages the story of Italy in nine easy to read chapters.One can get a short summary of the stages in Italy's development.This would be a nice read for those about to visit the country.

The one thing I fault this book for is that it tends to jump around.It mentions a name, and then latter on talks about this person.Other than that, there is a nice little summary of the history of this great nation.

A short history... perhaps too short
This book was the text used for an Italian culture class I recently took as a requirement for my Italian minor. While it was full of information, I felt that some topics were just skipped over. The Colosseum earns an entire sentence, yet Caravaggio, perhaps the most famous and adored of Italian Baroque painters (the Italians so honored him by printing his picture on the L100,000 note) does not even get a mention. Granted it must have been challenging to cover over 3000 years of civilization in 300 pages, but it just seems like this book skips over too much. If you want a chronology of Italy, this is the book for you, but if you want detailed information into the history of Italy, you may want to look elsewhere.

Not a pleasant read
I used this book a few years ago while teaching a course on the history of Italian literature, and can't recommend it:the prose is wretchedly awkward, and it makes for an extremely un-compelling read.The undergrads weren't wild about it either.

Disappointed
I was initially excited by this book when I first bought it, but it became more & more difficult to follow as I went thru it.

The reason is the book's poor usage of events, places and maps. For example: the book talksabout what the Etruscans did, but doesn't tell you where they are from oreven who they are. The movement of people from the Po Valley is discussed,but you're not told where the Po Valley is. Don't check the index, PoValley isn't there.There's a map on page 14 on the expansion of Italy,but the territories referenced aren't in the text or the index. I finallygave up trying to place events with places and abandoned the book at page23.

This is a history of Italy for people who already know the history ofitaly. ... Read more

Product Description
Niccolo Machiavelli's classic work with an active table of contents. ... Read more

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Incorporating the latest developments in the study of the period, a team of leading international scholars provides a fresh and dynamic picture of a period of great transformation in the political, cultural, and economic life of the Italian peninsula, which witnessed the rise of autonomous city states in the north, the creation of a powerful kingdom in the south, and the development of the Italian language as a vehicle for literary expression. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent history for the armchair scholar
A history of medieval Italy as a whole can be hard to find -- there are numerous histories of the northern city-states, several of the papacy, and even a few of the Norman and Angevin south. Histories of the whole, including Sardinia, are harder to find. This book draws together the major regions of Italy, and discusses language, culture, and the impact of Greeks, Muslims, and Jews on its culture.

I was first impressed by the readability of this book. It is far to easy to find medieval histories that are stuffed with jargon and statistics until the reader's eye glaze over. The essays in this work make their points succinctly and comprehensibly.

My chief regret was that the book was not a bit longer, so that it could better develop some of its essays. The map section at the end might have been better placed at the beginning, where it would be less-likely overlooked.

This book is aimed at a reader with at least passing familiarity with medieval history and Italian history and geography. Various authors comment on their predecessors, discussing how they feel earlier authors erred in their approach to this difficult subject. There's a useful recommended reading section at the end for those interested in pursuing individual topics further.
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Customer Reviews (5)

A new take on an unfamiliar subject
Gordon Brown has written an excellent book covering a subject which most Americans, I suspect, are unaware of.Most of us have heard something about the Norman Conquest of England in 1066;William the Conqueror and the Battle of Hastings are at least somewhat familiar, if only in name.What's not widely known or appreciated is that men from the same area, Normandy, at about the same time traveled down to Southern Italy and ended up ruling it after a more protracted struggle that spanned a couple of generations.Mr. Brown's book is short but rich in detail and dense with information, and for a reader of popular history this book presents a well researched and compelling introduction to the subject.His focus, rightly in my opinion, is on the truly amazing family, literally a band of brothers, that played an integral part in the second Norman conquest, the Hautevilles.Indeed, no history of this period and that location in Italy, and in fact European history of that age in general, would be complete without accounting for their exploits.

The only minor quibble I have with Mr. Brown is his projection forward of the positive aspects of those conquerors.In truth, the Norman Kingdom of Sicily only lasted about 65 years in total.After the death of the last king of Sicily who could claim descent from the Hautevilles, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II - who was only half Norman through his mother - the Kingdom fell on hard times due to despotism and neglect from its subsequent rulers, in turn the French and then the Spanish, who misruled and essentially plundered the Kingdom until Italy was finally unified in the 19th century.

Readers who are interested in this, to me, fascinating era, are invited to peruse Lord Norwich's more thorough, much longer, and some say fanciful book on the subject "The Normans in Sicily," also available on Amazon.But for anyone with the slightest interest in a remarkable group of men in a remarkable period, this is a superb introduction which stands quite well on its own.

a great read...
An accessible account of the Norman occupation and settlement of southern Italy. Gordon does a fantastic job ensuring that this important slice of history and the story of the Hauteville's is highly readable and entertaining while academically sound.

Well written general guide
This short history is a well written general guide to the period.It provides a general program of events for anyone who wishes to study this particular episode of Italian or European history. The "other" Norman experiment in conquest and governance deserves more attention than it gets, especially in our current era of ethnic and relegious conflict. Useful and informative.

This is an excellent book.
This book is well written and interesting throughout.This is how history should be written, not dry and uninspirational but alive and dynamic - things happen in this book.No stagnant and uninteresting analysis of history here!

The topic of this book is the Norman conquest of the south of Italy, a subject that I did not know at all before I picked up this book.It gives you insight on the middle ages and debunks the traditional (and false) idea that Europe in the middle ages was a complete uncultured and chaotic place.The civilization founded by the Normans in the south of Italy was both advanced and thrived for many years.

Great stuff.Anyone with a bit of interest in history should find out about this little known epic undertaking by the Normans.

Learn about the "other Norman Conquest"
This is a fascinating account of how a group of Normans found their way to southern Italy at about the same time as another group was conquering England, and within half a century had prevailed over Lombards, Saracens, Byzantium, and the Papacy to establish themselves as the dominant power in the region.A little-known story, which should be of interest to history buffs, anyone wanting to know about Italy's past, and those wondering where blue-eyed Sicilians come from.Well-researched, but the scholarship does not get in the way of the text.Eminently readable. ... Read more

Product Description
In this history of Florence, distinguished historian John Najemy discusses all the major developments in Florentine history from 1200 to 1575.

• Captures Florence's transformation from a medieval commune into an aristocratic republic, territorial state, and monarchy
• Weaves together intellectual, cultural, social, economic, religious, and political developments
• Academically rigorous yet accessible and appealing to the general reader
• Likely to become the standard work on Renaissance Florence for years to come

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent history; Needs a good editor
I bought Najemy's History of Florence as preparation for reading Dante.The time period is perfect.Interesting times.Other comments led me to believe this would be an excellent up-to-date history of the period, and the first few chapters confirm that; however, Najemy is not a good writer.As an academic accustomed to captive audiences, he doesn't take enough care to understand what a reader needs to know and doesn't always define terms before he uses them.Some passages should be footnotes, and may have been copied from journal articles where readers can be expected to know the background.

There are examples where sentences are unacceptably ambiguous:p. 40: "Both forms of association appeared in Florence no later than the early thirteenth century..."
He means "first appeared ... no later."

His discussion on p. 39 of classes mentions Ottokar's system from 1926 and Salvemini's from 1899.In this paragraph Najemy engages in an academic argument suitable for a journal paper, but doesn't prepare the reader first by stating his own classification clearly enough.Nonspecialists would prefer to hear only Najemy's own explanation of class structure, presented clearly.The academic haggling should be relegated to footnotes for specialists.

For those who want a wonderfully well-written introduction to the essential history, I highly recommend Richard W. Church's essay from 1850, "Dante."It was a pleasure to read this essay, which doesn't sound dated.It can be found on the internet.This was mentioned in the preface to John Sinclair's Inferno, with the original Italian and a literal translation.


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Since 1945, historians have quite successfully uncovered what everyday life was like for the popular classes of pre-industrial Europe.How these people made sense of their lives, however, has proven to be more elusive. By focusing on the plague of 1630-33 in the city of Florence, Calvi presents an innovative approach to understanding how Florentines constructed a multitude of discourses designed to instill meaning and order in their tumultuous social universe.Rich archival sources provide Calvi with a unique opportunity to portray the minute contours of Baroque daily life. Her interdisciplinary approach, drawn most heavily from cultural anthropology and semiotics, enables her to decode the many layers of narrative invented by individuals who sought to understand why and how the plague was spread.In this important contribution to the study of both early modern Italy and the history of mentalits, Calvi affirms the methodological and analytical fruitfulness of the new school of microhistory. ... Read more

Product Description
History of Florence and of the Affairs of Italy is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Niccole? Machiavelli is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Niccole? Machiavelli then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

shopping review
I am afraid I don't know how good the book is, it is a present for my daughter in law, who is working on a PHD.But the shopping experience was good and I would buy from this seller again.

Great book
I read this book many years ago and like it so much that I now include it in the "reference library" I am making in my Kindle. Too bad Machiavelli's reputation is so much established by The Prince. The History of Florence and The Discourses on Livy clearly show Machiavelli was not all that Machiavellian. ... Read more

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Concerned about sanitation during a severe bout of plague in Milan, Leonardo da Vinci designed an ideal, clean city. Leonardo was far from alone among his contemporaries in thinking about personal and public hygiene, as Douglas Biow shows in The Culture of Cleanliness in Renaissance Italy. A concern for cleanliness, he argues, was everywhere in the Renaissance.

Anxieties about cleanliness were expressed in literature from humanist panegyrics to bawdy carnival songs, as well as in the visual arts. Biow surveys them all to explain why the topic so permeated Renaissance culture. At one level, cleanliness, he documents, was a matter of real concern in the Renaissance. At another, he finds, issues such as human dignity, self-respect, self-discipline, social distinction, and originality were rethought as a matter of artistic concern.

The Culture of Cleanliness in Renaissance Italy moves from the clean to the unclean, from the lofty to the base. Biow first examines the socially elevated, who defined and distinguished themselves as clean, pure, and polite. He then turns to soap, an increasingly common commodity in this period, and the figure of the washerwoman. Finally he focuses on latrines, which were universally scorned yet functioned artistically as figures of baseness, creativity, and fun in the works of Dante and Boccaccio. Paralleling this social stratification is a hierarchy of literary and visual artifacts, from the discourse of high humanism to filthy curses and scatological songs. Deftly bringing together high and low-as well as literary and visual-cultures, this book provides a fresh perspective on the Italian Renaissance and its artistic legacy. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent detailed history of contemporary Italy
This book by professor P. Ginsborg is an excellent, detailed history of contemporary Italy. Starting with the post-war period, it goes all the way to the end of the '80s, taking into account all the changes made in the italian politics, but mostly in the italian society . The analysis of the attitudes, the way of thinking and the way that the italian society operated during that period is particularly interesting.

Italy:the ABC Murders
Paul Ginsborg's previous book, "A History of Contemporary Italy 1943-1988" is perhaps the best history of the postwar period of any country.It benefited not only from thorough research and fine organization but from a coherent and compelling thesis.Despite the many signs of vitality and progress in the Italian Republic, it faced severe problems in government and society which required urgent and farlasting reform.However, Italian political life was structured in such a way to make sure that reform never happened.

"Italy and Its Discontents" is the sequel.Although at times Ginsborg is somewhat cheery and optimistic, this is a depressing tale.In many ways it is a complex and nuanced tale, as Ginsborg discusses with enviable nuance the strengths and weaknesses of the Italian economy, the decline of the industrial working class and the plague of youth employment, the always persistent "Southern" problem, the clash between mass culture and a rising "civil society," and the many weaknesses of the Italian bureaucracy.He pays particular attention to the changes in the family, the rise of secularism, and the decline of Catholic and Communist cultures.He also discusses the strengths and weaknesses of Italian politics, the complexities of corruption and the mafia, the less than impartial judiciary, and the complexities and failures of political ideologies.

And yet in some crucial ways Ginsborg's tale is very simple.Italian democracy in the 1980s was severely flawed both by corruption and by the success of vested interests in preventing, delaying or diluting vital reforms.The most honest and thoughtful party were the Communists, so much of the energy of its political class was dedicated to making sure they never had power.Italian politics in the eighties and nineties would be dominated by three people:Andreotti, Berlusconi, and Craxi.Andreotti was a "Christian Democrat" and deeply complicit in its corruption, patronage and ties with the mafia.Craxi was a "Socialist" who drapped himself in fashionable "Anti-Marxist" rhetoric while taking shakedowns and bribery to new heights.It was a politics of secret anti-communist forces (the Gladio), murdered anti-Mafia prosecutors, the strange and sinister P-2 Masonic lodge, sycophantic intellectuals, and one demagogic president.It was also a politics in which the Vatican banker would pay $7 million to Craxi's secret Swiss bank account and then be found hanging a year and a half later from Blackfriars' bridge.Craxi and Andreotti dominated Italian politics until 1992-93 when revelations of massive corruption decimated the Christian Democratic and Socialist parties.But just when it appeared that the Italian Left would finally be able to take power, Berlusconi appeared.Having been granted monopoly control over Italian television by Craxi, and having used that to help coarsen Italian cultural life, Berlusconi simply bought his own political party.Forza Italia became the new party of the Italian Right, replacing the factionalism and debate of the Christian Democrats with a cult of personality around Berlusconi.He ostentatiously disassociated himself from the Christian Democrats with Thatcherite rhetoric, notwithstanding the fact that he would face charges on ten trials over the coming decade.Making deals with selfish Northern Regionalists and Neo-Fascists, Berlusconi decisively won the elections of 1994 and 2001.

It is a pretty depressing sight by the end of Ginsborg's book.Measures to improve women, the environment and education have all been limited or delayed.Concerns about the gap between formal democracy and everyday life, the presence of clientelistic politics, politics that take into account the modern family:"these seem all to be far down the agenda of government, if indeed they are present at all."The Democratic Party of the Left has purged itself of its Communist Past, it fears that any sign of prinicple or vigor will be cursed as Stalinist.Instead of the popular mobilizations of the past, it pursues an unimiginative Technocracy that so far can't compete with Berlusconi's media monopoly and demagoguery.Ginsborg points to some positive signs.Despite the increasing xenophobia, the crassness of Italian television and the shallowness of soccer culture, there is also increasing interest in literature and culture.Working-class involvement in political and associational life declined, but there was rising voluntarism.And most of all there was the rise of feminism, many of whose challenges could not be ignored.One should not be too optimistic on this score.Certainly Ginsborg's account is full of qualifications and he notes that the new "civil society" is limited to a minority of the middle class.There are good reasons to suspect that it will not succeed or become an isolated minority dismissed as bien pensant elitists.Much of the chattering classes spent much of the past two decades, when not gushing about Craxi, searching for the "normalization" of Italian politics.Leftist and "utopian" ideas have been purged, while Silvio Berlusconi is now a mainstay of Bush's coalition of the willing.Now he is to be honored by an American right, once so easily appalled by Monica Lewinsky.Apparently money can buy you happiness, and much else. ... Read more

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Italy Today is a concise narrative of the nation’s stunning transformation from the ashes of World War II to the leading economic and cultural power it is today. This book provides insights into the dynamics of Italy’s progression from the Second World War, through the anthropologically revolutionary 1970s and ’80s, and into the complexities of a postindustrial nation, negotiating the challenges created by industrial, economic, and cultural globalization. Encompassing the cultural, political, and economic spectrums, topics include: communism; socialism; foreign relations; terrorism; industrial and social transformations; education; emigration and immigration; family tradition; feminism; the transformation of class and gender roles; political favoritism and corruption; popular culture; culture and civil society; the broader problems of the development of civil society and the rule of law in southern Italy; and the role of politics in shaping contemporary Italy. The book devotes particular attention to the controversial issues of the role of the family in Italian society and economy, the insidious presence of the Mafia, the lasting influence of Catholicism, the impact of television, and the country’s often unstable politics, framing all these as the result of a complex and unique relationship between the individual and the state, with the family acting as intermediary. Four major sections analyze politics, the economy, society, and mass culture, and comprise a portrait of contemporary Italy that will appeal to a broad range of scholars, students, and general readers. ... Read more

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John Larner examines all the major developments across the Italian peninsula in the period that saw the rise of Florence and Venice, the development of a commercial empire by Italian towns which stretched from England to China, as well as the extraordinary cultural growth of the time. ... Read more