Menu
€16.89
*A THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020*
‘Brilliant and gripping, here is the full true Renaissance in a history of compelling originality and freshness’ Simon Sebag Montefiore
The Italian Renaissance shaped Western culture – but it was far stranger and darker than many of us realise. We know the Mona Lisa for her smile, but not that she was married to a slave-trader. We revere Leonardo da Vinci for his art, but few now appreciate his ingenious designs for weaponry. We visit Florence to see Michelangelo’s David, but hear nothing of the massacre that forced the republic’s surrender. In fact, many of the Renaissance’s most celebrated artists and thinkers emerged not during the celebrated ‘rebirth’ of the fifteenth century but amidst the death and destruction of the sixteenth century.
The Beauty and the Terror is an enrapturing narrative which includes the forgotten women writers, Jewish merchants, mercenaries, prostitutes, farmers and citizens who lived the Renaissance every day. Brimming with life, it takes us closer than ever before to the reality of this astonishing era, and its meaning for today.
‘Terrifying and fascinating’ Sunday Times
‘Enlightening…exactly the alternative history you might wish for’ Daily Telegraph
Out of stock
Many of the most celebrated artists and thinkers that have come to define the Renaissance – Leonardo and Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian, Machiavelli and Castiglione – emerged not during the celebrated ‘rebirth’ of the 15th century but amidst the death and destruction of the 16th century. For decades, a series of savage wars dominated Italy’s political, economic and daily life, generating fortunes and new technologies, but also ravaging populations with famine, disease and slaughter. In this same short time, the birth of Protestantism, Spain’s colonisation of the Americas and the rise of the Ottoman Empire all posed grave threats to Italian power, while sparking debates about the ethics of government and enslavement, religious belief and sexual morality. In this book, Catherine Fletcher provides an enrapturing narrative history that brings all of this and more into view.
| Weight | 0.31 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 19.8 × 12.9 × 2.6 cm |
| Author | |
| Publisher | |
| Imprint | |
| Cover | Paperback |
| Pages | 400 |
| Language | English |
| Edition | |
| Dewey | 709.4509031 (edition:23) |
| Readership | General – Trade / Code: K |
Can’t find the right book, why not give a gift card and let them find that special book.
If we don’t have the book you want, we will do our best to order it for you and often have it in a few days.
Get notified about new articles
