Cat's review
Renaissance Florence, Updated edition
by Gene A. Brucker
Cat's review
Renaissance Florence, Updated edition by Gene A. Brucker
Cat's review
rating:
bookshelves:
historyofthemiddleages
This book chronicles the golden age of Florence, from the 1300's through the 1500's. Brucker does an excellent job of using the ample primary source materials located in Florence itself: his text is chock full of merchant's account books, diplomatic letters and funeral arrangements. His treatment compares favorably with Hibberts book on the Medici, which covers much the same ground but with little or no use of primary sources.
At the same time, the tone of the book is conversational. Brucker doesn't let his sources get in the way of readability. This book is one of Norman F. Cantor's "Core 150" books on Midevial studies and Cantor himself edited it as part of the "Historical Cities" collection. Although "Renaissance Florence" was written in the mid 60's, it still feels vibrant and up to date. I think this quality is attributable to his reliance on primary, rather then secondary source material.
"Renaissance Florence" is broken into six ch...more
At the same time, the tone of the book is conversational. Brucker doesn't let his sources get in the way of readability. This book is one of Norman F. Cantor's "Core 150" books on Midevial studies and Cantor himself edited it as part of the "Historical Cities" collection. Although "Renaissance Florence" was written in the mid 60's, it still feels vibrant and up to date. I think this quality is attributable to his reliance on primary, rather then secondary source material.
"Renaissance Florence" is broken into six ch...more
