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Florence: The Biography of a City
A social history of Florence from Roman times to the present, which also serves as a comprehensive guide to its buildings and treasures
398 pages, Hardcover
First published September 30, 1993
71 people are currently reading
924 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Hibbert
144 books311 followersChristopher Hibbert, MC, FRSL, FRGS (5 March 1924 - 21 December 2008) was an English writer, historian and biographer. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the author of many books, including Disraeli, Edward VII, George IV, The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici, and Cavaliers and Roundheads.
Described by Professor Sir John Plumb as "a writer of the highest ability and in the New Statesman as "a pearl of biographers," he established himself as a leading popular historian/biographer whose works reflected meticulous scholarship.
Described by Professor Sir John Plumb as "a writer of the highest ability and in the New Statesman as "a pearl of biographers," he established himself as a leading popular historian/biographer whose works reflected meticulous scholarship.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
March 1, 2022
A thorough yet uninspiring history of Florence. It describes itself as a 'biography' of the city, but I'm not sure it is any such thing - there is little sense of Florence's personality here, and surprisingly little on its great figures including Dante and Michelangelo. Often it descends into a rollcall of all of Florence's leaders, whistling through them without giving you much insight into their personalities or policies. Would be a good starting resource for understanding the city and then delving into other books for more detail on interesting topics, but it is so long that I can't recommend it on that basis either. Hibbert isn't a bad writer, and I'd be willing to read his other books, but here he often lacks finesse. At its best when quoting other people on Florence - which shows the depth of Hibbert's research, but is also telling as to the quality of his own prose.
May 24, 2018
My wife and I visited Florence for the first, and so far the only, time in 1991. We had only two days, and one of them was a Monday, so the museums were closed. But we went around the city and its gardens and soaked in the atmosphere. Reading this book made me aware that we are in distinguished company. There is a chapter in the book on famous persons who spent extended time in Florence, and many of them avoided the museums altogether in favour of a feel for the life of the city. For a small city, it rivals the likes of Rome, Paris and London in the richness of hits history and art.
I would very much like to visit Florence again, this time at least for a week. This book is going to be my guide and companion on this visit - as and when it happens. It is amazing how many outstanding personalities of the Renaissance were from this city, or had a strong link to it. I would like to spend at least half my time on the next visit admiring the art in museums and churches.
The question as to how a small city, which was not even on the coast, managed to play such an important role in history will remain unanswered, like all such question. History just happens. Trying to find causes in it is a good intellectual exercise, but like questions of philosophy it does not lead to any definite answers.
Christopher Hibbert is highly readable, and I now look forward to his books on Venice and Rome.
I would very much like to visit Florence again, this time at least for a week. This book is going to be my guide and companion on this visit - as and when it happens. It is amazing how many outstanding personalities of the Renaissance were from this city, or had a strong link to it. I would like to spend at least half my time on the next visit admiring the art in museums and churches.
The question as to how a small city, which was not even on the coast, managed to play such an important role in history will remain unanswered, like all such question. History just happens. Trying to find causes in it is a good intellectual exercise, but like questions of philosophy it does not lead to any definite answers.
Christopher Hibbert is highly readable, and I now look forward to his books on Venice and Rome.
Read
September 5, 2017Florence, if you think it was a peaceful Renaissance city just happily churning art one after another, then think again. The book concentrate most on 1200-1800s and the amount of power fighting, blood and murder can make your head turned. Then suddenly it's Risorgimento and Hibbert lost interest on the Italian. After this it's mostly report on, of and from foreigner living or passing by Florence. What happened? I found it so odd, isn't there anything worth reporting about the locals. Or was it that they really were drowned by the foreigner? Where were the voices of people who were stubborn enough to govern themselves for hundreds of years? Have they changed so much?
3.5 stars
3.5 stars
September 17, 2007
A fascinating book that makes Florentine history come alive. Too detailed for the casual traveler; irresistible for the wannabe-Florentine.
November 12, 2019
An amazing achievement. I can’t imagine the time and energy dedicated to this vast project of describing the history of Florence from ancient times until the modern.
From the Romans, the medieval, through the renaissance and Medici and up until World War Two and the flood of 66’.
Yes, there’s a lot of anecdotes and name dropping, but that what makes this book possible. How else can you describe thousands of years of history without boring your reader?
It must be said though that this book is for the Florence fanatics, and it’s hard not to fall in love with this City. For me, interested mainly in the renaissance and the Medici era, it’s was refreshing to read exactly what happened next, in the 17th and 18th centuries. Not many books about Renaissance art and the Medici tell you what came after, and this book completed a more context of history and times and progression for me. Ok very grateful for that.
Even though I visited Florence just about a week ago, I must admit that I briefed and skipped through the last appendix chapter about the sightseeings, but even that, you realize how much this chapter alone gives you an idea of how much this city is so rich in art and culture and history.
From the Romans, the medieval, through the renaissance and Medici and up until World War Two and the flood of 66’.
Yes, there’s a lot of anecdotes and name dropping, but that what makes this book possible. How else can you describe thousands of years of history without boring your reader?
It must be said though that this book is for the Florence fanatics, and it’s hard not to fall in love with this City. For me, interested mainly in the renaissance and the Medici era, it’s was refreshing to read exactly what happened next, in the 17th and 18th centuries. Not many books about Renaissance art and the Medici tell you what came after, and this book completed a more context of history and times and progression for me. Ok very grateful for that.
Even though I visited Florence just about a week ago, I must admit that I briefed and skipped through the last appendix chapter about the sightseeings, but even that, you realize how much this chapter alone gives you an idea of how much this city is so rich in art and culture and history.
June 20, 2023
From Florence's inception to Its legacy as a global heritage, the book opens a window into the community that relentlessly defended its costumes on the world stage.
To this day, the city continues to be a beacon of beauty, romance, and opportunity.
The history of Firenze is one of wealth, despair, violence, and creativity but, above all, of love and belonging for that piece of land surrounding the Arno river.
To this day, the city continues to be a beacon of beauty, romance, and opportunity.
The history of Firenze is one of wealth, despair, violence, and creativity but, above all, of love and belonging for that piece of land surrounding the Arno river.
September 22, 2021
This thing arrived with a thud! It looks like a textbook in size, shape, and weight. Unlike a textbook, however, it doesn't actually include sources. No, those little footnotes you see throughout are actually references to an index of architectural and cultural sites in Florence--which is cool, but what the heck? Why aren't you citing any sources?! There is a Bibliography and a traditional Index, but it's such an odd thing in something so textbook-y.
The book mostly gets the job--of giving this ignorant foreigner a crash course in Florentine history--done. Naturally, the Medicis and the Renaissance take up a major portion of the book, and dang if there aren't some eerie parallels to modern American society. I was actually quite impressed with Florence's early government, which included short terms for representatives from guilds and actually required that their leaders come from outside the city (to put this all very vaguely because it's been about two weeks since I finished the book)...but then the Medicis came in. At least none of them seemed, based on what I read in this book, not to be complete corrupt tyrants. Or maybe they just seem that way because they funded the arts and didn't declare martial law. Maybe we forgive them much because they used their wealth to leave lasting works of architectural and artistic beauty, something that today's wealthiest government influencers don't do.
The book is thin on Florence's beginning, which I can forgive, but I share the frustration of many of the reviewers that once we hit the 1700s, much of the book seems to focus on foreign visitors--understandable during the Napoleonic years and while ruled by foreigners, but it still gives the impression that after 1500 years of political intrigue and cultural flowering the Florentines themselves stopped being active participants in their own government and culture. To give the most egregious example, Hibbert skates from 1944 to 1961 in less than a full page (p. 304). Was there really nothing worth commenting on in the wake of WWII? Rebuilding? Economics? Post-war, post-fascist government? Just because it's not Renaissance or military action doesn't mean it can't be interesting.
Anyway, this was an excellent book to read before my trip, but I can't say I'd recommend it for any other purpose unless you're working your way up to becoming a Florence fanatic!
Quote/Thought Roundup
p 25) Training to be a banker in medieval Florence was a grueling process, but with a four-year-old niece, this part made me pause:
At the age of seven, boys were expected to be able to read and write, to speak a little Latin and to count with an abacus...
Just how much reading and writing are we talking here? How much pen control is even possible?
p. 42) Ah, here's the part about the government (in the early 1300s) that fascinated me. To sum up: eligible guild members--provided they had not recently served and a family member was not serving simultaneously--had their names picked out of a bag every two months to form a nine-person council who lived and worked together for the next two months, consulting with other elected councils when necessary. Hibbert explains there was still, essentially, an oligarchy, given the requirements for guild membership.
p. 65) Hibbert lets us know he is a Republican:
[By the 1350s (?)] the word [Ghibelline] had taken on so sinister a meaning that to be accused of Ghibelline sentiments was to be charged with holding views and condoning behavior of the most disgraceful kind, rather as in our own day the extreme left will condemn certain attitudes as 'Fascist' with little regard to what Fascism originally meant.
Seriously, dude? You did not have to make that political. I'm sure there are plenty of other similes you could have made. Plus, hey, look to your own house for words that have lost their original meaning!
p. 82) So apparently Pope John XXIII was a former pirate who was deposed on accusations of murdering Pope Alexander V and seducing 200 women. Freed from prison in Germany by a Medici ransom, set up for life in a Medici house, and given a Medici-funded memorial in the Baptistry itself. I want to know more about this guy!
[Edit: Wikipedia says that John was a Pisan antipope (which is why he isn't the result if you search for "Pope John XXII") and his brothers were hanged for piracy. He was in the military and was accused of piracy during his deposition from the papacy. So slightly less cool than Hibbert makes him sound though he was in the military.
p. 129) Francesco Guicciardini described Lorenzo Medici as "a benevolent tyrant in a constitutional republic." What an odd thing to think about. But drop the benevolent part and I can see hints of a similar thing happening in the U.S., where the presidency has been gaining more and more power at the expense of actual representative government. So not that unfamiliar, I guess, minus the all-out tyranny. We do at least, for now, have safeguards against that.
p. 157) The descriptions of the Bonfires of the Vanities were frightening. Again, I could see parallels between the type of charismatic speaker Savonarola was and some religious and governmental leaders are today.
p. 213) Hibbert's later focus on tourists and travelers was annoying, but at the same time it did allow for some observations that locals used to the way things are probably wouldn't have thought remarkable...like the fact that people spoke through the opera (though were they Italians or visitors?) and that it was acceptable for a woman to be accompanied to social functions by a male attendant who was not her husband while her own husband played the role for another woman.
p. 276) Of a Florentine festival with racing chariots, one unimpressed traveler remarked that "one may witness the same any fine evening in New York, between two drunk Irish cartmen on their way home." Ah, New York drivers...they never change, do they?
p. 285) Hibbert seems to assume that his readers know a good bit about Mussolini's Italy already. He mentions, for example, "the excess of the black-shirted squadristi" but doesn't explain what these are. What are these "excesses"? What exactly is a "Fasci", which I'm guessing is where the term "fascist" comes from? Seems kind of important, especially if you're going to grouse earlier about people not knowing the real meaning of "Fascism".
The book mostly gets the job--of giving this ignorant foreigner a crash course in Florentine history--done. Naturally, the Medicis and the Renaissance take up a major portion of the book, and dang if there aren't some eerie parallels to modern American society. I was actually quite impressed with Florence's early government, which included short terms for representatives from guilds and actually required that their leaders come from outside the city (to put this all very vaguely because it's been about two weeks since I finished the book)...but then the Medicis came in. At least none of them seemed, based on what I read in this book, not to be complete corrupt tyrants. Or maybe they just seem that way because they funded the arts and didn't declare martial law. Maybe we forgive them much because they used their wealth to leave lasting works of architectural and artistic beauty, something that today's wealthiest government influencers don't do.
The book is thin on Florence's beginning, which I can forgive, but I share the frustration of many of the reviewers that once we hit the 1700s, much of the book seems to focus on foreign visitors--understandable during the Napoleonic years and while ruled by foreigners, but it still gives the impression that after 1500 years of political intrigue and cultural flowering the Florentines themselves stopped being active participants in their own government and culture. To give the most egregious example, Hibbert skates from 1944 to 1961 in less than a full page (p. 304). Was there really nothing worth commenting on in the wake of WWII? Rebuilding? Economics? Post-war, post-fascist government? Just because it's not Renaissance or military action doesn't mean it can't be interesting.
Anyway, this was an excellent book to read before my trip, but I can't say I'd recommend it for any other purpose unless you're working your way up to becoming a Florence fanatic!
Quote/Thought Roundup
p 25) Training to be a banker in medieval Florence was a grueling process, but with a four-year-old niece, this part made me pause:
At the age of seven, boys were expected to be able to read and write, to speak a little Latin and to count with an abacus...
Just how much reading and writing are we talking here? How much pen control is even possible?
p. 42) Ah, here's the part about the government (in the early 1300s) that fascinated me. To sum up: eligible guild members--provided they had not recently served and a family member was not serving simultaneously--had their names picked out of a bag every two months to form a nine-person council who lived and worked together for the next two months, consulting with other elected councils when necessary. Hibbert explains there was still, essentially, an oligarchy, given the requirements for guild membership.
p. 65) Hibbert lets us know he is a Republican:
[By the 1350s (?)] the word [Ghibelline] had taken on so sinister a meaning that to be accused of Ghibelline sentiments was to be charged with holding views and condoning behavior of the most disgraceful kind, rather as in our own day the extreme left will condemn certain attitudes as 'Fascist' with little regard to what Fascism originally meant.
Seriously, dude? You did not have to make that political. I'm sure there are plenty of other similes you could have made. Plus, hey, look to your own house for words that have lost their original meaning!
p. 82) So apparently Pope John XXIII was a former pirate who was deposed on accusations of murdering Pope Alexander V and seducing 200 women. Freed from prison in Germany by a Medici ransom, set up for life in a Medici house, and given a Medici-funded memorial in the Baptistry itself. I want to know more about this guy!
[Edit: Wikipedia says that John was a Pisan antipope (which is why he isn't the result if you search for "Pope John XXII") and his brothers were hanged for piracy. He was in the military and was accused of piracy during his deposition from the papacy. So slightly less cool than Hibbert makes him sound though he was in the military.
p. 129) Francesco Guicciardini described Lorenzo Medici as "a benevolent tyrant in a constitutional republic." What an odd thing to think about. But drop the benevolent part and I can see hints of a similar thing happening in the U.S., where the presidency has been gaining more and more power at the expense of actual representative government. So not that unfamiliar, I guess, minus the all-out tyranny. We do at least, for now, have safeguards against that.
p. 157) The descriptions of the Bonfires of the Vanities were frightening. Again, I could see parallels between the type of charismatic speaker Savonarola was and some religious and governmental leaders are today.
p. 213) Hibbert's later focus on tourists and travelers was annoying, but at the same time it did allow for some observations that locals used to the way things are probably wouldn't have thought remarkable...like the fact that people spoke through the opera (though were they Italians or visitors?) and that it was acceptable for a woman to be accompanied to social functions by a male attendant who was not her husband while her own husband played the role for another woman.
p. 276) Of a Florentine festival with racing chariots, one unimpressed traveler remarked that "one may witness the same any fine evening in New York, between two drunk Irish cartmen on their way home." Ah, New York drivers...they never change, do they?
p. 285) Hibbert seems to assume that his readers know a good bit about Mussolini's Italy already. He mentions, for example, "the excess of the black-shirted squadristi" but doesn't explain what these are. What are these "excesses"? What exactly is a "Fasci", which I'm guessing is where the term "fascist" comes from? Seems kind of important, especially if you're going to grouse earlier about people not knowing the real meaning of "Fascism".
May 23, 2012
Absolutely bloomin' marvellous. An enjoyable and informative read, and the type of book that few can write. Christopher Hibbert and his city biographies are missed.
September 12, 2008
I wish I'd read it before I went to Florence, rather than after.
November 12, 2018
I bought this book during my last few days of my junior year abroad in Italy. It was my idea of a nice souvenir, a coffee table book to help me remember the months I spent living in Florence. This book absolutely contributed to the overweight baggage fees I forked over on my return to the United States.
Well, it's been four years since I landed at the airport in Florence, Italy, and I finally, finally cracked open this book to formally read it through. It took me four years to start reading this, five months to finish, and I don't expect I'll ever get around to reading it ever again. Harsh, I know, but - this book was so boring! I never say that about books, but this was mind-numbing! It was just name after name after name and date after date after date and anecdote after anecdote after anecdote. I couldn't keep track of what was happening, and I couldn't care less. This is precisely the kind of history that makes millions of schoolchildren claim to hate history. There's barely a word on what it was actually like to live in Florence in certain time periods, and almost no thought given to the lowest classes of society (except when they band together and temporarily threaten the upper crust).
This is a beautiful book which I will happily stack horizontally under many other books on some display shelf or coffee table in my future. I have no intentions of ever opening it again.
Well, it's been four years since I landed at the airport in Florence, Italy, and I finally, finally cracked open this book to formally read it through. It took me four years to start reading this, five months to finish, and I don't expect I'll ever get around to reading it ever again. Harsh, I know, but - this book was so boring! I never say that about books, but this was mind-numbing! It was just name after name after name and date after date after date and anecdote after anecdote after anecdote. I couldn't keep track of what was happening, and I couldn't care less. This is precisely the kind of history that makes millions of schoolchildren claim to hate history. There's barely a word on what it was actually like to live in Florence in certain time periods, and almost no thought given to the lowest classes of society (except when they band together and temporarily threaten the upper crust).
This is a beautiful book which I will happily stack horizontally under many other books on some display shelf or coffee table in my future. I have no intentions of ever opening it again.
June 8, 2023
The book is certainly worth a read and contains a lot of good information on Florence, but it really suffers from a lack of detail, primary research, and good writing. This book should have been several, intensely-researched volumes, not a 300-ish page book with no real citations or primary research. The author quotes other biographers, but offers little of his own research. The problem with this is that many of the biographers he quotes, such as Vasari, are well-known to have exaggerated accounts of what happened. The author offers no fact-checking whatsoever.
The book is also written in a confusing manner. You will frequently read a paragraph and think “wow, was that really one long run-on sentence”, go back to confirm, and see that you were correct. This makes it fairly difficult to understand when the author introduces new characters or significant landmarks. The author also has a habit of including seemingly random persons only to never mention them again, constantly repeating himself about which street buildings lie on, and including unimportant details about historical figures. The book reads more like a brain dump than a carefully curated historical account. This all makes for not only a confusing read, but frequently the need to put the book down and Google what actually happened. The book is worth a read, but expect to forget at least 50% of what you read as soon as you are finished with the book. I would highly suggest supplementing with other books.
The book is also written in a confusing manner. You will frequently read a paragraph and think “wow, was that really one long run-on sentence”, go back to confirm, and see that you were correct. This makes it fairly difficult to understand when the author introduces new characters or significant landmarks. The author also has a habit of including seemingly random persons only to never mention them again, constantly repeating himself about which street buildings lie on, and including unimportant details about historical figures. The book reads more like a brain dump than a carefully curated historical account. This all makes for not only a confusing read, but frequently the need to put the book down and Google what actually happened. The book is worth a read, but expect to forget at least 50% of what you read as soon as you are finished with the book. I would highly suggest supplementing with other books.
February 12, 2025
An excellent introduction to the history of the city where European Renaissance was born. Expertly written, thoroughly researched and filled with love for Florence. It's not the in-depth scholarly study of the city, and it doesn't want to be. It's evident from the first pages that Mr. Hibbert is of the same school as John Julius Norwich but he never reaches the depths and heights of Mr. Norwich's master storytelling gifts which is okay: there is only one John Julius Norwich.
June 28, 2024
Two thirds of the book made for excellent reading. The last part, after the 1600s, I didn't care about, as it was the goings and comings of the European aristocratic masters of the city, as well as too focused on the anglo-saxons who settled there and brought the touristic plague with them. They also made art into a business/racket.
October 14, 2019
3.5 / 5.0
ENCYCLOPEDIAL TREATMENT OF FLORENCE HISTORY. PICTURES ARE LABELED AND BLENDED INTO TEXT USEFULLY. WISH AUTHOR COULD FIND A WAY TO INTEGRATE ART AND ARCHITECTURE NOTES FROM 50 PAGE APPENDIX INTO NARRATIVE
ENCYCLOPEDIAL TREATMENT OF FLORENCE HISTORY. PICTURES ARE LABELED AND BLENDED INTO TEXT USEFULLY. WISH AUTHOR COULD FIND A WAY TO INTEGRATE ART AND ARCHITECTURE NOTES FROM 50 PAGE APPENDIX INTO NARRATIVE
February 27, 2020
Exactly what the title says. It is a biography of Florence from 59BC to 1992. It touches on most of the high points and gives a decent overview of the growth and power holders of the city. Florence is beautiful and this is a good beginner history of the city.
January 31, 2019
Briefly, this could do with a bit more history and a lot less of the pen-portraits of the participants. The latter swamp the narrative.
February 2, 2020
An outstanding book detailing the rich history of this fine city that doesn't skimp on detail.
August 16, 2023
A nice history of Florence with an emphasis on the 13th through the 17th century.
September 28, 2013
A comprehensive history of Florence. I bought it for a trip there, but ended up reading the book and not visiting the city sadly. Heigh ho....
Still, an interesting read, expensive on the kindle and you miss out on a lot of the illustrations too. It covers the period from Roman times to 1966, but the part most interesting is the Renaissance of course. I was trying to cross-reference the artists discussed with my guide book. I love Renaissance art and I think Italy is fabulous anyway.
It's interesting the artists tended to be based primarily in one city (hence Donatello and Michaelangelo lived most of their productive lives there) and how the Tuscan cities tried to outcompete each other. The role of the Medicis is discussed - would Florence have been the city it was without the Medicis? It was not just one person but generation after generation of art lovers. All we have these days is the Saatchis which is a depressing thought...
After the glory of the middle ages Florence's star turned shabby. The section on the nineteenth century was rather dull, as it was just a catalogue on the famous people who visited. The descriptions regarding the second world war were interesting though, particularly how there seemed to be a tacit agreement between the Germans and Allies not to bomb Florence.
As to be visiting, maybe next time....
Still, an interesting read, expensive on the kindle and you miss out on a lot of the illustrations too. It covers the period from Roman times to 1966, but the part most interesting is the Renaissance of course. I was trying to cross-reference the artists discussed with my guide book. I love Renaissance art and I think Italy is fabulous anyway.
It's interesting the artists tended to be based primarily in one city (hence Donatello and Michaelangelo lived most of their productive lives there) and how the Tuscan cities tried to outcompete each other. The role of the Medicis is discussed - would Florence have been the city it was without the Medicis? It was not just one person but generation after generation of art lovers. All we have these days is the Saatchis which is a depressing thought...
After the glory of the middle ages Florence's star turned shabby. The section on the nineteenth century was rather dull, as it was just a catalogue on the famous people who visited. The descriptions regarding the second world war were interesting though, particularly how there seemed to be a tacit agreement between the Germans and Allies not to bomb Florence.
As to be visiting, maybe next time....
June 17, 2013
As a big fan of Florence, I was so looking forward to this book. After a month and a half of slogging through this, I was less than impressed. The writing is stilted and focuses on minutiae that is less than interesting. Though there were some interesting moments (the life of Dante), overall, I felt like Mr Hibbert needs to write for the common reader. I am a big history buff, so I have enjoy reading history. But this was so devoid of any personal touch, I felt like I was being lectured to by an old European professor. I wouldn't recommend this book. There must be something better out there....
June 5, 2016
I bought this to prepare for our trip to Florence but it is somewhat heavier than I expected and I'm not sure that I will remember much of what I have read. It is a very complete history of Florence and explains very well the different factions and leaders over the centuries. It was probably slightly lighter on the art than I was expecting but the notes at the back do flesh that out.
July 8, 2016
A fascinating and informative read. However, it only really covers up to the flood in 1966 (and doesn't say anything about the 1950s. So it coud do with an update. Still a great book though with useful notes.
September 1, 2013
Worthy, but rather dull.
Read
June 21, 2013Good to bring on the airplane when you are going to Florence...
A bit "academic" for a popular book, but this didn't bother me.
A bit "academic" for a popular book, but this didn't bother me.
September 9, 2013
Love this author and love this city...
March 30, 2016
Lovely read :)
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews