Between the birth of Dante in 1265 and the death of Galileo in 1642 something happened which completely revolutionized Western civilization. Painting, sculpture and architecture would all visibly change in a striking fashion. Likewise, the thought and self-conception of humanity would take on a completely different aspect. Sciences would be born - or emerge in an entirely new guise.
In this sweeping 400-year history, Paul Strathern reveals how, and why, these new ideas which formed the Renaissance began, and flourished, in the city of Florence. Just as central and northern Germany gave birth to the Reformation, Britain was a driver of the Industrial Revolution and Silicon Valley shaped the digital age, so too, Strathern argues, did Florence play a similarly unique and transformative role in the Renaissance.
While vividly bringing to life the city and a vast cast of characters - including Dante, Botticelli, Machiavelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Galileo - Strathern shows how these great Florentines forever altered Europe and the Western world.
The Florentines : From Dante to Galileo
Description
Table of Contents
1: Dante and Florence 2: Wealth, Freedom and Talent 3: A Clear Eye Amidst Troubled Times 4: Boccaccio and Petrarch 5: War and Peace 6: The Dome 7: The Mathematical Artists 8: Those Who Paid the Bills 9: The Renaissance Spreads Its Wings 10: Medici Rising 11: A Medici Artist 12: Il Magnifico 13: Leonardo 14: Shifting Ground 15: Undercurrents 16: The Bonfire of the Vanities 17: Machiavelli 18: Michelangelo 19: Galileo 20: Epilogue
Author Description
About Paul Strathern
Paul Strathern studied philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin. He is a Somerset Maugham Award-winning novelist; author of two series of books - Philosophers in 90 Minutes and The Big Idea: Scientists who Changed the World - and several works of non-fiction, including The Medici, The Artist, the Philosopher and the Warrior, Spirit of Venice, Death in Florence and The Borgias.