Uses Piero de' Medici's life as a prism to throw new light on the crisis in Renaissance Italy that revolutionised culture and political thinking.

The Renaissance, now in its third edition, engages with earlier and current debates about the Renaissance, especially concerning its ‘modernity’, its elitism and gender bias and its globalism. This new edition has been revised to include a discussion of Venice, Rome, Naples and Florence and their relationship with surrounding courts and smaller provincial towns. Brown provides a fresh insight into some of the main themes of the Renaissance, with humanism now being explored in relation to gender, the position of women and the response of religious reformers to the new ideas. The broad geographical scope, concluding with an examination of diffusion through trade with Constantinople, Portugal and Spain, allows students to fully explore how the Renaissance transformed into a global movement. Key themes, such as humanism, art and architecture, Renaissance theatre and the invention of printing, are illustrated with quotations and exempla, making this book an invaluable source for students of the Renaissance, early modern history and social and cultural history.

The innovative city culture of Florence was the crucible within which Renaissance ideas first caught fire. With its soaring cathedral dome and its classically-inspired palaces and piazzas, it is perhaps the finest single expression of a society that is still at its heart an urban one. For, as Brian Jeffrey Maxson reveals, it is above all the city-state – the walled commune which became the chief driver of European commerce, culture, banking and art – that is medieval Italy's enduring legacy to the present. Charting the transition of Florence from an obscure Guelph republic to a regional superpower in which the glittering court of Lorenzo the Magnificent became the pride and envy of the continent, the author authoritatively discusses a city that looked to the past for ideas even as it articulated a novel creativity. Uncovering passionate dispute and intrigue, Maxson sheds fresh light too on seminal events like the fiery end of oratorical firebrand Savonarola and Giuliano de' Medici's brutal murder by the rival Pazzi family. This book shows why Florence, harbinger and heartland of the Renaissance, is and has always been unique.

"The Renaissance, now in its third edition, engages with earlier and current debates about the Renaissance, especially concerning its 'modernity', its elitism and gender-bias, and its globalism. Brown provides a fresh insight into some of the main themes of the Renaissance, with humanism now being explored in relation to gender, the position of women, and the response of religious reformers to the new ideas. Key themes, such as humanism, art and architecture, Renaissance theatre, and the invention of printing, are illustrated with quotations and exempla, making this book an invaluable source for students of the Renaissance, early modern history, and social and cultural history"--

Miles Unger's biography of this complex figure draws on primary research in Italian sources and on his intimate knowledge of Florence, where he lived for several years."--BOOK JACKET.