The beauty and the terror : an alternative history of the Italian Renaissance / Catherine Fletcher.

London : The Bodley Head, 2020.

419 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (black and white, and colour), maps (black and white, and colour) ; 24 cm

Illustrations on lining papers.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

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.

9781847925091 (hbk)

709.4'5'09031
709.4509031

English

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