The Rise And Fall Of The House Of Medici

Author : Christopher Hibbert
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2001-12-06
Category : History
ISBN : 9780141927145

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The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici by Christopher Hibbert Pdf

At its height Renaissance Florence was a centre of enormous wealth, power and influence. A republican city-state funded by trade and banking, its often bloody political scene was dominated by rich mercantile families, the most famous of which were the Medici. This enthralling book charts the family’s huge influence on the political, economic and cultural history of Florence. Beginning in the early 1430s with the rise of the dynasty under the near-legendary Cosimo de Medici, it moves through their golden era as patrons of some of the most remarkable artists and architects of the Renaissance, to the era of the Medici Popes and Grand Dukes, Florence’s slide into decay and bankruptcy, and the end, in 1737, of the Medici line.

Author : Tim Parks
Publisher : Profile Books
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2013-08-22
Category : History
ISBN : 9781847656872

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Medici Money by Tim Parks Pdf

The Medici are famous as the rulers of Florence at the high point of the Renaissance. Their power derived from the family bank, and this book tells the fascinating, frequently bloody story of the family and the dramatic development and collapse of their bank (from Cosimo who took it over in 1419 to his grandson Lorenzo the Magnificent who presided over its precipitous decline). The Medici faced two apparently insuperable problems: how did a banker deal with the fact that the Church regarded interest as a sin and had made it illegal? How in a small republic like Florence could he avoid having his wealth taken away by taxation? But the bank became indispensable to the Church. And the family completely subverted Florence's claims to being democratic. They ran the city. Medici Money explores a crucial moment in the passage from the Middle Ages to the Modern world, a moment when our own attitudes to money and morals were being formed. To read this book is to understand how much the Renaissance has to tell us about our own world. Medici Money is one of the launch titles in a new series, Atlas Books, edited by James Atlas. Atlas Books pairs fine writers with stories of the economic forces that have shaped the world, in a new genre - the business book as literature.

Author : Christopher Hibbert
Publisher : Harper Collins
Page : 390 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2012-07-17
Category : History
ISBN : 9780062228192

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The House Of Medici by Christopher Hibbert Pdf

It was a dynasty with more wealth, passion, and power than the houses of Windsor, Kennedy, and Rockefeller combined. It shaped all of Europe and controlled politics, scientists, artists, and even popes, for three hundred years. It was the house of Medici, patrons of Botticelli, Michelangelo and Galileo, benefactors who turned Florence into a global power center, and then lost it all. The House of Medici picks up where Barbara Tuchman's Hibbert delves into the lives of the Medici family, whose legacy of increasing self-indulgence and sexual dalliance eventually led to its self-destruction. With twenty-four pages of black-and-white illustrations, this timeless saga is one of Quill's strongest-selling paperbacks.

Author : Christopher Hibbert
Publisher : William Morrow
Page : 394 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 1975
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : STANFORD:36105006467935

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The House of Medici by Christopher Hibbert Pdf

An account of the fortunes and influences of the great Florentine banking family, covering over three hundred years of soldiers, art patrons, collectors, builders, popes, statesmen, and scholars.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 1996
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:966027025

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The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici by Anonim Pdf

Author : Mary Hollingsworth
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 528 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2018-03-06
Category : History
ISBN : 9781681777108

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The Family Medici by Mary Hollingsworth Pdf

Having founded the bank that became the most powerful in Europe in the fifteenth century, the Medici gained massive political power in Florence, raising the city to a peak of cultural achievement and becoming its hereditary dukes. Among their number were no fewer than three popes and a powerful and influential queen of France. Their influence brought about an explosion of Florentine art and architecture. Michelangelo, Donatello, Fra Angelico, and Leonardo were among the artists with whom they were socialized and patronized.Thus runs the "accepted view” of the Medici. However, Mary Hollingsworth argues that this is a fiction that has now acquired the status of historical fact. In truth, the Medici were as devious and immoral as the Borgias. In this dynamic new history, Hollingsworth argues that past narratives have focused on a sanitized view of the Medici—wise rulers, enlightened patrons of the arts, and fathers of the Renaissance—and their story was reinvented in the sixteenth century, mythologized by later generations of Medici who used this as a central prop for their legacy.Hollingsworth's revelatory re-telling of the story of the family Medici brings a fresh and exhilarating new perspective to the story behind the most powerful family of the Italian Renaissance.

Author : Edward Charles
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 241 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2013-06-26
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781473826663

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Inheritance of Power by Edward Charles Pdf

“Takes a novel angle on Cosimo [de Medici]’s rise to power by telling the story of his mistress, the Circassian slave Maddalena . . . an incomparable cast.” —Historical Novel Society Ever-loyal Maddalena, a diminutive, dark-skinned, blue-eyed slave, has borne Cosimo de Medici a son and seen him rise to a position in the Church. Now, late in life, she finds herself committed to a convent, as part of a scheme to prevent Cosimo’s sons from sending the Medici bank into ruin by hiding a fortune in gold for Cosimo’s grandson, Lorenzo, to inherit. But as the months go by, and the gold does not appear, her faith in Cosimo begins to wane and with it, her confidence in her own worth. Has she been duped? Approaching old age, she finds in the abbess a confessor, to whom she can confide her true story and perhaps, at the same time, convince herself that her life has been worthwhile. But the abbess has objectives of her own, and the two of them may not be on the same side. Edward Charles presents an enthralling evocation of fifteenth-century Florence in a novel of intrigue, wealth, deception, and high political drama. The largest and most respected financial institution in Europe in its prime, the Medici bank came to represent the might of a family of great influence and power, who scaled the very heights of human grandeur but were to suffer through one of the most catastrophic financial crashes of early banking as the survival of a dynasty hung in the balance. “A vivid tapestry of Florentine history . . . Imaginatively structured.” —Booklist (starred review)

Author : Prof. Raymond de Roover
Publisher : Pickle Partners Publishing
Page : 577 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2018-03-12
Category : Travel
ISBN : 9781789120776

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The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank, 1397-1494 by Prof. Raymond de Roover Pdf

The roots of modern capitalism go back to the Italian banking system of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In the fifteenth century, the Medici Bank succeeded in overshadowing its competitors, the Bardi and the Peruzzi, who were the giants of the fourteenth century, and grew into a vast establishment with branches in most of the large cities of Western Europe. A study of its operations is essential to an understanding of the economic conditions in Europe in the fifteenth century. From a careful study of pertinent documents, including a set of libri segreti (confidential ledgers) discovered in 1950, Professor de Roover has reconstructed the details of the bank’s organization and operating methods; its loan policies, which reflected the Church’s doctrine on usury; its trading and industrial investments; its roles within the Florentine gild system and tax structure; and its activities as financial agent of the Church. He covers every aspect of the bank’s history, from its early years under the management of Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici to its collapse with the expulsion of the Medici from Florence. “An invaluable contribution to the economic history of the period....A splendid book.”—Harry A. Miskimin, The American Economic Review “The most important work in English on a medieval or Renaissance bank.”—The Economist “The best book ever written on the medieval banking system.”—John T. Noonan, Jr., Harvard Law Review “The most authoritative treatment of its subject in any language.”—Rondo Cameron, The Accounting Review

Author : Christopher Hibbert
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2004-03-25
Category : History
ISBN : 9780141926247

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Florence by Christopher Hibbert Pdf

This book is as captivating as the city itself. Hibbert's gift is weaving political, social and art history into an elegantly readable and marvellously lively whole. The author's book on Florence will also be at once a history and a guide book and will be enhanced by splendid photographs and illustrations and line drawings which will describe all teh buildings and treasures of the city.

Author : Paul Strathern
Publisher : Random House
Page : 448 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2018-02-22
Category : Art
ISBN : 9781448104345

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The Medici by Paul Strathern Pdf

A dazzling piece of Italian history of the infamous family that become one of the most powerful in Europe, weaving its history with Renaissance greats from Leonardo da Vinci to Galileo Against the background of an age which saw the rebirth of ancient and classical learning, The Medici is a remarkably modern story of power, money and ambition. Strathern paints a vivid narrative of the dramatic rise and fall of the Medici family in Florence, as well as the Italian Renaissance which they did so much to sponsor and encourage. Strathern also follows the lives of many of the great Renaissance artists with whom the Medici had dealings, including Leonardo, Michelangelo and Donatello; as well as scientists like Galileo and Pico della Mirandola; and the fortunes of those members of the Medici family who achieved success away from Florence, including the two Medici popes and Catherine de' Médicis, who became Queen of France and played a major role in that country through three turbulent reigns. ‘A great overview of one family's centuries-long role in changing the face of Europe’ Irish Independent

Author : Catherine Fletcher
Publisher : Random House
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2016-04-21
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781448182084

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The Black Prince of Florence by Catherine Fletcher Pdf

‘A spectacular, elegant, brilliant portrait of skulduggery, murder and sex in Renaissance Florence’ Simon Sebag Montefiore, Evening Standard, Books of the Year 1531 – after years of brutal war and political intrigue, the bastard son of a Medici Duke and a ‘half-negro’ maidservant rides into Florence. Within a year, he rules the city as its Prince. Backed by the Pope and his future father-in-law the Holy Roman Emperor, the nineteen-year-old Alessandro faces down bloody family rivalry and the scheming hostility of Italy’s oligarchs to reassert the Medicis’ faltering grip on the turbulent city-state. Six years later, as he awaits an adulterous liaison, he will be murdered by his cousin in another man’s bed. ‘Nothing in sixteenth-century history is more astonishing’ Hilary Mantel

Author : Plutarch
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2005-05-26
Category : History
ISBN : 9780141925509

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On Sparta by Plutarch Pdf

Plutarch's vivid and engaging portraits of the Spartans and their customs are a major source of our knowledge about the rise and fall of this remarkable Greek city-state between the sixth and third centuries BC. Through his Lives of Sparta's leaders and his recording of memorable Spartan Sayings he depicts a people who lived frugally and mastered their emotions in all aspects of life, who also disposed of unhealthy babies in a deep chasm, introduced a gruelling regime of military training for boys, and treated their serfs brutally. Rich in anecdote and detail, Plutarch's writing brings to life the personalities and achievements of Sparta with unparalleled flair and humanity.

Author : J. R. Hale
Publisher : Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Page : 206 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : History
ISBN : 1842124560

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Florence and the Medici by J. R. Hale Pdf

The enduring fascination of the Medici emanates from their ability as individuals and as a family to control the government of Florence - first, within a quasi-democratic system, and finally through dynastic inheritance.Based on the latest research, Professor Hale's masterly study thus presents an account of the Medici that serves as a history of Florence from the early fifteenth to the early eighteenth century.

Author : Miles Unger
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 530 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780743254342

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Magnifico by Miles Unger Pdf

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.

Author : Franco Cesati
Publisher : Mandragora
Page : 150 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Art
ISBN : UOM:39015063248630

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The Medici by Franco Cesati Pdf

The Medici are probably the best-known and most illustrious Italian family - one that produced two popes, two Queens of France and such a multi-faceted and extraordinary figure as Lorenzo the Magnificent. Their name is inextricably linked to the history of Florence. The city itself remains a living symbol of the peninsula's most splendid epoch. When people around the world think of Italy, they usually think of Florence and Tuscany, and of the priceless art collections that hold, to this day, an irresistible fascination for millions of visitors. This concise and brilliant book reads like a piece of journalism in the best sense of the term. With an entirely original and non-provincial approach, the author traces the dazzling rise and fall of this dynasty, from the first gonfaloniere to the last Grand Duke, tirelessly bringing out its historical links with Florence, Italy and Europe. The many illustrations, clarified by ample captions, do not add up to a mere gallery of official portraits; rather, the