Death in Florence

Starred review from June 1, 2015
Eschewing a one-sided approach, Strathern (The Venetians) fashions an engrossing portrayal of the two legendary 15th-century figures who shaped Renaissance Florence: Lorenzo (the Magnificent) de’ Medici and Girolamo Savonarola. Lorenzo, self-indulgent yet capable, was head of the city-state’s most powerful family, and used his “diplomatic skill” to cement Florence as a major power and forge an alliance with Pope Innocent VIII. Savonarola was a fiery monk whose severe shift toward a charismatic asceticism ironically placed him in direct conflict with multiple popes. Strathern demonstrates a thorough understanding of the city-state’s internal and external influences, and he walks readers through the tumultuous transition from the Medieval era to the Renaissance’s “new vision of humanism.” In well-considered prose, Strathern argues that these two figures battled for the “direction that humanity should take,” further illustrating the struggle for Florence’s soul via Savonarola-convert Sandro Botticelli’s artistic descent from exuberant classicism to brimstone imagery. This enjoyable and pleasantly articulate look into the inner workings of two larger-than-life entities (the de’ Medici family and the Church) offers unexpected insight into the theology, philosophy, and society that eventually cemented Florence as a Renaissance center of political and cultural import. Illus. Agent: George Lucas, Inkwell Management

June 1, 2015

Fans of television shows such as The Borgias and The Tudors, or even Game of Thrones, will find no end of entertainment in this in-depth chronicle of the real-life events of the Medici family in Renaissance Florence. No fictional embellishment is needed for the political intrigue described in Strathern's (The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance) latest work. The author paints a vivid picture of the struggle of the Medicis to maintain control over Florence as a passionate bishop fought against them, purporting to restore a true republic. With reproductions of Renaissance artwork and architecture as well as passages from contemporary historians, critics, and notable figures, Strathern's history envelopes the reader in the world of medieval Italy, with its vitality and violence, intellect and turmoil. VERDICT Lovers of medieval history will be pulled into this informative and gripping account; academics will find it a credible source of historical knowledge. Strathern's approachable, objective style turns a litany of information into a spellbinding saga worthy of prime time. A thrilling and informative chronicle of one of the Renaissance's most notorious dynasties.--Kathleen Dupre, Edmond, OK

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 12, 2015
The catastrophic flood that devastated Florence in 1966, in which scores of people died and some of the city's greatest artistic treasures were destroyed, serves as the backdrop for Bordelli's absorbing fourth mystery featuring wryly witty Insp. Franco Bordelli (after 2014's Death in Sardinia). Giacomo Pellissari, an "untroubled boy, studious and obedient," disappears on his way home from school one day during a heavy rain. Photos of the 13-year-old in the newspapers and on TV bring no results. Bordelli begins to think Giacomo has been kidnapped by Martians. Much of the book takes place inside Bordelli's head, including reminiscences about WWII, reflections on unattainable women, philosophical ponderings and musings about what he'll have for lunch. Don't expect gore or scientific analysis; Bordelli often intuits rather than deduces. Assistance and insight are supplied by his longtime friends Rosa, a prostitute with a heart of gold, and small-time crook Ennio Botti. The quirkily fascinating personality of Bordelli makes for an entertaining and often thought-provoking mystery.

May 15, 2015
Boko Haram and the Taliban are uniquely bloodthirsty, but they follow a long tradition of puritan reformers, among them the subject of this book, the Italian Dominican friar Savonarola (1452-1498). Savonarola gets terrible press, admits novelist and historian Strathern (The Venetians: A New History: From Marco Polo to Casanova, 2013, etc.), in this lively history of a bizarre period during Italy's golden age. The author opens with a portrait of Renaissance Florence under Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492), who governed through bribes, threats, and strategic marriages but with far more skill than fellow rulers. Strathern admires him but shows equal sympathy with the charismatic friar, already creating a stir with apocalyptic sermons and attacks on corruption, who became the city's spiritual dictator after Lorenzo's death and the 1494 expulsion of his incompetent son. Savonarola supported a new constitution that produced "the most democratic and open rule the city had ever known." For reasons historians still debate, he presided over a citywide crusade against vice resembling that of the 1990s Taliban. Bands of young men patrolled the streets to punish immodest dress and behavior. In the celebrated bonfire of the vanities, enthusiasts destroyed objects of frivolity (mirrors, playing cards, musical instruments), along with books, paintings, and sculpture. Aided by a hostile papacy, the movement ran out of steam, at which point Savonarola was arrested, tortured, and hung. Some argue that he failed because Florentines wearied of life in a theocracy; others, that a corrupt church killed him, something it failed to do with a later reformer, Martin Luther. Strathern does not take sides as he delivers a deft, often gruesome account of events in that distant era when Christianity was a matter of life and death.

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Starred review from July 1, 2015
Strathern is known for his narrative histories, including The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior: The Intersecting Lives of Da Vinci, Machiavelli, and Borgia and the World They Shaped (2009). His latest book again focuses on leading figures in Renaissance Italy whose lives had far-reaching consequences stretching to the present. The two men are Lorenzo de' Medici, ruler of fifteenth-century Florence, and the man who plagued him and ignited the populace, the zealot monk Savonarola. Strathern shows how the embodiment of humanism and the embodiment of asceticism came closer and closer together, each needing the other for power, until their wildly divergent worldviews allowed for no compromise. This is more than a dual biography. It's a social and religious history, showing the tension that still holds between secularism and religion. Lorenzo, after all, was the patron of Botticelli and Michelangelo, and Savonarola, the perpetrator of the Bonfire of the Vanities (which burned a tower representing the seven deadly sins in the Piazza della Signoria, fronting the Medici palace and seat of government). Strathern brings his two opponents to life by including a great deal about their physicality (Lorenzo was plagued by gout and arthritis; Savonarola had a plain face but eyes that burned with intensity). The juxtaposition of Lorenzo's and Savonarola's lives and approaches to life adds to the sense of a cat and mouse game throughout this riveting narrative history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)