Savonarola

December 1, 2011

On May 23, 1498, in the Florence of Michelangelo, Machiavelli, and the Medici, a paroxysmal apocalyptic drama that had unfolded over the previous eight years came to a fiery conclusion. From the fall of the Medici family to his own eventual martyrdom, Girolamo Savonarola combined a millenarian message of "last days" and a stringent campaign against moral laxity with a populist-styled republicanism. As Weinstein (professor emeritus, Univ. of Arizona; The Captain's Concubine: Love, Honor, and Violence in Renaissance Tuscany) ably shows in his superb account of the meteoric rise of the "Renaissance prophet" and his striking fall, Savonarola was a moral crusader dedicated to transforming Florence into the "New Jerusalem." His criticisms of the medieval church foreshadowed the reformation of Luther and Calvin. VERDICT The sum total of a career's work, Weinstein's account provides readers interested in Renaissance Italy with an elegant synthesis of the great Dominican's life that neither deviates from its subject nor descends into hagiography. Recommended; readers who enjoy this work may also appreciate Miles Unger's recent Machiavelli: A Biography.--Brian Odom, Pelham P.L., AL

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