Medici

 'This forensic study of the Renaissance banking dynasty conjures up a world of art, literature, philosophy - and brutality' Telegraph 'Likely to become the standard work of reference on the members of the family that dominated Florence' TLS 'A lucid and beautifully illustrated family history' The Times Wealthy bankers, wise politicians, patrons of the arts, glittering dukes... so runs the traditional telling of the story of the Medici, the family that ruled Florence for two hundred years and inspired the birth of the Italian Renaissance. In this definitive account of their rise and fall, Mary Hollingsworth argues that the idea that the Medici were wise rulers and enlightened fathers of the Renaissance is a fiction. In truth, she says, the Medici were as devious and immoral as the Borgias - tyrants loathed in the city they illegally made their own and which they beggared in their lust for power.

Review: This forensic study of the Renaissance banking dynasty conjures up a world of art, literature, philosophy - and brutality * Telegraph, Book of the Year *
Likely to become the standard work of reference on the members of the family that dominated Florence * TLS *
A lucid and beautifully illustrated family history * The Times, Book of the Week *
A beautifully illustrated and scholarly survey of five centuries of the Medici family * Literary Review *
A vital acquisition for anyone who studies the Renaissance and seeks the true role of the Medici in the history of Florence * Kirkus *
An excellent study of the Medici... A careful, understated book... [It] is never short on drama' * Telegraph *
Drawing on impeccable documentary research [this] is a lively and accessible new account of the House of Medici * Country Life *
A well-illustrated history of the rise and fall of the House of Medici * The Times *