A thrilling history of the unseen dark side of the Italian Renaissance
Catherine Fletcher is a historian of Renaissance and early modern Europe. Her previous books include The Black Prince of Florence- The Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro de' Medici and The Divorce of Henry VIII- The Untold Story. Catherine is Professor of History at Manchester Metropolitan University and broadcasts regularly for the BBC.
Terrifying and fascinating ... If you thought the Renaissance was
all about beautiful pictures and the ‘rediscovery’ of Classical
writing, you are quite wrong … The Beauty and the Terror dismantles
our assumptions about the Renaissance with the precision of a
wheellock arquebus … an ambitious, multifocal book, encompassing
more than 150 years [that] shine[s] a light on figures often
forgotten in conventional histories
*Sunday Times*
Impressive and lucid … Fletcher’s narration excels in such
colourful details … a scholarly, but vivid history that shows the
impact that the machinations of the great, good and not so good had
on the insignificant … a persuasive account of how Italy was
brought low even as the culture floated high
*The Times*
Richly well-informed and admirably well-written, containing
material of real interest on every page ... has added a wealth of
information that will be new to most of us
*Sunday Telegraph*
A story of alliances, betrayals, sacks, sieges, famines,
assassinations and gruesomely ingenious tortures … Fletcher
navigates this difficult terrain with great skill. She creates
atmosphere and drama without any surrendering of clarity... A
powerful book
*Guardian*
Fletcher’s expertise is enviable … she knows better than anyone
else just how treacherous a time and place it was. At its best, The
Beauty and the Terror is as enlightening as you might hope: a
chapter tracing early modern ambivalence about the rise of handguns
… is exactly the alternative history you might wish for, as are the
sections on slavery, sexual mores and pornography
*Daily Telegraph*
[A] magnificent introduction to the history of the era … Fletcher’s
book covers not just the wars and Renaissance art but also Italy’s
political systems, courtly ceremonies, the Protestant Reformation
and Catholic renewal, anti-Semitism, European colonialism, slavery,
military technologies, early efforts at gun control, women’s
poetry and even pornography … Fletcher shows how digging below the
artistic and commercial riches of Renaissance Italy can reveal
strong connections between culture, business, religion and
violence
*Financial Times*
Brilliant and gripping, here is the full true Renaissance in a
history of compelling originality and freshness, revealing the
filth and thuggery, slavery, sex, slaughter and skulduggery behind
the exquisite art of Leonardo and Michelangelo
*SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE, author of Jerusalem and The Romanovs*
Leading us into the world of the high Italian Renaissance in all
its rich, blood-soaked glory, Catherine Fletcher shows us how the
violent energies of war gave birth to some of the greatest art ever
seen. Devastating in its detail, The Beauty and the Terror is a
powerful, intimate and deeply humane portrait of this age of
extreme destruction and exceptional creativity
*THOMAS PENN, author of Winter King and Brothers York*
A wonderfully dark, gritty, hard-edged tour behind the scenes of
the Italian Renaissance. Catherine Fletcher is an expert and
eloquent guide through the fire, blood and steel that inspired some
of the greatest art in the world
*JESSIE CHILDS, author of God’s Traitors*
Catherine Fletcher’s eye for the skewering detail makes the
citizens of renaissance Florence live again
*on The Black Prince of Florence*
Astonishing … gripping and original … a compelling portrait
*Financial Times on The Black Prince of Florence*
Packed with intrigue … Fletcher describes with cool menace the
plotting and politicking … rought splendidly to life in this
excellent book
*Sunday Times on The Black Prince of Florence*
An approach that enables her to touch on many aspects of this
complex time … Above all, it is the women who interest Fletcher,
whether painters, poets, politicians or prostitutes … an absorbing
read
*Literary Review*
A finely-written, engaging and clear essay… The force of Fletcher’s
narrative is not so much in offering a radical new evaluation of
Italian Renaissance civilisation as in insisting that we see it as
a cluster of cultural strategies and techniques within an
exceptionally turbulent political milieu
*New Statesman*
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