This study concentrates on the rich material and visual culture of the Americas in Florence and thereby builds a case for the Medici’s engagement with the New World. Botticelli lived all his life in the neighborhood in Florence that he grew up in, only leaving Florence to paint in Pisa in 1474 and in the Sistine Chapel in Rome in 1481-82. In Medici, the charismatic monk Savronarola is shown urging Florentines to rise up against the Medici family and empty their homes of riches, jewels, and art.

Through unrest, church schisms, invasion by the Holy Roman Empire and France, the Medici flourished, none more so than the flamboyant Lorenzo. For a more detailed focus on a singular Medici family member, this is one of the best Medici books out there. When Catherine de' Medici was forced to marry Henry of Orleans, her's was not the only heart broken.

Indeed, the Medici collection includes the largest corpus of extant objects from and images of the Americas in Europe but has never been the topic of a full-length art-historical study. My favorite Italian artists are from the 14th century (Lorenzetti, Martini, Giotto), but if I had to choose a fave from the 15th century, Botticelli would win hands down. Recently, scholars have explored the ethnographic interests of Europeans in relation to early images of the Americas, often pointing out the hybrid or fanciful manner Europeans used to depict indigenous peoples. But Hibbert's book is about the entirety of the Medici lives, not just their enormous contribution to the Arts.

To enable personalised advertising (like interest-based ads), we may share your data with our marketing and advertising partners using cookies and other technologies. She was married to Henri, the son of France’s Francois I, and was expelled from her home in Florence. Amid the glittering fêtes and banquets of the most immoral court in sixteenth-century Europe, the reluctant bride becomes a passionate but unwanted wife. The Medici series is billed as a fictionalized depiction of the powerful Medici family who ruled Florence for almost a century.The long checkered history of the House of Medici is never dull but Hibbert imbues it with an uncommon vitality rarely seen in history books and it is that equally uncommon writing style of Hibbert’s that keeps me coming back to his Italian bibliography for my reading pleasure.