After reading Mary McCarthy’s The Stones of Florence, I decided that I wanted to read a more straightforward history of the city. I picked this book based on the Amazon reviews, but never expected a coffee table-type book, albeit with a paper cover. Lavishly illustrated, The Golden Age of Florence covers the city from the initial stages of the Renaissance to its end. Florence was a turbulent city, sometimes ruled by a group of nobility, sometimes by its guilds, and eventually by the Medici. The city faced as much danger from its own internal squabbles as it did from its external enemies. Yet, despite this, the city experience unprecedented economic , industrial, and artistic development , producing some of the finest wool in Europe along with Dante, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Botticelli, among so many.

This book does a fine job of telling this story, not just the politics, but the economics and the various arts. It is a general overview, not meant to be a scholarly work. The writing is designed to bring the reader to the Florence during its Golden Age, drawing interesting portraits of all the relevant characters. I grew somewhat frustrated with the lack of connection between one event to another. Savonarola somehow sneaked up, took over the city, and died as a heretic, with no real explanation of who he was and how he came to take on such a role. Although the book itself only covers a 600 year period of time, an appendix in the back does have a brief synopsis of historical events starting from its founding and ending with the rule by the Austrians. The illustrations in the book are arranged in categories, so each page centers not on the text itself, though it may be related, but on the general theme. The author has selected drawings from manuscripts, photographs of sculptures and buildings, and representations of paintings.

Despite any quibbles mentioned, I highly recommend the book for anyone who wants to learn a general overview of the history of Florence illustrated with some of the finest works of art that man has ever produced. ( )