The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall

We recently travelled to Italy where our daughter was in a study abroad program. I found the country fascinating and the people friendly. It was hard not to get swept away in history. In Venice the Medici's touch is everywhere. I bought and read this book after we got home and wish I had read it before we left. It is an easy read but it is not fiction- it is written from a historical perspective and could be used in any history class in college. If you are looking for a light read this probably isn't it but it is filled with information and if you enjoy history it is easy reading and fascinating. I was curious how such a powerful and wealthy family could just disappear and it answers that question and more. It describes their rise, their wealth, their philanthropy, their competition with other prominent families and even their fighting with the Pope. (there were Medici's who were Popes). It gives a very clear picture of the history of the time and how Italy was unique in Europe being limited in resources and having city states rather then a central government. An excellent book and I recommend it to anyone interested in Italian history.

Highly suggest reading before going to Florence, informative and easy read. Very interesting!Book was in good shape.

What can I say? This is the definitive work on the Medici's (at least in my opinion). Well written and an easy read. Highly recommended.

The first half of this book will interest most Italian Renaissance readers. I especially liked the description of Florentine daily life in Chapter I. The second half was not as satisfying to me.The Italian peninsula was home to a dozen rival City States, including the Vatican, which each had factions that vied for power. Into this brew of quarrels waded Spanish Armies, French Royalty, and Swiss mercenaries. Hibbert seems to be at his best when describing the play by play of all these intrigues. The first half of the book seems balanced between recounting artistic triumphs and political turmoil.The death of Lorenzo the Magnificent closes the first half of the book. I found the second half of the book heavy going. It chronicles the downward slide of the Medici clan, and does not spare any sordid details. The most historically significant figure of this era was Catherine de Medici, who became queen of France. Hibbert does not mention her after her marriage, even though she became de facto ruler of France and a force in the Counter Reformation.There were other loose ends that Hibbert did not pursue. He vividly describes the excess of the popes but does not even mention the Reformation. The Medici family’s fortune was built on banking and tied to Florence’s wool trade. But these just are touched on briefly, before returning to long accounts of intrigue, squabbles, sloth and decadence.A decent book overall, but I find Ross King’s books much more enjoyable.

Don't be put of by the length of this tome on the Medici - Hibbert is immensely readable and will carry you along quite effortlessly. Despite the many names at play, Hibbert never loses the reader. The book certainly focuses on the family, rather than trying to be, say a complete history of Florence or an exhaustive compendium of the art of the period covered, but the reader will certainly get a good dose of both. I highly recommend it. If, however, you really are concerned by the length or are just dipping your toe into the history of the Medici for the first time, try Tim Parks' Medici Money, a wonderfully concise and very readable history of the Medici, the creation of their banking empire, and the context within which they built it.

I have read only a few books about the Renaissance in Italy; other than Ross King's book about the creation of the Sistine Chapel amid the drama of the late 15th and early 16th Century, a recent biography of Savonarola, and a bunch of art history books, nothing comes to mind. I have been to most of the art museums in Rome and Florence, and other than that, I'm a complete novice when it comes to this stuff. I knew virtually nothing about the history of the Medici family, and I found this book compelling and easy to follow. If you're looking for a book that tells the story clearly without requiring any background, this is the one. Now I'm going to read his book about the Borgia family. Excellent book!

Bom

Good read

Una lectura no muy resumida, llena de interesantes detalles, no sólo de la familia Medici sino también de la época, por ejemplo incorpora pequeñas descripciones y biografías de artistas y sus obras que estuvieron al servicio de los Medici, también pequeñas biografías de otras familias. Una lectura muy basta, yo recomendaría como un libro de profundización en el tema y ya tener un previo conocimiento del renacimiento italiano, de algunos acontecimiento de esos años y un poco de conocimiento del tema de la familia Medici. Idioma: Inglés

acquistato per un regalo

Great book! Quality is amazing