April blood : Florence and the plot against the Medici

Book

April blood : Florence and the plot against the Medici / Lauro Martines.

Summary:

One of the worldʼs leading historians of Renaissance Italy brings to life here the vibrant - and violent - society of fifteenth-century Florence. His disturbing narrative opens up an entire culture, revealing the dark side of Renaissance man and politician Lorenzo deʼ Medici. On a Sunday in April 1478, assassins attacked Lorenzo and his brother as they attended Mass in the cathedral of Florence. Lorenzo scrambled to safety as Giuliano bled to death on the cathedral floor. April Blood moves outward in time and space from that murderous event, unfolding a story of tangled passions, ambition, treachery, and revenge. The conspiracy was led by one of the cityʼs most noble clans, the Pazzi, financiers who feared and resented the Mediciʼs swaggering new role as political bosses - but the web of intrigue spread through all of Italy. Bankers, mercenaries, the Duke of Urbino, the King of Naples, and Pope Sixtus IV entered secretly into the plot. Florence was plunged into a peninsular war, and Lorenzo was soon fighting for his own and his familyʼs survival.

The failed assassination doomed the Pazzi. Medici revenge was swift and brutal - plotters were hanged or beheaded, innocents were hacked to pieces, and bodies were put out to dangle from the windows of the government palace. All remaining members of the Pazzi clan were forced to change their surname, and every public sign or symbol of the family was destroyed. April Blood offers us a fresh portrait of Renaissance Florence, where dazzling artistic achievements went side-by-side with violence, cruelty, and bare-knuckle politics. At the center of the canvas is the figure of Lorenzo the Magnificent - poet, statesman, connoisseur, patron of the arts, and ruthless ʺboss of bosses.ʺ This extraordinarily vivid account of a turning point in the Italian Renaissance is bound to become a lasting work of history. Book jacket.

Record details

ISBN: 0195152956
ISBN: 9780195152951
ISBN: 9780195176094
ISBN: 019517609X
Physical Description: xviii, 302 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm
Publisher: Oxford ; Oxford University Press, 2003.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references (pages 282-292) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: Conspiracy -- Social Climbers -- Profile: Manetti -- The Pazzi Family -- Profile: Soderini -- Enter Lorenzo -- April Blood -- Assaulting the Body: 'Cannibalism' -- A Soldier Confesses -- Raging: Pope and Citizen -- The Pazzi Cursed -- Profile: Rinuccini -- Lorenzo: Lord and Citizen -- The Bottom Line.