Florence The City and Its Architecture

by Goy, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780714846279
• ISBN10: 0714846279
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-04-01
• Publisher: Phaidon Press

Summary

"See where it lies before us in a sun-lighted valley, bright with the windingrno, and shut in by swelling hills; its domes, and towers, and palaces,ising from the rich country in a glittering heap, and shining in the sunike gold." - Charles Dickens, "Pictures from Italy", 1844. For nearly twoenturies, from the era of Dante to that of Michelangelo, the comparativelymall but extremely wealthy city of Florence exerted an exceptional influencever the development of western civilization that even today remains theubject of endless study, debate and research. The inspired patronage ofosimo and Lorenzo de Medici, of Giovanni Rucellai and others, gave rise toeminal architectural works by Brunelleschi and Alberti, Michelozzo andichelangelo, to name but a few. Joined by their contemporaries from theitti, Strozzi, and Pazzi families, the Medici also provoked a renewed studyf classical philosophers and the establishment of renowned culturalcademies and public libraries. It was during the thirteenth and fourteenthenturies that the modern Italian language of today was developed and

Author Biography

Richard Goy is a practising architect and an architectural historian. His previous books include the successful predecessor to this volume, Venice: The City and Its Architecture, also published by Phaidon.