Images of Quattrocento Florence Selected Writings in Literature, History and Art Stefano Ugo Baldassarri, Arielle Saiber

This anthology provides a panoramic view of fifteenth-century Florence in the words of the city's own citizens and visitors. The fifty-one selections, many translated into English for the first time, offer fascinating glimpses into Renaissance thought. Together, the documents demonstrate the social, political, religious, and cultural impact Florence had in shaping the Italian and European Renaissance, and they reveal how Florence created, developed, and diffused the mythology of its own origins and glory. The documents point up the divergences in quattrocento accounts of the origins of Florence, and they reveal the importance of the city's economy, social life, and military success to the formation of its image. The book includes sources that elaborate on the city's accomplishments in literature and the visual arts, others that present major trends in Florentine religious life, and still others that attest to the acclaim and admiration that Florence evoked from foreign visitors. The editors also provide an informative introduction, a detailed chronology of fifteenth-century Italy, maps, photographs, an annotated bibliography, and a biographical sketch of the author of each document.

Stefano Ugo Baldassarri is professor of Italian literature for the Georgetown University Florence Program. He is the author of the first critical edition of Leonardo Bruni's Dialogi ad Petrum Paulum Histrum. Arielle Saiber is assistant professor of Italian at Bowdoin College. Italian Literature and Thought Series

"An informative and enlightening volume on Florence in its golden age. The editors have gathered materials of extraordinary significance and value." Lawrence Manley, Yale University