Medici Money: Banking, metaphysics and art in fifteenth-century FlorenceProfile Books, 22 ago 2013 - 288 pagine The Medici are famous as the rulers of Florence at the high point of the Renaissance. Their power derived from the family bank, and this book tells the fascinating, frequently bloody story of the family and the dramatic development and collapse of their bank (from Cosimo who took it over in 1419 to his grandson Lorenzo the Magnificent who presided over its precipitous decline). The Medici faced two apparently insuperable problems: how did a banker deal with the fact that the Church regarded interest as a sin and had made it illegal? How in a small republic like Florence could he avoid having his wealth taken away by taxation? But the bank became indispensable to the Church. And the family completely subverted Florence's claims to being democratic. They ran the city. Medici Money explores a crucial moment in the passage from the Middle Ages to the Modern world, a moment when our own attitudes to money and morals were being formed. To read this book is to understand how much the Renaissance has to tell us about our own world. Medici Money is one of the launch titles in a new series, Atlas Books, edited by James Atlas. Atlas Books pairs fine writers with stories of the economic forces that have shaped the world, in a new genre - the business book as literature. |
Sommario
The Art of Exchange | 29 |
The Rise to Power | 61 |
The Secret Things of Our Town | 103 |
Blue Blood and White Elephants | 153 |
The Magnificent Decline | 189 |
Bibliographic Notes | 249 |
Altre edizioni - Visualizza tutto
Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics, and Art in Fifteenth-century Florence Tim Parks Anteprima limitata - 2005 |
Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics, and Art in Fifteenth-century Florence Tim Parks Anteprima non disponibile - 2006 |
Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics, and Art in Fifteenth-century Florence Tim Parks Anteprima non disponibile - 2006 |
Parole e frasi comuni
Agnolo alum Antonino balia bank’s banker Bardi Benci brother Bruges Bruges branch cardinal cash Christian Church city’s cloth coins commission condottiere Cosimo Council death debt director duke of Milan exchange deal exile family’s father Ficino fifteenth century Flor Florence Florence branch Florence’s Florentine florins Francesco Sassetti Francesco Sforza Giovanni di Bicci gonfaloniere gonfaloniere della giustizia head Holy humanist Italian Italy king later letters loans London Lorenzo Luca Pitti Lucrezia Machiavelli Magnifico man’s Medici bank Medici family Medici money merchants Milanese monopoly Naples never Niccolò paid painted Palazzo della Signoria Palazzo Medici Palla Strozzi papal Pazzi perhaps Piccinino piccioli Piero Pisa political pope priest profits regime republican Rinaldo degli Albizzi Rome Rome branch saints San Marco Savonarola silk Sixtus Tani things tion Tommaso Portinari town trade usurer usury Venetians Venice Visconti wealth wool wrote