Fire in the City: Savonarola and the Struggle for the Soul of Renaissance Florence | 
 enlarge | Author: Lauro Martines
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
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Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 251573
Media: Paperback
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0195327101
Dewey Decimal Number: 850
EAN: 9780195327106
ASIN: 0195327101
Publication Date: July 10, 2007
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Product Description
A gripping and beautifully written narrative that reads like a novel, Fire in the City presents a compelling account of a key moment in the history of the Renaissance, illuminating the remarkable man who dominated the period, the charismatic Girolamo Savonarola.br Lauro Martines, whose decades of scholarship have made him one of the most admired historians of Renaissance Italy, here provides a remarkably fresh perspective on Savonarola, the preacher and agitator who flamed like a comet through late fifteenth-century Florence. The Dominican friar has long been portrayed as a dour, puritanical demagogue who urged his followers to burn their worldly goods in "the bonfire of the vanities." But as Martines shows, this is a caricature of the truth--the version propagated by the wealthy and powerful who feared the political reforms he represented. Here, Savonarola emerges as a complex and subtle man, both a religious and a civic leader--who inspired an outpouring of political debate in a city newly freed from the tyranny of the Medici. In the end, the volatile passions he unleashed--and the powerful families he threatened--sent the friar to his own fiery death. But the fusion of morality and politics that he represented would leave a lasting mark on Renaissance Florence.br For the many readers fascinated by histories of Renaissance Italy--such as Brunelleschi's Dome or Galileo's Daughter, and Martines's acclaimed April Blood--Fire in the City offers a vivid portrait of one of the most memorable characters from that dazzling era.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
A fine "life and times" September 26, 2008
Anson Cassel Mills (Lake Santeetlah, NC)
Martines has provided the general reader with a fine life and times of the charismatic, fifteenth-century friar who turned the city of Florence upside down with his fearless preaching. As the author well notes in the introductory pages, he could not write a true biography of Savonarola because we know so little about his private life. In fact, we know little more about his public life before he became a controversial public figure. Martines wisely emphasizes the years between 1494 to 1498, "when Savonarola's life and the history of Florence were so joined together that it is impossible to pull them apart." br / br /As an authority on Renaissance Italy, Martines is exceptionally persuasive about the Florentine context. Nevertheless, freely admitting his "rationalism," Martines is less concerned with investigating Savonarola's religious beliefs or examining how far the friar moved toward doctrinal heresy before his execution. The reader may also sense that some material is repetitious, that the number of named Florentines is overwhelming, and that (especially in the middle chapters) the author might have stepped up the pace of the narrative. br /
 Hard for the general reader August 26, 2008
Loves the View (Hawaii)
br /Murder of a Medici Princess piqued my interest in Renaissance Italy. I selected this book because the jacket of this book says it "reads like a novel"... but it didn't. It's a tough read. If you don't have any background in this era, I recommend trying something else. The author says the book is for the general public. He also says it is not a biography, but a rendering of Florence at the time through the impact of Savonarola. br / br /I'm a general reader, I had 3 main problems in reading this book: 1) the text goes back and forth in time, 2) the absence of verbal links that could provide clarity and 3) some of the major players and events are cameos. br / br /As example of a layman's problem, on p. 80 the discussion "six bean" rule danced around the idea that a bean was a vote. Maybe the meaning of "vote" should have been obvious (it is clearly stated about 100 pages ahead) but with all the text devoted to "bean" on p. 80, I thought I was missing something bigger. br / br /Another example is that after two pages describing the pageantry and "sweet signing" of Charles VIII's entry into Florence, we learn that the residents were only "grinning and bearing it" because they were "on the brink of cataclysm". Then we learn that 2 days before (the sequence problem), 500 people met and the dominant theme was the hatred for Pietro Medici (not about the entry of Charles). When you don't have a background here, the meeting, the festivities and the "cataclysm" are hard to reconcile. You go back to reread it, but the link isn't there. Many pages later, even after reading of Charles as a liberator (which doesn't reconcile with "grin and bear") and then Savonarola as a saving the city from the French army (which doesn't reconcile with liberator), you see what might have been meant by cataclysm. br / br /I felt there was a lot more to tell. Since this is the story of Florence, and not a biography of Savonarola, some major players should not be reduced to cameos. For instance, what became of Charles VIII? The author says that the ill feeling towards Florence throughout Italy stems from their embrace of him... but he basically disappears from the text. The Medici's are frequently cited when a string is pulled, they are obviously major players, but where are they? How are they holding on to their fortune and influencing events? What of Savonarola's youth group? (It sounds like Mao's cultural revolution.) How did this large group meet? Did they convince people to surrender their "vanities" or did they take them? br / br /The author is obviously knowledgeable and has assembled a lot of information. I recommend this book for those who know something about the period, but not the "general reader". br /
Excellent at what it sets out to do April 23, 2008
southwest reader (Oklahoma)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a book about the politics of Renaissance Florence, not a book about religion or theology. The title tells you that, and that's what Martines delivers. Martines makes it plain that he is not interested in Savonarola's theology or in religion generally, except as far as it affects politics. It is a book that will help you understand Florence. br / br /The book is thoroughly researched using documents in the original languages and is well written. br / br /For those readers who want to study the religious aspects of Savonarola's thought and life I recommnend the collection of Savonarola's sermons and other documents also available here on Amazon by putting his name in as a search term. br / br /Some of the reviews here seem to criticize Martines for not writing the book about Savonarola that they wanted to read. br / br /For example, there is a controversy among Italian historians about whether Savonarola was a proto-Protestant, a forerunner of Martin Luther. That is the kind of question that does not interest Martines and that's fine. It's his book, and well worth reading.
Fire in the City September 8, 2007
Kenneth J. Macari (Edison NJ)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Overall good br /I was hoping that there would be more on the content of the sermons of Savonarola
 Savonarola and Florence emerge into the light! January 8, 2007
Wayne Dawson (Melbourne, Australia)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
Fire in the City is another revealed hornet's nest from Martines that picks up the thread where his previous book April Blood left off. As the title suggests, this is not an exclusive biography on Savonarola, the author casts his net wider than that detailing, in a very readable fashion, the political and social settings that were bound in with Savonarola's actions. br / br /With Lorenzo's death, Florence is at the mercy of his vain and incompetent son, Piero de Medici, whose diplomatic bungling with the invading King of France, Charles the VIII, gets him run out of town by the citizens of Florence, creating political alternatives to Medici rule. Into this anxious period of uncertainty, the searing personality of the reforming Dominican Friar, Savonarola, is catapulted. br / br /Martines shows how Savonarola's political instinct was very much in line with the Christian ethos he espoused from the pulpit, preferring a broader based franchise through the Great Council, sustained by a Republic, instead of oligarchic rule by an elite. Salvation meant not just the deliverance by redemption from the power of sin, but also preservation from tyrannical harm. Yet Savonarola's motives were not as subversive or ego driven ('vainglorious') as his inquisitors and future Medici regimes led history to believe. br / br /Martines also shows how Savonarola's prophecies, another contentious quality to his personality used against him by his enemies in Rome and elsewhere, were not far off the mark. The sack of Rome by Christian mercenaries in 1527, twenty-nine years after Savonarola's execution, seemed to vindicate much of Savonarola's visionary utterances. Was that, indeed, the scourge against the Church he claimed Charles the VIII capable of a generation earlier? br / br /Emphasising the importance of this little Dominican Friar from Ferrara who was prepared to take on Pope Alexander VI over issues of simony and moral corruption, reminds us just how much of a precursor he was to Martin Luther. His insistence on a reformed Church was not merely rhetorical either, his own example proved otherwise. br / br /No doubt Savonarola was a force to behold with his lightning bolts of apocalyptic doom. He profoundly affected Michelangelo and Botticelli who heard him speak, but Martines has stained orthodox whitewash with the blood of historical realism, showing us that Savonarola was more vital and complex and his contribution more positive, than that of just a preaching terrorist who infuriated Rome and encouraged the `bonfire of the vanities'. br / br /After reading April Blood and Fire in the City, the enigma of Florence is much better understood. We patiently wait for his next publication, to read again where it will lead. br / br / br / br / br /
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