A thrilling history of the unseen dark side of the Italian Renaissance
Catherine Fletcher is a historian of Renaissance and early modern Europe. Her previous books include The Black Prince of Florence- The Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro de' Medici and The Divorce of Henry VIII- The Untold Story. Catherine is Professor of History at Manchester Metropolitan University and broadcasts regularly for the BBC.
Terrifying and fascinating ... If you thought the Renaissance was
all about beautiful pictures and the 'rediscovery' of Classical
writing, you are quite wrong ... The Beauty and the Terror
dismantles our assumptions about the Renaissance with the precision
of a wheellock arquebus ... an ambitious, multifocal book,
encompassing more than 150 years [that] shine[s] a light on figures
often forgotten in conventional histories -- Mary Wellesley *
Sunday Times *
Impressive and lucid ... Fletcher's narration excels in such
colourful details ... a scholarly, but vivid history that shows the
impact that the machinations of the great, good and not so good had
on the insignificant ... a persuasive account of how Italy was
brought low even as the culture floated high -- Michael Prodger *
The Times *
Richly well-informed and admirably well-written, containing
material of real interest on every page ... has added a wealth of
information that will be new to most of us -- Noel Malcolm * Sunday
Telegraph *
A story of alliances, betrayals, sacks, sieges, famines,
assassinations and gruesomely ingenious tortures ... Fletcher
navigates this difficult terrain with great skill. She creates
atmosphere and drama without any surrendering of clarity... A
powerful book -- Charles Nicholl * Guardian *
Fletcher's expertise is enviable ... she knows better than anyone
else just how treacherous a time and place it was. At its best,
The Beauty and the Terror is as enlightening as you might
hope: a chapter tracing early modern ambivalence about the rise of
handguns ... is exactly the alternative history you might wish for,
as are the sections on slavery, sexual mores and pornography -- Tim
Smith-Laing * Daily Telegraph *
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