A gripping story of ancient wisdom, new technology and 'the king of the world's booksellers', set in Renaissance Florence
Ross King is a renowned expert in the Italian Renaissance. He is the author of numerous bestselling and acclaimed books include Brunelleschi's Dome, Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, Leonardo and the Last Supper and Mad Enchantment- Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies. His love of Renaissance Florence, which he has been studying, writing and lecturing about for over twenty years, made Vespasiano's long-forgotten story - never written about before - an irresistible next subject. He lives just outside Oxford.
If you want to celebrate the place that bookmaking and
bookselling still have in our lives . . . immerse yourself in Ross
King's rich history of Vespasiano da Bisticci, "the king of the
world's booksellers," in 15th-century Florence . . . wonderful
-- Simon Schama * New York Times *
A spectacular life of the book trade's Renaissance man . . .
King's supreme ability is to imagine himself into the past . . .
The scope of his knowledge is staggering -- John Carey * Sunday
Times *
Excellent . . . a fascinating read . . . Though ostensibly a
biography of Vespasiano, he is less the book's subject than its
method: a window on to the intellectual, political and
technological developments of a time in radical ferment. It is
an astute choice by King, just as King - entertaining, witty and
expert - is a fortunate fate for Vespasiano -- Tim Smith-Laing
* Daily Telegraph *
A brilliant narrative that seamlessly weaves together
intellectual debate, technological exploration and the excitement
of new ways of thinking about ethics, politics and human
capability as they evolved in one of the liveliest cultural
environments in European history. It conveys a rare sense of
immersion in the daily sights and sounds (and even smells) of
fifteenth-century Italy -- Rowan Williams
A marvel of storytelling and a master class in the history of
the book. The Bookseller of Florence is a dazzling,
instructive and highly entertaining book, worthy of the great
bookseller it celebrates -- Ernest Hilbert * Wall Street
Journal *
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