Books

The Medici

Paul Strathern tells the story of the rise and fall of renaissance Italy’s greatest banking dynasty. 

I’d enjoyed Venice so much that I decided to pick another history book from @july’s list. It was even better. 

There’s enough human drama and intrigue to rival Game of Thrones. The cast of characters is populated with demigods like Michelangelo, DaVinci, Galileo, and Machiavelli. 

And all throughout, you get a behind the scenes look at the Medicis pulling the strings. They were partly a product of the renaissance, but they were a core driver of its genesis as well. 

You come to admire or at least respect the Medici so much over the first two acts that the decadence and decline in the third act is genuinely poignant. You feel a rewarding kind of self righteous disgust to see such a legacy squandered.

It’s a great story. It’s also a handbook on the things to do and not to do if you earnestly want to touch the lives of descendants you will never live to meet. 

Five stars, must read.

First of great book. Thanks for mentioning this @7858.eth

One of the things that was striking to me about this book (that I didn't realize before I read it) is how much suffering Cosimo really spent most of his life to just get the family off the ground. 

Florentine politics, coming close to death in prison, exile, imprisonment. Really reminds me of Shoe Dog in a way. You're reading the story and going -- wait, we're almost done with the book -- when is the good part going to start? What happened, he's literally just suffering 90% of the time. This is brutal.

creating and destroying; flying cars, roc.camera, july.rocks /july /faust

Great book, insightful look at Cosimo's struggles