Sir John Hale was, until his death, a Fellow of the British Academy and Emeritus Professor of Italian History at University College, London. He is the author of many books, including England and the Italian Renaissance, Italian Renaissance Painting, Renaissance Europe 1480-1520, Florence and the Medici: the Pattern of Control and A Concise Encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance.

‘This magnificent book is the product of a lifetime’s scholarship by someone with a quite irrepressible curiosity and prodigious breadth of reading…together with the enviable gift of writing clearly and beautifully.’ TLS‘This study deserves to stand alongside Braudel’s classic account of the Mediterranean in the time of Philip II. Hale is as generous as he is knowledgeable; his life’s work has culminated in a meticulous masterpiece.’ Frederic Raphael, Sunday Times‘John Hale has produced a vast and enthralling mosaic. Only someone who had devoted a lifetime to studying history, literature and the art of the 15th- and 16th-century could draw so effortlessly on what seems a limitless range of texts and illustrations…His curiosity never fails, his learning constantly surprises, and the wit and energy of his style never flags…Extraordinary.’ Anthony Grafton, LRB

Sir John Hale was, until his death, a Fellow of the British Academy and Emeritus Professor of Italian History at University College, London. He is the author of many books, including England and the Italian Renaissance, Italian Renaissance Painting, Renaissance Europe 1480-1520, Florence and the Medici: the Pattern of Control and A Concise Encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance.

‘This magnificent book is the product of a lifetime’s scholarship by someone with a quite irrepressible curiosity and prodigious breadth of reading…together with the enviable gift of writing clearly and beautifully.’ TLS‘This study deserves to stand alongside Braudel’s classic account of the Mediterranean in the time of Philip II. Hale is as generous as he is knowledgeable; his life’s work has culminated in a meticulous masterpiece.’ Frederic Raphael, Sunday Times‘John Hale has produced a vast and enthralling mosaic. Only someone who had devoted a lifetime to studying history, literature and the art of the 15th- and 16th-century could draw so effortlessly on what seems a limitless range of texts and illustrations…His curiosity never fails, his learning constantly surprises, and the wit and energy of his style never flags…Extraordinary.’ Anthony Grafton, LRB

Sir John Hale was, until his death, a Fellow of the British Academy and Emeritus Professor of Italian History at University College, London. He is the author of many books, including England and the Italian Renaissance, Italian Renaissance Painting, Renaissance Europe 1480-1520, Florence and the Medici: the Pattern of Control and A Concise Encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance.

‘This magnificent book is the product of a lifetime’s scholarship by someone with a quite irrepressible curiosity and prodigious breadth of reading…together with the enviable gift of writing clearly and beautifully.’ TLS‘This study deserves to stand alongside Braudel’s classic account of the Mediterranean in the time of Philip II. Hale is as generous as he is knowledgeable; his life’s work has culminated in a meticulous masterpiece.’ Frederic Raphael, Sunday Times‘John Hale has produced a vast and enthralling mosaic. Only someone who had devoted a lifetime to studying history, literature and the art of the 15th- and 16th-century could draw so effortlessly on what seems a limitless range of texts and illustrations…His curiosity never fails, his learning constantly surprises, and the wit and energy of his style never flags…Extraordinary.’ Anthony Grafton, LRB