FLORENCE:
A PORTRAIT
By Michael Levey


...Do you feel thankful, ay or no,
For this fair town's face, yonder river's line,
The mountain round it and the sky above,
Much more the figures of man, woman, child,
These are the frame to? What's it all about?

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Illustrations
Foreword
Selective Chronology
Maps

Prologue: Seriously Seeking Florence
1 -- `St John's Sheep-fold': The City Emergent
2 -- Fire, Flood, Plague, War and Art: The City Renascent
3 -- The City and Its Citizens in Perspective
4 -- Public Competition among the Artists
5 -- Artists in Collaboration
6 -- `To Florence and God the wrong was done'
7 -- The Republic under First Medici Sway
8 -- Lorenzo de' Medici and `the most beautiful city'
9 -- `The Troubles of Italy'
10 -- Triumphal Entries and Fatal Exits
11 -- `A young man on a marvellous horse'
12 -- The Princely City
13 -- Putting on the Style
14 -- The Enlightened City and the New Troubles of Italy
Epilogue: Florence as Cradle and Capital

Medici Family Tree
Books for Further Reading
Index