Italy Illuminated, Volume 1: Books I-IV

Edited and translated by Jeffrey A. White

Hardcover

ISBN 9780674017436

Publication date: 07/29/2005

Biondo Flavio (1392-1463), humanist and historian, was a pioneering figure in the Renaissance recovery of classical antiquity. While serving a number of the Renaissance popes, he inaugurated an extraordinary program of research into the history, institutions, cultural life, and physical remains of the ancient Roman empire. The Italia Illustrata (1453), which appears here for the first time in English, is a topographical work describing Italy region by region. Its aim is to explore the Roman roots of the Renaissance world. As such, it is the quintessential work of Renaissance antiquarianism. This is the first edition of the Latin text since 1559.

Praise

This is an extremely valuable edition and translation that serious students of the history of classical scholarship, the Renaissance, and Italian topography will want to have in their libraries...There is much to praise in this new edition and translation of an especially interesting text and invaluable work of Renaissance humanism. White states that he feels "lucky" to belong to the I Tatti series, but the series itself is fortunate to have a book of this quality within it. I look forward eagerly to the appearance of its second volume.

—Harry B. Evans, New England Classical Journal
An informative and immensely readable book.

—Anthony T. Grafton, New York Review of Books
The I Tatti edition makes the complete Italia illustrata immediately available to scholars and students in a form that not only will suit most needs but also has the advantage of replicating the text in at least one of the ways it was preserved and read through the later fifteenth century and into the next. [Jeffrey A.] White’s work is a welcome addition to an essential series.

—Oren Margolis, Bryn Mawr Classical Review