This was a good read for information about the Medici family and Savonarola in Florence. Savonarola comes across as a more sympathetic character than I had expected. ( )

This is an historical account about the complicated times during the Renaissance when two main opposing forces were seeking to win the hearts and minds (and souls) of the influential citizens of Florence.

15th century Italy consisted of many separate city-states, which were usually warring with one another. Florence, though, was thriving; it was the center of the Italian Renaissance in art, producing notables like Michelangelo and Botticelli. It was also a great financial center, dominated by the Medici family banks. But Florence, like the rest of Italy, suffered from the rampant corruption of the Catholic Church, and in particular, the ruling Borgia family. The times were ripe for religious reform, which would have profound social and political consequences as well as religious ones.

Giralamo Savonarola was born and grew up in the town of Ferrara. He was moved by the worldliness and “sinfulness” of his fellow Italians to take Holy Orders with the Dominicans, in his words, “because of the blind wickedness of the people of Italy.” He moved to Florence in 1482, where he entered the monastery of San Marco. There Savonarola was scandalized by the secular pursuits of Florence's Dominicans, who accumulated comforts in the service of Lorenzo (“The Magnificent) de’ Medici, the wily ruler of Renaissance Florence.

Savonarola was a vociferous opponent of sin, which in his view included “anything that brought pleasure.” This did not, however, in his mind, include academic pursuits; in fact, Savonarola was quite an intellectual and scholar, even becoming friends with the freethinker and polymath humanist Pico della Mirandola. Together, they explored theological knowledge and unorthodox philosophy such as the Kabbala. Nevertheless, Savonarola remained strictly orthodox in his beliefs.

Savonarola was a fiery preacher. He sought not to enlighten or reassure in his sermons; he wanted to put the fear of God in his listeners. He was convinced he was a prophet, inspired by God. In his sermons, he often blamed Lorenzo for the evils of secular Florence.

In 1491, Savonarola was elected Prior of the monastery of San Marco. A year later he ministered to Lorenzo on his death bed, at which time he promised to refrain from preaching against Piero, Lorenzo’s son. But Savonarola was such an inspiring and dynamic speaker that he became a political power himself nonetheless. Strathan says his sermons brought people into “mass hysteria.”

The labyrinthine politics of Italy became even more complicated when Charles VIII of France invaded in 1494. Savonarola predicted apocalyptic doom, characterizing Charles as the “scourge of God.” When the French army approached Florence, Savonarola went out to meet Charles, and successfully persuaded him not to sack Florence, an act which served to enhance his prestige and political power.

Savonarola kept expanding upon his ministry. He claimed to have visited the Virgin Mary in paradise. He alienated many Florentines by advocating the death penalty for sodomy, which was widely practiced in Florence on both men and women because (1) women were supposed to be virgins when they married so they were unavailable, and (2) married men could still have sex with their wives in this way without a ruinous number of children resulting from their actions. But according to Strathern, most citizens approved of Savonarola’s repressive policies by and large, aside from the sodomy restrictions. In 1497 during Carnival time (the run-up to Lent), “Savonarola’s boys” (culled from catechism classes of San Marco) went around Florence collecting items associated with dissipation - called “vanities” - such as packs of cards, dice, jewelry, and books by poets, and made a huge bonfire. This “Bonfire of the Vanities” rose to sixty feet, with a circumference at its base of 240 feet. At its peak, an image of the Devil was placed, and while it burned, Savonarola’s boys, dressed in white, sang hymns.

Eventually, Savonarola went too far. His downfall came improbably, though, after a Franciscan monk challenged him to an ordeal by fire. This sort of thing no longer had much credence in a sophisticated city like Florence, but through a comedy of errors, the governing body of Florence decided it should go ahead, with two Franciscans going against two Dominicans. A thunderstorm interrupted the proceedings. Savonarola was blamed by the assembled mob for not performing a miracle, and was accused of being a charlatan.

The mob then stormed Savonarola’s monastery and took him prisoner. With help of emissaries of the Pope, he was tortured for claiming that he was a prophet and had spoken with God. He resisted the torture manfully, but ultimately he broke down and made admissions that could be interpreted as heresy. His punishment was to be burned at the stake.

Discussion: Savonarola never tried to found a new sect - he attempted to reform the Church from within. [Two decades later, the Church was still subject to the same criticisms of corruption and worldliness, leading Martin Luther to reject the entire structure and start a new religion.]

The author seems very sympathetic to Savonarola, possibly because of his courage in the face of torture. Although I have little sympathy for the Borgias, I can’t help feeling that Savonarola would not have been a pleasant ruler. Fire and brimstone preachers are not necessarily an improvement over venal popes.

Evaluation: Strathan has done a remarkable job of relating the sinuous twists and turns of Renaissance Italian politics. Without that detail, it would be hard to comprehend the events described. Nonetheless, this book is not a “page turner,” and I found myself drifting off as I read about the intricacies of various great families’ internecine feuds. While the book contains very helpful maps and illustrations, one can see by the length of the "Leading Dramatis Personae and Main Factions" preceding the book that the history of these times is quite convoluted.

(JAB) ( )

This is a reasonable airplane history, but the book's virtues come mostly from its subject matter: it's hard to lack narrative oomph when your subjects are the rise and fall of the Medici and the rise and fall of Savonarola. If the little friar wasn't so vilified in the English speaking world, I imagine there'd be two or three Hollywood extravaganzas about him already.

That said, there are some things an author can control, and Strathern does not control them. The prose is reasonably easy to read, but that doesn't mean it's 'crisp' or 'skillful' or has 'verve.' His editor should probably be fired, or perhaps just lose a paycheck for each time Strathern uses the word 'indicatively' before not explaining what, precisely, the following clauses are meant to indicate ("Hardly consoling words for the brother of a man under sentence of death, and indicatively offering no hope of reprieve." What?). Such ticks aside, Strathern favors cliche, bombast, the popular historian's tropes of 'x must have done y' and 'x certainly would have felt z'. He relishes (a very Strathernian word) unnecessary detail: it's never enough to know that someone walked from point a to point b; we must also know how the cobblestones 'must have' felt beneath his feet.

But the real problems come with Strathern's attitude towards history. He seems to have decided that this story is about a reactionary, foolish priest and a glorious if slightly sinister modernising family who loves Science and Art and all that good stuff. Even as he's writing that Savonarola is the most intelligent man in Florence, more or less a Republican and almost irritatingly moral, the book remains a story about The Clash of Modernity and the Medieval Mind. The story is interesting because many of the most important features of 'modern' life are prefigured in the friar rather than the Medici (democracy, equality, some legal restraints on the powerful). Sure, he was homophobic, but I imagine most of the Medici were as well.

Why does the book insist on this Clash Of Titans narrative? Because Strathern thinks history proceeds by dates. In roughly 1500, the Renaissance won, and thereafter everything was science, secular and sexy. Before that we're in the Dark. If the lines are that bright, the only way to tell the story is a clash of good and bad forces. Am I being hyperbolic? Consider what he says about the first English edition of Savonarola's 'Exposition,' which came out in 1543. As he points out, this was 12 years after England had separated from Rome. What does that indicate? It is "further [this is actually the first mention of this fact] indication, if such was needed [this phrase is never explained], of the regard in which this work came to be held by all Christians." The argument assumes that there were no 'Catholics' in England as of 1531; if there were, this publication would not 'indicate' that Savonarola's work was held in regard by Protestants. In other words, Strathern believes that, as of 1531, *no English stuck with Rome*... because 'England' now had its own church. Okay then.

This is one of many, many examples. If you know anything about history, you'll find this book fun and incredibly infuriating. If you know little about history (e.g., you believe that the middle ages were all about Keeping Science Down and the Renaissance was when people got things right again*), you won't be able to spot the falsehoods.

Not a bad way of killing five hours on a plane. A very bad way of learning.


* One final example: Strathern appears to believe that alchemy was a peculiarly medieval pursuit that *died out* during the Renaissance. Historians of Science, readers of Ben Jonson, et al., you have been told. ( )

While this is non-fiction in many ways it reads like a novel. It brings to life the fascinating character of Savonarola and the final few chapters had me completely hooked in wanting to learn about his ultimate fate. I have come away from it with a deeper admiration for him as a man, flawed as he was, and also a better understanding of a significant time in the development of Florence as a world cultural centre. Paul Strathern's words bring to life the stones of the city. ( )

Brilliant from the first page to the last. An eminently readable, thoroughly informative and utterly captivating account of the story of Savonarola, the Medici and Florence. ( )