Italy Books

In his will, the medieval Tuscan merchant Francesco di Marco Datini ordered that all his account books and correspondence be gathered together and stored for posterity. These archives were lost soon after Datini died in 1410, but found again, remarkably intact, in 1870. These archives, constituting nearly 140,000 letters to and from Datini and 503 files of business documents, constitute the most complete record of medieval Italian life ever found. Iris Origo mined this treasure trove for all it was worth in "The Merchant of Prato," creating a fascinatingly detailed portrait of how people lived, what they ate, and what they thought in late-14th-century Tuscany. Because Datini was a merchant, his ledgers provide an intimate account of what goods were available to affluent Italians of his time, and in what quantity. Even more fascinating than the details of family life are Origo's reconstruction of the lives and personalities of her three central characters: Datini himself, his young wife Margherita, and his best friend Ser Lapo Mazzei. "Certainly he was a difficult man, either to serve or love," Origo says of Datini, and indeed it is a difficult character Datini presents to us through his letters: grasping, imperious, sharp-tongued, morbidly suspicious--in short a model of a self-made tycoon in any age. But a better side of Datini is shown in his correspondence with the spirited, outspoken Margherita--who could give as good as she got--and with the kindly, philosophical Lapo Mazzei. Mazzei--who founded a winemaking dynasty that continues to this day, and whose distant descendant Filippo Mazzei was a close friend of Thomas Jefferson--was constantly reminding Datini of his duties as a Christian, and at length succeeded in persuading him to leave the bulk of his vast fortune to the poor. The foundation for the poor created by Datini's will continues in Prato to this day. Origo recreates Datini and Mazzei as characters of Dickensian richness, with Mazzei--if you will--playing the Ghost of Christmas Present to Datini's Scrooge. This book is a masterpiece, and how it could be allowed to fall out of print is a mystery to me. It should be reprinted in a new edition as soon as possible.

Fransesco di Marco Datini left 150.000 letter detailing every aspect of his personal and business life. Every aspect of life of a successful merchant in Prato, Italy and Avignon, France is clearly detailed. Iris Origo is must reading for history lovers, specially those interested in the Renaissance in Northern Italy.

The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare, is a play that many readers will enjoy. Although this play may seem lighthearted, it addresses important themes and reflects societal views. The theme of appearances versus reality is depicted through the gold, sliver, and lead caskets that Portia's suitors pick from, illustrating the cliché that "all that glitters is not gold". This theme is revisited when Portia dresses as a man and cleverly solves the conflict between Bassanio, Antonio, and Shylock. Shakespeare also addresses the anti-Semitic views of the Elizabethan society though the antagonistic interaction between Antonio and Shylock. At the conclusion of the play, all the conflicts are happily resolved: Bassanio and Portia are reunited and Shylock converts to Christianity. The audience leaves the play with that warm and happy feeling. I would highly recommend this play.

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE is a perfect play, a romantic comedy with a memorable tragic hero and a fairy tale element, as well. Venetian merchant Antonio and his best friend, Bassanio, find themselves in trouble with the Jewish moneylender Shylock over a sizeable unpaid debt. Bassanio had borrowed the money on his friend's credit, and Antonio had been confident that he would be able to repay Shylock. But when Antonio's ships miscarry at sea, and when Shylock's daughter, Jessica, elopes with Lorenzo, a Christian, taking much of her father's gold with her, the moneylender vows revenge: he will insist on his right to extract, in court, "a pound of flesh" from Antonio. Bassanio had used the money to woo Portia, a witty and beautiful lady who lives in idyllic Belmont and who must, according to her late father's wishes, marry whichever suitor chooses the one casket out of three that contains her portrait. One of the caskets is made of gold, another of silver, and the third of lead. Bassanio's realization that the leaden casket is the one with Portia's picture in it proves the old maxim that appearances are deceiving and that "[a]ll that glisters is not gold." In the end, it is Portia who saves the day by impersonating a lawyer in court and using the letter of the law itself to defeat Shylock and save Antonio's life.
Considering the general anti-Semitism of his era, Shakespeare gives Shylock marvelous depth that itself repudiates any charge of anti-Semitism on his part. Shylock's greatest moment is, of course, his speech beginning "Hath not a Jew eyes?" and continuing, "If you prick us, do we not bleed?...If you poison us, do we not die?" Furthermore, Shakespeare makes it clear that the Christians in the play - even including the honorable Antonio and the likeable Bassanio - have publicly insulted Shylock by spitting on him and calling him a "dog." As a consequence, we understand Shylock's hatred of Christians and sympathize with him, even as he mercilessly prepares to take Antonio's life. Only Shakespeare could have so successfully placed such a complex tragic figure at the center of a comedy.

This map is very detailed and helpful.

We have carried this book with us for 3 trips to Italy ('98, 99 and 00). It has been absolutely invaluable! We frequently prefer to use smaller, country roads away from the autostrada. Sure, we've gotten lost, but we were always able to find our way back, thanks to this book. Definitely worth its weight in gold (and definitely worth the weight in the luggage). Also a great tool for pre-trip planning. Guess we will buy a new edition this year for our 2001 trip. We did find a few new roads and extensions not in our "old" '98 version.

The Red Guide to Italy is the most comprehensive hotel&restaurant guide to Italy I have the pleasure of reading. The format is easy to understand and follow. However, for those who are less knowledgeable in the Romantic languages, I would strongly urge Michelin publish an english version.

If you are not familiar with Red Guides, they provide no textual comments. Instead, cities and towns are listed alphabetically, with hotel and restaurant listings rated on a scale of 1 to 4. For each listing, symbols and numbers are used to indicate features such as credit cards accepted, number of rooms, min/max price for a double room, etc. Places that are deemed particularly desirable are marked in red or with a special symbol indicating a peaceful setting; in my experience, these establishments are uniformly outstanding and worth seeking out. Detailed and accurate city plans are provided for cities of sufficient size.

If you are sticking to major cities or just one region, then this guide is not really necessary. If, however, you plan to explore less touristed areas and/or multiple regions, then this guide will provide abundant and reliable hotel and restaurant listings. On a recent trip to Italy, I stayed in 6 hotels listed in this book and was pleased with all of them. I also ate in 7 listed restaurants, each providing a memorable experience. Although this is not a budget guide, there are many moderately priced selections; I spent between $50 and $75 for single rooms and as little as $15 for a 3-course dinner with wine (although $20-25 was the typical price for restaurants with ratings of 1 or 2).

The unexpected bonus with Michelin Red Guides is the great city maps, which are particularly useful for drivers. For example, I used the town maps for San Gimingnano and Volterra to locate public parking lots prior to my arrival, so that I could save time and park in the most convenient location. For driving in larger towns (which is rather stressful given their medieval layouts) it helped that one-way streets are marked with small red arrows, again allowing me to plan my route in advance.

Michelin Rome Mini-Spiral Atlas No. 2038 was my new best friend in Rome. It is a 5X8 spiral-bound book, and it has an alpha list of seemingly all streets. Each page shows a small section of the city in great detail. It doesn't however offer a city-wide view, so that's what the Insight Map or the Streetwise map can do for you.

I bought this in a bookstore in the Rome training station, and it proved a fantastic resource for navigating the streets of Rome on foot. It put the maps in my Let's Go to shame, and made walking Rome's often confusing streets much easier. It was the best street map of Rome I saw, either in Rome, or in the U.S. since. I like to walk when I travel, and I wanted to be able to walk to the Vatican, and then to the stadium for a soccer game. (The latter turned out to be overly ambitious.)

It includes a map of the metro/subway system, a region overview map, and a grid indicator map showing which page to use. The last is helpful, since this book is in the "Thomas Brothers" guidebook style, with 95 pages of detailed maps, and an approximately 150 page street name index. The maps indicate many of the major tourist sites, though not everything, and so it is probably best used in conjunction with a guidebook of some type.

The legend is in both Italian and English, and as a street map, it's pretty easy to use even if you don't speak Italian. At about 5x8", it's easy to put in a pocket or small bag for walking with, and not too obvious if you need to consult it standing on the street (which I did, regularly.)

This book focuses on Florentine fashion c1540-1580 during the period when Eleonora of Toledo was Duchess of the city. Its inspiration is obviously the iconic portrait of her and her son Giovanni painted by Bronzino in 1545.

The book is full of rare gorgeous colour illustrations on high quality art paper. It starts out with a biography of Eleonara and then discusses her style. Then the book discusses individual garments she is known to have owned and surviving examples, including an extraordinary red velvet gown in the Pisa Mueso di Plazzo Reale. The book rounds off with a list of the garments recorded in Elenora's wardrobe accounts.

This book, published in both Italian and English, should be on the shopping list for anyone interested in Renaissance costume. Its one of those books you pick up and go "wow" and it's a visual feast on the eyes that is fully illustrated in colour.

The Cultural World of Eleonora di Toledo: Duchess of Florence and Siena

Bronzino's Chapel of Eleonora in the Palazzo Vecchio (California Studies in the History of Art)

Patterns of Fashion: The Cut and Construction of Clothes for Men and Women C1560-1620

There is very little written about Florentine fashion from the 16th Century. This book fills that gap admirably. It has gorgeous color pictures, many of which are published here for the first time. With full descriptions and a glossary of terms make this the perfect book for historians and lovers of historical costume alike. The text is in English and Italian (side-by-side on the same page) so it is easy to see the Italian terms and how they translate into English.

I cannot recommend this book enough. I am delighted to see Amazon carries it!

Moon Italy is a necessary companion for the serious traveler in Italy. Alexei Cohen provides fresh and first-hand descriptions of familiar landmarks like looking over his shoulder and adds interesting and useful background information about history, politics, and local customs. His style is easy to read. A thorough index makes it easy to sort through voluminous details to find specific information. Moon Italy is a complete textbook for travelers looking for current and up-to-date information.

Informative, practical and fun to read.
I particularly like the cultural insights his book provided through the films and books selection.

I picked this book up thinking I would laugh at the ridiculous petty advice and "MTV Book" would give. WRONG. So very very wrong. Just flipping through it initially, I knew it would serve me well for my 2 months in Italy. This guidebook isn't your typical, stuffy "tourist book" (geared at senior travelers usually)....it is divided into regions and cities, and offers the usual info re: main sites, train info, general cost etc.....as well as ESSENTIAL bits for students or those trvaeling solo. Internet points (accurate, although some hours of operation were off, but it happens), laundromats, places to rent cell phones, cheap food, snack food, best places to party [if you prefer to party with your fellow Americans,,,,or, like me, if you want to avoid them!] general club rules, clothing style (up to date) etc....I also enjoyed that each section contained its own "occhio!"....which essentially is a word of warning about their own negative points/seedy sections. Each region of Italy is very different from another, and this book illustrates this VERY WELL. I would say this is a MUST WN for anyone who will be spending more than a week or 2 in Italy.

Well I should start with I haven`t used the book in Italy yet so I can`t be sure about the acuracy of the information, but I have been to Italy before so I know what to look for in a good Italy guide.

It lists a lot of the useful info like where to meet people and what clubs to go to depending on what you are looking for. I plan on visiting Museums and Churchs while in Italy but I don`t need a guide book to tell me which ones to go to. I use a book to tell me good places to eat, sleep and party and this one seems to cover the bases.

Overall worth getting

This book is very useful. Mainly I was looking for a book that contained the score of trobadours songs: I found it. Inside I found most of the songs I was looking for.

I liked very much this book because of its scholarly yet plain approach to the troubaudor's music (not trouvères). It deals with every important aspect of troubaudor music; history, biographies, sources, influence of oral tradition, philological problems (notation, rythm, textual variants, etc.), genres, musical analysis, form, theoretical writtings, performance, etc.

There should be more books like this!! Muy recomendable!!

I can only second the earlier reviewer that this book is a must for anyone interested in Italy between the wars. At times it is tedious and very slow-moving, but one garners the impression that Italy was equally slow-moving. In many ways it seems that Mussolini was gaming with his armed forces, never obtaining sufficient budgets for their development, and never seriously building the economic supports for an effective military machine nor mobilizing popular support for a military establishment. Italy remained decidedly non-martial, and Mussolini used bragging and bombast when he should have been using leadership.

The Piedmont generals also come in for substantial criticism for their incompetence and inability to forge a unity of command or consensus for action. The litany of conferences and squabbles are dreary, and no one could put aside their personal ambition or creature comforts for the good of Italy. The reader is left hoping that someone will step up to the plate, but they never do. Yes, Italy lacked natural resources, but they were obtainable in North Africa, overseas, or could be developed domestically if the will had been there. This volume shows conclusively that this will was not present anywhere -- in Mussolini or any other.

Mussolini was playing the game of being an imperialistic great power as if the date were 1880, and was out of touch with reality. Italy possessed no national will for war or the building of economic power, and would disappear from the international stage of significant nations as a result. This volume definitively shows how and why that happened.

This is an excellent account of the military situation in Italy leading up to World War II. There have been many myths about the Italian military which are laid to rest with this book. First and foremost the structure of the Italian military is analyzed in detail and the rise of the air force is clearly seen. With Italy's extensive coast and lack of natural resources the air force becomes increasingly important to defend the coast and protect shipping. While this book tracks the various approaches of the armed services and shows their incompatibility with eachother via command staffs it also shows how diplomacy and the military interacted under Mussolini.

Mussolini insisted on personally controlling almost all details of both his foreign policy and military. Each wing was under his intense scrutiny and he controlled much of what they did. Often as is proven here inexperienced and ineffective leaders prospered under this system only because they had the Duce's blessing. Men like Badoglio were able to professionalize and organize the services somewhat but it was only in as far as Mussolini would allow. Overall Italy is shown to be at a tremendous lack of resources which hinders their war effort from the start. Inability to build larger ships due to lack of metal, lack of oil and lack of livestock all weighed heavily on Italy in the prewar period. When the war starts these would become major points of failure for the country.

In all an excellent book for those who want to learn more in this growing field about fascist Italy. Highly recommend for not only the military historian and the World War II historian but those interested in how diplomacy and military interacted in Fascist Italy.