Italy Books

I have given a five-star rating, but I have to be honest... I haven't yet seen this particular work of Professor Armi's. I have just ordered the book today. Dr. Armi was one of my art history professors in the graduate program at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is an excellent scholar with a keen insight into Medieval architecture. His critical methodology opened my eyes to the way that the architecture of this period should be viewed. I have read other writing by him on the first Romanesque styles and the merging of Northern and Southern First Romanesque to create Burgundian Romanesque. I look forward to receiving this book. I have no doubt that it will live up to (and surpass) the five-star rating. My best wishes and sincere thanks to Dr. Armi.

I have not only used the book, but experienced Dr. Armi in his element at the University of California Santa Barbara. His enthusiasm, knowledge, and insight to the history, design, and construction of Romanesque buildings is truly special. This book reveals the significance and depth of the First Romanesque period in a comprehensive physical, religious, and cultural context.

Not many of the bigwigs of the `30s and `40s left diaries, but Count Galeazzo Ciano did. Historians have long used it for glimpses into the Nazis behavior, but as a loser in a losing country, Ciano's diaries have not been read for insight into Ciano. At least, not in English.

A full and reasonably accurate, though only skimpily annotated, edition, this one, was not issued even in Italy until 1980, and not translated into English until 2002.

Although Ciano wrote only a political diary, and even then asserted that it was only notes jotted during busy days as foreign minister, what he left is nevertheless revealing of more than names and dates .

The one word historians use most often about Mussolini, Ciano's father-in-law, and the other leading Fascists is probably strutting. They are well justified in doing so.

Strutting, posing, hollow men all.

There was a great deal of blather in the `20s and `30s about Fascism as an ideology, its "corporatist" way supposedly offering a better system than parliamentary democracy, which was, in truth, in disrepute for excellent reasons. Ciano makes it clear, partly by omission, that nobody believed less in Fascism than the leading Fascists.

They were nothing but gangsters, a sort of super Mafia who had come into control of a state. Not unlike Baathists in Iraq and Syria.

Mussolini, who occasionally advised Ciano to insert one or other of his remarks into the diary, often told Ciano that at some point in the future he would put this or that aspect of Fascism into practice: deposing the monarchy, exterminating the weak (meaning, usually, the southern Italians) etc. Obviously, if Fascism was meant to be a superior form of political organization, its policies should have been imposed from the start.

Renzo De Felice, an Italian historian who wrote a preface to this edition, comments that Ciano himself was never a convinced Fascist, but he misses the point. Nobody was.

There is almost nothing attractive about Ciano's personality, as it comes through in the diary. Unlike almost all the other Fascists, when it came to war, Ciano at least went to the front. There he apparently actually faced real danger, but unfortunately his position, bomber leader, was despicable. Unlike Mussolini's son Vittorio, who exulted in dropping bombs on pitiful Abyssinian peasants, Ciano didn't brag, but he was a terror bomber, admitted it and advocated more of it.

"Fisking" the diaries would be an amusing task for someone with time on his hands. Ciano was not embarrassed to write an entry contradicting what he had entered a few weeks or months before. Perhaps he was so much of an opportunist that he didn't realize what a weathercock he was.

At any rate, there may have been politicians who had less moral sense, but there have been few who were so upfront about it. More than once, Ciano excoriates the Germans (especially Ribbentrop) for their warlike foolishness, and then in the same entry starts calculating how Italy can avoid being left "uncompensated" after the latest German adventure plays out.


As the Allied armies closed in on Sicily -- something not mentioned in the diary -- Ciano lost his job, which he said did not bother him. That was in early 1943. Later, he was arrested, and late in the year, he was shot.

In an envoi just before his trial, which he knew would be a sham, he wrote several unapologetic pages hoping that his children would read his diary. They almost didn't. Only bravery on the part of his widow saved these pages. From almost anybody else, the last pages to his children and his countrymen, written without flinching in the face of a shameful death, might have attained a degree of pathos, even nobility.

It's not clear, though, that Ciano ever attained any degree of self-consciousness that would allow us to grant him that much.

(A book like this does not lend itself to Amazon's star rating system. I would have preferred to have left it "unrated," but the computer won't allow it.)

It is difficult to overstate the significance of Ciano's diary for the serious student of the period. Here are the musings of a man that started out as a willing and able Fascist, one who perpetrated crimes against humanity. His instigation of the Albanian affair, his strong push for the invasion of Greece, and support for Franco are well known examples of his dark and sinister machinations. Particularly throughout 1939 and early 1940, however, the diary reveals that his world view was slowly altered. Ciano's comments and observations about Hitler, Goering, von Ribbentrop and other key Nazi leaders are penetrating in their clarity. Ciano did everything he could to keep Italy out of the war. The fact that Mussolini allowed himself to be persuaded to do so until the collapse of France are telling indications that Ciano was effective. The diary entries reveal a man who was not particularly analytical, but relied on a penetrating intuition and a sharp intelligence. He was a keen judge of character. It is probable that Ciano had very little time to sanitize the diary given the time between his downfall and his execution. The diaries were smuggled out of Italy by his wife (Mussolini's daughter Edda)for the express purpose of getting them to the Allies for publication to damage the Nazi leadership. This is no carefully crafted tale written by the author for the exoneration of past sins. Rather these are the writings of a man in the heat of the moment who was at a crucial place in history. Anyone who reads this diary will be impressed by the lack of moral judgement, by the cynicism, and by the sheer monstrosity of the leaders who made the decisions that resulted in upwards of 60-million deaths. Ciano was a key player in this group and his thoughts reflect his environment. They reflect men (Ciano included) who were self-serving, always looking for the main chance, power hungry, and totally unconcerned with the consequences to others. Here is a glimpse of the quintessential Axis politician. The one thing the diary is not is an outpouring of the true inner feelings of the author. Instead this diary is a straight-forward, running political analysis of the issues and impressions of the most able diplomat functioning within the Axis hierarchy during the years 1937-1942. To be sure it is self-serving, but for all that Ciano's diary is generally authentic and remarkably candid. Ciano's accounting quite simply rings true. One aspect of this diary that is most interesting is that Ciano disclosed to Mussolini that he was keeping it, and Mussolini condoned his doing so. By all accounts when Hitler learned of it, he wanted Ciano's diary found and destroyed. Hitler's henchmen went to great lengths in their attempts to carry out his wishes. Anything that Hitler felt as strongly about as Ciano's diary is worthy of investigation. This book is highly recommended.

I am glad that I had read and re-read Titus Livy before reading this book. Doing so is not an absolute necessity, but I think it helps.

This fantastic book reveals how the governments of ancient Rome, renaissance Florence, and, if you will, modern America are confronted with nearly identical problems, and it is also made clear that nobody has worked out solutionw much superior to those embrassed by the leaders of Republican Rome. We would all be better off if our leaders could be required to read this book.

In THE PRINCE the author provides a renaissance monarch a survival kit for coping with the problems he would likely face. In the DISCOURSES we are treated to a much broader analysis of a better and more viable system of government which is amazingly similar to what the Founding Fathers of the United States tried to achieve. Alas, as with the Roman Republic, ours has, because of its current massiveness and complexity, appeared to have lost sight of what once made it great.

Niccolo Machiavelli, (1469-1527), writes the greatest treatise on keeping a republic vibrant by comparing Rome to republican Venice. Machiavelli has gained an unwarranted notorious reputation for his "evil" treatise on political thinking and acting through his authorship of "The Prince". "The Prince" received more notoriety than his politically erudite work "Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy" in which Machiavelli espouses his belief that the Roman Republic was the best and most virtuous form of government to emulate. His breadth and understanding of Roman history is remarkable. Machiavelli's love of his country Florence, and the proud political work as a minor government administrator and ambassador Machiavelli performed during its years as a republic show through in this work. It was on his many ambassadorial trips to the French, Papal, and Italian courts that he learned to observe political leaders and their governmental institutions which formed the basis of his political theories in his many writings. My favorite quote from Machiavelli is; "It's better to act and repent then not to act and regret".

Modern philosophers starting with Machiavelli reject the classical view of politics as undemocratic and elitist. Only wealthy men of leisure would have time to develop the virtues and character necessary to rule. Machiavelli believed that man by nature was selfish and driven by ambition. Machiavelli is not interested in character formation and moral appeal but in building the right kind of institutions to govern society. Laws and justice would protect men from power hungry rulers. Modern philosophy is an out growth of the revolution that takes place in the natural sciences during the Enlightenment. The purpose of science is the conquest of nature man is in control of human life. Philosophers from Machiavelli on become sectarian. "Everything good is due to man's labor rather than to nature's gift."

As a retired Army officer and student of political philosophy, I found this to be an indispensable book to continue one's journey into political philosophy and history of Europe.

I really enjoyed this very good entry-level treatise on L.d.V. In my opinion the emphasis is correctly placed and pictures of great quality (although some are small in size) help the reader grasp the essence of Leonardo's spirit and become familiar with the best-known parts of his work.

This small, well organized, and beautifully illustrated book is an unexpectedly thorough and complete reference on the life of Leonardo da Vinci, from his birth in Italy to his death in France.
Chronologically organized and succinctly written, but without being a mere biography, this book presents a well-researched portrait of one of the greatest geniuses of the Renaissance. Often citing historical sources and quoting entries from the artist's own notebooks, the author presents an insightful account of Leonardo's views, research and achievements in both art and science, as well as many firmly accepted anecdotes and little-known facts about his character and personal life.
For those interested in a deeper treatment of the subject, the choice bibliographic reference titled Further Reading, located at the back of the book, will be of particular value.
--Reviewed by Maritza Volmar

Very prompt delivery and excellent condition. Thanks. This provided a great primary resource for my WW II research paper on the ideological struggle between Fascism and Communism.

Excerpt from "The Doctrine of Fascism."
"In order to understand the Fascist movement one must first apprehend the underlying phenomena in all its vastness and depth. In point of fact, Italian Fascism has not only been a political revolt against weak and incapable governments... but also a spiritual revolt against old ideas which had corrupted the sacred principles of religion, of faith, of country. Fascism, therefore, has been a revolt of the people."- Benito Mussolini

A wonderful work in all respects - scholarship, printing, presentation, photography. Some of the paintings are more like wall paper samples, the paper and printing is that good.

Another great work in the Getty catalog. A must have for any serious student of Roman Art/Architecture.

I saw a copy of Domus while in Naples and knew I would have to order a copy when I returned home. The book is beautifully produced with an excellent essay by Donatella Mazzolini on the architecture of Roman houses, focusing on those under discussion in Pompeii, Herculaneum and Rome. This is followed by an essay by Umberto Pappalando on the Domus Romana, focusing on the development of houses and gardens. As good as these essays are it is the pages dealing with the houses themselves that is jaw-dropping. The houses are arranged in sections following the development of the Roman domus and include color pictures and diagrams of the houses. There are short introductions to the homes followed by a portfolio section consisting of close up pictures of the frescos printed on non-glossy textured paper that gives a better impression of how the painting appears to the observer. These reproductions are superb.

The choice of buildings is impressive. There are far too many to list but among them are: from Pompeii the House of the Faun, the House of Julius Polybius, the Villa of Mysteries, the House of the Golden Bracelet, the House of the Tragic Poet and the House of the Labyrinth; from Herculaneum: the Samnite House, the House of the Skeleton, the House of the Grand Portal, the Collegium of the Augustales; from Rome: the House of the Griffins, Livia's House on the Palatine and at Prima Porta and the Domus Aurea. The Villa of Poppea at Oplontis gets special attention in the book, and a fresco from the house appears on the cover.

This book is a must for anyone interested in ancient Roman houses and their decoration. If you have even visited Pompeii, Herculaneum and the other villas destroyed by Mount Vesuvius you will enjoy this book.

I'm extremely impressed. I think this book would make an outstanding addition to any Renaissance-lover's, or garbaholic's, bookshelf.

It is not about how to make Italian-persona clothing. Instead, it focuses on how Florentines of the Renaissance used clothing to make social statements. Along the way, it examines some things that garbmakers would like hearing about (one table lists various color combinations found in gowns and linings), but mostly, it's about the sociology of fashion.

Chapters:

* Craftspeople and tailors (including how clothes-making guilds were organized and the role women played in these guilds)
* Tailoring Family Honor (how Florentines viewed honor and how they thought honor was expressed through clothing)
* Family Fortunes in Clothes (how much they spent, and a bit about the secondhand clothes market)
* The making of wedding gowns (you'll love learning how many opinions went into one and how totally political it all was)
* Trousseaux for Marriage and Convent (how they differed, and lists of what went into each)

And stuff about sumptuary law, information about layers of clothing, types of dyes (and an examination of mourning clothes), types of fabric, and clothes as depicted in art -- and how art might have distorted how people really wore clothes. Embroidery is also covered.

Needless to say, the painter Ghirlandaio features pretty prominently here. There are also b/w repros of portraits, unfortunately not super well detailed, but there are a few here I haven't seen before. There are also appendices that are very useful -- lists of currency and measures, categories of clothiers, yardage required for various garments, glossaries of what yardage terms meant, and a HUGE bibliography and glossary of terms.

It isn't a physically large book, clocking in at around 300pp, but it's very rich in detail, and the writing is pleasant to read. I'd definitely recommend this book to anybody wanting to immerse in the period -- and DEFINITELY for any Renaissance costumers out there. It might not be a bad idea to have some basic grounding in the period before reading this, but it's written well enough that if any is required, it isn't much.

It's surprising to note that professor Carole Collier Frick's DRESSING RENAISSANCE FLORENCE: FAMILIES, FORTUNES AND FINE CLOTHING is the first in-depth study of the Renaissance fashion industry. Here are insights into the social and political meaning of clothing in Florence, with black and white photos throughout displaying changing styles and fashion innovations, visual impressions and how family fortunes were invested in wardrobes. A fascinating college-level study, recommended for any collection strong in fashion or Renaissance history.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This is the perfect biography for anyone wanting to learn more about a great man, one of the greatest physicists. Enough of his physics were mentioned or included to make it non-trivial to me (junior astrophysics major, with Fermi distribution functions currently flying out of my ears) and yet I would have no compunctions handing this book to my little cousins in elementary school if they needed to read/write a book report on the life and accomplishments of one of the greatest and most influential scientists of our era. In fact, I would say that is the preferred audience, all physics students have heard of Fermi, but most children (and indeed, most adults) are unaware of his contributions to the way we see the world around us, and to history. All of that is here, in this biography easily accesible to anyone.

I'm the author of this book. I sought to show how physics is done and how one of the greatest scientists of our time used his fine mind and friendly yet competitive ways to succeed. I believe I've made Fermi, the man, and the physics he did accessible to a wide range of readers. Don't be put off if you found physics hard in school -- this isn't like that, and it ain't brain surgery.

Fermi was famous for being one of those very rare physicists who are good at both theory and experiment. That helped as he and his team did the neutron experiments that led to his 1938 Nobel Prize. After a dramatic escape from fascist Italy, he and his family emigrated to America. There he went on to create the first nuclear chain reaction (on December 2, 1942) and to play a major role in the development of the atom bomb. After helping to win World War II, he helped set sensible science policy and did more great physics. His name is enshrined in the element Fermium, in the Fermi National Accelerator Lab, and in some of the most impotant concepts of physics.

This book is a good way to learn about a great man and about the way the physical world works. I hope you'll enjoy it; let me know what you think of it.

This is a splendid review of nine centuries of Etruscan cultural, economic, social and artistic history. Designed for the educated nonspecialist, it has beautiful photos in both black/white and color of art works held in museums throughout the world: the most wide-ranging collection I have ever seen in one volume. The author, an expert in her field, writes clearly and well about the latest archaelogical evidence (up to the book's publication in 2000), and its relevance to our understanding of Etruscan life. Well recommended to anyone with an interest in this field.

In Etruscan Civilization: A Cultural History, noted educator and Etruscan scholar Sybille Haynes treats the reader to a comprehensive and superbly presented survey of Etruscan civilization from its origin in the Villanovan Iron Age (9th Century B.C.E.) to its absorption by Rome (1st Century B.C.E.). The thoroughly "reader friendly" text combines well-known aspects of the Etruscan world with new archaeological discoveries and insights into the role of women in Etruscan society. Etruscans are also contrasted to the Greeks (whom they often emulated) and to the Romans (who both admired and disdained them). Etruscan Civilization is a complete and compelling portrait of both a long-ago people and their antiquarian culture. Readers will enjoy Haynes' in-depth examination of how Etruscans access to mineral wealth, trade routes, and agricultural land were effected by distinct regional variations. The informative, insightful text is enhanced with profuse illustrations of ancient Etruscan art and cultural objects. Organized chronologically and thematically, interweaving archaeological evidence, a splendidly presented analysis of social structures, detailed descriptions of trade and burial customs, and an insightful examination of Etruscan pottery and art, Etruscan Civilization is a "must" for personal, professional, and academic library collections and Etruscan studies reading lists.

On of Blackwell Publishers' outstanding "The Peoples of Europe" series, Grame Barker and Tom Rasmussen's The Etruscans is a complete and superbly presented history of the Etruscan peoples, a society and culture that flourished on the Italian peninsula before the founding of Rome. The city states of the Etruscan civilization were based in west-central Italy around the area of modern Tuscany. Etruscans were sophisticated and innovative, and dominated the region from the eight century to the fourth century BC, when they were conquered and absorbed by the emergent Roman Republic. Shortly after the Roman conquest, an understanding of the Etruscan language and writings were lost and not to be recovered until the second half of the twentieth century. Very highly recommended and accessible reading, The Etruscans incorporates the findings of extensive archaeological investigations which, combined with a clearer understanding of Etruscan inscriptions, has now made possible a full and engaging overview of the Etruscan economy, society, culture, and history.

When I took a survey course on the history of Western Art, the instructor passed over the Etuscans in about 15 seconds. I belive he showed us one slide of the elaborate tomb of an Etruscan man who was reclined in death on the lid of his sarcophogus. In the instructor's mind, the Etruscans formed a brief interlude somewhere between the Greeks and the Romans.

My second encounter with the Etruscans came when I read D.H. Lawrence's book on his travels in Italy. In this book, Lawrence includes an extensive section on his visits to the Etruscan sites in Italy. Lawrence viewed the Etruscans with sympathy, and interestingly, THE ETRUSCANS takes off from Lawrence's book. Each section of this history is introduced by a passage from Lawrence who felt the Etruscans had been badly described by the Greeks and the Romans.

THE ETRUSCANS is a history book in the series on 'The Peoples of Europe' and the third in this series of synopses on various European ethnic groups that I have read. I intend to read more. I am not interested in becoming an expert on every group, but these books provide me with an overview that allows me to determine which distinct groups I might want to study futher.

Barker and Rasmussen have taken a wholistic approach in developing their text. They eschew the boundaries of traditional discplines without destroying the integrity of each of these various appoaches. They use all "sources, whether written records, inscriptions, monuments or excavated data..."

The book is laid out by topic, and the discussions in each section are drawn from the work of scientists and historians who have deciphered text (tomb inscriptions and other preserved written material including the "histories" of the Romans and the Greeks) and subtext (geological formations, pottery shards; bone fragments from slaughtered animals; flora including petrified seeds; remains of metal implements, tools, jewelry, etc.; remains of various structures including houses, boats, etc.; disturbances in the terrain resulting from the construction of canals, roads, walls, mines, farms, and necropolises).

The tale Barker and Rasmussen piece together is amazing. Scientists and historians know much more than they did about the Etruscans owing to recent advanced work involving forensics type investigation. The authors suggest much more can be known if additional steps are taken in the study of preshistoric Etruscan sites, i.e. researchers need to adapt the advanced techniques used in other places like Israel.

The Etruscans apparently weren't great artists like the Greeks but they made a number of material advances the Romans simply incorporated and claimed as their own inventions. For example, recent archeological research shows the Etruscans were engineers who invented the means of moving water via canals and irrigation channels long before the Romans built their aquaducts.

The Etruscans created a civilization that lasted longer than many others formed in Western Europe (800 B.C. to 300 B.C) and even after they were "incorporated" by the Romans they continued to make substantial contributions to the surrounding economy.

Apparently, the Etruscans were an archaic people, native to the part of Italy where their remains can be found. Although their language seems to be unlike that of most other historic Europeans the discovery of a Phoenician/Etruscan rosetta stone has allowed researchers to untangle a number of words, including the names of many of those laid to rest in the ornate tombs I was shown so long ago.