Catherine Fletcher - The Beauty and the Terror: The Italian Renaissance and the Rise of the West

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

The Divorce of Henry VIII:
The Untold Story

The Black Prince of Florence:
The Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro de Medici

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the Universitys objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries.

Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.

Catherine Fletcher 2020

First published in the UK by The Bodley Head in 2020

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above

You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication information is available.

ISBN 9780190908492
ISBN 9780190908515 (e-book)

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America

To my students

1. By an unknown artist, the Tavola Strozzi shows the city of Naples in the second half of the fifteenth century.