The city of Florence has long been admired as the home of the brilliant artistic and literary achievement of the early Renaissance. But most histories of Florence go no further than the first decades of the sixteenth century. They thus give the impression that Florentine culture suddenly died with the generation of Leonardo, Machiavelli, and Andrea del Sarto. Eric Cochrane shows that the Florentines maintained their creativity long after they had lost their position as the cultural leaders of Europe. When their political philosophy and historiography ran dry, they turned to the practical problems of civil administration. When their artists finally yielded to outside influence, they turned to music and the natural sciences. Even during the darkest days of the great economic depression of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, they succeeded in preserving—almost alone in Europe—the blessings of external peace and domestic tranquility.

Florence in the Forgotten Centuries: 1527-1800

History

Eric Cochrane

Europe

University of Chicago Press

This book covers one of the more obscure periods of Italian history. What we know of it is presented almost always pejoratively: an unrelieved tale of political absolution, rural refeudalisation, economic crisis, religious repression and cultural decline. But this picture is both incomplete and inaccurate, and in this important new survey Eric Cochrane has at last given the period its due.

Italy, 1530-1630 (Longman History of Italy)

Longman

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Books by Eric Cochrane

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Eric Cochrane. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Florence in the Forgotten Centuries: 1527-1800

Italy, 1530-1630 (Longman History of Italy)