FLORENCE ART AND ARCHITECTURE -- PART 3

THE MOST VIVID PHOTOGRAPHY AND WRITING EVER PUBLISHED ON THE RENAISSANCE AND BEYOND

Florence Art and Architecture -- edited by Antonio Paolucci, the famed art historian and director of the Vatican Museums -- features more than two dozen chapters authored by some of the foremost architecture and art authorities in all of Italy.

Other contributors include luminaries such as Carlo Cresti, Angelo Tartuferi, Mario Scalini, Marco Chiarini, Elena Capretti, Annamaria Giusti, Clarissa Morandi and Silvestra Bietoletti.

Paolucci's chapter "Art and history in Florence: an overview of five centuries" opens the book with some astounding facts.

"In 1342, with 100,000 inhabitants, Florence was more populous than Paris. It had double the population of London and five times that of Rome,'' Paolucci writes.

"The gold florin (Dante's `lega suggellata dal Battistta' (the metal with the Baptist's form imprest  -- Inferno, Canto XXX) was the currency of the world's markets from Barcelona to Constantinople, from Bruges to Milan. Florentine finance, industry and commerce spearheaded the European economy..."

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FLORENCE Art and Architecture review 

continues tomorrow -- September 8