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[[File:Murder_of_a_medici_princess.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|<i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195385837/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0195385837&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=7bac01d3ae1eedf93348fa8744d83c4b Murder of a Medici Princess]</i> by Caroline Murphy]]

Paul Strathern, <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1844130983/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1844130983&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=a398a7e529dca0fff02bd3e08ca6b25a The Medici—Godfathers of the Renaissance]</i> (London, Pimlico, 2005),

Magnifico is a vividly colorful portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici, the uncrowned ruler of Florence during its golden age. A true "Renaissance man," Lorenzo dazzled contemporaries with his prodigious talents and magnetic personality. Known to history as Il Magnifico (the Magnificent), Lorenzo was not only the foremost patron of his day but also a renowned poet, equally adept at composing philosophical verses and obscene rhymes to be sung at Carnival.

The Intellectual Struggle for Florence is an analysis of the ideology that developed in Florence with the rise of the Medici, during the early fifteenth century, the period long recognized as the most formative of the early Renaissance. Instead of simply describing early Renaissance ideas, this volume attempts to relate these ideas to specific social and political conflicts of the fifteenth century, and specifically to the development of the Medici regime.

A dazzling history of the modest family that rose to become one of the most powerful in Europe, The Medici is a remarkably modern story of power, money, and ambition. Against the background of an age that saw the rebirth of ancient and classical learning Paul Strathern explores the intensely dramatic rise and fall of the Medici family in Florence, as well as the Italian Renaissance which they did so much to sponsor and encourage. Strathern also follows the lives of many of the great Renaissance artists with whom the Medici had dealings, including Leonardo, Michelangelo and Donatello; as well as scientists like Galileo and Pico della Mirandola; and the fortunes of those members of the Medici family who achieved success away from Florence, including the two Medici popes and Catherine de' Médicis, who became Queen of France and played a major role in that country through three turbulent reigns.

Paul Strathern, <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1681772302/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1681772302&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=dc5833a345207bbef9a633617db8a521 Death in Florence: The Medici, Savonarola, and the Battle for the Soul of a Renaissance City]</i> (Pegasus Books, 2015)

By the end of the fifteenth century, Florence was well established as the home of the Renaissance. As generous patrons to the likes of Botticelli and Michelangelo, the ruling Medici embodied the progressive humanist spirit of the age, and in Lorenzo de' Medici (Lorenzo the Magnificent) they possessed a diplomat capable of guarding the militarily weak city in a climate of constantly shifting allegiances between the major Italian powers.

Mary Hollingsworth argues that the idea that the Medici were enlightened rulers of the Renaissance is a fiction that has now acquired the status of historical fact. In truth, the Medici were as devious and immoral as the Borgias—tyrants loathed in the city they illegally made their own. In this dynamic new history, Hollingsworth argues that past narratives have focused on a sanitized and fictitious view of the Medici—wise rulers, enlightened patrons of the arts, and fathers of the Renaissance—but that in fact their past was reinvented in the sixteenth century, mythologized by later generations of Medici who used this as a central prop for their legacy.

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Catherine Fletcher, <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/019061272X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=019061272X&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=a7974a24231c2cb9ed3c1f43e0f66b57 The Black Prince of Florence: The Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro de' Medici]</i> (Oxford University Press, 2016)

Caroline Murphy here illuminates the brilliant life and tragic death of Isabella de Medici, one of the brightest stars in the dazzling world of Renaissance Italy, the daughter of Duke Cosimo I, ruler of Florence and Tuscany. Murphy is a superb storyteller, and her fast-paced narrative captures the intrigue, the scandal, the romantic affairs, and the violence that were commonplace in the Florentine court.

Isabella, in fact, conducted numerous affairs, including a ten-year relationship with the cousin of her violent and possessive husband. Her permissive lifestyle, however, came to an end upon the death of her father, who was succeeded by her disapproving older brother Francesco. Considering Isabella's ways to be licentious and a disgrace upon the family, he permitted her increasingly enraged husband to murder her in a remote Medici villa.

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