BizCar - English Language Books: International supplier of books in the English language
|
|
|
| Murder of a Medici Princess | 
 enlarge | Author: Caroline P. Murphy
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95 (58.73 RON)
Buy New: $16.47 (38.77 RON)
You Save: $8.48 (19.96 RON) (34%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 39608
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.6
ISBN: 0195314395
Dewey Decimal Number: 945.51107092
EAN: 9780195314397
ASIN: 0195314395
Publication Date: April 18, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
|
| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 7 | | NEXT » |
 Murder of a Medici Princess November 11, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I began reading this book today and also returned it to the library today. I couldn't get into it and got very lost in the details.
The subject matter was interesting enough but just SO laden with genealogies and descriptions of their clothing, the foods they ate (I was very grossed out by the breakfast food of "eyes, ears and brain of baby goat") etc.
The genealogy was terribly difficult for me to follow especially since I'm not a scholar of the era and have only minimal knowlege of the Medici's history. I was hoping to broaden my horizons with a novel similar to the ones by Phillipa Gregory but this read more like a text than a novel (and Phillipa Gregory is very detail heavy too).
All in all, I got about 50 pages in and called it quits. I was probably most disturbed with the image of the dwarf Morgante winning 10 scudi for crippling a monkey...
 16th Century House of Medici August 8, 2008
This book is more than a story of Isabella's murder, in fact, very few pages are devoted to the actual murder. The murder is the culmination of the family relationships that brew from page one.
Through this story we learn of the people and their times. We come to appreciate Cosimo Medici, who rebuilt his family dynasty through politics and strategic marriages. We come to appreciate even more his extraordinary daughter.
Not being steeped in the history of Italy at this time, I found the first few chapters hard going. The genealogies of Medicis and the other European monarchs are complex and difficult to follow. After this, as the personalities get drawn and the story unfolds it becomes a page turner building to the actual murder.
The book built my interest Italian history. I will be reading more Italian history.
"Murder of a Medici princess" ...and then some! July 8, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Caroline Murphy's new book is another "must have" for lovers of remarkable lesser-known royal stories. One is taken into the extraordinarily "ahead-of-her-time" life of Isabella de Medici, a Renaissance princess and daughter of the first Grand Duke of Tuscany. A thoroughly gifted, cultured and independent individual with an interesting personality that still resonates after 500 years, Isabella was unique among female royal women of the time in her ability to live her life on her own terms, even as a married woman, which truly defied all convention. From the title, obviously things do not go well in the end, and with recent tomb excavations mentioned in passing at the end, the full extent of murderousness in this generation of the Medici is only nowadays fully coming to light. If you think your family is dysfunctional, you will feel as though you grew up in the very bosom of normality after learning what eventually happened within this once-upon-a-time "big happy family."
Fantastic! May 31, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I knew very little of this family and this book is easy to read, easy to follow and yet, it was FILLED with history and facst. WONDERFULLY written!
A story of family conflicts, furious politics and a mystery May 23, 2008
38 out of 40 found this review helpful
At first, I scoffed at the title, thinking that this might be a work of fiction, and a real potboiler at that. And to be honest, despite my fondness for historical novels, nearly every other novel set in the sixteenth century seemed lately to be centered on either Tudor England or Renaissance Italy -- and both of them done to death.
But in spite of my misgivings, this turned out to be a stunning read. Caroline Murphy, author of a previous book on women and politics, has continued her stories of women who played an influental role in the backgrounds of Italian history. This time, the focus is on the city of Florence and the powerful Medici family.
Begining with the fall of the Medici, the book focuses on a member of the junior branch of the family who brought the glory back to Florence. Cosimo de' Medici was a consummate politican and manipulator, but also a fervid patron of the arts and architecture. With his wife, the beautiful Eleonora di Toledo (who was known as La Fecundissima) they had eleven children, many of them sons, but Cosimo's favourite was his daughter Isabella.
A middle child in a huge brood of offspring, she was closest to her brother, Giovanni, and they could be found together constantly, playing games and partnering each other in dancing lessons. Several paintings survive of the princess, a lovely dark haired child with expressive eyes and nearly a smirk on her lips as she surveys the world before her. Clearly she is her father's darling, and knows it. When it came time for her to marry, her father brokered a deal with the Orsini family, based in Rome, and a wedding to Paolo Giordano d'Orsini, a young man with an itch for power and money, and seemingly in love and adoration with Isabella to judge from his letters.
But Cosimo slipped a small clause into the wedding contract -- Isabella would only accompany her husband to his home in Rome if she wanted to. It was a curious condition to the marriage, especially in a time where women were considered to be not much more than two legged birthing machines and subject to abuse and violence from their spouses. For a time, all went well between the couple -- Paolo was off working for advanage of both the Medici and the Orsini, with Cosimo supplying plenty of money for his spendthrift son, and keeping his daughter by his side. He indulged her as best he could, supplying her with the trappings of the high life in the artistic capital of the world.
Isabella created a world of poets and music, sending a steady supply of letters to her husband, letters that were filled with assurances of her love and devotion. But read between the lines, and something else emerges. There's a sly quality to the letters, something that bothers the reader, and if read carefully enough, it becomes clear that Isabella doesn't care very much for her absent husband, and is determined to live her life as she chooses. Even if that means having a lover or two.
The story takes on a much darker tone as it progresses. Her beloved brother, Giovanni, dies of malaria along with another brother and their mother, word comes of Paolo's affairs with various prostitutes in Rome, and Isabella's own growing irritation of her husband. And when Cosimo dies, Isabella tries to keep her glittering fantasy of a life going, but it might already be too late...
This is a tale that is not for the squeamish, as Murphy doesn't hold back on the lives, and especially the deaths, of various members of the Medici family, and also of more ordinary folks. The book is filled with details about daily living, clothing, food, the art of spectacle, and the role of servants and those unseen. What I found very interesting was that the book shifts the focus to women, who usually get shoved to the background of most history. And the subject of the book, Isabella de' Medici, I had never heard of before.
I happily recommend this book for anyone interested in Renaissance Florence, especially for life after the heyday of Lorenzo di Medici. Caroline Murphy has created a story full of life here, creating a woman that is very vivid and aware. The use of family letters is very effective, giving insights into how their minds works, their hopes and moving them beyond the surviving images that have come down through the centuries.
Along with the story, the book is full of black and white drawings taken from the time, which give little snapshots of the world that the Medici moved in. A map of Florence at the time give a sense of place. A genealogical chart sorts out the many branches of the Medici family, and helps to keep everyone straight. Along with the illustrations in the text, there is a gorgeous collection of colour plates, with several paintings of Isabella along with the other players in the story. An extensive bibliography gives enticing suggestions for further research, along with footnotes and an index.
I suspect that this is a book that is going to hit one of my top-ten book lists for 2008. It is a stunning story that breathes new life into what I had thought was a stale topic, and has renewed my interest in Renaissance life and culture.
Caroline Murphy has also written The Pope's Daughter, which does have a tie-in to this story, as Paolo is the grandson of Felice della Rovere, another woman of the Renaissance who was able to hold her own and more in what was very much a man's world.
Five stars overall.
|
|
|
