Ross King

A concise, star-studded retelling of Italy's past, from Caesar and Augustus to da Vinci and Michelangelo, tracing the story of a country with prodigious global influence—from a foremost author of historic Italy.

In 1508, despite strong advice to the contrary, the powerful Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo....

Machiavelli is a superb portrait of the brilliant and revolutionary political philosopher - history's most famous theorist of "warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed" - and the age he embodied....

The Renaissance in Florence conjures images of beautiful frescoes and elegant buildings - the handiwork of the city's artists and architects. But equally important were geniuses of a different sort: Florence's manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars, and booksellers....

Early in 1495, Leonardo da Vinci began work in Milan on what would become one of history's most influential and beloved works of art - The Last Supper....

While the Civil War raged in America, another very different revolution was beginning to take shape across the Atlantic, in the studios of Paris....

Brunelleschi's Dome is the story of how a Renaissance genius bent men, materials, and the very forces of nature to build an architectural wonder we continue to marvel at today. Denounced at first as a madman, Brunelleschi was celebrated at the end as a genius....

We have all seen, whether live, in photographs or on postcards, some of Claude Monet's legendary water lily paintings....

While the Civil War raged in America, another, very different revolution took shape in the studios of Paris....

Discover the prodigious global influence of il bel paese in this star-studded retelling of Italy's past-from a foremost author of historic Italy. The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced book.

Award-winning and best-selling author Ross King is back with another rich, gripping history - a story of rivalry, new technology, and the finest illuminated manuscripts known to history, all set against a Renaissance Florence backdrop....

George Cautley, a hapless young artist trying to make his way in the gilded world of 1770s London, paints Lady Beauclair's portrait while she tells him the scandalous story of Tristano....