The Florentines

From Dante to Galileo: The Transformation of Western Civilization

By: Paul Strathern

Narrated by: Roger Clark

Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

A sweeping and magisterial 400-year history of both the city and the people who gave birth to the Renaissance.

Between the birth of Dante in 1265 and the death of Galileo in 1642, something happened that transformed the entire culture of Western civilization. Painting, sculpture, and architecture would all visibly change in such a striking fashion that there could be no going back on what had taken place. Likewise, the thought and self-conception of humanity would take on a completely new aspect. Sciences would be born - or emerge in an entirely new guise.

The ideas that broke this mold began, and continued to flourish, in the city of Florence in Northern Central Italy. These ideas, which placed an increasing emphasis on the development of our common humanity - rather than otherworldly spirituality - coalesced in what came to be known as humanism. This philosophy and its new ideas would eventually spread across Italy, yet wherever they took hold, they would retain an element essential to their origin. And as they spread further across Europe, this element would remain.

©2021 Paul Strathern (P)2021 Tantor

Pulling together my pieces of history

Thank you so much for writing your books. I feel I have advance geometrically in my knowledge of medieval age.

interesting story, wonderful narration

Roger Clark is my favorite narrator. Indeed, he is the stupor mundi of audio narration. Indeed! the greatest of all time. Indeed!!!

A good simplification of the renaissance

This book reads like a introduction course into the Renaissance. Every chapter gives you a good overview of the specific person without getting into too much detail. If you’re looking for something to just get an idea of what these people are accomplished, then I cannot recommend this book more however if you are Trying to really dive deep into the subject, this will not surface.

I will say that this book is very easily understood and does a very good job of getting the points across without overwhelming you.

Good storytelling, not profound analysis

The story of Renaissance Florence competently and memorably told. But Strathern is not a profound historian of ideas or art.

The book’s content is excellent.

Roger Clark’s pompous pseudo-British delivery, frequent mispronunciations, and odd emphasis on prepositions distracted from the experience of listening to this book. I wish I had read the actual text rather than listen to the Audiobook. I won’t listen to another book performed by Roger Clark, but I’ll enthusiastically read other titles by Paul Strathern.

Well written. Solid performance. Left me wanting more.

The history of arts and sciences left me wanting more. The history of politics and finance not quite so much. Subsequently, my interest in this book ebbed and flowed a bit. Overall, the reading is a worthy experience. Roger Clark’s performance is rock solid.

Very well organized overview of the key people of the renaissance.

Excellent overview and also most entertaining. The narrator was excellent and the book was easy to listen to. I liked the manner in which it focused on some of the key persons of this era.

An epic overview of Florence’s Finest personas

I am a personal fan of Strathern’s distinct authorial voice. His occasional offhand remarks bring “soul” into the work in the tradition of Herodotus. Only his brief rundown of Saint Augustine in his “90 minutes” series has ever tipped over into unabashed mockery and obscured the facts.

This book is, as all good popular history books are is very engaging! This book was more than suitable for my purposes and I appreciated the way Strathern wove these series of biographies into a cohesive narrative.

Poor narration spoils this book,

I don’t think I’ve ever encountered such poor narration as in this offering. The reader’s mispronunciation of many Italian words, most particularly Medici (it is MEH dee chee, not meh DEE chee) and Signoria (which he pronounced with the first syllable as in signature) was so distracting that I had a hard time following the story line. Mr Strathern should insist that the book be re-recorded.

Throw Dried Tomatoes and Rotten meat at this one!

Lazy research. The author claims the Florentines stored dried tomatoes in their towers before any contact of the new world. Then the author makes a claim the upper class would eat meat smothered in sauce to cover the flavor of meat gone bad.