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The Italian Renaissance
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
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Publisher's Summary
This great historical essay tells you why this extraordinary event occurred and why it finally died out, though its effects lasted hundreds of years. Ironically, all the great pomp and splendor of the Italian Renaissance was accompanied by some of the worst violence and mayhem that Italy has ever experienced. In the midst of splendor unheard of, men murdered, stole, raped, lied, and cuckolded friend and foe. Horrible torture, brutal war, and poisonous political intrigue went hand in hand with the most sumptuous artistic and literary output in European history. Follow this incredible story to understand the Italian Renaissance in ways you never conceived.
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What listeners say about The Italian Renaissance
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Susan
- 07-25-06
Italian Renaissance
Although this download of "The Italian Renaissance" indicates that it is "unabridged", IT IS INCOMPLETE! The hard copy of the book is published with two parts. The first written by J.H. Plumb and the second by various authors. This recording only contains the first part of the book.
9 people found this helpful
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Overall
- DEW
- 03-24-09
A truly pleasurable experience
This little "essay" (to use the same description Jacob Burckhardt used for his work, "The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy") is a brief, but wonderful introduction to the Italian Renaissance. Adding to the pleasure of this short book are the rich, sonorous tones of Charlton Griffin as the narrator and the brief introductory musical selections used to set the mood. If you love history of the Renaissance narrated by one of the truly great readers of our time, this is a must have selection.
6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Brian
- 02-23-06
Rambling vs. Renaiisance
This is not a history book. It is a poorly constructed stream of consciousness that contains as much opinion as fact.
Poorly organized and narrated with pomp and circumstantial evidence that proves you should look elsewhere for a historical account of the Italian Renaissance.
5 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 09-28-09
Charlton Griffin does it again.
I would have never finished this book in print. But Mr. Griffin's audio version was fascinating. My next listen to it will be in Venice and Florence with an iPod in my pocket and earphones in my ear while sipping an espresso in one of them piazzas. Can't wait.
Anthony Pour, CA
4 people found this helpful
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Overall
- E. B. Samuel
- 02-02-07
Culture and Values
This book is more an overview of Italian Renaissance culture and values than a history. A fulsome account of the era's politics is absent, as is narrative drama.
4 people found this helpful
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Performance
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Story
- Jonathan Herdina
- 08-26-17
Not about specific artists
I am leaving to travel to Italy in about 2 weeks and was hoping that this book would give me insight and background information on some of the most influential artists of the time, including Michaelangelo and Da Vinci. It was hard for me to finish when they just kept hounding bigger, broader topics about various cities but nothing about artists. I probably should have researched this book more before buying.
1 person found this helpful
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Performance
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Story
- Gary
- 06-04-14
History should be fun and this book wasn't.
History should be exciting. This book was not. It read as if it was a text book and all of the great stories that take place in this time period and the reason why it was so important for the reformation, enlightenment and today's times are not told within this book. Little context and no narrative is provided.
The author looks at each of the major Italian cities and describes them separately, then looks at some of the importance of painting, art and architecture of the period, and very little of the beginnings of the humanist thought or philosophy is presented in this book.
Don't get me wrong on this review. If you start the book, you'll probably finish it, but you will only be getting a text book like presentation of an incredibly exciting period of time and might be better served with another book on the topic which brings the history alive and would keep you on the edge of your seat the way such an exciting period of time should be told. History should be fun and this book wasn't.
1 person found this helpful
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Performance
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Story
- Julie S.
- 02-10-20
Introduction to fascinating period in history
Good overview of one the most important periods of Western history. Well organized and presented.
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Performance
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Story
- Frank Donnelly
- 05-29-19
An Excellent, Information Packed Survey
This book, both the text and the audiobook are excellent. Some really good books make for a difficult listening experience. I did not find that to be the case here. The book is information packed. As I am interested in a more in depth study, I needed to stop and look up a lot of information. But that is a matter of personal choice. This book is highly readable and also provides an excellent basis for further study. Thank You...
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- Jim
- 01-26-13
INCOMPLETE!
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
Include the second half of the book.
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
Very interesting look at the Italian Renaissance... but doesn't include the second half of the book!
Any additional comments?
Don't advertise this as "unabridged," and then only include half of the book!
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Overall

- Anonymous User
- 08-04-10
Review
quite good content but the reade's style very 1950's upper crust English which takes from an average listener's attention to content. Still i would say it is worth a credit.
1 person found this helpful
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- James
- 03-18-16
Bizarre Pronunciation
A good book but diminished by the narrator's strange pronunciation of well-known words, and the names of people and places
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Fun Story Bad History
- By Elizabeth Barrett on 05-09-16
By: Paul Strathern
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Heroes
- From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle
- By: Paul Johnson
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In this enlightening and entertaining work, Johnson presents heroism through examples in history. From Alexander to Joan of Arc and George Washington to Marilyn Monroe, here are men and women from every age and corner of the world who have inspired and transformed their cultures and the world itself.
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Interesting, but deeply flawed
- By Kennet on 12-27-07
By: Paul Johnson
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The Life and Times of Chaucer
- By: John Gardner
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In this exquisite biography, John Gardner brings to life Geoffrey Chaucer, illuminating his writings and their inspiration like never before. Through exhaustive research and expert storytelling, Gardner takes readers through Chaucer’s varied career - from writing The Canterbury Tales to performing diplomatic work at the Parliament - and creates a fully realized portrait of an author whose work would remake the English language forever. Written with passion and insight, this a must-listen for those interested in Chaucer and the medieval time period.
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Good book, but quoted passages are in Old English
- By Kathi on 02-26-14
By: John Gardner
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Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea
- Why the Greeks Matter
- By: Thomas Cahill
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Best selling history writer Thomas Cahill continues his series on the roots of Western civilization with this volume about the contributions of ancient Greece to the development of contemporary culture. Tracing the origin of Greek culture in the migrations of armed Indo-European horsemen into Attica and the Peloponnesian peninsula, he follows their progress into the creation of the Greek city-states, the refinement of their machinery of war, and the flowering of intellectual and artistic culture.
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Super super
- By Richard on 12-28-03
By: Thomas Cahill
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The Swerve
- How the World Became Modern
- By: Stephen Greenblatt
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late 30s took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic by Lucretius—a beautiful poem containing the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles.
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Very compelling history, a less compelling thesis
- By A reader on 05-01-12
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The Man Who Invented Fiction
- How Cervantes Ushered in the Modern World
- By: William Egginton
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In the early 17th century, a crippled, graying, almost toothless veteran of Spain's wars against the Ottoman Empire published a novel. It was the story of a poor nobleman, his brain addled from studying too many novels of chivalry, who deludes himself that he is a knight errant and sets off on hilarious adventures. That story, Don Quixote, went on to sell more copies than any other book beside the Bible, making its author, Miguel de Cervantes, the single most-read author in human history.
By: William Egginton
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Ten Caesars
- Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine
- By: Barry Strauss
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling classical historian Barry Strauss tells the story of three-and-a-half centuries of the Roman Empire through the lives of 10 of the most important emperors, from Augustus to Constantine.
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Good for beginners
- By Richferguson1 on 03-01-20
By: Barry Strauss
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Natasha's Dance
- A Cultural History of Russia
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 29 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Beginning in the 18th century with the building of St. Petersburg - a 'window on the West' - and culminating with the challenges posed to Russian identity by the Soviet regime, Figes examines how writers, artists, and musicians grappled with the idea of Russia itself - its character, spiritual essence and destiny. He skillfully interweaves the great works - by Dostoevsky, Stravinsky, and Chagall - with folk embroidery, peasant songs, religious icons and all the customs of daily life, from food and drink to bathing habits to beliefs about the spirit world.
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A Kaleidescopic panorama of an enigmatic culture.
- By Tarquin on 02-13-19
By: Orlando Figes
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Machiavelli
- Philosopher of Power
- By: Ross King
- Narrated by: Tim Reynolds
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Part of the acclaimed Eminent Lives series, 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. Ross King, the New York Times best-selling author of Brunelleschi's Dome, argues that the author of The Prince was a far more complex and sympathetic character than is often portrayed.
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Awesome
- By Crisitna Tunon on 07-16-21
By: Ross King
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The Florentines
- From Dante to Galileo: The Transformation of Western Civilization
- By: Paul Strathern
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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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.
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Narrator ruins the narrative
- By amavita on 03-24-22
By: Paul Strathern
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The Bad Popes
- By: E.R. Chamberlin
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The papal tiara has been worn by a number of infamous men through the course of its history. Some have been accused of murder, many have had mistresses, while others sold positions in the church to their followers or gave land and wealth to their illegitimate children. E. R. Chamberlin examines the lives of eight of the most controversial popes, from the reign of Pope Stephen VI, who had his predecessor exhumed, put on trial and thrown in the Tiber, in the ninth century, through to Pope Clement VII, whose failed international policy led to the Sack of Rome in 1527.
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Complete trash.
- By George on 07-16-21
By: E.R. Chamberlin