Italië was ooit het centrum van het eerste Europese wereldrijk en de bakermat van de renaissance. Italiaanse politieke en culturele invloeden zijn vervolgens wereldwijd verspreid geraakt. Het land heeft ruim 60 miljoen inwoners en verwelkomt elk jaar bijna het dubbele aantal toeristen. Geen enkel ander land heeft zoveel plekken op de unesco Werelderfgoedlijst staan: achtenvijftig, en het worden er alleen maar meer. In De kortste geschiedenis van Italië komen deze en vele andere plekken in ...

Het Romeinse Rijk is onmiskenbaar een van de invloedrijkste beschavingen uit de geschiedenis. Het kende een bloeitijd van maar liefst 500 jaar en besloeg een oppervlak van ruim vijfentwintig moderne landen, van Saoedi-Arabië tot Oekraïne en Engeland. Politiek, wetten, filosofie en architectuur zoals we die nu kennen vonden er hun oorsprong, evenals onze Romeinse cijfers, de kalender, aquaducten en beton. Samen met de Grieken legden de Romeinen de basis voor de westerse beschaving. Historic...

Halverwege de vijftiende eeuw werd gezegd dat alle wijsheid van de wereld in Vespasiano da Bisticci's boekwinkel in Florence te vinden zou zijn. Daar werden prachtige manuscripten voor de Europese elite geproduceerd en belangrijke werken uit de klassieke oudheid herontdekt en verspreid. De winkel trok de grootste denkers van de stad aan. Dan arriveert er in 1476 een nieuwe techniek in Florence. Het nonnenklooster van San Jacopo di Ripoli aan de andere kant van de stad bemachtigt een drukpe...

New York Times bestselling author Ross King's biography Machiavelli is "a convincing portrait of one of the most misunderstood thinkers of all time."*The author of The Prince—his controversial handbook on power, which is one of the most influential books ever written—Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) was no prince himself. Born to an established middle-class family, Machiavelli worked as a courtier and diplomat for the Republic of Florence a...

Even in an age of soaring skyscrapers and cavernous sports stadiums, the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence still retains a rare power to astonish. Yet the elegance of the building belies the tremendous labour, technical ingenuity and bitter personal strife involved in its creation. For over a century after work on the cathedral began in 1296, the proposed dome was regarded as all but impossible to build because of its enormous size. The greatest architectural puzzle of its age...

O Império Romano é uma das civilizações mais fascinantes da História. Prosperou durante cerca de quinhentos anos e estendeu-se por mais de vinte e cinco países modernos, incluindo lugares tão distantes de Roma como a Arábia Saudita, a Ucrânia e a Inglaterra. A sua influência é indiscutível, tendo moldado a política, as leis, a filosofia e a arquitetura, e deixado um legado que inclui a numeração, o calendário que conhecemos, os aquedutos e o betão. Conheça os imperadores e os guerreiros, o...

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 read.“Each page brims with Bill Bryson-like trivia that is sure to delight.”—Booklist, starred reviewThe calendar. The Senate. The university. The piano, the heliocentric model, and the p...

'King's supreme ability is to imagine himself into the past. The scope of his knowledge is staggering' JOHN CAREY, SUNDAY TIMES At its largest extent, the Roman Empire stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Irish Sea, from North Africa to central Europe. A fifth of the world's population were Roman citizens. Even after the empire's dramatic decline and fall, its legacy continued to shape politics and laws, language and numerals, calendars and architecture. But what was Rome, who were the R...

Beginning in 1912, Defiant Spirits traces the artistic development of Tom Thomson and the future members of the Group of Seven, Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Franz Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald, and Frederick Varley, over a dozen years in Canadian history. Working in an eclectic and sometimes controversial blend of modernist styles, they produced what an English critic celebrated in the 1920s as the most vital group of paintings” of the 20th century. Ins...

'King's supreme ability is to imagine himself into the past. The scope of his knowledge is staggering' JOHN CAREY, SUNDAY TIMES From Michelangelo to Mussolini, Nero to Meloni, Galileo to Garibaldi, here is the sparkling story of the world's most influential peninsula. The calendar, the university, the piano; the Vespa, the pistol and the pizzeria… It is easy to assume that inventions like these could only come from somewhere sure of its place in the world. Yet these pages reveal a land rif...

Tre millenni di storia che hanno plasmato non solo l’Italia, ma anche l’Europa e il mondo intero: da Michelangelo a Mussolini, da Nerone a Meloni, da Galileo a Garibaldi, ecco la frizzante storia della penisola più influente del mondo. Dall’ascesa della Repubblica romana al declino e alla caduta dell’Impero, dalle glorie della Firenze rinascimentale alla lunga lotta per l’unificazione, dalle prime opere liriche europee ai primi ghetti del mondo, Ross King traccia agilmente il percorso a sc...

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. After a dozen years at the court of Lodovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, Leonardo was at a low point personally and professionally: at 43, in an era when he had almost reached the average life expectancy, he had failed, despite a number of prestigious commissions, to complete anything that truly fulfilled his astonishing promise. His latest f...