April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medici

Rating:
Summary: Unfortunately, Not Magnifico....
Review: This book was a disappointment. Although it is supposed to concentrate on the plot surrounding the April 1478 attempt to murder Lorenzo and Giuliano de Medici, in reality it wanders off into many other areas and loses focus. In one chapter, the author gives detailed information about the finances of the Pazzi family (the family behind the conspiracy to kill the two Medici brothers). In another chapter, Professor Martines quotes extensively from the personal letters of matriarchs of some of the leading Florentine families, regarding their attempts at matrimonial matchmaking. The author discusses other plots and political murders, unrelated to the 1478 attack, and which did not occur in Florence. He has three chapters in which he provides profiles of three people, none of whom had any connection to the 1478 plot. Professor Martines also attempts to explore the serpentine world of 15th century Italian realpolitik. We learn about the shifting alliances and chessboard maneuverings involving Florence, Milan, Genoa, Venice, the Papal States, etc. The names of many people are introduced. Quite a few are not central to the story. Bringing them into the tale serves to confuse rather than to enlighten. I still am giving the book three stars because it is worth reading. If you want to know the bare facts about who was behind the plot and why they wanted the Medici family out of power and what actions Lorenzo took against the plotters after he survived the attack, those facts are here. But because of the lack of focus and the questionable decision to include so much peripheral material, the experience of reading this book is a lot less satisfying than it could, and should, have been. It's sort of like being hungry for a nice, thick, juicy steak but after you cut away all of the fat you find yourself with just a few decent bits of meat. It's hardly worth the effort.

Rating:
Summary: this book drops the ball
Review: This historical era is so much more exhilerating, complex, and intriguing than this book conveys. Martines has politcal axes to grind, and it's obvious. He diminishes the story's excitement (and it's truth).
I wish someone would write a great LORENZO novel! Why isn't there one out there?

Rating:
Summary: The stab that ignited Italy...
Review: This is the story about the Pazzi Conspiracy against the Medici dictatorship in renaissance Florence. The story is riveting, full of facts, and, on the whole, well told. The author gives a brief history of the families involved and of the florentine political system to give us a background to the conspiracy. The assault in the cathedral and the following bloodbath is told in clear and vivid detail. So far the book is great, just great. Then it is as if the author ran out of time! The Pazzi War and what happened to the Pazzi family members that did not die is described in an almost perfunctory way. The lives of Lorenzo's sons, daughters, and other surviving relatives are dealt with in just a few lines. Maybe the author expects the reader to get that information in more general histories of the Italian Rennaisance.