Synopses & Reviews
We think of the Renaissance as a shining era of human achievement-a pinnacle of artistic genius and humanist brilliance, the time of Shakespeare, Michelangelo, and Montaigne. Yet it was also an age of constant, harrowing warfare. Armies, not philosophers, shaped the face of Europe as modern nation-states emerged from feudal society. In Furies, one of the leading scholars of Renaissance history captures the dark reality of the period in a gripping narrative mosaic.
As Lauro Martines shows us, “total war” was no twentieth-century innovation. These conflicts spared no civilians in their path. A Renaissance army was a mobile city-indeed, a force of twenty thousand or forty thousand men was larger than many cities of the day. And it was a monster, devouring food and supplies for miles around. It menaced towns and the countryside-and itself-with famine and disease, often more lethal than combat. Fighting itself was savage, its violence increased by the use of newly invented weapons, from muskets to mortars.
For centuries, notes Martines, the history of this period has favored diplomacy, “high politics,” and military tactics. Furies puts us on the front lines of battle, and on the streets of cities under siege, to reveal what Europe's wars meant to the men and women who endured them.
Review
“A story that is as gripping as it is horrifying.” —The Washington Times
“Lauro Martiness new book is a godsend . . . made a pleasure to read by the authors nimble and darkly humorous prose, he has given us an unforgettable glimpse into a violent—and rarely seen—age.” —Paul D. Lockhart, MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History"Fascinating.... Martines is a master researcher and, like a collector showing off his treasures, his delight in his findings sparkles on every page" —Philadelphia Inquirer
"An intriguing book.... Every situation and character Martines presents to usis of marvelous complexity." —New York Review of Books
"A spine-chilling political drama of conspiracy, murder at High Mass, and bloody revenge." —The Times (UK)
"Impressive narrative power.... A thoroughly good read that is also reliable history, scrupulously documented yet with its pages uncluttered by footnotes... Savonarola's story...bears fresh retelling, and Lauro Martines does so with scholarly authority and an admirable combination of clarity and pace." —The Wall Street Journal
About the Author
Lauro Martines is one of the world's foremost historians of the Italian Renaissance and early modern Europe. He is the author of nine books, most recently the critically acclaimed Fire in the City: Savonarola and the Struggle for Renaissance Florence and April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medici. Born in Chicago, he was a professor of history at UCLA. He now lives in London with his wife, the novelist Julia O'Faolain.