The Beauty and the Terror

A new account of the birth of the West through its birthplace--Renaissance Italy

The period between 1492--resonant for a number of reasons--and 1571, when the Ottoman navy was defeated in the Battle of Lepanto, embraces what we know as the Renaissance, one of the most dynamic and creatively explosive epochs in world history. Here is the period that gave rise to so many great
artists and figures, and which by its connection to its classical heritage enabled a redefinition, even reinvention, of human potential. It was a moment both of violent struggle and great achievement, of Michelangelo and da Vinci as well as the Borgias and Machiavelli. At the hub of this cultural
and intellectual ferment was Italy.

The Beauty and the Terror offers a vibrant history of Renaissance Italy and its crucial role in the emergence of the Western world. Drawing on a rich range of sources--letters, interrogation records, maps, artworks, and inventories--Catherine Fletcher explores both the explosion of artistic
expression and years of bloody conflict between Spain and France, between Catholic and Protestant, between Christian and Muslim; in doing so, she presents a new way of witnessing the birth of the West.


"In her new book, Catherine Fletcher's aim is to give readers a more nuanced and wide-ranging picture of a singularly tumultuous period in Italian history. The breadth of her reading is remarkable and she uses it to bring alive a huge range of subjects--from ordnance to pornography, and from the
remuneration of cardinals to attitudes in Italy towards Jews and Muslims... The reader comes to the end of Ms Fletcher's book more fully aware that the beauty and terror co-existed."--The Economist

"Brilliant and gripping, here is the full true Renaissance in a history of compelling originality and freshness, revealing the filth and thuggery, slavery, sex, slaughter and skulduggery behind the exquisite art of Leonardo and Michelangelo."--Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem and The
Romanovs

"Leading us into the world of the high Italian Renaissance in all its rich, blood-soaked glory, Catherine Fletcher shows us how the violent energies of war gave birth to some of the greatest art ever seen. Devastating in its detail, The Beauty and the Terror is a powerful, intimate and deeply humane
portrait of this age of extreme destruction and exceptional creativity."--Thomas Penn, author of Winter King and Brothers York

"A wonderfully dark, gritty, hard-edged tour behind the scenes of the Italian Renaissance. Catherine Fletcher is an expert and eloquent guide through the fire, blood and steel that inspired some of the greatest art in the world."--Jessie Childs, author of God's Traitors

"This is a novel slant on the Renaissance involving both a wide sweep and many fascinating insights."--Paul Strathern, author of The Medici

"A deft portrait... Densely detailed but highly readable--a fine one-volume survey of the Italian Renaissance."--Kirkus

"The Renaissance has been reimagined and reawakened in Catherine Fletcher's fantastic new history of the era... In this thoroughly engaging account of the era, Fletcher demonstrates her erudition while deploying the skills of a contemporary scholar. Though an evident admirer of the works described
in the book, she is attune to the warts of their makers and the fraught context in which they were created. Fletcher renders the time and place with simultaneous complexity and legibility... A grand scholarly accomplishment, one which can and, I hope, will find a large reading public."--Kirk Center,
University Bookman