Description
Book SynopsisHistorians have long held that during the decades from the end of the Habsburg-Valois Wars in 1559 until the outbreak in 1618 of the Thirty Years' War, Spanish domination of Italy was so complete that one can refer to the period as a "pax hispanica."...
Trade ReviewLevin's narrative approach lends impressive clarity to the often complex negotiations he recounts, and he effectively conveys the frustrations of ambassadors faced with the opacities of Venetian politics, the intrigues of their French counterparts, the inconveniently-timed deaths of popes and the unpredictable and expensive conclaves which followed them, and, not least, an all-too-frequent lack of instructions from the king they were supposed to represent.... Levin's clearly-written and well-documented work should ensure that no scholar will take the idea of a 'Spanish peace' in early modern Italy fro granted in quite the same way again.
-- Jennifer R. Ottman * Renaissance Quarterly *
