Description
Book SynopsisA sumptuous history of Renaissance Florence
Trade ReviewThis meticulously researched, well-documented book is thoughtfully conceived and extremely well illustrated, and it contains an ample scholarly apparatus. It immediately becomes a standard source for the monastery's rich history. . . . Highly recommended.
* Choice *
Historians of Italian Renaissance religion, art, and architecture will . . . be gratified to find in Anne Leader's authoritative monograph a thoroughly researched and closely analyzed account of the Badia's monastic history, building chronology, and artistic prrograms, focusing on the first half of the Quattrocento. . . . At a time when academic presses are limiting the number of images they publish or they are avoiding art historical projects altogether, this lavishly illustrated book is a feast for the eyes.
* RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY *
Anne Leader, Professor of Art History at the Savannah College of Art and Design, has produced an elegant and important book on the Benedictine Abbey in Florence known as the Badia.
* The Medieval Review *
[An] excellently researched and enlightening book.
* Catholic Historical Review *
[T]he book as a whole presents a comprehensive study of an important Florentine institution at a key moment in its history. . . . the research it presents will take on added importance in the context of future studies of similar rebuilding campaigns in Florence and elsewhere.
* Speculum April 2013 *
To an exceptional degree, Anne Leader's book is valuable on two levels. It places the Florentine Badia so fully and successfully within its historical setting that it serves as an excellent introduction to monastic life and reform in a late medieval or early Renaissance Italian city. . . . Leader proceeds in the rest of the book to a detailed account of the architecture and art of the Badia, showing how a building project served the interest of monastic reform, and arguing an arresting thesis about the attribution of the frescoes.
* Church History *
The great value of this book, as of any case study that examines a single institution, is that it allows established truths, as much as general preconceptions, to be tested. Leader is to be complimented on a significant contribution to our understanding not simply of a building and its inhabitants, but of Florentine patronage, religious life, burial patterns, workshop structures and social organisation, among other themes.July 1, 2014
* Burlington Magazine *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Development of an Urban Monastery
2. Benedictine Decadence and the Path to Reform
3. Badia Patronage and the Paradox of Autonomy
4. Architectural Design as Monastic Reform
5. Icon, Symbol, and Narrative at the Florentine Badia
6. The Badia Painters
Epilogue: The Badia from the Renaissance to Today
Notes
Bibliography
Index
