Italian history

by meddy12

Good evening! I’m looking for an interesting book on Italian history. Specifically I’ve Been replaying the assassins creed Ezio trilogy and want to learn about what lead up to renaissance Italy and what happened during.

That said, I’d love a couple recommendations that are more about what happened that isn’t shown in average text books, and one that will skip the focus on dates and works. I’m more into politics and “day in the life” type of history since this is for fun and not for a class.

Any tangent recommendations are very welcome!

Dufils

My specific area of interest is the Renaissance in Florence, but a few that I can recommend are:

  • The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy - Jacob Burckhardt
  • The Economy of Renaissance Florence - Richard A. Goldthwaite
  • Private Wealth in Renaissance Florence Renaissance Florence - Richard A. Goldthwaite
  • Renaissance Florence - Gene Brucker
  • Renaissance Florence on 5 Florins a Day - Charles FitzRoy (this may be a good introductory one as it's rather short and easily digestible and covers aspects of daily life)

While keeping with the Assassin's Creed theme, I also have a number of ones relating to the Medici and such which you might be interested in:

  • Florence and the Medici - J.R. Hale
  • The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici - Christopher Hibbert
  • The Medici: Power, Money, and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance - Paul Strathern
  • April Blood - Lauro Martines (This deals with the Pazzi Conspiracy, which was part of the plot in ACII if I recall)
  • Scourge and Fire - Lauro Martines (This is about Girolamo Savonarola, who was one of the assassination targets in ACII if I'm remembering correctly)
  • Tigress of Forli - Elizabeth Lev (This is about Caterina Sforza, who made an appearance when Ezio went to Forli)

Hopefully some of these may be of interest to you and let me know if you have any questions!