Description
A look into the tantalising secrets of Florence's Palazzo Rucellai. When Italian Renaissance professor Allison Levy takes up residency in the palazzo of her dreams - the Palazzo Rucellai in Florence - she finds herself consumed by the space and swept into the vortex of its history. She spends every waking moment in dusty Florentine libraries, exploring the palazzo's myriad rooms seeking to uncover its secrets. As she unearths the stories of those who have lived behind its celebrated facade, she discovers that it has been witness to weddings, suicides, orgies, the dissection of a 'monster', and even a murder. Entwining Levy's own experiences with the ghosts of the Palazzo Rucellai's past, House of Secrets paints a scintillating portrait of a family, a palace and one of the most iconic cities in the world.
A look into the tantalising secrets of Florence's Palazzo Rucellai.
About the Author
Allison Levy is Digital Scholarship Editor at Brown University. An art historian, educated at Bryn Mawr College, Allison has taught in the US, Italy, and the UK. The author and editor of four books on early modern Italy and Europe, she is also General Editor of the book series Visual and Material Culture, 1300-1700, published by Amsterdam University Press.
Reviews
One of the best chapters in the book brings [the relationship between young America and old Florence] vividly to life. * Literary Review *
'Levy's writing is pacy and ... witty, and she deploys a wide range of materials well' * TLS *
House of Secrets is revelatory ... Levy is a thorough and thoroughly engaging storyteller, leaving no stone of the Palazzo Rucellai unexamined ... a whole memory palace embodied by the Palazzo Rucellai for which Levy - author, art historian, inhabitant - is the ideal guide. -- Bridget Quinn * Hyperallergic *
With House of Secrets, Allison Levy presents an enthralling tour through an extraordinary Florentine palazzo. -- Ingrid Rowland, author of 'From Pompeii: The Afterlife of a Roman Town'
In this provocative and lively account, Allison Levy deft ly mingles scholarship and personal history to tell the story of a building that is also the story of a family, a city, a country and a continent over the course of several tumultuous centuries. -- David Leavitt, author of 'Florence, A Delicate Case'
With the delicious happenstance of securing her lodging in a grand Renaissance Florentine palazzo (otherwise quite off limits to the public), the author weaves together a lively -dare one say sexy?- personal narrative with a chronicle of several hundred years in the life of the city's nobility. -- Leonard Barkan, author of 'Michelangelo: A Life on Paper'
Art Historian Allison Levy has writt en a delightful, fascinating, and riveting yarn about a palazzo, a family, and a city across time. -- Jenny McPhee, author and translator of 'Natalia Ginzburg's Family Lexicon'
The story she weaves is rich in history and anecdote, scholarly erudition and private experiences. The resulting book is as layered and multi-dimensional as the palazzo itself. -- Marina Belozerskaya, author of 'The Medici Giraffe'
Book Information
ISBN 9781788317559
Author Allison Levy
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Tauris Parke
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Weight(grams) 226g
A look into the tantalising secrets of Florence's Palazzo Rucellai.
About the Author
Allison Levy is Digital Scholarship Editor at Brown University. An art historian, educated at Bryn Mawr College, Allison has taught in the US, Italy, and the UK. The author and editor of four books on early modern Italy and Europe, she is also General Editor of the book series Visual and Material Culture, 1300-1700, published by Amsterdam University Press.
Reviews
One of the best chapters in the book brings [the relationship between young America and old Florence] vividly to life. * Literary Review *
'Levy's writing is pacy and ... witty, and she deploys a wide range of materials well' * TLS *
House of Secrets is revelatory ... Levy is a thorough and thoroughly engaging storyteller, leaving no stone of the Palazzo Rucellai unexamined ... a whole memory palace embodied by the Palazzo Rucellai for which Levy - author, art historian, inhabitant - is the ideal guide. -- Bridget Quinn * Hyperallergic *
With House of Secrets, Allison Levy presents an enthralling tour through an extraordinary Florentine palazzo. -- Ingrid Rowland, author of 'From Pompeii: The Afterlife of a Roman Town'
In this provocative and lively account, Allison Levy deft ly mingles scholarship and personal history to tell the story of a building that is also the story of a family, a city, a country and a continent over the course of several tumultuous centuries. -- David Leavitt, author of 'Florence, A Delicate Case'
With the delicious happenstance of securing her lodging in a grand Renaissance Florentine palazzo (otherwise quite off limits to the public), the author weaves together a lively -dare one say sexy?- personal narrative with a chronicle of several hundred years in the life of the city's nobility. -- Leonard Barkan, author of 'Michelangelo: A Life on Paper'
Art Historian Allison Levy has writt en a delightful, fascinating, and riveting yarn about a palazzo, a family, and a city across time. -- Jenny McPhee, author and translator of 'Natalia Ginzburg's Family Lexicon'
The story she weaves is rich in history and anecdote, scholarly erudition and private experiences. The resulting book is as layered and multi-dimensional as the palazzo itself. -- Marina Belozerskaya, author of 'The Medici Giraffe'
Book Information
ISBN 9781788317559
Author Allison Levy
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Tauris Parke
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Weight(grams) 226g
