Italy

Between the birth of Dante in 1265 and the death of Galileo in 1642 something happened which completely revolutionized Western civilization. Painting, sculpture and architecture would all visibly change in a striking fashion. Likewise, the thought and...

This book is as captivating as the city itself. Hibbert's gift is weaving political, social and art history into an elegantly readable and marvellously lively whole. The author's book on Florence will also be at once a history and a guide book and will...

A gripping revisionist history that shows how ordinary Italians played a central role in the genocide of Italian Jews during the Second World WarIn this brief history of Italy's role in the Holocaust, Simon Levis Sullam presents an unforgettable account...

A sweeping and comprehensive history of Venice--from its formation in the early Middle Ages to the present day--that traces its evolution as a city, city-state, regional power, and overseas empire. No city stirs the imagination more than Venice. From...

A guide to the wonders of Venice, conveyed by means of an artist's sketchbookMatthew Rice is a long-time observer and illustrator of cities, buildings and all those who inhabit them, with an uncanny ability to express the energy of a place through a few...

* * A Daily Mail Book of the Week * *The sensational story of the rise and fall of one of the most notorious families in history.____________________ 'A wickedly entertaining read' The Times____________________The Borgias have become a byword for evil...

A magisterial work of gripping history, City of Fortune tells the story of the Venetian ascent from lagoon dwellers to the greatest power in the Mediterranean - an epic five hundred year voyage that encompassed crusade and trade, plague, sea battles...

Sculptor, architect, painter, playwright, and scenographer, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) was the last of the great universal artistic geniuses of early modern Italy, placed by both contemporaries and posterity in the same exalted company as Leonardo,...

'This forensic study of the Renaissance banking dynasty conjures up a world of art, literature, philosophy - and brutality' Telegraph 'Likely to become the standard work of reference on the members of the family that dominated Florence' TLS 'A...

Seducer, gambler, necromancer, swindler, swashbuckler, poet, self-made gentleman, bon vivant, Giacomo Casanova was not only the most notorious lover of the Western world, but a supreme story teller. He lived a life stranger than most fictions, and the...

A gripping tale of three crucial battles fought at the end of 1943 as Allied forces approached the Gustav Line in Italy. After repulsing the German counter-attack at Salerno in September 1943, the US Fifth Army and British Eighth Army advanced up the...

Iris Origo, one of the twentieth century's great diarists, was born in England in 1902. As a child, she moved between England, Ireland, Italy and America, never quite belonging anywhere. It was only when she married an Italian man that she came to rest...

The Roman army was the greatest fighting machine the ancient world produced. The Roman Empire depended on soldiers not just to win its wars, defend its frontiers and control the seas but also to act as the engine of the state. Roman legionaries and...

The definitive history of the iconic football club: the glory, the scandal, the stars and its enduring influence on Italian life.Juventus utterly dominates the Italian game. Home to some of the biggest names in sport, it has won title after title, trophy...

An authoritative, richly illustrated history, and affectionate celebration, of Siena, one of the best-loved and most-visited cities in Italy. Occupying a hilltop site in the midst of a vast, undulating landscape, Siena is as much a magnet for...

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'There is no greater sorrow then to recall our times of joy in wretchedness.' Considered one of the greatest medieval poems written in the common...

A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERWaterstone's Book of the Month, 2018Nominated for the 2017 Pen Hessell-TiltmanMail on Sunday's the Best Paperback, 2018A sweeping history of the city of Rome, seen through the eyes of its most significant sackings, from the Gauls...

An essential guide to the strange, sometimes sinister culture of contemporary Italy.When Tobias Jones first travelled to Italy, he expected to discover the pastoral bliss described by centuries of foreign visitors and famous writers. Instead, he...

A guide to the glories of Rome, conveyed by means of an artist's sketchbookMatthew Rice is a long-time observer and illustrator of cities, buildings and all those who inhabit them, with an uncanny ability to express the energy of a place through a few...

Between the `Black Death' in the mid-fourteenth century and the French invasions at the end of the fifteenth, artists such as Masaccio, Donatello, Fra Angelico, and Leonardo, working in the kingdoms, princedoms, and republics of the Italian peninsula,...

'A story told with verve and passion' The Times, Book of the Week'An alternative and engaging biography...accessible and unpretentious' The Telegraph'A stunning portrayal of two of the most powerful women in European history' Tracy Borman'Exciting and...

"None of Venice's innumerable chroniclers have portrayed the Serenissima's character with quite such a combination of the scholarly, the informal and the intimate...Over the years thousands of readers, starting this book, have been relieved to encounter...

In this magnificent vision of Venice, Peter Ackroyd turns his unparalleled skill at evoking place from London and the River Thames, to Italy and the city of myth, mystery and beauty. He leads us through the history of the city, from the first refugees...

In this magnificent vision of Venice, Peter Ackroyd turns his unparalleled skill at evoking place from London and the River Thames, to Italy and the city of myth, mystery and beauty. He leads us through the history of the city, from the first refugees...

In the spring of 1565, a massive fleet of Ottoman ships descended on Malta, a small island centrally located between North Africa and Sicily, home and headquarters of the crusading Knights of St. John and their charismatic Grand Master, Jean de Valette...

Commissario Soneri returns home for a hard-earned autumn holiday, hoping to spend a few days mushroom picking on the slopes of Montelupo. This isolated village relies on the salame factory founded in the post-war years by Palmiro Rodolfi, and now run by...

'Magisterial - an outstanding book that shines a bright light one of the most important, interesting and under-studied cities in European history. A masterpiece.' Peter Frankopan'A wonderful new history of the Mediterranean from the fifth to eighth...

The greatness of Italy's culture and way of life have had a powerful attraction for many generations of visitors. This has created an overwhelming sense that Italy is a fundamentally benign and easy going country. The Force of Destiny, Christopher...

In 1786, when he was already the acknowledged leader of the Sturm und Drang literary movement, Goethe set out on a journey to Italy to fulfil a personal and artistic quest and to find relief from his responsibilities and the agonies of unrequited love...

Rome's oldest known Latin inscription dates from the sixth century BC; the most recent major specimen was mounted in 2006-a span of more than two and a half millennia. Remarkably, many of these inscriptions are still to be found in situ, on the walls,...

'Elegantly written, full of wit and charm, this is travel writing at its very best' Orlando FigesIn the summer of 1849, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italy's legendary revolutionary hero, fled Rome and led 4,000 of his men hundreds of miles through Umbria and...

The resonant ruins of Pompeii are perhaps the most direct route back to the living, breathing world of the ancient Romans. Two million visitors annually now walk the paved streets which re-emerged, miraculously preserved, from their layers of volcanic...

An authoritative, richly illustrated history, and affectionate celebration, of Siena, one of the best-loved and most-visited cities in Italy. Occupying a hilltop site in the midst of a vast, undulating landscape, Siena is as much a magnet for...

*A THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020*'Brilliant and gripping, here is the full true Renaissance in a history of compelling originality and freshness' Simon Sebag MontefioreThe Italian Renaissance shaped Western culture - but it was far stranger and darker...

The first sustained analysis of the cult of the legendary Italian hero Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian revolutionary leader and popular hero, was among the best-known figures of the nineteenth century. This book seeks to examine his life and the making...

'Moorehead paints a wonderfully vivid and moving portrait of the women of the Italian Resistance' MAX HASTINGS, SUNDAY TIMESThe extraordinary story of the courageous women who spearheaded the Italian Resistance during the Second World WarIn the late...

**Formerly published as The Lost Boys**'Remarkable. A powerful, engrossing story of a journey into the heart of darkness and final escape from it' Sunday TimesIn September, 1944, the SS march into a remote Italian castle, arrest a mother and seize her...

The Crime Writers' Association Historical Dagger Winning Author'It's hard to think of a better guide than D. V. Bishop to the brutality and glamour of Renaissance Florence' - Andrew Taylor, bestselling author of The Royal Secret'Fast becoming a serious...

The story of the Renaissance city and palace of Urbino, and the life of the extraordinary man who created it: Federico da Montefeltro. 'Painstakingly researched and yet unfailingly readable' Ross King 'An insight into one of Renaissance Italy's...

In MAFIA REPUBLIC, John Dickie, Professor of Italian Studies at University College, London and author of the international bestsellers COSA NOSTRA and MAFIA BROTHERHOODS, shows how the Italian mafias have grown in power and become more and more...