"A. Richard Turner explores the art of Florence in the context of the city's own brilliant personality: Florence as a place whose unique political, social, and physical presence made its art different from any other. Moving chronologically and thematically, he surveys the city's history, its ceremonies, its powerful patrons (the bankers, the guilds, the church), its tensions and rivalries, its Roman heritage, and above all its superb sense of self." The Florentines saw art as more than mere decoration: it was knit into the very fabric of their daily life. Streets and piazzas, painting and sculptures, churches and palaces reflected both a world view and a civic identity. Here we meet the illustrious Lorenzo de Medici, the charismatic religious reformer Savonarola, the courtly poet Poliziano, the mathematician and theorist Alberti. Here we see art in its full cultural context, both high and humble: paintings in the rooms people lived in; altarpieces described in relation to the ceremonies for which they were used; Florence as both setting for art and art object in itself. Adeptly interweaving the close study of individual art works and broader cultural themes, Turner paints a vivid portrait of a remarkable place and time.