Siena

'I loved this book. Its narrative is rich, tasty, dramatic and full of surprises, exactly like the astonishing Tuscan city it evokes. Jane Stevenson is not content to stand back and admire Siena's manifold beauties but dwells fascinatingly on its various contexts and after-lives, endlessly alert to the place's singularity within the wider world of Italian history, culture and experience. The whole work, lavishly illustrated, does honour to its theme' -- Jonathan Keates 'Jane Stevenson has written a perfect history on this most beautiful of Italian cities' -- James Stourton 'Informed history with a personal touch. An enchanting intimate and knowledgeable evocation of the history of Siena, from its Etruscan beginnings, through its medieval and renaissance glories and travails, its long rivalry with Florence, to the present-day financial shenanigans of the world's oldest bank, the Monte dei Paschi di Siena' -- Paul Strathern 'In her sumptuously illustrated history of Siena, Jane Stevenson celebrates a proud, hard-working Italian city state, ruled by the church on one side and by bankers, traders and artists on the other... Siena, one of the best-loved cities in the world, has found an ideal chronicler in Stevenson, who brings her history up to fascism under Mussolini' * Spectator * PRAISE FOR THE LIGHT OF ITALY: 'Painstakingly researched and yet unfailingly readable' Ross King. 'An insight into one of Renaissance Italy's most glamorous courts' Catherine Fletcher. 'In a narrative matching her book's sumptious illustrations, Jane Stevenson celebrates Urbino as an essential place of pilgrimage for all lovers of Italian art and literature' Jonathan Keates. 'A fascinating account of the patrons and artists behind the creation of one of Italy's hidden treasures' -- Mary Hollingsworth