The Light of Italy

'Jane Stevenson shows us the man - warts, battle scars, collapsed vertebrae and all - behind the myth of one of the most fascinating characters in Renaissance Italy ... Painstakingly researched and yet unfailingly readable' -- Ross King 'An insight into one of Renaissance Italy's most glamorous courts. The lords of Urbino are not nearly so well-known as the Medici or Borgias, but their architectural and art patronage, and book-collecting, deserve to be recognised - as do their military skills and bloodthirsty intrigues' -- Catherine Fletcher 'In a narrative matching her book's sumptuous 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 'A fabulous merging of seductive design with bravura scholarship' -- Alexandra Harris