Customer Reviews

April Blood: Florence and the Plot against the Medici

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was astonished to see that somebody gave this book such a low review; I'm a professional historian and can firmly say this is the best history book I've read this year. In this work, Martines has performed a very important service: he has to some extent "debunked" the myth of the Medici as sweet, kind, gentle art patrons who rule by love over their equals. By focussing on the Pazzi conspiracy to murder the two leading Medici in 1478, Martines has addressed head-on the question of why so many people wanted to murder them, and how Lorenzo consolidated his position in the wake of the assassination plot. It's a dark, bloody, and very convincing Renaissance that Martines portrays, interweaving the Medici family with the Florentine and Italian political world of the time. The book is brilliantly written; after reading a library copy, I went and bought my own because I know I'll be visiting it again and again.

This is the story about the Pazzi Conspiracy against the Medici dictatorship in renaissance Florence. The story is riveting, full of facts, and, on the whole, well told. The author gives a brief history of the families involved and of the florentine political system to give us a background to the conspiracy. The assault in the cathedral and the following bloodbath is told in clear and vivid detail. So far the book is great, just great. Then it is as if the author ran out of time! The Pazzi War and what happened to the Pazzi family members that did not die is described in an almost perfunctory way. The lives of Lorenzo's sons, daughters, and other surviving relatives are dealt with in just a few lines. Maybe the author expects the reader to get that information in more general histories of the Italian Rennaisance.

This book tells the story of the 1478 plot to assassinate the Medici brothers in Renaissance Florence in what was essentially a failed coup d'etat. After the first chapter summarizes the key facts, the balance of the book is spent providing the context surrounding the event. In so doing, the author describes the politics of Florence, its economy, and its place in Italy and southern Europe. He details how the wealthiest familties interacted, formed alliances through marriage and competed for power. He describes the conspirators in Florence, as well as in the surrounding city-states and the highest levels of the Catholic Church. While this should make a fascinating story, this book fails to tell it. So many extraneous and incidental facts and characters are detailed after the best parts of the story have already been revealed that I had difficulty sustaining interest and labored to finish the book.

The Renaissance in Florence was the pinnacle of one of the great cities of the World. Lorenzo di Medici was the central figure of the time. He employed Leonardo di Vinci, he adopted Michelangelo, his son and nephew became pope, and his family ruled in and around Tuscany for over a hundred years. If you are looking for this incredible story, look elsewhere--you will not find it in April Blood.

I must agree with the other reviewers who found the book a tough go. The actual narrative of the plot itself takes up very little of the book. The majority of the text deals with the complex interweave of family politics in Renaissance Italy, but much of it seems tangential. Engrossing it certainly is not. It's too bad, as I had high hopes for the book. I wonder if some of the other reviewers actually read the same book that I had.

I had read a little about Lorenzo and a lot about the Medici, so it was nice to come upon a book that focuses on the Medici and how Lorenzo the Magnificent ruled. Martines has done a superb job in portraying the facts behind the Pazzi Conspiracy.

It starts off a little slow, leaving the reader to wonder when the author would ever get to the actual conspiracy, but when he does everything comes together. By the time the book ends you are left with both sympathy and hatred for both the Pazzi and the Medici. Sympathy because of the savage way they were attacked, following up with the nod of approval of the reprisals Lorenzo took (although they were a bit extreme). And hatred for the tyranny that Lorenzo and his house brought down upon the republic of Florence. The same for the Pazzi, for they were suppressed, and thus sympathy was on their side, but the savage destruction they wrought upon their own family and others in order to satisfy their lust for power leaves a distaste in their wake.

There is some "filler", it would seem at a quick glance, but when delved in deeper it is evident that these "filler" chapters do in fact help our understanding of why and how the Pazzi Conspiracy happened. The profile chapters, although they don't touch upon the conspiracy directly, add weight to the notion and feeling that went behind the affronted patricians of Florentine society. The political chapters added substance and understanding to the why and how of the reasons behind the conspiracy. So the "filler" chapters do in fact add a lot to the telling of this dramatic time in history.

All sides were represented, which makes this a very well rounded history book. I think that the Pazzi Conspiracy should be required reading for history students, and for amateurs alike, and April Blood would be a great starting point. My only complaint is that I wish Martines would have documented his sources better, rather than the more difficult to navigate way that he did.

All in all, a definite recommend.

5 stars.

Lauro Martines focuses on one of the defining moments of the Renaissance -- the failed assassination attempt on Lorenzo de Medici by his rivals, the Pazzi family, in the heavily researched "April Blood." In doing so, Martines hopes to balance the scales of history, which he sees as unfairly tilted to the pro-Medici side.

Before launching into the actual assassination attempt, Martines paints a magnificently detailed picture of life in 15th century Florence, including Florence's political relationship with the other states of Italy and the Pope, the astounding history of the House of Medici, and even some folk tales that give insight into the Renaissance Florentine character. Too many histories attempt to view the past through the modern lens -- Martines bends over backwards providing his context, and he does so exceedingly well.

Martines describes the capricious nature of Florentine taxation, which the Medici (particularly under the leadership of Lorenzo) manipulated to their benefit and their foes' sorrow. Martines also describes the Florentine fixation on assassination, state-sanctioned capital punishment, and even the desecretation of a dead body as outgrowths of the Florentine character. Through this description, we begin to see that the attempt to assassinate Lorenzo should not be surprising.

Florence, as a republic, did not cherish the tyranny of a few, much less one man. In an effort to generate security for his family, Lorenzo made the Medici's position more precarious by raising up inadequate men at the expense of the other families who had a genuine claim to be civic leaders. Among the most offended were the Pazzi, a famous, wealthy family in their own right, and a threat to the Medici.

This threat particularly came to a boil as Lorenzo's relationship with the Pope deteriorated (the Pope was a much more earthly leader in those days), and the Pazzi eagerly stepped into the void.

Weaving a complex web of storylines, Martines' does not tell his tale in a straight chronological fashion, and his occasional stops and starts interfere with the flow of his narrative somewhat. This, of course, is the difficult task when providing an abundance of context -- when painting the picture one must move all over the canvas rather than in a straight line.

But this is a minor criticism. Martines tells a complex story about the Pazzi's boiling frustration, the assassination attempt, and the Medici's horrible retribution -- which Martines claims was so harsh as to unduly burden the Medici clan in the future. Martines does not tell a rousing tale, but rather one of melancholy resignation -- he has an obvious affection for Florence of that period, and it is frustrating to see what became of it in the wake of the Pazzi's attempt to axe Lorenzo.

In seeking to balance the scales, which so many pro-Medici hacks (and the Medici themselves) insisted on tipping after the attempt, Martines does a valuable service. There are usually two sides to every story, and Lorenzo has had his side out there by itself for too long.

This book was a disappointment. Although it is supposed to concentrate on the plot surrounding the April 1478 attempt to murder Lorenzo and Giuliano de Medici, in reality it wanders off into many other areas and loses focus. In one chapter, the author gives detailed information about the finances of the Pazzi family (the family behind the conspiracy to kill the two Medici brothers). In another chapter, Professor Martines quotes extensively from the personal letters of matriarchs of some of the leading Florentine families, regarding their attempts at matrimonial matchmaking. The author discusses other plots and political murders, unrelated to the 1478 attack, and which did not occur in Florence. He has three chapters in which he provides profiles of three people, none of whom had any connection to the 1478 plot. Professor Martines also attempts to explore the serpentine world of 15th century Italian realpolitik. We learn about the shifting alliances and chessboard maneuverings involving Florence, Milan, Genoa, Venice, the Papal States, etc. The names of many people are introduced. Quite a few are not central to the story. Bringing them into the tale serves to confuse rather than to enlighten. I still am giving the book three stars because it is worth reading. If you want to know the bare facts about who was behind the plot and why they wanted the Medici family out of power and what actions Lorenzo took against the plotters after he survived the attack, those facts are here. But because of the lack of focus and the questionable decision to include so much peripheral material, the experience of reading this book is a lot less satisfying than it could, and should, have been. It's sort of like being hungry for a nice, thick, juicy steak but after you cut away all of the fat you find yourself with just a few decent bits of meat. It's hardly worth the effort.

April Blood is a realistic portrait of a dynamic, intensely brutal, intensely beautiful age. The author's sharp eye brings this intimate, public world pressing in around us.

The assassination attempt on Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici in 1478 that successfully claimed Lorenzo's younger brother and is known as the Pazzi Conspiracy ultimately, through the ensuing drama, makes Lorenzo seem more real and three dimensional. We witness the astonishing animal vigour with which the Medici faction spring upon Florence. Murderous revenge, confiscations and proscriptions were quickly and efficiently carried out. As Medici confidence in their retainment of power grows, so the grip of revenge tightens. The bitter pill swallowed during the Pazzi War that followed would not be easily forgotten, Florence was on its knees, its finances in ruins. Through the banker, merchant paper trail of the Pazzi family and seizure of their assets by the Medici, Martines pieces together an overview of fifteenth century high finance.

The urbane mask of Il Magnifico is torn from his face in this riveting account, giving us in the final analysis a greater appreciation of his character and of the times he lived in.

PROS: Well written by an expert on the subject. Broad approach; very informative. Extra (pictures, maps, family trees).

CONS: Disjointed. Biased.

This is a great book and some of the reviews on here simply do not do it justice. Of course, some reservations are understandable. The narrative does not flow chronologically, which can be annoying at times. Martines admits early on that he does not view Lorenzo di Medici favorably and this shows every now and then. He does go into great details but leaves certain other things out. Whatever the author's shortcomings though, this is a very interesting book that provides tremendous insight into a defining period of history. It is not ideal for someone unfamiliar with the Medici, although such people would still benefit from reading it.
Martines tells the tale of the famous Pazzi conspiracy as well as its causes and effects. He also goes to great lengths to put everything into the proper context; many reviewers seemed to have misrepresented this as him going off onto irrelevant topics. The profile chapters for example should not be dismissed in any way - they help the reader to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the setting. Chapter 8 is also a great one, although it is not for the squeamish.
For those unfamiliar with Renaissance Florence, the Medici family were extremely powerful and influential, eventually ascending to the papacy (twice). Lorenzo is sometimes considered to have been ruling at the peak of Medici power; he was a patron to some of the finest artists the world has known including Michelangelo, Botticelli, and Da Vinci. Sadly this book does not delve into much art history or the family's banking legacy, (which Lorenzo effectively squandered away).
The conspiracy itself is addressed, but the Medici response is given just as much attention if not more so. In fact, the sections on the aftermath of that Sunday morning are some of the best in the book. I won't go into details for those who haven't read it yet...
Again, this book is very well written. The chapters are not very long and they are divided into sub-sections that make it all an easy and quick read. I recommend it highly, especially for anyone who has some prior knowledge of the Medici and Renaissance Florence. If the author were not biased at times (it is not that bad) and some gaps were filled I would have given it five stars. It's a good read, but it's not perfect. If you're reading this review, then you should read the book.

I picked this book up for my recent trip to Florence. Turned out to be a great choice. Easy to read and informative, April Blood tells the story of the Medici, the Pazzi, international banking and the politics, economy and society of Renaissance Florence. The plot itself and the events leading up to it are so intriguing that I'm surprised it has not yet been the subject of a movie -- this is a story that could be adapted straight from the pages of history, without embellishment and still appeal to a wide audience.

As a casual reader of history, I can't comment on the historical content of April Blood, except to say that it presents a seemingly balanced view of its subjects. The book includes maps of Florence and Europe, a thorough index, family trees, and pictures of portraits and sculptures (most of which are currently on display at the Uffizi). A few passages are awkwardly worded (English is not the author's first language), but overall the book is an intersting and fun read.