Timeless Cities: An Architect's Reflections on Renaissance Italy (Kindle Edition)

by David Mayernik (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A thoughtful, passionate, learned, and unexpected examination of cities past, present, and ideal, written with conviction and humor." -- Ingrid Rowland

"Erudite travelers will enjoy [Mayernik's] thoughtful meditations." -- Chicago Tribune

"You'll never look at a building again without wondering what its meaning is." -- Washington Post

Product Description

For Italian city builders more than a thousand years ago, the urban realm was the great theater where their best aspirations were played out, the place where society said the most substantial things about who they were and what they longed for. In this masterful blend of art and cultural history, architect David Mayernik reveals how the very different cities of Venice, Rome, Florence, Siena, and Pienza were all literally designed to be both models of the mind and images of heaven. Mayernik takes the reader on a journey into the past in Timeless Cities, but he also explains why these city-building ideas remain relevant today. For those travelling on vacation or appreciating the art and architecture of Italy from home, Mayernik helps bring the wonder and beauty of the Renaissance mind a little closer.

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• Print Length: 288 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (August 31, 2003)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B001NEKA4S
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #154,743 in Kindle Store (See Bestsellers in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Journey Across Time and Ideas, September 12, 2003

By	Thomas Rajkovich (Evanston, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Timeless Cities: An Architect's Reflections On Renaissance Italy (Icon Editions) (Hardcover)

Timeless Cities is indeed a wonderful journey, a voyage across time and ideas. The author tells a poetic, scholarly and delightful story of five Italian cities and how they became meaningful and memorable places, remaining so to this day.

For those who have experienced the magical, transforming impact Rome, Florence, Venice, Siena and Pienza have on their visitors, David Mayernik unlocks the richly poetic ideas which are their very essence. An architect and traveler, his writing is filled with the passion of one who truly loves and understands the tradition of those great cities: the tradition of humanism.

For all for whom life is, above all, a cherished series of discoveries and experiences, Mayernik extends a masterful invitation to explore those places which stir our souls and which demonstrate the highest fulfillment of our collective potential for cultural and artistic achievement. He then challenges us to again seek to create cities "through which dance the Muses", cities which are "built Ideas suffused with cultural Memory". Accept his gracious invitation. It is a journey you will treasure.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A memorable lesson, November 6, 2003

By	"nadia_arch03" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Timeless Cities: An Architect's Reflections On Renaissance Italy (Icon Editions) (Hardcover)

Mr. Mayernik transports the reader to the glorious past of Rome, Venice, Florence, Siena, and Pienza; a past in which city builders sought to make their cities into reflections of the perfect heavenly City of God; a past in which every stone, every building, every piazza was an episode of the larger urban narrative that played itself for its citizens as a great "theatre of the mind."

Mr. Mayernik's writing allows us to view the urban mythologies of these places not as History, events frozen in by gone times and no longer capable of speaking to present generations, but as living lessons in city building; he invites his audience to learn the 'language' of these five cities so that we too can build memorable places.