{"id":46206,"date":"2016-09-04T20:45:59","date_gmt":"2016-09-04T20:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=46206"},"modified":"2017-05-17T15:44:38","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T15:44:38","slug":"the-black-prince-of-florence-the-spectacular-life-and-treacherous-world-of-alessandro-de-medici%ef%bb%bf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=46206","title":{"rendered":"The Black Prince of Florence: The Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro de\u2019 Medici"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/the-black-prince-of-florence-9780190612726?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Black Prince of Florence: The Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro de\u2019 Medici<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oxford University Press<\/a><br \/>\n2016-09-01<br \/>\n336 pages<br \/>\n6-1\/8 x 9-1\/4 inches<br \/>\nHardcover ISBN-13: 9780190612726<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/catherinefletcher.info\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Catherine Fletcher<\/strong><\/a>, Historian, Author, AHRC\/BBC New Generation Thinker 2015<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/the-black-prince-of-florence-9780190612726?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/covers\/pop-up\/9780190612726\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The first-ever biography of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Alessandro_de%27_Medici,_Duke_of_Florence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alessandro de&#8217; Medici<\/a>, arguably the first black head of state<\/li>\n<li>Draws on extensive archival research of first-hand sources<\/li>\n<li>An accessible and dramatic retelling of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Renaissance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Renaissance<\/a> politics and rivalry<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ruler of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Florence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Florence<\/a> for seven bloody years, 1531 to 1537, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Alessandro_de%27_Medici,_Duke_of_Florence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alessandro de&#8217; Medici<\/a> was arguably the first person of color to serve as a head of state in the Western world. Born out of wedlock to a dark-skinned maid and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lorenzo_II_de%27_Medici\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lorenzo de&#8217; Medici<\/a>, he was the last legitimate heir to the line of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lorenzo_de%27_Medici\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lorenzo the Magnificent<\/a>. When Alessandro&#8217;s noble father died of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Syphilis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">syphilis<\/a>, the family looked to him. Groomed for power, he carved a path through the backstabbing world of Italian politics in a time when cardinals, popes, and princes vied for wealth and advantage. By the age of nineteen, he was prince of Florence, inheritor of the legacy of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/House_of_Medici\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">grandest dynasty<\/a> of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Italian_Renaissance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Italian Renaissance<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Alessandro faced down family rivalry and enormous resistance from Florence&#8217;s oligarchs, who called him a womanizer-which he undoubtedly was\u2014and a tyrant. Yet this real-life counterpart to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Niccol%C3%B2_Machiavelli\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Machiavelli&#8217;s<\/a> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Prince\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Prince<\/a><\/em> kept his grip on power until he was assassinated at the age of 26 during a late-night tryst arranged by his scheming cousins. After his death, his brief but colorful reign was criticized by those who had murdered him in a failed attempt to restore the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Republic_of_Florence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Florentine republic<\/a>. For the first time, the true story is told in <em>The Black Prince of Florence<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Catherine Fletcher tells the riveting tale of Alessandro&#8217;s unexpected rise and spectacular fall, unraveling centuries-old mysteries, exposing forgeries, and bringing to life the epic personalities of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/House_of_Medici\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Medicis<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/House_of_Borgia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Borgias<\/a>, and others as they waged sordid campaigns to rise to the top. Drawing on new research and first-hand sources, this biography of a most intriguing <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Renaissance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Renaissance<\/a> figure combines archival scholarship with discussions of race and class that are still relevant today.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Family tree<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Glossary of names<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Timeline<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Maps<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>A note on money<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Prologue<\/li>\n<li>Book One: The Bastard Son<\/li>\n<li>Book Two: The Obedient Nephew<\/li>\n<li>Book Three: The Prince Alone<\/li>\n<li>Afterword: Alessandro&#8217;s Ethnicity<\/li>\n<li><em>Acknowledgements<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Bibliography<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Notes<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Index<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first-ever biography of Alessandro de&#8217; Medici, arguably the first black head of state<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1245,11,28,8,17],"tags":[14795,23309,23310,1797,342],"class_list":["post-46206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography","category-books","category-europe","category-media-archive","category-monographs","tag-alessandro-de-medici","tag-catherine-fletcher","tag-florence","tag-italy","tag-oxford-university-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46206"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53946,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46206\/revisions\/53946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}