Out of Italy : two centuries of world domination and demise

From the author of Memory and the Mediterranean, a comprehensive history of the Italian city states from 1450 to 1650. In the fifteenth century, even before the city states of the Apennine Peninsula began to coalesce into what would become, several centuries later, a nation, "Italy" exerted enormous influence over all of Europe and throughout the Mediterranean. Its cultural, economic, and political dominance is utterly astonishing and unique in world history. Viewing the Italy?the many Italies?of that time through the lens of today allows us to gather a fragmented, multi-faceted, and seemingly contradictory history into a single unifying narrative that speaks to our current reality as much as it does to a specific historical period. This is what the acclaimed French historian, Fernand Braudel, achieves here. He brings to life the two extraordinary centuries that span the Renaissance, Mannerism, and the Baroque and analyzes the complex interaction between art, science, politics, and commerce during Italy's extraordinary cultural flowering. "By 1450, all of Europe and the Mediterranean were influenced by the teachings, the economies and the intellect of Italy. Its predominance had been achieved through a long history of effort, patience and strategic victories. How did Italy, or rather a handful of Italian cities, a few men all told, succeed in acquiring and maintaining a position of dominance vis-à-vis Byzantium, Islam, and western Europe? In this fascinating and insightful study, Fernand Braudel, one of the most distinguished historians of our time, examines the many-sided phenomenon of greatness that characterized Italy during the two centuries spanning the Renaissance, Mannerism, and the Baroque -- dazzling, multicoloured Italy, whose radiance shone all over Europe. Braudel perceptively describes the extent, nature and force of Italian influence abroad, analyses the complex interaction between art, science, politics and commerce, and proposes a paradigm of Italy's extraordinary cultural flowering. This is the first English translation of Braudel's now-classic text. The volume is beautifully designed and illustrated with works by Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Ghirlandai, van Eyck, Rubens, Caron, and Poussin. It is an invaluable work for students of Italian history who will find that their understanding of Italian culture has been immeasurably enriched."--Jacket