The Medici: Power, Money, and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance

The Medici initially came to prominence through their banking. At the time, usury was still forbidden by the Catholic church. They were able to come up with rationale to justify it. They became involved loaning money to many key players in Europe and were smart enough to avoid loaning money to those that would not repay (such as Monarchs). They had huge amounts of money and supported many of the key figures of the renaissance. They later parlayed their influence into political control and provided four popes and monarchs.

Machiavelli was involved with their political endeavors (though they would often not give him credit.) Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci both had commissions from the Medicis. They were behind almost all of what we consider to be the renaissance in Florence.

Borges in 90 Minutes

I need to read more Borges. He loved to "mock" literature by creating some of the major works. I love the idea of creating a response or a summary to fictional work. Just get to the point instead of wasting time with all the work. This short work has piqued my interested to seek out more of Borges' works.

The Venetians: A New History: From Marco Polo to Casanova

 Venice is now a tourist destination. However, it only is attractive because of the grand past history. It was a city of traders that grew to loosely control a significant empire. As maritime traders, they were more interested in trade routes than actual control. There was dedication to to arts and science as well as debauchery. (It was a giant port town after all.)

I found The Venetians to read like a much too long encyclopedia article. The book covered many key figures in the history of Venice, but the cohesive narrative glue tying it together was lacking. It was hard to fit all the details together in a mental map of the history of Venice.