Public Life in Renaissance Florence (Cornell Paperbacks)
"A remarkable book. . . . One of the most original and absorbing to appear for some time. . . . In Trexler's hands old clues and apparently antiquarian learning have been transformed into a powerful new vision of society in Florence (and, by implication, in other late medieval urban communities). . . . An enviable achievement. Few academic historians have it in them to write a book such as Public Life, at once a creative whole (one which will outlive many of its particular propositions) and a rare stimulus to further research."—Journal of Modern History"Immensely stimulating and useful. . . . A rich mine of ritual lore with a practicality inexhaustible vein of arresting insights on the role of ceremony in a community. . . . Trexler brings to his ritual actors a forceful constructive and critical intelligence, extraordinary resources of imagination and energy, and a wonderfully perceptive and committed appreciation for both the creative play and the moral purposefulness of their performances."—Art Bulletin