The iDC's City Library

The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found

2009-02-06T02:51:00.000-08:00

by Mary Beard

Pompeii is the most famous archaeological site in the world, visited by more than two million people each year. Yet it is also one of the most puzzling, with an intriguing and sometimes violent history, from the sixth century BCE to the present day.

Destroyed by Vesuvius in 79 CE, the ruins of Pompeii offer the best evidence we have of life in the Roman Empire. But the eruptions are only part of the story. In The Fires of Vesuvius, acclaimed historian Mary Beard makes sense of the remains. She explores what kind of town it was—more like Calcutta or the Costa del Sol?—and what it can tell us about “ordinary” life there.

From sex to politics, food to religion, slavery to literacy, Beard offers us the big picture even as she takes us close enough to the past to smell the bad breath and see the intestinal tapeworms of the inhabitants of the lost city. She resurrects the Temple of Isis as a testament to ancient multiculturalism. At the Suburban Baths we go from communal bathing to hygiene to erotica.

Greeks & Romans Bearing Gifts

2009-02-06T02:49:00.000-08:00

by Carl J. Richard

This lively and engaging book is the only popular work to explore the profound impact of Ancient Greece and Rome on the founding fathers.

Recounting the stirring stories the founders encountered in their favorite histories of Greece and Rome, renowned scholar Carl J. Richard explores what they learned from these vivid tales and how they applied these lessons to their own heroic quest to win American independence and establish a durable republic.

A New Archaeological Guidebook to Rome

2009-02-06T02:41:00.000-08:00

by Prof. Filippo Coarelli

For scholars of ancient Rome, Prof. Filippo Coarelli, Professor of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the University of Perugia, has always been the go-to man when it comes to understanding the ancient city and its monuments.

Now, this superb guide at last brings Coarelli's work to a wide, English-language audience. Conveniently organized by walking tours and illustrated throughout with clear maps, drawings, and plans, Rome and Environs: An Archaeological Guide covers all of the city's ancient sites, and, unlike most other guides, now includes the major monuments in a large area outside Rome proper but within easy reach, such as Ostia Antica, Palestrina, Tivoli, and the many areas of interest along the ancient Roman roads. An essential resource for tourists interested in a deeper understanding of Rome's classical remains, it is also the ideal book for students and scholars approaching the ancient history of one of the world's most fascinating cities.

Covers all the major sites including the Capitoline, the Roman Forum and the Imperial Fora, the Palatine Hill, the Valley of the Colosseum, the Esquiline, the Caelian, the Quirinal, and the Campus Martius.

Two separate chapters discuss important clusters of sites-one on the area surrounding Circus Maximus and the other in the vicinity of the Trastevere, including the Aventine and the Vatican.

Additional chapters cover the city walls and the aqueducts.

Features 189 maps, drawings, and diagrams; an appendix on building materials and techniques; and an extensive bibliography.

ROME

2007-01-10T08:34:00.000-08:00

produced by HBO & BBC

Family dysfunction. Treachery. Betrayal. Coarse profanity. Brutal violence. Graphic sex. No, it's not the Sopranos, it's ROME, HBO's madly ambitious series that bloodily spatters the glory of Rome. Set in 52 BC (Before Cable), Rome charts the dramatic shifts in the balance of power between former friends Pompey Magnus, leader of the Senate, and Julius Caesar, whose imminent return after eight years to Rome after conquering the Gauls, has the ruling class up in arms.

At the heart of Rome is the odd couple friendship between two soldiers who fortuitously become heroes of the people. Lucius Vorenus is married, honorable, and steadfast. Titus PUllo is an amoral rogue whose philosophy is best summed up, "I kill my enemies, take their gold, and enjoy their women."

-- from Amazon.com

Imperium

2007-01-10T08:29:00.000-08:00

by Robert Harris

Bestselling British author Harris (Pompeii; Engima) returns to ancient Rome for this entertaining and enlightening novel of Marcus Cicero's rise to power. Narrated by a household slave named Tiro, who actually served as Cicero's "confidential secretary" for 36 years, this fictional biography follows the statesman and orator from his early career as an outsider - a "new man" from the provinces - to his election to the consulship, Rome's highest office, in 64 BC. Loathed by the aristocrats, Cicero lived by his wits in a tireless quest for imperium - the ultimate power of life and death - and achieved "his life's ambition" after uncovering a plot by Marcus Crassus and Julius Caesar to rig the elections and seize control of the government.

Harris's description of Rome's labyrinthine, and sometimes deadly political scene is fascinating and instructive, and the action is relentless.

-- from Publisher's Weekly

The Medici Conspiracy

2007-01-10T08:24:00.000-08:00

by Peter Watson & Cecelia Todeschini

The sense of wonder experienced when contemplating the beauty and miraculous survival of an ancient vase will be profoundly altered by this vigorous expose of criminal antiquities dealing. Authors Watson & Todeschini chronicle the astonishing exploits of Giacomo Medici, a nefarious Italian antiquities dealer and mastermind, as they accompany Colonel Roberto Conforti, head of the Carabinieri Art Squad, over the course of a complicated eight-year investigation.

Writing with the zest and seduction of the finest crime novelists, Watson and Todeschini meticulously explicate every phase of Conforti's operation as he and his dedicated agents gradually unveil a well-organized circle of tomb raiders, smugglers, dealers, and, most shockingly, their scandalously complicit high-profile customers, including renowned collectors, premier acutions houses, and world-class institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

--from Booklist

Pagan Holiday

2007-01-10T08:21:00.000-08:00

by Tony Perrottet

The ancient Romans were responsible for many remarkable achievements - Roman numerals, straight roads - but one of their lesser-known contributions was the creation of the tourist industry.

The first people in history to enjoy safe and easy travel (well, relatively safe and easy travel), Romans embarked on the original Grand Tour, journeying from the lost city of Troy to the Acropolis, from the Colossus at Rhodes to Egypt, and on the obligatory Nile cruise. Intrigued by the possibility of re-creating the tour, Perrottet sets off to discover life as an ancient Roman and the result is this lively blend of fascinating historical anecdotes, hilarious personal encounters, and vivid portraits of the Roman Empire in all its complexity and wonder.

Augustus: the Life of Rome's First Emperor

2007-01-10T08:17:00.000-08:00

by Anthony Everitt

He found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble. As Rome's first emperor, Augustus transformed the unruly Republic into the greatest empire the world had ever seen. His consolidation and expansion of Roman power two thousand years ago laid the foundations for all of Western history to follow.

Yet, despite Augustus's accomplishments, very few biographers have concentrated on the man himself, instead choosing to chronicle the age in which he lived. Here, Anthony Everitt, the bestselling author of Cicero, gives a spellbinding and intimate account of his illustrious subject.

Roman Fever & Other Stories

2007-01-10T08:14:00.000-08:00

by Edith Wharton

First published in 1934, "Roman Fever" was one of the last short stories that Edith Wharton wrote. At first glance, it seems to be little more than a tale about the nostalgic remembrances of two middle-aged women revisiting Rome. But, as Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley pass an afternoon on a terrace overlooking the ruins of the Roman Forum and the Palatine, their conversation reveals that their long friendship has been filled with rivalry and animosity - and that each has hidden an important secret from the other. It's no accident that Wharton places her characters in Rome. As the two women gaze across the Eternal City's most alluring collection of ruins, and as they discover each other's secrets, the very foundations of their lives crumble

Vino Italiano

2007-01-10T08:08:00.000-08:00

By Joseph Bastianich & David Lynch

Italy produces more wine than any other nation and consumes more wine per capita than any other place on earth. It's no wonder one needs a guide, and this is the one you should buy - whether you're sipping vino italiano in Rome or in the comfort of your own living room.

One reviewer says:

Vino Italiano is a difficult book to describe. It's part wine guide, part travelogue, part cookbook, and part cultural history. It's a love song to Italy and Italian wine that has the flavor of a coffee table book, but without the color plates and oversize format. It's a reference work and a highly personal account of a subject the authors know well and enjoy sharing. In short, it's a classic.

Basilica. The Splendor and the Scandal: Building St. Peter's

2006-07-15T05:48:00.000-07:00

After his election to the Papal throne in 1503, Pope Julius II made a radical decision. He decided to tear down and to rebuild the 1200 year old basilica that stood atop the grave of St. Peter in Rome. Julius ordered his favored architect, Bramante, to design a glorious new church, one which would e a reflection of the Rome's power as the center of the Christian church, and one which would be large enough and grand enough to rival the ancient ruins that littered the city of Rome.

The ambitious project proceeded rapidly. In April of 1506, an elderly but fiesty Julius climbed into the foundation trench of the projected church and deposited there his own medallions - testimony to his role as instigator of the supersized project. Little did Julius know that it would be a century and a half before new St. Peter's was completed, and that in the meantime, the problem of funding the Basilica would provoke the Protestant Reformation, threatening the power of the Roman Church.

In a book that reads like a nonfiction novel, R.A. Scotti recounts this longest of building projects. On the pages of Basilica, historical characters, from Bramante to Bernini and from Pope Julius II to Pope Alexander VII spring to life. The excitement of the new project, the scandalous amount of money spent on the church, and the complications faced by its engineers are but a few of the sub-themes that run throughout the pages of this fascinating work.

The Lost Painting

2006-03-14T11:31:00.000-08:00

Jonathan Harr's new book, The Lost Painting, comes at a time when Caravaggio's popularity has reached an all time height. This non-fiction account of the search for a lost Caravaggio painting is set in Rome and Dublin, and features intrepid art historians and art conservators who dedicate their lives to the search for a lost masterpiece.

The art-historical stars of the book are no Robert Langdons (the star of Dan Brown's bestselling DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons), but the book operates in a similar manner, taking its reader through an intellectual labyrinth that ultimately leads to the rediscovery of the lost Caravaggio.

Along the way, readers learn much about Caravaggio's life, his career, and his particular brand of painting. The book provides a great short course in the art of Caravaggio, sure to make you want to revisit all his paintings the next time you're in Rome.

Weight: the Myth of Atlas and Heracles

2006-02-09T09:30:00.000-08:00

by Jeanette Winterson

The publisher Canongate has begun a new book series, The Myths, asking contemporary authors to retell ancient mythological stories. Among the first volumes published in the Myths series is Weight: the Myth of Atlas and Heracles by Jeanette Winterson. It's a short book - some 150 pages - with a heavy topic.

Winterson tells the story of Heracles: his godly father Zeus, his mortal mother Alcmene, the wrath of Zeus's consort Hera, the divinely provoked insanity that causes Heracles to kill his wife and children, and the twelve impossible tasks he must do to atone for the murder of his family.

To complete the eleventh task, Heracles must travel to the end of the world and steal the Apples of Hesperades from a fruit tree belonging to his enemy, Hera. He arrives to find that the apples are guarded by Ladon, a hundred-headed snake, and he enlists the help of Atlas, a Titan commissioned with the task of shouldering the world.

Though the story is a timeless one, Winterson gives her characters modern psychologies. In their quest for the Apples of Hesperides, Heracles and Atlas come to consider the paths that their lives have taken:

Which is what [Heracles] said to Atlas when they ate together under a wedge of stars.
"Why are we doing this, mate?"
"Doing what?"
"You're holding up the Kosmos and I'm spending twelve years clobbering snakes and theiving fruit. The only good time was chasing Hippolyte, Queen of the Amazons, and she didn't want anything to do with me when I caught her...."
"What happened to Hippolyte?"
"I killed her of course."
"I knew her once."
"Sorry mate."
There was a pause. Atlas was silent. Heracles drank another skinful of wine. He didn't want to think. Thinking was like a hornet. It was outside his head buzzing at him.
"What I mean to say, Atlas, is why?"
"There is no why," said Atlas.
"That's just the trouble," said Heracles.
"There is why, here, or here, or here," and he started hitting the side of his head, trying to squash the droning thought.
Atlas said -
"Bent under the world like this, I hear all the business of men, and the more I hear them questioning their lot, the more I know how futile it is. I hear them plan for tomorrow and die during the night. I hear a woman groaning in labor and her child is stillborn. I hear the terror of the captured man, and suddenly he is set free. I hear a merchangt traveling home from the coast with all his goods, and robbers set upon him and take all he has. There is no why. There is only the will of the gods and a man's fate."
"I'm the strongest man in the world," said Heracles.
"Except for me," said Atlas.
"And I'm not free...."
"There is no such thing as freedom," said Atlas. "Freedom is a country that does not exist."
"It's home," said Heracles. "If home is where you want to be."

Winterson's version of the Atlas and Heracles story is chock-full of such witty and probing passages. Her mythological superheroes find ways to liberate both mind and body from the tasks that life has given to them. In this way, the story becomes a modern one, full of questions about why we do the things we do.

Italian Easy from London's River Cafe

2006-02-09T09:25:00.000-08:00

Italian food has never been so sophisticated and so simple as it is when presented by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, owners of London’s esteemed River Cafe. This is the fifth “River Cafe” cookbook - the series has a cult-like following - and if you haven’t used these cookbooks yet, once you do you’ll probably want to own them all.

Italian Easy is gloriously illustrated and beautifully designed. Just paging through the book will leave your mouth watering. Gray and Rogers have made an industry of cooking fresh ingredients in uncomplicated ways that bring out their finest, richest tastes. If you live in a place where you can get high quality, seasonal, fresh fruits and vegetables as well as fresh fish and good meat, then the River Cafe recipes will help you make those things taste even better than they already do.

Other cookbooks in the River Cafe series have recipes that are a bit more complicated than those in Italian Easy. But the simple preparations leave out nothing in flavor, and they mean that you’ll have more time to to sit around the table with family and friends because you’ll spend less time in the kitchen.

Return to Glory

2006-02-09T09:24:00.000-08:00

Darkened by centuries of grime and soot, Michelangelo’s paintings in the Sistine Chapel were cleaned in a painstaking process that began in the 1979 and lasted thirteen years - three times longer than it took Michelangleo to paint the ceiling. This 50-minute video documents the laborious cleaning process that brought Michelangelo’s frescoes back to their original glory.

If you’ve ever been curious about the process of restoration - its complications and complexities - than Return to Glory is for you. It provides a close-up look at the processes that were used by art conservators as they sponge-bathed each and every massive figure on the Sistine Ceiling. And it documents exciting discoveries made in the process. Splendidly colored figures formerly hidden by layers of dirt and grime emerge before your eyes.

Likewise, if it’s Michelangelo’s amazing capacity to render the human body that interests you, than this is a documentary film that you won’t want to miss. You can’t get this close to the Sistine Ceiling in a visit to the Vatican Museums, and you can’t begin to see the details that this video highlights - including a figure that bears Michelangelo’s hand print!

Return to Glory is currently out of print, but you’ll find copies in many public and university libraries. And, with a careful search, you’ll discover that there are some used copies floating around the internet.

Nippon Television Network Corporation, 1996. Distributed by CCC of America, Inc.

Michelangelo's Mountain

2006-02-09T09:22:00.000-08:00

Here’s a brand new book that aims to give us the inside view on Michelangelo and his quest for artistic perfection - but this is not a book about the Sistine Chapel ceiling or the Pieta. Rather this book details Michelangelo’s quests for perfect blocks of marble in the quarries of Carrara in Northern Italy. Author Eric Scigliano presents a vivid picture of Michelangelo’s escapades and ordeals in the quarries that produced the marble from which the artist carved every single statue that he ever created.

Michelangelo’s repeated trips to Cararra - some lasting as long as eight months - gave him intimate knowledge of its mountain of marble. He spent his time there choosing the perfect blocks of statuario - marble fit for carving statuary - and supervising their quarrying and their transport to distant locales like Florence and Rome.

In writing this book, Scigliano shows his reader just how difficult and complex the task of quarrying marble was in the Renaissance, and he also demonstrates the extraordinary effort needed to produce the perfect block of marble.

Fortunately this book is not just about the quarries. It also covers the subject of Michelangelo’s scultpural work, with chapters discussing some of the artist’s greatest hits, like the David and the Pieta. Equally spellbinding are Scigliano’s descriptions of the enormous social and political challenges Michelangelo faced throughout his career, and his often troubled relationships with popes, princes, and poets.

The Thieves of Ostia

2006-02-09T09:21:00.000-08:00

If you are trying to find a book that will grab the imagination of your 8, 9, 10 or 11 year old, then the Roman Mystery Series is your answer.

The Thieves of Ostia, by Caroline Lawrence, is the first book her still-growing series, Roman Mysteries. The story takes place in Ostia, ancient Rome’s port (and a place you can still visit today), where Flavia Gemina, daughter of a sea captain; her neighbor, Jonathan; Lupus, a young beggar; and Nubia, an African slave solve the mystery of a slain dog.

The book is fast-paced with lots of action and adventure: Flavia and her companions are chased by a pack of wild dogs, they narrowly escape malicious slave traders, and they discover that their chief suspect has committed suicide by jumping from a lighthouse. It’s enough to keep any young reader turning the pages.

But the book also gives a great overview of daily life in an ancient Roman city with its descriptions of architecture, politics, religion, slave trading, and economics. And, it’s the perfect book to give a young traveler headed to Rome or one who’s already been to the Eterna. Even better, if you’re travelling to Rome with grade-school age children in tow, read them the book and then plan a trip to Ostia Antica - it’s easy to get to by public transportation - so they can see just where Flavia Gemina and her friends lived.

Hadrian's Empire

2006-02-09T09:17:00.000-08:00

Though at first glance this book seems as if it would provide history and analysis of Rome’s great emperor, Hadrian, that’s not the case at all. Rather, Danny Danzinger and Nicholas Purcell have teamed up to produce a book that provides a broad overview of the Roman Empire in the second century AD, under the rule of Hadrian.

Though Hadrian himself does receive a signficiant amount of attention in the book, the authors of Hadrian's Empire most often use aspects of Hadrian's life as stepping-off points for the exploration of broader themes. Thus, there are chapters that cover topics such as the workings of the Roman city, the administration of the Roman Empire, the military, politics, religion, social life, attitudes towards sex, houses and apartments, food, clothing, class differences, and women's role in society.

If you're the kind of person who spends your time in the Roman Forum wishing you knew more about how Romans lived, worked, and played, then this book will satisfy some of your longings, for it will leave you with a much-expanded idea of what life was like in the ancient Roman world.

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling

2006-02-09T09:13:00.000-08:00

By now, Ross King’s blockbuster book, Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling, is well known to many lovers of art and Rome-antics. But, just in case you’ve missed it, we want to remind you that it’s out there and that it’s well worth your time. It provides an excellent and enjoyable overview of the immense task undertaken by Michelangelo when he was commissioned to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Pope Julius II.

It wasn’t Michelangelo’s first encounter with the formidable pontiff. Julius II had already asked Michelangelo to create a colossal tomb for him, then cancelled the project, an act that angered Michelangelo and made him swear never again to work for Julius. It was a promise that couldn’t be kept, however, for in 1508 Julius summoned Michelangelo to Rome and set him on the task of painting the Sistine Ceiling.

As King points out, Michelangelo was perhaps not the most logical choice for this project. His experience as a painter was limited, yet he was to produce a masterpiece that still attracts enormous crowds almost 500 years after its completion. The process by which the ceiling came into being is the subject of King’s book, but
it’s hardly a straight forward art history.

Rather, Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling should be considered to be a history of the Papal Court and its artists, for King aims to give his reader a complete picture of the social context in which Michelangelo worked. As a result, we learn much about the relationship between Michelangelo and the Pope; about the interactions between Michelangelo and the other superstar artists, like Raphael, working for Julius II; about the techniques and processes used by Michelangelo to paint the ceiling; and about the complex relationship that Michelangelo maintained with his family in Florence.

The Colosseum

2006-02-09T09:01:00.000-08:00

In the year 1999, the movie Gladiator reminded millions of people just how spectacular a place Rome’s Colosseum is. It had been decades since the last swords and sandals flick, but Russell Crowe, in the role of a fictional gladiator, Maximus, dramatically won our hearts.

Yet, one wonders. Did it really happen that way? Did the movie provide an accurate portrayal of the gladiatorial games? And was its computer-generated rendition of the Colosseum worth the time (and money) it took to produce it? Now you can judge for yourself.

Classical scholars Keith Hopkins and Mary Beard have just published a pocket-sized history of the Colosseum and the spectacles it hosted. This is a book that shouldn’t be missed by anyone who has found themselves standing in the Colosseum and trying to imagine what it was like to attend the gladiatorial games. Nor should the book be overlooked by those who have shivered with horror when thinking of the carnage and violence that took place in the largest amphitheater in the Roman world.

Beard and Hopkins write for a general audience and their book addresses many aspects of the gladiatorial games and the Colosseum itself. They have chapters that examine the staging of the games, the building of the Colosseum, the careers of gladiators, the social rituals of which the gladiatorial games were a part, and the uncanny attraction that generations of travelers have had to this monument.

Far from dry, this book is an enjoyable and quick read - the perfect length for the plane ride to Rome. “We who are about to die, salute this lovely little book!”

Roman Blood: A Novel of Ancient Rome

2006-02-09T08:49:00.000-08:00

Enjoying HBO’s new Rome series? Then you’ll want to read Steven Saylor’s books too.

Many of us find it easier to get a handle on complex historical eras by approaching them first through fiction and later tackling the labyrinth of historical facts. If that’s your preferred approach, then Steven Saylor’s Rome Sub Rosa series is made to order.

Saylor’s mystery novels are set in the 1C BC and they star Gordianus the Finder as a Roman “detective” with a nose for truth and an uncanny ability to find himself in unusual predicaments. Roman Blood, the first of the ten books in the series, throws Gordianus into cahoots with the young Cicero and takes the reader deep into the political, legal and family arenas of ancient Rome. Rome’s hottest new lawyer, Cicero, is faced with defending a wealthy farmer accused of killing his father. Cicero hires Gordianus to discover what really happened and Saylor gives a lively rendition of Sextus’s trial including Cicero’s defense speech.

Gordianus’s work on the case will win him acclaim and through the course of Saylor’s next nine books, his status in life will rise as he moves from a middle class house on the Esquiline Hill to a noble abode on the Palatine. His adventures will become ever-more exciting too - in subsequent books Gordianus interacts with Rome’s major movers and shakers, including Pompey the Great and Caesar.

The Families Who Made Rome

2005-11-22T08:44:00.000-08:00

Anthony Majanlahti’s book, The Families Who Made Rome: A History and a Guide is simultaneously a social history of Rome’s most noble families and a guidebook that allows you to see Rome in a whole new way. If you’ve ever wandered from Palazzo Barberini to Piazza Colonna or from the Villa Borghese to the Palazzo Medici and wondered who built all these grand palaces, piazzas, and gardens, then this book is for you!

The book begins with an introduction to the “Broken City,” the Rome created by the long Middle Ages, when power struggles and financial woes took their toll on the city that had once been the capital of the Roman Empire. From there, Majanlahti sets out to show us how the magnificent Rome we experience today came into being and he places much of the responsibility for the rejuvination of the city in the hands of its most noble residents - families such as the Colonna, the Della Rovere, the Farnese, the Borghese, and the Barberini.

The book is divided into chapters that focus on the architectural and artistic achievements of a particular family. These chapters make great reading for the armchair traveler, but also serve as an interesting guide for visitors to Rome.

The Genius in the Design: Bernini, Borromini, and the Rivalry that Transformed Rome

2005-11-21T08:41:00.000-08:00

Jake Morrissey’s book, The Genius in the Design, reveals the intense rivalry between two maestri, Gianlorenzo Bernini and his contemporary Francesco Borromini. The two artists were born only a year apart and both achieved success in the art world of seventeenth-century Rome. Though today, Bernini is the perhaps the better-known artist, it would be safe to say that both Bernini and Borromini should be credited with the invention and elaboration of the Roman Baroque style.

Bernini, the savvy courtier, curried the favor of five popes, while the melancholy Borromini, won only the dedication and patronage of two pontiffs. Early in their careers, Borromini and Bernini worked together for a short period of time, however they quickly went their separate ways and developed two entirely different means of expressing similar Baroque ideas.

This book - which blends a social history of Baroque Rome with the biographies of Bernini and Borromini - explores the
circumstances that brought these artists into a head-to-head competition that transformed Rome into one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, but ultimately ended when Borromini took his own life.

The Pope's Daughter: the Extraordinary Life of Felice della Rovere

2005-11-21T08:36:00.000-08:00

Everyone at the IDC is talking about Caroline Murphy’s book, The Pope’s Daughter: The Extraordinary Life of Felice Della Rovere.

The book chronicles the life of Felice, daugher of Pope Julius II who reigned from 1503-1513. Felice began her life as the illegitimate daughter of Pope-to-be Giuliano della Rovere and a Roman noblewoman, Lucrezia Normanni, in 1483. When Felice was 20 years old, her father was elected to the Papal throne and became Rome’s most powerful Renaissance Pope and an exemplary patron of art. In his decade-long reign, he hired Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel Ceiling, asked Rapahel to paint his private apartments in the Vatican Palace, and commissioned Bramante to design the new St. Peter’s Basilica.

Julius was a formidable man, known for his terribilita, and his daughter Felice inherited much of his political-savvy and determination. Her Papal father married her to a Roman noble of the Orsini family, insuring her an aristocratic standing in Roman society, and she used her status to better her own position in the world and that of her father. As Pope, her father regularly called upon her to negotiate diplomatic agreements about issues that could not properly receive direct Papal attention. And concern with her family legacy led Felice to build a financial empire of her own, making her among the richest and most powerful women on the Italian peninsula.

Not suprisingly, Felice moved in the privileged circles of Italian society, and her biography is a star-studded one, showcasing her interactions with such individuals as Michelangelo, Isabella d’Este, Lucrezia Borgia, and Catherine de Medici.

Besides giving a fascinating account of the life of Felice della Rovere, Murphy’s book demonstrates the extreme creativity of the period in which she lived. Surrounded by humanistic invention of every type - artistic, literary, philosophical, and scientific - Felice took the task of self-fashioning to new heights, gaining levels of power and freedom that were extraordinary for a Renaissance woman.