In this history of Florence, distinguished historian John Najemy discusses all the major developments in Florentine history from 1200 to 1575.

• Captures Florence's transformation from a medieval commune into an aristocratic republic, territorial state, and monarchy
• Weaves together intellectual, cultural, social, economic, religious, and political developments
• Academically rigorous yet accessible and appealing to the general reader
• Likely to become the standard work on Renaissance Florence for years to come

John M. Najemy is Professor of History at Cornell University and the author of Between Friends: Discourses of Power and Desire in the Machiavelli-Vettori Letters of 1513–1515 (1993) and Corporatism and Consensus in Florentine Electoral Politics, 1280–1400 (1982). For the former he won the Marraro Prize of the Society for Italian Historical Studies and for the latter the Marraro Prize of the American Historical Association. He has also edited Italy in the Age of the Renaissance, 1300–1550 (2004).