The Florentines: From Dante to Galileo: The Transformation of Western Civilization

Paul Strathern

Aug 2021 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Roger Clark

About this audiobook

A sweeping and magisterial four-hundred-year history of both the city and the people who gave birth to the Renaissance. Between the birth of Dante in 1265 and the death of Galileo in 1642, something happened that transformed the entire culture of western civilization. Painting, sculpture, and architecture would all visibly change in such a striking fashion that there could be no going back on what had taken place. Likewise, the thought and self-conception of humanity would take on a completely new aspect. Sciences would be born-or emerge in an entirely new guise. The ideas that broke this mold began, and continued to flourish, in the city of Florence in northern central Italy. These ideas, which placed an increasing emphasis on the development of our common humanity-rather than other-worldly spirituality-coalesced in what came to be known as humanism. This philosophy and its new ideas would eventually spread across Italy, yet wherever they took hold they would retain an element essential to their origin. And as they spread further across Europe, this element would remain.

About the author

Paul Strathern is a Somerset Maugham Prize-winning novelist and the author of many nonfiction titles, including The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior; Napoleon in Egypt; and Mendeleyev's Dream, which was short-listed for the Aventis Prize. Paul lives in England.

Roger Clark is a professional actor and voice-over artist who lives in New York City. He has performed in over forty-five countries.