JAMES R. LINDOW, THE RENAISSANCE PALACE IN FLORENCE. MAGNIFICENCE AND SPLENDOUR IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY ITALY. Ed. Ashgate Publishing Ltd., Aldershot-Burlington VT 2007

TOMASZ DZIUBECKI

The book of James R. Lindow on the Renaissance palaces in Florence analyses them in the wide context of the idea of magnificence. The author starts with a presentation of understanding the idea in the literature of the Antiquity and Middle Ages, to show furthermore its functioning in the culture of the 15th century. An important role played the texts of Aritotles and Cicero, as well as the treatise on architecture of Vitruvius. In Florence a number of comentaries based on the antique ideas Lindow traced in the texts of e.g. Leonardo Bruni o Alberti. The author alanyses also the sources, both published and not published, including diaries, where can be found some indications how the magnificence is related to the architecture of the palaces. Lindow indicated the interrelations between the facades, their decorations (like coats of arms) and the disposition and decoration of the interiors, thus showing the homogenity of their architecture. The palaces functioned also as public ceremonial spaces, being an important factor of creating the image of Florence as a city of both beauty and political power.