The language is too florid, the syntax too literary. For my taste, the narrative is also digressive rather than linear, and I prefer the latter when reading any kind of history. The Medici chapters are the most compelling (perhaps because that's what I imagined I was signing up for at the outset), though even there the figures did not come particularly to life. Despite his own colorful descriptions, the author didn't convince me to care much about Florentine republicanism, likely because the art-history angle is far more sensual, and great authorial agility (which Levey doesn't have) would be required to treat other subject matter with equal style. ( )

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