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Fire in the City: Savonarola in Renaissance Florence

Author: Lauro Martines
Publisher: Oxford University Press
$30.00 Cloth (336 P.)
ISBN: 9780195177480
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Reviewed by Sarah Buck, Continuations Bibliographer

The Renaissance was not a time of enlightenment. Martines shows in his latest book that anyone professing liberation or enlightenment during the Renaissance must have been a relic of the late Middle Ages, and these relics were rare to find. We see this in the violent mores of Renaissance Florence: mobs marching around town, burning property, torturing people, "silencing" them for expression of their views.

This is a book packed tight with the history of Girolamo Savonarola, the famed monk of Renaissance Florence who motivated the 'bonfire of the vanities.' A Dominican monk, from the order of preachers, Savonarola was the first religious to make use of the printing press. Unfortunately, very little of Savonarola's writing remains extant, but we do know that the printing press was a great vehicle for him to expose the corruption of Pope Sextus IV and the simony among Rome's elite. The author here maintains that no one used the printing press to such a degree until Martin Luther.

Martines explains his role as historian: that there are varying political, social, and cultural aspects that historical figures are born into, and when examining these figures, a balance should be struck that focuses on the character of the historic person apart from the era he is from. It is difficult to know clearly what a person was like, and the author admits this. However, he does well to separate circumstances from character.

Because of his strong views and ability to propagate them to the masses, Savonarola was hated by the powerful people he criticized. Jealousy of his success created more hatred, especially on the part of Pope Alexander VI, who was known to employ assassins. The more followers he gained, the more Savonarola's danger increased, to the point that he had to pass through the streets of Florence with an entourage of armed men.

Savonarola's preaching was intense: dramatic, and quite probably attended by sweeping gestures (like those I imagine Jonathan Edwards to have used). His rhetoric introduced a higher level of vocabulary to the commoners of Florence, and exposed them to the acumen of Logic. His relentless preaching against corruption and wealth, and his urging for every man to be an ascetic, all led to his demise. He was excommunicated, tortured, hanged, and finally burned.

Among the men who listened to his sermons were Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Niccolo Machiavelli. Machiavelli sided with Savonarola's enemies, but was influenced by watching Savonarola's ability to captivate all of Florence and have them believe he was a prophet.

A dense book, this is a delight to anyone interested in Florentine history and valuable for scholars on the subject.