Preface
DANTE ALIGHIERI, from The Divine Comedy
GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO, from the Decameron
ANTONIO MANETTI, “The Fat Woodworker”
BENEDETTO DEI, “The Prosperity of Florence”
MARSILIO FICINO, from Letters
FRANCESCO GUICCIARDINI, “A Portrait of Lorenzo de’ Medici”
GIORGIO VASARI, from The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects
BENVENUTO CELLINI, from The Autobiography of Benvenuto de Cellini
TOBIAS SMOLLETT, from Travels Through France and Italy
STENDHAL, from Rome, Naples and Florence
GEORGE ELIOT, from Romola
MARK TWAIN, from Travelogues
HENRY JAMES, from The Diary of a Man of Fifty
RAINER MARIA RILKE, from Diaries of a Young Poet
E. M. FORSTER, from A Room with a View
D. H. LAWRENCE, from Aaron’s Rod
D. H. LAWRENCE, “Fireworks in Florence”
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM, “Up at the Villa”
VASCO PRATOLINI, from Family Chronicle
CURZIO MALAPARTE, from The Skin
CURZIO MALAPARTE, from Those Cursed Tuscans
MARY MCCARTHY, from The Stones of Florence
IRIS ORIGO, “Childhood at Fiesole”
PENELOPE FITZGERALD, from Innocence
SALMAN RUSHDIE, from The Enchantress of Florence
