This is a description of the world of a Florentine patrician, a silk merchant called Marco Parenti, who lived in Florence in the mid-15th century, at the peak of the Renaissance. Drawing on Parenti's recently discovered letters, diaries and "memoir", Mark Phillips evokes an extraordinary era of political and artistic change following the death of Cosimo de Medici. Parenti is revealed as a moderately prosperous citizen, office holder, family confidant and unofficial marriage broker - a man on the fringes on the patriciate. ...
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This is a description of the world of a Florentine patrician, a silk merchant called Marco Parenti, who lived in Florence in the mid-15th century, at the peak of the Renaissance. Drawing on Parenti's recently discovered letters, diaries and "memoir", Mark Phillips evokes an extraordinary era of political and artistic change following the death of Cosimo de Medici. Parenti is revealed as a moderately prosperous citizen, office holder, family confidant and unofficial marriage broker - a man on the fringes on the patriciate. Parenti's life is unusually well documented and this record contains details of domestic life, marriage gifts, down payments, the expenses of a growing family, the rebuilding of his "palazzo", the long struggle to repatriate his exiled in-laws.
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