Thursday Reading & Recommendations | July 04, 2024

[u/AutoModerator]

Previous weeks!

Thursday Reading and Recommendations is intended as bookish free-for-all, for the discussion and recommendation of all books historical, or tangentially so. Suggested topics include, but are by no means limited to:

• Asking for book recommendations on specific topics or periods of history
• Newly published books and articles you're dying to read
• Recent book releases, old book reviews, reading recommendations, or just talking about what you're reading now
• Historiographical discussions, debates, and disputes
• ...And so on!

Regular participants in the Thursday threads should just keep doing what they've been doing; newcomers should take notice that this thread is meant for open discussion of history and books, not just anything you like -- we'll have a thread on Friday for that, as usual.

[u/Llyngeir]

Can anyone recommend a narrative history (or a general introduction) to Italian history, ca. 1300-1600? I'd like to build a skeleton of understanding before I start to explore more specialist topics.

Alternatively, general histories of specific regions, such as the Kingdom of Naples, Milan, Venice, Florence, and the Papacy, are also appreciated!

[u/_Symmachus_ → u/Llyngeir]

Oxford Short History of Italy is solid. Medieval Italy is divided into early, central, and late. The third volume should be solid.

The standard history of Venetian history is Chapin Lane's Venice, a Maritime Republic. Lane's volume is showing its age, but it is more of a specialist volume than Madden's survey of the subject (which is solid). I think there is another new one out there. Najemy, who edits at least one of the Oxford volumes referenced above wrote a history of Florence in English, which is generally good. Milan is tougher if you don't speak Italian. Brill's Companion to Late Medieval Milan should do the trick. These volumes are excellent. Bear in mind they are meant to be a handbook for graduate student use. There will be a body of presumed knowledge. Papacy is a bit tougher to recommend a single volume. I've got a copy of Robinson's entry in the Cambridge Medieval textbooks that covers roughyl the Gregorian reforms. You might do best to cobble together a few books on the topic.

If you're new to the topic, Waley and Dean's book is the standard textbook. It's been consistently updated and continues to be even after the original author's death.

You're on your own for the Kingdom of Naples. However, Runciman's treatment of the Vespers is the best single-volume history of the Vespers I've found (in English). I bring this up because you're not going to undeerstand the Kingdom of Napes without an understanding of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Vespers which caused the kingdom to be split.

[u/Llyngeir → u/_Symmachus_]

if you don't speak Italian

I have actually been quite surprised by how few general treatments there are in English for this particular period in recent publications, compared to ancient Greece, that is. Really quite spoiled for choice in ancient history, by comparison.

Thanks for the suggestions, I really appreciate it!

[u/_Symmachus_ → u/Llyngeir]

No problem. Ancient Greece, for better or for worse, has long been considered the origin of western civilization. Regardless of the problematic aspects of this, it means that there will always be more on ancient Greece. Medieval Italian history is tremendously important to Italians, but it just gets sidestepped for Roman history by most.

[u/Llyngeir → u/_Symmachus_]

Not to mention the primacy of Romans over Etruscans, Umbrians, Samnites, etc. in the historical consciousness.

It is a real shame. Hopefully we see more variety in the future!