Romola

"Florence is a wicked city - is it not true? Not but that one must sin a little... else what are the blessed sacraments for?' This is the creed of Florence in 1492: a city in turmoil as the mighty Medicis falter and fall. As a new world is discovered beyond the ocean, the old one labours in violent rebirth. As Leonardo and Michelangelo create their timeless masterpieces, Rodrigo Borigia poisons his way to the papacy. While Savonarola builds his bonfire of vanities, Machiavelli puts a match to the millennium of morality. The Greek immigrant Tito Melema finds that in Florence everything is up for grabs. Wealth, office, influence: all await the young man who dares - and who does not scruple. The love of a beautiful young woman like Romola de' Bardi is another prize there for the taking. In her, however, he may have finally overreached himself. In Romola the city may begin to fight back. The most comprehensive edition available, with introduction, notes, selected criticism, text