Ms. Hales's book is a master class for journalists, instructing them on the nature and extent of research necessary to write a book of such ambition. Its lucid narrative transports the reader to 15th century Florence under the sway of the Medicis, the bankers of Europe's emperors who bankrolled the Italian Renaissance; the Pazzi conspiracy; the threat of a joint invasion by the Papal and Neapolitan armies; its streets, shops, markets, churches and artists' workshops where an adolescent da Vinci mastered the sfumato technique.
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