Now available: The Badia of Florence Art and Observance in a Renaissance Monastery
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Now available from Indiana University Press:
The Badia of Florence: Art and Observance in a Renaissance Monastery by
Anne Leader
"The most comprehensive and holistic approach to the important, yet much
neglected, Florentine monastery ever undertaken." —Adelheid M. Gealt,
Indiana University Bloomington
Santa Maria di Firenze, an ancient, venerable Benedictine abbey (called
the Badia) located in the heart of Florence, is the subject of Anne
Leader’s new book. In 1418, 17 Benedictine monks journeyed to Florence
from Padua to save one of their order's oldest houses from ruin.
Realizing that reformed spiritual practice alone would not save the
Badia, Abbott Gomezio di Giovanni commissioned the creation of a new
cloister, to be decorated with vivid and engaging frescoes designed to
motivate its residents. Leader’s richly illustrated, interdisciplinary
study examines the Badia during this crucial period of reform and
rebirth. It reveals the renovated Badia as integral to the spiritual,
political, and social life of early Renaissance Florence, as well as to
the broader program of expanding Benedictine Observance throughout
Italy.
340 pp., 205 color illus.
cloth 978-0-253-35567-6 $65.00
For more information, visit:
http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/catalog/655372
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