The Bishop Called Me Damned

The Bishop Called Me Damned

by | Jun 6, 2026 | Journal

Florence, 1473His name was Rinaldo Orsini. A bishop. My cousin by blood, which made the verdict more precise in its particular cruelty.I was fifteen years old. I had been in his household since infancy, sent north from Umbria after the deaths of both my parents. He...
The Workshop on the Via dei Servi

The Workshop on the Via dei Servi

by | May 27, 2026 | Journal

Florence, October 14, 1471He was not yet thirty and already the most unsettling mind in any room he entered. I watched him from across Verrocchio’s workshop today, where he was bent over a drawing of a water wheel, cross-hatching shadow with his left hand in a...
Banks, Not Armies

Banks, Not Armies

by | May 9, 2026 | Journal

Florence, 1490sThe thing about the Medici that is most relevant to the present moment is not the art patronage, which is what they are remembered for, but the banking. Lorenzo understood something that most political leaders of his era did not fully grasp: that...
The Bonfire of the Vanities

The Bonfire of the Vanities

by | Apr 23, 2026 | Journal

Florence, 1497I was in Florence when Savonarola organized the Bonfire of the Vanities. I stood in the Piazza della Signoria and watched it burn. Mirrors. Books. Musical instruments. Paintings. Cosmetics. Games. Anything that could be construed as bringing pleasure to...
The Orchard and the River

The Orchard and the River

by | Mar 20, 2026 | Journal

Florence, various yearsI grew up, in the sense that my intellectual formation happened, in a city that was organized around the belief that the natural and the human were in productive relationship. The orchards outside Florence’s walls fed the city. The Arno...