Sprezzatura: 50 Ways Italian Genius Shaped the World [Paperback]

A witty, erudite celebration of fifty great Italian cultural achievements that have significantly influenced Western civilization from the authors ofWhat Are the Seven Wonders of the World?

“Sprezzatura,” or the art of effortless mastery, was coined in 1528 by Baldassare Castiglione inThe Book of the Courtier. No one has demonstrated effortless mastery throughout history quite like the Italians. From the Roman calendar and the creator of the modern orchestra (Claudio Monteverdi) to the beginnings of ballet and the creator of modern political science (Niccolò Machiavelli),Sprezzaturahighlights fifty great Italian cultural achievements in a series of fifty information-packed essays in chronological order.Preface

1 Rome gives the world a calendar—twice
2 The Roman Republic and our own
3 Julius Caesar and the imperial purple
4 Catullus revolutionizes love poetry
5 Master builders of the ancient world
6 “Satire is wholly ours”
7 Ovid’s treasure hoard of myth and fable
8 The Roman legacy of law
9 St. Benedict: Father of Western monasticism, preserver of the Roman heritage
10 Salerno and Bologna: The earliest medical school and university
11 St. Francis of Assisi,“alter Christus”
12“Stupor mundi”: Emperor Frederick II, King of Sicily and Jerusalem
13 St. Thomas Aquinas: Titan of theology
14 Dante’s incomparableComedy
15 Banks, bookkeeping, and the rise of commercial capitalism
16 Petrarch: Creator of the modern lyric
17 Boccaccio and the development of Western literary realism
18 The mystic as activist: St. Catherine of Siena
19 Inventors of the visual language of the Renaissance: Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio
20 Lorenzo Ghiberti and the “Gates of ParadiselĂ!