

"He was not handsome like most great men, he was spared this distracting handicap." (p. Money is the root of all civilization.” (p. of careful calculations, investments and loans, of interest and dividends accumulated until surplus could be spared from the pleasures of the flesh, from the purchase of senates, signories, and mistresses, to pay a Michelangelo or a Titian to transmute wealth into beauty, and perfume a fortune with the breath of art. And first of all it took money-smelly bourgeois money.


“But it took more than a revival of antiquity to make the Renaissance. "Venetian merchants invaded every market from Jerusalem to Antwerp they traded impartially with Christians and Mohammedans, and papal excommunications fell upon them with all the force of dew upon the earth." (p. The Renaissance (1953): This volume covers the history of Italy from c.1300 to the mid 16th century, focusing on the Italian Renaissance.ġ.1 - The Age of Petrarch and Boccaccio: 1304–75 The Renaissance (The Story of Civilization #5), Will Durant (Author), Ariel Durant (Editor)
