Versace. The very name conjures up images of outrageous glamour and bold sexuality, opulence and daring. All true, of course, but only half the story. Versace is also the legacy of a great creative genius from a poor, backward part of southern Italy who transformed the fashion world through his intuitive understanding of both women and how a changing culture influenced the way they wanted to dress. The first book in English about the legendary designer,...

Offers a candid portrait of the Italian people in a collection of pieces describing events and topics that highlight life in contemporary Italy.

A biography of Italy's most famous scientist, who became an enemy of the Inquisition for promoting the concept that the Earth revolved around the sun.

"The glorious and infamous history of the Borgia family--a world of saints, corrupt popes, and depraved princes and poisoners--set against the golden age of the Italian Renaissance."--Amazon.com Corruption, incest, ruthless megalomania, avarice and vicious cruelty-- all have been associated with the name Borgia. But the family which produced corrupt popes, depraved princes and poisoners would also produce a saint. Strathern believes that, in order...

"While creating his famous bronze of David and Goliath, Donatello's passion for his enormously beautiful model and part time rent boy, Agnolo, ignites a dangerous jealousy that ultimately leads to murder. Luca, the complex and conflicted assistant, will sacrifice all to save Donatello, even his master's friend-- the great patron of art, Cosimo d'Medici"-- Jacket.

"For fans of My Brilliant Friend and Mexican Gothic, Julia Fine's Maddalena and the Dark is a novel set in 18th-century Venice at a prestigious music school, about two girls drawn together by a dangerous wager ..."--

Believing that Matteo, a young boy from the streets of 1930s Naples, was murdered, Commissario Ricciardi must conduct his investigation in secret since his superiors are preparing for a state visit from Benito Mussolini.

The Italian Renaissance is remembered as much for intrigue as it is for art, with papal politics and infighting among Italy's many city-states. The attempted assassination of the Medici brothers in Florence in 1478 is one of the best-known examples of the machinations of the age. While the assailants were the Medici's rivals, the Pazzi family, questions have always lingered about who really orchestrated the attack. Five centuries later, Marcello Simonetta,...

Escaping the sack of Rome in 1527, with their stomachs churning on the jewels they have swallowed, the courtesan Fiammetta and her dwarf companion, Bucino, head for Venice. Yet as their fortunes rise, this perfect partnership comes under threat, from the searing passion of a lover who wants more than his allotted nights to the attentions of an admiring Turk in search of human novelties for his sultan's court. But Fiammetta and Bucino's greatest challenge...

When Alfredo, a twelve-year-old choir boy in eighteenth-century Italy, loses his family in a fire, he goes to live with Uncle Giorgio, who he discovers is a sorcerer in control of the fires of Mt. Etna with sinister plans for his nephew.