Dedicated to Lorenzo de Medici, the book draws on examples from history, of Alexander the Great and of the German city states, to teach its readers some eternal lessons.

ECONOMIST: Idea

For example, he has a revisionist view of the Medici, stubbornly refusing to eulogise Cosimo or Lorenzo de' Medici, the conventional heroes of popular histories of Renaissance Florence.

ECONOMIST: Renaissance Florence

"Bust of Lorenzo de' Medici, known as the Magnificent, " on loan from the Silver Museum, is a 16th-century agate-and-gold cameo celebrating his role as an art patron.

WSJ: Museum Exhibit Review: Gems of the Medici at the Bowers Museum

It's the only place in the world where you can sit in Lorenzo de' Medici's chair, watch the sun set over the Fiesole hill and talk about seagulls.

WSJ: Mortella's Approach Paying Off for Italian Soccer's Fiorentina

And that's no mean feat in the city of Guelphs and Ghibellines, Niccolo Machiavelli and Lorenzo de' Medici, a place where the present is often weighed against a glorious and bloody past.

WSJ: Mortella's Approach Paying Off for Italian Soccer's Fiorentina