The best books on Italy: we've asked novelists, academics and one chef to recommend which books to read to learn more about Italy, its food, its culture, its art and its history.
Due to Italy's enviable geographic position it's historically been home to myriad peoples and cultures that have all contributed to its culture and literature.
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1
The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso
by Dante Alighieri -
2
Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation
by E.H. Gombrich -
3
Leonardo da Vinci: i documenti e le testimonianze contemporanee
by Edoardo Villata -
4
The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci
by Jean Paul Richter -
5
Leonardo da Vinci
by Kenneth Clark
The best books on Leonardo da Vinci, recommended by Martin Kemp
The best books on Leonardo da Vinci, recommended by Martin Kemp
Every generation has its own Leonardo, and for many he remains a man of mystery. Martin Kemp, Emeritus Professor in Art History at Oxford and the author of the recently published Mona Lisa: The People and the Painting, helps us identify the non-mythical Leonardo. What might Leonardo be doing were he alive today, in our own digital age?
Massimo Carlotto recommends the best Italian Crime Fiction
Journalists are no longer able to properly investigate organised crime in modern Italy — leaving it to crime fiction writers to pick up the slack, says the acclaimed Italian novelist, Massimo Carlotto. Here he chooses five noir novels that explore the reality of Italian corruption in highly original ways.
The Best Italian Renaissance Books, recommended by Kenneth Bartlett
If you’re going to look at the past, you have to understand the people who were living there and see the world through their eyes, says historian and Renaissance specialist Kenneth Bartlett. He picks the best books written during the Italian Renaissance.
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1
The Nation of the Risorgimento: Kinship, Sanctity and Honour in the Origins of Unified Italy
by Alberto Mario Banti -
2
The Antiquity of the Italian Nation: The Cultural Origins of Political Myth in Modern Italy
by Antonino De Francisco -
3
Risorgimento in Exile: Italian Emigrés and the Liberal International in the Post-Napoleonic Era
by Maurizio Isabella -
4
Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero
by Lucy Riall -
5
Monarchie et Identité Nationale en Italie (1861-1900)
by Catherine Brice
The best books on Italy’s Risorgimento, recommended by Carlotta Ferrara degli Uberti
The best books on Italy’s Risorgimento, recommended by Carlotta Ferrara degli Uberti
Italian unification was one of the great political dramas of 19th century Europe, transforming a patchwork of territories speaking different languages into the nation-state of Italy. Here, historian Carlotta Ferrara degli Uberti discusses the people and ideas that brought it about and how its disputed legacy continues to impact Italy today.
The Best Elena Ferrante Books, recommended by Sarah Chihaya and Merve Emre
From her early novellas to the Neapolitan quartet, the elusive Elena Ferrante has achieved deserved superstar status for the compulsively readable, addictive quality of her writing. Two of the authors of The Ferrante Letters, Sarah Chihaya and Merve Emre, introduce us to Ferrante and recommend what to read next after My Brilliant Friend.
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1
Discourses on Livy
by Niccolo Machiavelli, trans. Harvey Mansfield and Nathan Tarcov -
2
The New Science of Giambattista Vico: Unabridged Translation of the Third Edition (1744)
by Giambattista Vico, trans. Max Harold Fisch and Thomas Goddard Bergin -
3
The History of European Liberalism
by Guido De Ruggiero, trans. R. G. Collingwood -
4
Prison Notebooks
by Antonio Gramsci, trans. Joseph A. Buttigieg and Antonio Callari -
5
Liberalism and Democracy
by Norberto Bobbio, trans. Martin Ryle and Kate Soper
The best books on Italian Political Philosophy, recommended by Guglielmo Verdirame
The best books on Italian Political Philosophy, recommended by Guglielmo Verdirame
Italy has a rich tradition of political philosophy, producing a number of thinkers with both practical experience and a cosmopolitan outlook. Here Guglielmo Verdirame, Professor of International Law at King’s College London, talks us through the five most important Italian political philosophers, and the best books to read to understand their work.
The best books on Dante, recommended by Nick Havely
Dante’s epic poem The Divine Comedy has inspired countless thinkers and writers since it was first published almost 700 years ago. Here, Dante scholar and author Nick Havely picks the best five books on how one medieval poet had such a lasting impact on world literature, and how Dante’s vitality transmits into modern culture.
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1
Catiline’s War, The Jugurthine War, Histories
Sallust (trans. AJ Woodman) -
2
Res Gestae Divi Augusti: Text, Translation, and Commentary
by Alison Cooley (editor) & Augustus -
3
Rome's Cultural Revolution
by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill -
4
The Neighborhoods of Augustan Rome
by J. Bert Lott -
5
Augustan Culture
by Karl Galinsky
The best books on Augustus, recommended by Peter Wiseman
The best books on Augustus, recommended by Peter Wiseman
Is it possible that Augustus was not the first Roman emperor, but the last of Rome’s great populist champions? That’s what classicist Peter Wiseman argues in his book, The House of Augustus: A Historical Detective Story. Drawing on a lifetime of research and writing on this period, the emeritus professor of classics and ancient history gives a brilliant overview of the Augustan age, and recommends what to read to better understand the adopted son of Julius Caesar, who found Rome in brick and left it in marble.
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1
The Two Mafias: A Transatlantic History, 1888-2008
by Salvatore Lupo -
2
Men of Honour: the Truth about the Mafia
by Judge Giovanni Falcone -
3
La Sicilia e gli Alleati: Tra Occupazione e Liberazione
by Manoela Patti -
4
Mafia Life: Love, Death and Money at the Heart of Organised Crime
by Federico Varese -
5
Mafia Women
by Clare Longrigg
The Best Books on the Mafia, recommended by John Dickie
The Best Books on the Mafia, recommended by John Dickie
The three biggest Italian mafias remain a powerful presence, with tentacles reaching deep inside Italian business and politics, but our understanding of them is marred by myths and misconceptions. Professor John Dickie of University College London, author of three books on the mafia, recommends what to read to get a better understanding of what the mafia really is.