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★《狼廳》作者Hilary Mantel、《基督教的歷史》作者牛津大學歷史學教授Diarmaid Macculloch、《漫遊中古英格蘭》作者Ian Mortimer盛情推薦

「綜觀十六世紀歷史，沒有比亞歷山卓．梅迪奇（Alessandro de' Medici）的生平更驚人的故事。」——《狼廳》作者Hilary Mantel

《佛羅倫薩的黑王子》（The Black Prince of Florence）為二百多年年來再度重述亞歷山卓．梅迪奇的一生，充滿戲劇化的暗殺、間諜與背叛故事開了一扇嶄新的認識窗口，窺見這個富裕而暴戾的文藝復興時期義大利。

一五三一年，經過數年殘酷不仁的戰事與政治鬥爭，梅迪奇公爵與黑人混血女僕生下的私生子，驅馬進入佛羅倫薩。僅僅一年內，他就以佛羅倫薩王子之姿統御了這座城。十九歲的亞歷山卓．梅迪奇憑藉教宗與未來岳父羅馬帝國皇帝的支持，擊潰家族世仇及義大利寡頭的陰謀，讓搖搖欲墜的梅迪奇勢力在動盪的托斯卡尼首都重振旗鼓。六年後，當他在等待偷情時遭堂兄暗殺，在另一個男人的床上喪命。

從輝煌的宮殿、托斯卡尼別墅、佛羅倫斯謀叛的暗巷、通往教皇大權的走廊，亞歷山卓．梅迪奇戲劇化的崛起、偉大的統治與殘酷死亡的故事帶領我們突破文藝復興義大利的權力表面，直探一個光鮮然而致命，充滿間諜、背叛、復仇者、不法的性與鋪張的財富展示的世界，在那裡膚色不影響奪權，裙帶的力量才是一切。

Catherine Fletcher is a former BBC Political Unit producer and Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence. She is now Associate Professor in History and Heritage at Swansea University and has held fellowships at the British School at Rome and the European University Institute and has taught at Royal Holloway, Durham and Sheffield Universities. Her first book, Our Man in Rome, is a brilliantly vivid account of the six years of Henry VIII’s divorce from Katherine of Aragon, told through the story of Henry’s ambassador in Rome, Gregorio Casali.

"Packed with intrigue … Fletcher describes with cool menace the plotting and politicking that dominated Alessandro’s rule … brought splendidly to life in this excellent book" (Dan Jones, Sunday Times)

"Nothing in sixteenth century history is more astonishing to our era than the career of Alessandro de’ Medici. His story, told by an exact and fluent historian, challenges our preconceptions. Catherine Fletcher’s eye for the skewering detail makes the citizens of renaissance Florence live again: courtesans and cardinals, artists and assassins" (Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall)

"A scintillating book that glisters and gleams with stabbings, poisonings, adultery and intrigue – and a startling reminder of how visceral and dangerous Renaissance Florence was. The drama of events is perfectly complemented by careful scholarship and lucid writing. This is everything a historical biography should be" (Ian Mortimer, author of The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England)

"Fletcher is entirely at ease amid the Renaissance world and its archival resources, and her details, particularly those involving dress, feasting and ceremonial, are generously deployed in the work of recovering a neglected episode of Florentine history" (Jonathan Keates Literary Review)

"An accomplished and original account of an extraordinary and much misrepresented episode in Italian history. Catherine Fletcher provides a newly sympathetic portrait of a monarch whose rule in Florence was even more unlikely than Henry VII’s presence on the English throne" (Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, author of A History of Christianity)