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Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics, and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence

Title: Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics, and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence

Author: Tim Parks

Paperback: 288 pages

Publisher: W. W. Norton; 1 edition (May 15, 2006)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0393328457

ISBN-13: 978-0393328455

I read this book while traveling to and from San Diego for an interview.

The book is very interesting – it weaves the historical events of the early Italian Renaissance with the rise and fall of the Medici bank.  Its also interesting to read about how banks can exist when usary is either frowned upon or even illegal (banks in Islamic nations face this issue all the time).  The Florentine banks funded trade, and so made money on the sales of goods abroad instead of directly by interest.

Worth a read if you’re interested in the Renaissance or in the history of banking.

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