How could a lowly Florentine preacher almost singlehandedly overthrow the mighty Medici family at the height of the Italian Renaissance and unleash the Bonfire of Vanities that consigned priceless paintings by Botticelli and other artists as well as books and jewelry to flames? The impassioned Girolamo Savonarola both upended the civic and cultural norms of Florence and installed himself as the head of a ruthless theocracy.

Janna Bianchini, an associate professor in the department of history at the University of Maryland, College Park, tells the story of Savonarola’s unexpected rise, years-long domination of the city in the face of fierce outside opposition, and meteoric fall. He was burned at the stake in 1498—a fiery end to a cautionary tale about the dangers of blending religious and political extremes. Savonarola’s life and career committed to civic and religious reforms refute the claim that Italians of the period were secularist or anti-Christian, revealing the deep religious convictions at the heart of the Renaissance itself.

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