Merchants in the City of Art: Work, Identity, and Change in a Florentine Neighborhood

Like Schiller, I, too, love Florence and have visited it many times, and taught there as well. So I feel very confident in saying that hers is a well-done book, her portrait of the San Lorenzo Market exactly the one I know, too. She cites all the relevant experts: Barth, Bourdieu, Geertz, Goffman, Herzfeld, Kertzer, Turner, as well as many more recent Italian articles and books on Florence. Her knowledge of spoken Italian, particularly its proverbs, appears extensive. Gloria Nardini, Journal of Folklore Research

This fascinating and accessible ethnography provides an insider's look at Florence's San Lorenzo market—one of Italy's most well-known, and traditional, local marketplaces. Like markets throughout Italy, San Lorenzo is undergoing rapid change, and even decline, as the country deals with immigration and globalization pressures, and Schiller effectively captures both the romanticism and the conflicts involved. We tend to forget that iconic sites like San Lorenzo are living things, and that they, too, undergo shifts that reflect the transformations and tensions of the time. This book reminds us of this fact in an empathetic and nuanced way. Michael Digiovine, West Chester University of Pennsylvania

Merchants in the City of Art visits the quotidian side of Florence beyond Renaissance art and architecture to illuminate a fascinating portrayal of history and uncertainty. In a mélange of global tourists, immigrants, and shifting ideas about heritage, Schiller artfully describes the complex politics that mutually threaten, change, and maintain the vibrancy of the San Lorenzo marketplace and the neighborhood surrounding it. Walter Little, University at Albany-SUNY