Lorenzo di Filippo Strozzi and Niccolo Machiavelli: Patron, Client, and the Pistola fatta per la peste/An Epistle Written Concerning the Plague

‘Strozzi and Machiavelli has many merits. It provides an original and lucid biography of Lorenzo Strozzi, a detailed discussion of the Strozzi-Machiavelli relationship, and critical editions and translations of several texts that circulated in Strozzi’s circle, thereby shedding light on the particularly dynamic intellectual context of Florence in the first half of the sixteenth century.’

Mark Jurdjevic, Renaissance Quarterly vol 67:04:2014

‘This elegant, short book presents an obscure text by a little-known figure to a new audience. Both the analysis and the text should attract the interest of a variety of scholars, both of history and literature.’

Nicholas Scott Baker, The Journal of Modern History vol 87:03:2015

“In this book, William J. Landon presents a fascinating study of the evolution of a patron-client relationship that has escaped historians’ attention for decades. A rare examination of a sixteenth-century literary collaboration, it sheds light on Machiavelli’s network and helps us understand the extent of his influence over Strozzi’s Pistola fatta per la peste. Scholars and students will also appreciate being able to read a modern translation of this text and better understand the subtle relationship between the two men.”

Simone Testa, School of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, Royal Holloway College, University of London