The Medici Giraffe

Title: The Medici Giraffe

Author: Marina Belozerskaya

Hardcover: 432 pages

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (August 21, 2006)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0316525650

ISBN-13: 978-0316525657

The title of this book is a misnomer – only one chapter out of 7 talks about the Medici Giraffe, which was a gift from an Egyptian ruler to get the Medici’s help with a conflict between Egypt and the Ottoman empire.

This book is really about seven examples of the capture and display of exotic animals from history. It starts with Ptolemy Philadelphos’s search for elephants for his army and stops with William Randolph Hearst’s San Simeon ranch.

Its a fun read but, because its a series of articles it comes off as a little disjoint.

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.