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Title: brilliant yet, occasionally, tedious
Review: The beauty of this book is that it uses account books and letters to put together avery detailed account of the life of an Italian noble churchman who aspired to be(and near the end of the book becomes) a cardinal. And he's no ordinary cardinal --he's a favorite of Francois I of France, a patron of Cellini, and the like.The downside of the book is that every so often you feel as if you're reading anannotated Visa bill. Long discussions of how much money was paid for differentitems, where the best items came from, etc. Not everything is likely to be interesting.In my case I enjoyed details of how clothing was made (and discovering that furswere often recycled from one piece to another) but was bored by long discussion offees to bargemen and carters for hauling produce.
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