Mark Rosen

Mark Rosen is a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at the Medici Archive Project.

Articles by the author

ART + CULTURE

You bet your life!

Renaissance Florence was built around trade, and trade requires efficient and reliable banks. Banking relies on speculation on probable outcomes. So it should not be surprising that Florentines were renowned for their passion for gambling on a wide range of activities.   Betting on horse racing in Piazza Santa Maria

ART + CULTURE

Whining about grapes

Cornelio Bentivoglio writes from Montalcino to fellow officer Giovan Luigi Vitella in Siena on the 5th of July 1559     I wish to find a way to better endure this heat with some type of delicate wine more suited to the season and to my health than those that

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