Review: Siena: Constructing the Renaissance City by Fabrizio Nevola

In the collective imagination, the city of Siena is synonymous with the Middle Ages. This image is deeply rooted and continues to be cherished in tourist guides with titles like Mauro Civai and Enrico Toti's Siena: The Gothic Dream (Siena: Edizione Alsaba, 1992). Only in the last two decades has scholarly interest widened beyond the medieval to the Renaissance period. Important steps in bringing Renaissance Siena to the consciousness of a larger public were taken with the pioneering exhibition Painting in Renaissance Siena: 1420––1500 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1988 and the comprehensive Sienese shows Francesco di Giorgio e il Rinascimento a Siena, 1450––1500, and Francesco di Giorgio architetto, both held in 1993 (with catalogs published by Electa in Milan). Fabrizio Nevola's book is a welcome addition; it is the first to survey the architecture and urbanism...