Cover Image: The Bookseller of Florence

The Bookseller of Florence

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Member Reviews

History at its finest…

I simply LOVED this book. I’ve read many of this author’s histories and this is another one to add to that stellar list. It was dense, full of information all things paper and books, from their inception to the Renaissance. Every wondered about papyrus? About Leonordo da Vinci’s notebooks? There are untold treasures here, discussed in a conversational tone that helped me wade through this info-rich book.

This was not a one-sitting read, not even close. The writing style was fluid though and kept inviting me back, which I did over multiple days. How did paper actually come to be? How did it move through the ages? What was its impact? What was the human story behind it all? So many questions and all the answers were just waiting for me. It was a lot of information. Sooooo much but each time I picked up the book I was eager for more…

I read this in digital format but I definitely will be picking up a print copy – I want to see and ‘feel’ the illustrations along with the text… Great read!

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For some reason I thought this book was supposed to be more of a historical fiction, therefore I assumed the first part was just a brief background of the history. Then I realized this was all it was, it was a historical non-fiction novel. Talk about being confused for a second!

Regardless of my error, it was a great book to sit and read. I definitely couldn't read it all in one sitting. It was a novel that I needed to pick it up every now and then and read a chapter. It is full of facts and history and made me adore books even more when learning about the process and more about Vespasiano da Bisticci.

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