The Beauty and the TerrorAn imaginative and revelatory new history of the Italian Renaissance that challenges our preconceptions of the era. A THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 Brilliant and gripping, here is the full true Renaissance in a history of compelling originality and freshness Simon Sebag Montefiore The Italian Renaissance shaped Western culture but it was far stranger and darker than many of us realise. We know the Mona Lisa for her smile, but not that she was