• Part 1 Tuscany and the High Medieval papacy: Guelf ascendancy, 1265-1277; the supremacy of Florence, 1277-1294; religion - the model of Francis of Assisi; lay thought at Florence; the beginning of Dante's poetic revolution; classical influence in the visual arts; the focus of the investigation. Part 2 The age of the papal withdrawal: the papal revolution, 1294-1305; Tuscany without the Pope, 1305-1316; realistic visual narrative; Dante in exile and the poetic vision. Index

'The fullest and most accurate account in English of that "vigorous and corrupt" milieu in which Dante passed his life...Dr Holmes has succeeded in presenting a deeply-considered and most learned portrait of a great era in European civilization' Times Higher Education Supplement'There is a notable freshness and sparkle in his chapters on popular religious feeling, on the impact of St Francis, and on the movement of ideas into Florence' Times Literary Supplement 'There has seldom been a clearer statement of what it meant to create within a world whose lines were drawn by the brutalism of gang warfare and the saintliness of Franciscan ecstacy ... its picture of a Renaissance dawn ... makes for compelling history.' The Independent