R. Burr Litchfield Libros

"The King's Body offers an overview of a central theme in European history: the nature and meaning of the sacred rituals of kingship. Informed by the work of recent cultural anthropologists, Sergio Bertelli explores the cult of kingship, which pervaded the lives of hundreds of thousands of subjects, poor and rich, noble and cleric. His analysis takes in a wide spectrum, from the Vandal kings of Spain and the long-haired kings of France, to the beheaded kings of England and France, Charles I and Louis XVI."--BOOK JACKET.

The book explores the evolution of Florence's patrician elite from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, highlighting their influence on the bureaucratic state in Tuscany. It examines the elite's ongoing significance as urban office-holders under the Grand Dukes and their pivotal role in the shift from Renaissance communal governance to a more centralized regional state. This analysis sheds light on a largely overlooked period in Italian history, emphasizing the continuity of aristocratic power and its adaptation to changing political structures.