Yesterdays’ News at the Roxbury Corner Store will host a book talk and signing on Saturday, November 16, 2013, from 3-5 pm with Joseph Markulin, author of Machiavelli: A Renaissance Life. As we celebrate the 500th anniversary of The Prince, this epic piece of storytelling brings the world of 15th-century Italy to life as it traces Machiavelli’s rise from young boy to controversial political thinker. Booklist aptly characterized this impressive tome as “an enjoyable romp through a fascinating period in European history.”
The often-vilified Renaissance politico and author of The Prince comes to life as a diabolically clever, yet mild mannered and conscientious civil servant. Author Joseph Markulin presents Machiavelli’s life as a true adventure story, replete with violence, treachery, heroism, betrayal, sex, bad popes, noble outlaws, deformed kings, menacing Turks, even more menacing Lutherans, unscrupulous astrologers, untrustworthy dentists—and, of course, forbidden love.
While sharing the stage with Florence’s Medici family, the nefarious and perhaps incestuous Borgias, the artists Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, and the doomed prophet Savonarola, Machiavelli is imprisoned, tortured, and ultimately abandoned. Nevertheless, he remains the sworn enemy of tyranny and a tireless champion of freedom and the republican form of government.
Out of the cesspool that was Florentine Renaissance politics, only one name is still uttered today—that of Niccolo Machiavelli. This mesmerizing, vividly told story will show you why his fame endures.
Joseph Markulin is a former professor of Italian and comparative literature with a specialization in medieval and Renaissance studies. After publishing on topics ranging from Dante to Fellini, Markulin joined the fast-moving, not to say Machiavellian, world of public relations in New York City. He currently lives in the Catskills in upstate New York, where he hosts a radio show and tends an organic farm.
Yesterdays’ News is located at the Roxbury Corner Store at 53525 State Highway 30, Roxbury, NY, at the corner of Main and Bridge Streets. For more information, please see joemarkulin.com and roxburycornerstore.com or contact the store at 607-326-6045.
