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the family’s persistent manoeuvring to obtain a cardinal’s hat does in fact ‘seem to reflect the princely, if not necessarily despotic, pretensions of the family’ (p. 217). Dale Kent opens the final section with an examination of the authority of Cosimo, a subject on which she has long been an authority herself. Francesco Bausi follows up with a discussion of the literary representation of the family as defenders of Florentine libertas, whilst the next essay by Paolo Ventrone explores the projection of Medicean image using ceremony and spectacle. Blake Wilson’s contribution discusses the family’s musical patronage. The next essay by Stephen Milner adopts an interesting and unique approach to the central question that guides the collection; rather than seek an answer he aims to ‘chart its genealogy and to place it within the controversial framework of rhetorical argumentation’ (p. 282). Alison Wright follows with an examination of Lorenzo’s appropriation and use of princely imagery, whilst Amanda Lillie explores Medicean (and Pazzi) use of castellation in the architecture of their country residences. The final two chapters, by John Najemy and Carolyn James, respectively, employ a comparative framework; Najemy by looking at Cosimo and Francesco Sforza as both were represented in Machiavelli’s Florentine Histories, and James through the differing approaches to marriage adopted by Lorenzo and Ercole d’Este, the duke of Ferrara. Obviously, a review of this length cannot do justice to twenty-two excellent essays. As a historian interested in religion and its cultural manifestations, I naturally found the third and fourth sections most compelling. However, I would not wish to convey the notion that I found nothing of value in the others. Certainly, I agree wholeheartedly with Black’s assertion that ‘the controversy is just as much alive today as it was in the second half of the last century’ (p. 10). This excellent collection proves that point beyond doubt. In the end the essays brought together here are a rich addition to the historiography, and either as a whole or essay by essay any subsequent reading will no doubt prove to be a rewarding exercise. luKe baNcroft, Monash University