This is the first publication in English of a material of crucial historical importance. With its more than 220 Latin inscriptions, all transcribed, translated and, when deemed necessary, annotated, this handbook offers readers a work of reference and, at the same time, a walking or reading guide to a cross-section of Florentine history, from the mid-thirteenth century to the end of the Medici dynasty in the mid-eighteenth century, which also saw the demise of Latin as the preferred medium for addressing posterity. The emphasis is on monuments that carry crucial information about the city, its art and its key personalities in the truly golden periods of its history. For historians and art historians as well as for actual (no less than armchair) visitors, be it in groups or on their own, this anthology aims to inform, inspire, clarify and contextualise. Among the early highlights are inscriptions commemorating the father of Dante’s Beatrice and the building of Ponte Vecchio, of the Bargello and the Duomo. The book opens new perspectives by unravelling how the humanist study of classical epigraphy from the 1430s onwards made a lasting impact on the composition of Florentine inscriptions. This is a hitherto little acknowledged aspect of the so-called civic humanism. While moving away from a framework based upon Scripture and Christian values, civic humanism looked to ancient Rome for inspiration and models. Another focus is the way the rise to power of the Medici is mirrored…