f i r e b r a n d s Savonarola himself called scholastic
‘divisions and arguments, irrelevant digressions and excessive
citations’, instead preaching Apocalypse and the End of Days. As
Lorenzo de’ Medici’s grip on power weakened in the face of papal
hostility and the imminent invasion of King Charles VIII of
France, Savonarola’s impassioned message that Florence might
still represent the New Jerusalem if its citizens confronted
their sins became irresistible. By 1494 he had positioned
himself at the heart of Florentine politics, tacitly supporting
the exile of the Medici, celebrating Charles VIII as a latter-
day Cyrus liberating the city from tyranny, and deftly
negotiating the creation of a new republic. Weinstein’s
absorbing narrative ultimately focuses on the extraordinary four
years between 1494 and 1498, when Savonarola virtually ran
Florence as a theocracy in which his ‘moral and political
authority’ extended ‘into every part of the city’s life’.
Weinstein provides a balanced assessment of his progressi