Ross King, bestselling author of books on Italian, French and Canadian art and history, will visit Explore on Tuesday August 2nd at 5:30PM to talk about The Bookseller of Florence: The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance.

He tells the remarkable true story of one of the unsung heroes of the Italian Renaissance: the manuscript dealer Vespasiano da Bisticci. Known as ‘the king of the world’s booksellers,' Vespasiano produced hundreds of exquisite manuscripts for the libraries of many of Europe’s most famous and powerful personalities. Besides repositories of wisdom by the likes of Plato, Aristotle and Cicero, his books were works of art in their own right, copied by talented scribes and illuminated by the finest miniaturists. His clients included popes, kings and princes from all across Europe who wished to burnish their reputations by founding magnificent libraries. He reached the height of his powers as Europe’s most expert and prolific merchant of knowledge when a new technology, the printing press forever changed how books were produced and knowledge transmitted.

The Bookseller of Florence has been hailed as a "profoundly engaging study of a time when books were considered essential to a meaningful life, and knowledge and wisdom were cherished as ends in themselves" (Booklist, starred review), as ‘a spectacular life of the book trade’s Renaissance man’ (Sunday Times), and "a marvel of storytelling … a dazzling, instructive and highly entertaining book." (Wall Street Journal)

Ross King is the award-winning and bestselling author of Brunelleschi's Dome, Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, The Judgment of Paris, Mad Enchantment, Leonardo and the Last Supper, and Machiavelli: Philosopher of Power, among other books.