Shifting Currents: A World History of swimming

as having practiced honor violence (192–197) before his 1396 return to Florence when Pitti conformed to the practices of Florence’s government, even as he remained a warrior (197–198). In this, Pitti stands as a symbolic synthesis of the mercantile and chivalric (203-204). While perhaps necessary to render the project manageable, the focus on the male urban Florentine chivalric elite, read as a stable and coherent group, without extended engagement with the constituent families’ economic interests, religious values, or rural connections, inevitably leaves a partial picture, one that is most convincing for the period up to the 1360s. Implicitly addressed to Florentinists, Sposato’s work draws needed attention to the role of chivalry, makes extensive use of literary evidence, and presents important prosopographical research. In sum, Forged in the Shadow of Marsmakes a valuable contribution to the broader historiographic movement to reintegrate violence and its politics into Renaissance history.