Europe's Babylon: The Rise and Fall of Antwerp's Golden Age

En savoir plus sur le livre

Before Amsterdam, Antwerp was a dazzling North Sea port at the center of the known world, comparable to nineteenth-century Paris or twentieth-century New York. During the Age of Exploration, it was a place where anything could happen—killer bankers, easy kisses, a market in secrets, and every kind of heresy. For half the sixteenth century, it was a hub for breaking rules—religious, sexual, and intellectual. A single man cornered the city’s wealth, redefining money, while another reshaped the city through ambition. Jews fleeing the Portuguese Inquisition found refuge there, aided by a remarkable woman leading a grand banking family. Influential figures like Thomas More, Erasmus, and William Tyndale contributed to its vibrant intellectual life, while Pieter Bruegel captured its essence in art. However, after Antwerp's rebellion against the Spanish, its glory faded, and its history was rewritten. Mutinous troops burned city records, attempting to erase its past. In "Europe's Babylon," Michael Pye seeks to rediscover this lost city, using novels, paintings, songs, and archives from Venice, London, and the Medici. He paints a picture of a city scarred by fire, plague, and violence, yet learning to assert its power as it emerged from feudalism, illuminating a glamorous and tumultuous era in history.