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This book explores the rich literary character and rhetorical strategies of Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects , which tells the story of Italian art as it unfolded from its beginnings in the Trecento to its pinnacle in Michelangelo and the art of the Academy in the mid-sixteenth century. The contributors propose ways to read Vasari's text in the light of recent disputes over what is fact, fiction, or biography, and who may have read Vasari's editions when they were first published. The essays isolate and analyze select threads from Vasari's luxurious textual tapestry: these range from architecture,cosmology and philosophy to biography, comedy, elegy and travelogue. In doing so, the authors have built upon ideas proposed in recent studies of the Lives , including important works by Paul Barolsky and Patricia Rubin.