Bartolomeo Scala, 1430-1497, Chancellor of Florence: The Humanist As Bureaucrat

Though Bartolomeo Scala has long intrigued historians, he is a figure whose importance has only recently been appreciated. In Alison Brown’s biography Scala emerges as a man of more ability and character than anyone has imagined him to be. We begin to understand why he was employed as chancellor for the almost unrivaled period of thirty-two years.