4.8 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 15 January 2024
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Girolamo Savonarola was a late 15th century Dominican friar who rose to become a preacher, prophet, and politician. He took on the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church and despotic rulers including the powerful Medicis. He was both progressive - helping to lay the foundations of the Reformation and the Enlightenment - but also fundamentalist and deeply unsettling.
In this episode, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to award-winning author Denise Mina, whose novel Three Fires tells the story of Savonarola and his role in the bonfire of the vanities - the burning of objects considered sinful, such as cosmetics, mirrors, books, and art.
This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.
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| 0:54.0 | Search for Economist Podcasts Plus and sign, who lived and worked in Italy in the late 15th century. |
| 1:17.0 | He criticized the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, despotic rulers like the powerful Medici family and the exploitation of the poor. |
| 1:26.0 | He was, in many ways, very progressive. |
| 1:29.4 | We might say his ideas helped lay the foundations of the Reformation and the Enlightenment. |
| 1:35.6 | And yet, as today's guest shows through her new novel, Three Fires, |
| 1:41.0 | Savonarola was also a fundamentalist whose ideas and actions were |
| 1:46.0 | deeply unsettling. How did Sironarola develop his ideas? How did he rise from being a nobody to a very significant |
| 1:55.4 | somebody? And why does our guest prompt us to reflect on the parallels between |
| 2:01.2 | Savonarola's ideas and methods, today's council culture, and even the far right. |
| 2:08.3 | I'm your host, Professor Suzanne Lipscomb, and I am delighted to welcome back to the podcast author Denise Minor. |
| 2:15.0 | Denise Minor is an award-winning, prolific and talented writer. |
| 2:20.0 | She's the author of crime Novels, Plays, Graphic Novels, Short Stories, and TV and Radio |
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