The Florentine penchant for writing—not only out of necessity or for private and professional purposes, but often practiced as an irrepressible need to record personal memories, news, public events, and politics, often commented on with moral or civil, if not philosophical, judgments—constitutes a unique phenomenon in European medieval and early modern civilization. This abundant material has allowed historians to reconstruct individual and family stories and to delineate the history of late medieval and Renaissance Florence as seen, so to speak, from the inside—that is, through the private gaze of its citizens, rather than through official documents. Daniele Giusti's book on Gaddi can be added to the group of works that has contributed to this. The Gaddi family held a remarkable vantage point. Present in Florence from the beginning of the Trecento, when the first records are found of the eponymous founding member of the dynasty, Gaddo di Zanobi, the family saw, over the arc of a little more than two centuries, a notable growth in economic and social circumstances, elevating it from the original status of craftsmen in the artistic professions, to a level in the Cinquecento that equated them to much more eminent families, as they were able to count among their members magistrates, priors, and high prelates, among which even two cardinals.

In the first chapter, Giusti quickly outlines the origins of the Gaddi and their nebulous history during the Trecento, marked by the artistic activity of three successive generations—in particular, Gaddo di Zanobi, Taddeo di Gaddo, and Agnolo di Taddeo. The brother of this last, Zanobi di Taddeo, was the first member of the family for whom we have precise records regarding his mercantile activities, as seen from the bank founded in 1369 by Zanobi in Venice. Zanobi became the main correspondent of Francesco di Marco Datini in the lagoon city, and the fortunes of his company opened up new prospects for the Gaddi. Their economic and social rise, similar to other families in Trecento and Quattrocento Florence, was also tied to skillful management of commerce, the progressive accumulation of property in the city and country, shrewd marriages, and, finally, political choices that aligned the Gaddi with the Medici for years to come. Moreover, the uncommon cultural interests of some members of the family were significant, as shown by the vast collection of books and manuscripts assembled in the Trecento and added to in the two following centuries. In the second half of the Cinquecento, this collection also accumulated a conspicuous series of artworks, ancient marbles, medals, and natural curiosities, as well as an extraordinary set of drawings, many of which were on architecture.

The central part of the book is dedicated to the figures of the Quattrocento who determined the fate of the family—that is, to Agnolo di Zanobi and his son, Francesco di Agnolo. Agnolo di Zanobi was the first of the Gaddi to enter into the Medicean orbit, offering his personal and mercantile resources in service to Cosimo il Vecchio, and probably receiving the election to prior in 1437, among other things, as compensation. In the same year, Agnolo moved to the house in the piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini, which remained for centuries the central family residence. The politics of loyalty to the Medici was continued by Francesco di Agnolo, a merchant and, above all, a humanist, who through his tireless devotion to Lorenzo il Magnifico, for whom he carried out numerous missions as an orator, succeeded in obtaining a position, though marginal, in the reggimento of the city.

The book traces the Florentine history of the Quattrocento through personal and family events, not only adding additional details to well-known facts but also delineating the aspirations, strategies, and viewpoints of figures who comprised one of the most important social groups in late medieval Florence—those who slowly transitioned from the artisan to the aristocratic class.