Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) was recognized in his lifetime as the greatest
living artist, creator of a succession of masterpieces in sculpture, fresco painting, and architecture.
In all his work, Michelangelo impressed his contemporaries as a forceful personality, a divine genius
endowed with terribilit, or intense emotional power. Often portrayed as a solitary and austere
figure, he in fact enjoyed a remarkable range of friendships, and those he loved and hated, served or
resisted, are presented here, from his family and fellow artists to the popes, nobles, and rulers of Europe.

In this new life of Michelangelo, George Bull places him firmly in the context of his time. He worked
during three-quarters of a century of tremendous change in European society, and as an artist was
supremely responsive to the hopes, fears, and values of his culture, which he both exemplified and
defied. Using recent research as well as the great established biographies and letters and records,
Bull traces the life and spiritual quest of Michelangelo, man and artist, and brings to the narrative an
exceptional feel for the Italian Renaissance.

George Bull is an author and journalist, and has been foreign news editor of the Financial Times and editor in chief of The Director magazine. He has translated several volumes for Penguin Classics, including Machiavelli's The Prince, Cellini's Autobiography, and Vasari's Lives of the Artists. He has also translated Condivi's Life in his Michelangelo: Life, Letters and Poetry. George Bull has written books on Venice and the Renaissance, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He lives in London, and is married with four children.

Nadia May has been nominated as an AudioFile Golden Voice five years running and is a winner of thirteen AudioFile Earphones Awards. She is the co-founder of TheatreFirst, a theater company in the San Francisco Bay Area where she currently lives.