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Jerry Brotton is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University of London and wants us to take a fresh look at a period in European history usually associated with beauty, harmony and art. His approach contains a health warning: the Renaissance was a lot darker and violent than many of us have imagined. Retracing the life of Benvenuto Cellini through his shocking autobiography, Jerry reveals how this was a time of conflict as well as beauty, creativity as well as tyranny. On his return to Florence, Cellini experiences the horrors of the plague. It is a recurrent feature of daily life in the Renaissance with shocking contemporary resonances. And Cellini has his own very personal brush with death. Reader Marco Gambino Producer Mark Rickards A Whistledown Scotland Production