Celebrated English writer Tim Parks has just published a new book: Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence. It tells the story of the Medici family, and the intriguing, often bloody story of the rise and fall of its bank.

Parks, originally from Manchester, now living in Verona, has won critical acclaim for his novels and works of non-fiction. Perhaps his most celebrated work is A Season with Verona, which recounts a year with the citys football club.

Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence

by Tim Parks. Atlas Books/Norton.