A mural, discovered in the year 2000, full of surprising images and symbolism; a work that adds chapters to our understanding of the popular culture of medieval and renaissance Tuscany and Europe.
The mural depicts a tree, but this is no ordinary tree. In addition to its rugged trunk and regular arched branches, this tree bears fruit of a singular sort. Indeed, this is a penis tree.
This new book, the first from the new Centre for Tuscan Studies at the University of Leicester, and published by the Consiglio Regionale della Toscana, Firenze, is presented in both English and Italian. In the book, George Ferzoco discusses the importance that the discovery of a medieval mural in Massa Marittima (in the province of Grosseto, Tuscany) in 2000 is having. The mural has been largely ignored outside Tuscany, and also within Italy as a whole. But this book argues that the discovery of such an important work adds immesurably to our understanding of the medieval world.
