ADVANCE PRAISE FOR RENAISSANCE PORN STAR THE SAGA OF PIETRO ARETINO: THE WORLD'S GREATEST HUSTLER Sex, drugs, and the Medicis. A story of murder, revenge, art, pornography, and celebration with an all-star cast of characters: Dante, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, a klatch of mafi a-don-style popes, and Shakespeare. A tale that turns deep, deep erudition into exquisite sweets for the heart and mind. -Howard Bloom, author of "The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism" If Jan Wenner had given Hunter S. Thompson an assignment to write a historical essay of Renaissance sexuality and literature, the resulting pages might have looked something like "Renaissance Porn Star": raw, uncensored, clearly mad, and quite brilliant. -Jess Winfi eld, author of "My name is Will" Like a buried treasure unearthed, "Renaissance Porn Star" sheds new light on how the Italian icon of the Renaissance, Pietro Aretino, helped shape an awakened world. Mark Lamonica mixes his amazing attention to historical detail and breathes new life into Shakespeare. -Thelma Reyna, Ph.D. author of "The Heavens Weep for Us" What art restoration has done for paintings, Mark Lamonica has done through a historical account of Pietro Aretino that wipes clean the whitewash of our puritanical perspective on the Renaissance over the past several hundred years. Not unlike a newly restored masterpiece, "Renaissance Porn Star" is both beautiful and shocking. -Adam Hall, Shakespeare scholar Mark Lamonica is an accomplished photographer and author of three highly acclaimed books: "Junkyard Dogs and William Shakespeare" (1997); co-author of "Rio LA: Tales from the Los Angeles River" (2001); named "a best book of the year" by the Los Angeles Times Book Review. "Whacking Buddha: The Mysterious World of Shakespeare and Zen Buddhism" (2005); hailed as a work of "spiritual literary dynamite." He is at work on a new book about the Devil.