Renaissance Florence

1
Renaissance Florence
Emma Nicholls Department of History School of
Philosophical, Historical and International
Studies Monash University, Australia
3008 Emma.Nicholls_at_monash.edu
2

• Many thanks to Dr Peter Howard of the History
  Department at Monash University for his
  assistance preparing this lecture.

3

• Studying the History of Renaissance Florence
  matters because Florence
• developed and fostered many of the values we
  associate with great art and architecture
• contributed much to defining Western Civilization
• is a favourite tourist destination
• all of the above
• some other reason

4
Renaissance Florentines speak to us
about.... ... what mattered to them Diaries
Ricordanze (Sources) e.g. Benedetto Dei
Goro Dati Giovanni di Pagolo di Bartolomeo
di Morello di Giraldo di
Ruggieri, ovvero
Gualtieri, di Calandro
di Benemato d'Albertino
de' Morelli
5
...For this book is not written for any other
reason but that it comes out of my desires, that
is of me Giovanni . I will call this
book the Thoughts of Giovanni di Pagolo
ecetera
6

• What mattered?
• a male child.
• establishing family connections - godparents.
• time - that by the beginning of the fifteenth
  century there was a precise notion of time.
• neighbourhood where he lived i.e. the little
  parish of San Jacopo near the great Franciscan
  Basilica of Santa Croce.
• names - how names were given a relative and the
  patron saint of the day of birth. So family
  honour and heavenly patronage in a world where
  family and patronage made one in life.
• the honour of the city and the common good -
  civic orientation
• access to power the politics of the government
• stress! (the stresses and strains of the
  merchants life).

• Morelli aware of his changing world, e.g. that
  his son needed a different education to prepare
  himself for it ... Latin!
• Florentines of Morellis generation were
  historically aware the past was a springboard
  for policy.

7

• This morning, proceed in this order
• Changes and continuities in the organization,
  distribution and use of power in Renaissance
  Florence from 1293 to 1513 (crises of late 15th
  century under Medicean Florence)
• Political institutions of Florence
• Medicean Florence from 1434 to 1494
• Views of the Florentine political system
  expressed by contemporary writers and historians
  such as Bruni and Machiavelli (Very Briefly)
• (Area of Study 2)

8
Doing history complex. hard work of building
up an historical culture
A History of Florence 1200-1575 by John M.
Najemy (Blackwell, Paperback 2006)
Renaissance Florence A Social History by Roger
J. Crum and John T. Paoletti (Editors)
(Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 2006
Paperback 2007) "IN FLORENCE'S EVOLUTION FROM
REPUBLICAN COMMUNE TO Medicean principate, urban
spaces were a crucial factor in politics just as
politics played a decisive part in..." 
9

• Political contexts and cultural production?
• In the historiography
• (1) Jacob Burckhardt creativity from despotisms
• (2) Hans Baron creativity from republics
• P. J. Jones no real difference (esp. 1997)
• Recent Scholarship agrees (substantially) with
  Jones assessment through a re-evaluation of
  Barons notion of civic humanism.

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Florentine self-conscious sense of
difference.   the magnificent and loyal
commune of Florencemost beautiful in all good
things, with fertile soil, and with the richest
abundance of fodder, watered by springs and
rivers, the mother of philosophers, inventor of
ceremonies, mistress of divine worship,
glittering light of wisdom, single summit of
eloquence, most expert in arms, most prudent in
ruling people and in establishing laws, most
shrewd in business, and in the arts more
ingenious than most in the arts more ingenious
than most. (from the oration of Archbishop
Antoninus of Florence to Pope Calixtus III, as
head of the official Florentine delegation,
including Cosimo de' Medici, Lorenzo Ridolfi, and
Gianozzo Pandolfini, May 1455)  
11
Florence
Connection with modernity the most important
workshop of the Italian and indeed of the
European spirit. the city of incessant
movement, which has left us the thoughts and
aspirations of each and all who, for three
centuries, took part in this movement. (Jacob
Burckhardt, 1860)
12
1. Changes and continuities in the organization,
distribution and use of power in Renaissance
Florence from 1293 to 1513
13

• Physical shape of the city reflects its history.
  Space itself was used to effect and symbolize
  political change/dominance
• Notable physical features
• Palazzo del Bargello (Primo popolo)
• Palazzo dei Priori/ della Signoria / Vecchio
  (Secondo Popolo)
• Orsanmichele (Guild Hall/Church)
• Duomo (Cathedral)
•  

14

• Overview Political History of Florence c.
  11001512
• gt successive but overlapping phases
• 12th-13th centuries domination of Florences
  old, elite families (magnati) controlled
  neighbourhoods, strongholds.
• Mid-13th century-early 15th century political
  opposition to magnati by the popolo (non-elite
  elements of the guild community merchants,
  shopkeepers, notaries, independent artisans)
  assert the rights of the commune communal
  building projects. Note revolt of the Ciompi,
  1378.
• c. 1400-1494 Prestigious elite families (esp.
  Medici) again take control (including
  neighbourhoods) shaping urban spaces churches
  palaces.
• 1494-1512 New Constitution (1496 Great Council
  from 1502 Soderini Gonfalonier for life)
• 1512 Florence defeated at Prato, Soderini forced
  into exile, Medici restored, Machiavelli loses
  his job.

15

• Background to the Ordinances of Justice 1293.
• First half of the thirteenth century Split of
  great Florentine families into two factions
  (Guelphs Welf- enemies of the Emperor
  Frederick - and Ghibellines Italianization of
  Waibinglen after the Hohenstaufen stronghold in
  Swabia),who for half a century divide the town
  faction and violence.
• 1248-1249 Capitano del Popolo and il Primo
  Popolo
• 1248- 1249 Emperor Federico II sends his son
  Federico d'Antiochia to Florence - allies
  himself with the Ghibellines.
• Guelphs make attempt armed resistance, but soon
  are forced to surrender and to go into exile.
• Meantime the Capitano del Popolo militia
  captain and the Council of the Twelve Elders
  (Anziani) is formed and given the task of writing
  a new and more democratic constitution - del
  Primo popolo
• an attempt to replace the old governing class
  with new men.
• re-organization of urban space into 20 armed
  neighbourhood militia companies each with a
  distinctive standard gonfalone to ensure peace
  and security of neighbourhoods against unruly
  elite factions.
• 1254-1258 the glory period of the Primo popolo
  government. The Florentines, after having
  expelled several Ghibelline families and having
  readmitted the Guelphs, restart the expansion
  wars (San Gimignano, Poggibonsi and Volterra).
• Glory period short-lived ....

16
...1260-1293 Complex Struggles Ghibelline vs
Guelf - the Secondo Popolo 1260 On September
the 4th at Montaperti, the Florentines, with the
allied Guelphs from Lucca, are heavily defeated
by the Sienese and the troops led by the
Ghibelline Manfredi. The people's government
(Primo Popolo) is finished, the heads of the
Guelphs are exiled.After five years of
Ghibelline power, the defeat and then the death
of Manfredi in Benevento provoke a new rupture of
the town's political balance. The Ghibellines
leave, the Guelphs return. 1267 The Florentines
entrust their town to the dominion of Carlo
d'Angiò, king of Sicily, but the actual
government is in the hands of the Guelphs and its
captains. 1269 After Pisa (1268), Siena is
heavily defeated. The Guelph government covers a
large area of Tuscany. 1280 The two factions sign
peace treaties, under the auspices of the Church.
Two new groups are forming. On one side the
Magnati (nobles, land owners both Guelph and
Ghibelline), on the other merchants, artisans,
and working people. 1282 The government of the
Artialso called the Second People (Secondo
popolo) begins. The Ordinamenti di Giustizia,
issued in 1293 by Giano di Bella, bar the access
to the priorate to anyone who is not a member of
the "Arti". Malcontent is spreading in the
aristocracy. (Proscription of Magnates).
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The Ordinances of Justice of Florence
(1293) CHAPTER 1. ON THE UNION, OATH, AND
AGREEMENT OF THE GUILDS EXPRESSED IN THIS
ORDINANCE Since this most perfect ordinance is
approved so that it consists of all its members
and its jurisdiction is approved by all. Thus, it
is ordained and provided that the Twelve Major
Guilds are approved by the authority and power of
the Podestà the chief magistrate, the Defender
and the Captain, the Priors of the Guilds and the
savi, namely Judges and Notaries Calimala
Merchants Bankers Wool manufacturing Merchants of
Por Santa Maria Physicians and Apothecaries Furrie
rs Butchers Shoemakers Masons and
carpenters Blacksmiths Retail Cloths Dealers
(Rigattieri) And also the other nine guilds of
the City of Florence, which are the
following Wine Retailers Innkeepers Retailers of
Salt, Oil and Cheese Tanners Armorers and
Swordmakers Locksmiths and Iron Workers Harness
Makers and Shield Makers Woodworkers Bakers
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CHAPTER 6. ON THE PENALTIES TO BE IMPOSED AGAINST
MAGNATES HARMING COMMONERS It is provided and
ordained that if any magnates whosoever of the
City and District of Florence should, with malice
aforethought, kill or have killed or wound or
have wounded any commoner (popolano) of the City
and District so that from such a wound death
should ensue, then the Lord Podestà should
condemn the magnate, who did or caused to have
done such a crime, to death by beheading, if he
should come into the custody of the Commune of
Florence. And moreover the Podestà is held and
ought to confiscate and have confiscated all the
property of such criminals, and such property
ought to come into the possession of the Commune
of Florence and be sold by the Commune of
Florence. From The Ordinances of Justice of
Florence (1293)
19
Ordinances allow for - 6 priors led by the
standard bearer of justice (principal prior
Gonfaloniere) - govt. now in the hands of the
guilds, extended to 21. 759 - priors remain
in office for two months - severe measures
against the magnates (those who have obligation
to supply horse armour form cavalry) - only
about 70 families, so only a part of the
aristocracy, but thought of as most
troublesome. --- cannot hold office (priors) ---
pay surety measures for killing a member of
populani --- anyone belonging to family was
regarded as a magnate --- could not take a trade
or join a guild.   In short - favoured the middle
orders.   However, many rich families were not
magnates and therefore much of the aristocracy
had power. 1395 ordinances were modified - made
it easier for the aristocracy to regain power ---
anyone could join a guild, so guilds became a
club for undertaking political life. Therefore
we find a compromise situation in which leading
families had power, but shared with middling
merchants and artisans.
20
Nicolai Rubinstein,The Palazzo Vecchio 1298-1532
Government, Architecture and Imagery in the Civic
Palace of the Florentine Republic In the 14th
century an urbanistic expression of civic
consensus and of the continuity of republican
traditions.
21

• ALSO TRUE OF THE CATHEDRAL The Cathedral
  complex was a matter of civic pride for the
  Florentines. The Cathedral and Baptistery
  together formed not only the religious heart of
  Florence, but also served as a symbol of the
  political and cultural superiority of the
  Florentines .
• Arnolfo di Cambio was told, upon receiving the
  commission for the building of Santa Maria del
  Fiore, that the cathedral was to be the greatest
  in Tuscany.
• The task for Giotto in building the campanile,
  was for it to be so magnificent, that by height
  and workmanship it would surpass all of that
  genre created by the Greeks or by the Romans ...
  to the honour ... of a powerfully unified,
  greatly spirited, and freely sovereign people
  (Miglione).
• The Florentines were anxious to demonstrate
  their cultural superiority by successfully
  completing the dome of the cathedral, while also
  being aware of the ridicule to which they would
  be subjected if the dome were attempted and
  failed he would not even begin to sing this
  churchs praises, for without seeing it in all
  its detail, one could never conceive of such a
  marvel (Francesco Albertini wrote of the Duomo
  in his Memoriale ).

22
Overview Mid-13th century Primo Populo Brunetto
Latini 1392-3 Ordinances of Justice 1342 Duke
of Athens short-lived experiment with
despotism 1378-1382 After the Revolt of the
Ciompi (woolcarders) - short-lived popular
government. Early 1400s more elite -gt
increasingly oligarchical (after 1434) under the
Medici de facto principate under Lorenzo (d.
1492) 1494 Expulsion of the Medici (Piero)
Constitutional Reform (Savonarola) 1502 Piero di
Tommaso Soderini Gonfalonier for life 1513
Return of the Medici (but as puppets of
empire) In sum, scholarly consensus on
Florences political development 1200-1492 from
a faction-ridden and ungovernable commune to a
guild republic to an oligarchic one (Muir, 1994
Brucker, 1998, 2003).
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2. Political Institutions of Florence
24
Background Social and Political
Framework         Sense of public
involvement         1292 Essential elements of
Florentine Constitution in place         Palazzo
della Signoria (1298)         Government
innovative structures alongside
old -gtcomplexity         Central Govt followed
local administrative structures, viz. 4 districts
into 4 subdistricts 16 gonfaloni
(neighbourhoods)
25
Communal Government The central government a
reflection of the divisions of the city for local
administration - four districts, each further
divided into four sub-districts i.e. sixteen in
all (the gonfalon)
26
Structure of Florentine Communal Government Tre
Maggiori (3 councils) - Signoria (Priors4
districts x2Gonfaloniere (Standard Bearer of
Justice)2 months - Dodici Buonomini (12 Good
Men) 3 months - Sedici Gonfalonieri (16
Standard bearers) 4 months   Legislative Bodies
4 months - Council of the Popolo 300 members
(including the Signoria and other ex-officio
delegates) - Council of the Commune 200 members
(of whom one fifth were magnates).   Administratio
n committees e.g. Dieci di Balia (Commission for
Ward) Otto di Guardia (Security)   Turnover gt
over 3,000 posts vacant and refilled
annually.   Ad hoc bodies (for continuity) Consul
te e pratiche citizens to debate and advise
Signoria   
27
Election/Selection for office. Qualifications -
not bankrupt - not in arrears with taxes - over
30 years old - enrolled in one of the seven arti
maggiori (guidici calimala lana bankers
ferriers silk doctors and apothaceries) or the
fourteen arti minori. - not successively within
three years - nor if a family member had served
in the previous yuear.   Principle of mistrust -
by lot from bags containing names chosen by
accopiatori (appointed by Signoria) and approved
by electoral commission (from tre maggiori and
co-opted advisers).
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3. Medicean Florence from 1434 to 1494
29

• Schematic overview of 15th century context
•        fifteenth century in Florence by 1410
  transition complete from the popular regime
  initiated after the woolworkers revolt, the
  Ciompi (1378)
•         1420s-1430s esp. conflicts for the
  control of government/city
•         Eventual victory of the Medici
  faction/party (Cosimo deMedici)
•         Consolidation and narrowing of oligarchy
•         By 1480s, Lorenzo deMedici de facto
  prince
•         1492 death of Lorenzo
•         1494 expulsion of the Medici
•         New constitution and popular government
  , inspired by Savonarola
• (Machiavelli Soderini)

30
Context for the Rise of the Medici  (Classic
account DV Kent The Rise of the Medici, Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 1978) Faction. Florence and
external threats/war.  1390-92, 1397-98,
1400-1402 Giangaleazzo Visconti 1404-1406
Pisa 1408-1414 Ladislao of Naples. 1424-1428
Filippo Maria Visconti - Milan (1427 the
Catasto) 1429 Lucca  
31
Faction The Rise of the Medici Faction
Sermons, on discord, conflict, strife, sedition
and schism are recurring themes of sermons
throughout the period. All have the warning
every kingdom divided against itself is laid
waste.
32

• The Pattern of Medici Control
• By the 1430s Florence was split into two
  factions
• the oligarchical party of the Albizzi
• the popular party of the Medici
• After 1434 and the triumph of the Medici
•  - marriage as a means of procuring useful allies
  - even the marriage of quite distant kinsmen.
  (Also reinforced other levels of relationship -
  even amongst amici.)
• - contact within the city (business,
  confraternities).
• - solicitation of votes
• - enlarging the numbers in the electoral bags to
  dilute the impact of their opponents
• - personal influence moved one another into
  positions of influence.
• - offered loans to one another to make up for tax
  arrears to make sure that none of the party would
  be excluded from office.
• - a patronage chain cumulative spheres of
  influence in leading offices and commissions
• - use of influence to establish new governmental
  structures
• - reputation cultural diplomacy (e.g. papacy,
  Council of Florence 1439)

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• Core of the party parenti, amici, vicini
• kin, friends, neighbours
• marriage alliances Bardi, Salviati, Cavalcanti,
  Tornabuoni.
• plus compagnie
• clientelismo - clientage - patronage.
• - people who came to identify their interests
  with the Medici in return for their support.
• Bernardo Alammano writes to Averardo de' Medici
  I commend myself to you with all my heart, for
  my only hope is in you and in God ... You are my
  God on earth and all that I crave in this world
  is the honour and prosperity which I am confident
  I will receive by your favour.

34
PATRONAGE. Patrons and Clients in Renaissance
Society Patronage, a term traditionally used to
describe the support Renaissance elites gave to
artists, writers, and scholars, as well as rights
exerted over ecclesiastical property (ius
patronatus), has been extended by recent
historians to embrace certain social and
political ties between individuals and groups.
Since English, unlike other European languages,
does not make the useful distinction between
patronage of the arts (mecenatismo in Italian),
and political and social patronage (Italian
patrocinio and clientelismo), English-speaking
historians need to define patronage more
carefully in any given Renaissance context if the
concept is not to become so inclusive as to be
almost meaningless. See F.W. Kent, Patronage,
in Paul Grendler (ed.), The Encyclopedia of the
Renaissance, (Scribners in association with the
Renaissance Society of America New York 1999),
vol. 4, pp. 442-446.
35

• Patronage and the importance of family chapels.
• not just a monument of devotion,
• but also a monument to a family. And
• not only a place of private devotion, but in a
  public space, where the whole neighbourhood could
  see the familys piety.
• e.g. a contract between patron and artist for
  the decoration of a chapel at Santa Maria Novella
  - demonstrates what the chapels were for, viz.
  the chapel was to be decorated as an act of
  piety and love of God, to the exaltation of his
  house and family and the enhancement of the said
  church and chapel.
• (Contract for Giovanni Tornabuonis chapel by the
  painter Ghirlandaio).

36
Medici mecenatismo and its overt signature the
stemme was the signature Cosimo facit me!
Medici Palle
37
Cosimo - a church-going merchant citizen
(Baxandall) - because of his skills in business
and politics (civic, Italian, international) a
major force in public life according to Dale
Kent, embodied Rucellais the honour of God, the
good of the city and the memory of
me. "For the magnificent person aims at
great works, for example, temples built for the
honour of God, hospitals for the poor, and other
such things made for pilgrims". (Antonino
Pierozzi OP, Archbishop of Florence,
1446-59)  
38
A public theology of magnificence preached from
the 1420s. (See P. Howard, 'Preaching
Magnificence in Renaissance Florence',
Renaissance Quarterly 612 (2008),
325-369.) Chronicler Giovanni Cavalcanti
(1381ca. 1451) refers to complaints about
Cosimos magnificent buildings (magnifici
muramenti), including those of the friars (Egli
ha pieno per insino i privati defrati delle sue
palle), and the palace he had started to build,
with the implication that he was using citizens
funds to do so who could not build
magnificently if they had money which was not
theirs? (Chi non murerebbe magnificamente,
avendo a spendere di que denari che non sono
suoi?). Timoteo Maffei (ca. 141570), In
magnificentiae Cosmi Medicei Florentini
detractores libellus. Biblioteca Medicea
Laurenziana, Plut. 47, Cod. 27, fols. 78102.
(mid-1450s).
39
The Florentine Crises of the Late Fifteenth
Century         Death of Lorenzo deMedici -
1492         Expusulsion of the Medici
1494 o      Alienation of the the ruling group
by Piero deMedici o      Near bankruptcy of the
Medici bank         French invasion of 1494
Charles VIII         new constitutional
arrangements the Great Council        
dissension rather than the common good
results o      economic crisis and foreign
policy o      war with Pisa strains finances
the accatto, and ventina         Gonfaloniere
for Life Piero di Tommaso Soderini 1502  ð   
crises bred a new way of thinking about politics
and history (Machiavelli and Guicciardini)
40
  The temper and atmosphere of Florence is
revealed in the rise of Savonarola in the 1490s,
his role in the formulation of a new Florentine
constitution, and his vision of Florence as a
theocracy, charged (in an apocalyptic way) with
bringing about the renewal of Italy, both
civically and religiously. Savonarola
(1452-1498)           reformer        
millennial role for Florence         political
reform theocracy         factions Piagnoni
and Arrabiati   
41
4. Views of the Florentine political system
expressed by contemporary writers and historians
such as Bruni and Machiavelli
42
 

• Leonardo Bruni
• (1369 1444)
• Laudatio of the City of Florence
• History of the Florentine People
• Orations, Letters, Translations

• Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527)
• The Prince
• The Discourses on Titus Livy

43

• Brief points by way of overview
• 1. Currently, new scholarship on Florentine
  politics and society is lively and at the cutting
  edge.
• 2. This has involved a re-evaluation and revision
  of civic humanism Hans Baron (arguably the
  most important historian of Florence after WWII)
  the impact of politics on the intellectual,
  social and cultural life of early Quattrocento
  Florence.
• 3. Barons view the territorial aggression of
  the Milanese despot, Giangaleazzo Visconti, was
  the catalyst for the development of Florentine
  civic humanism. In the face of this threat
  Florentines examined what they were fighting for
  (introspective)
• freedom of speech,
• free access to political office,
• equality of citizens before the law,
• self-government.
• i.e. The fundamentals of modern democracy.
• contentious view currently contested.

44

• 4. Recent interpretations and consensus
• civic humanism as evidence of the triumph of
  oligarchic and elitist republicanism with Bruni
  as a spokesperson.
• struggle between rival republican ideologies,
  viz.
• communal republicanism (13th-late 14th
  centuries)
• failed guild-based vision of politics
• vs
• oligarchic republicanism (post-Ciompi revolt).
• rationalization of a restricted oligarchy Bruni
  and other humanists, including Machiavelli.
• References
• Mark Jurdjevic, Civic Humanism and the Rise of
  the Medici, in Renaissance Quarterly,
• 52 (1999), 994-1020.
• Serana Ferente, Guelphs! Factions, Liberty and
  Sovereignty Inquiries about the Quattrocento,
  in History of Political Thought, 28 (2007),
  571-598.
• John M. Najemy, Civic Humanism and Florentine
  Politics, in Renaissance Civic Humanism
  Reappraisals and Reflections, ed. J. Hankins
  (Cambridge UP, 2000).
• Mikael Hörnqvist, The Two Myths of Civic
  Humanism, in Renaissance Civic Humanism, 75-104.
• John Najemy, The Dialogue of Power in Florentine
  Politics, City-States in Classical Antiquity and
  Medieval Italy, ed. A. Molho, J. Emlen, and K.
  Raaflaub (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1991), 269-88
• James Hankins, The Baron Thesis after Forty
  Years, 309-38
• Hankins, Humanism and the Origins of Modern
  Political Thought, The Cambridge Companion to
  Renaissance Humanism, ed. J. Kraye (Cambridge,
  1996), 118-41.
• James Hankins Rhetoric, History, and Ideology
  The Civic Panegyrics of Leonardo Bruni,
  Renaissance Civic Humanism, 143-178.

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All the best for a successful completion of VCE...