R e n a i s s a n c e S t u d e n t R e v i s i o n L e c t u r e

Sect ion A :

The C i ty -States o f the I ta l ian Pen insu la ,

the Concept o f the Rena issance , Humanism,

Ar t and Patronage

and

Sect ion B : Florence Po l i t i cs

presented by Robyn Westwood, Centre for Adult Education,

13/10/13

The Exam: Friday 15th Nov. 2013

The exam is 2 hours long with 4 sections:

Section A: City-states, Historians’ Views on the concept of the Renaissance, Humanism, Art and Patronage

Section B: Florence – Political structures Section C: Florence or Venice Social Life Section D: The Myth of Venice

You should aim to spend 30 minutes on each section. Practise your timing in your preparation for the exam. Write practice answers under strict time limitations.

Do not use excess time on one question if that time should be devoted to another question unless you have answered all sections and have time remaining to go back to unfinished sections.

The Study Design: Section A

The different types of city-states, their diverse physical, political and economic structures

The wealth of the newly formed city-states resulted from trade and industry

Interaction between city-states; exchange of goods and ideas

The term ‘Renaissance’ is linked with the revival of classical learning; the rebirth of many of the ideas and values of classical Greece and Rome; the application of these ideas by the elitist groups to many facets of urban life

To investigate the concept of the Renaissance and its impact on the visual arts, humanism and education

Cultural and artistic changes which developed across the Italian peninsula in predominantly urban centres were closely linked to the financial success and the political character of these communities

The role of patronage, such as leading families, the Church, the State and corporations like guilds and private patrons such as the Medici, on individual artists, architects and humanists, contributing to the flowering of Renaissance culture.

The Study Design: Section A

Key knowledge:

Knowledge and understanding of the growth and development of city-states in the 14th and 15th centuries: geography and topography and how these influenced economic, political and social structures

Different types of city-states and how they interacted economically, politically and culturally

The economic background of Renaissance Italy: trade, industry, products, banking and commercial centres

The concept of the Renaissance

the growth and importance of humanist studies

Changes and developments in the Renaissance art … in the development of Renaissance culture

Section AIn this section you will have 2 questions to answer and both must be answered.

The examiners have 5 sections from which to choose to base these 2 questions:

1. City-States: Explaining/defining types of city-states How the economy was influenced by the geography and topography Political structural differences/similarities Comparison of city-states Interaction between city-states

2. Historians’ views on the concept of the Renaissance Refer to at least five or six historians

3. Humanism types of humanism, role of humanism, key people involved/leaders and their role

4. Art Key developments in art, reference to specific artists, artworks/architecture (discuss at least five or

six)5. Patronage

Types of patrons, role of patronage, particular examples of involvement of patrons

Humanism, Art and Patronage can be asked about individually or can be combined into a single question.

As a result, you need to know each of the 5 sections.

City-States

The different types of city-state in the 14th and 15th centuries: Republic: Venice, Florence, Genoa Principality (despotism or signori): Milan, Ferrara, Bologna, Urbino, Mantua,

Padua Kingdom: Naples Papal States: Rome and territories/states (ie Bologna, Ferrara)

What are the features/characteristics of: a Republic A Principality A Kingdom The Papal States

How do the Republics of Venice and Florence compare and contrast in their political ideology and structures?

Compare and contrast a Republic with another form of government in the Italian Peninsula

City-StatesThe economies of the City-States and their relationship to geography/topography:

• Florence: wool products; silk production; banking; some agriculture = Arno River runs through centre of city; western foothills of Apennines; north central location; on land trade routes; access via sea port to sea trade routes.

• Venice: entrepot (import/export); fishing, salt, luxury goods (ie spices, silks, slaves from the East via trade monopoly); glassmaking (Murano); lace-making (Burano) = located top of Adriatic/sea access, ½ way between East/West.

• Milan: mining/metallurgical products (ie weapons, armour); silk production; trade route through Alps pass (taxes on goods, provides guides through Alps) = located on the passes through the Alps; northern Italy; mountainous terrain.

• Naples: agrarian/agricultural; economically poor = in the drier south of peninsula; semi-fertile soils; no wealth-making resources, often foreign rulers lack interest; off the main trade routes internal to peninsula.

• Papal State/Rome: Church tithes; donations/indulgences; vast landholding throughout western Europe; pilgrimages = located in central Italy, west of Apennines; access to sea port; centre of Catholic faith.

• Ferrara: agriculture; trade; textile production: terracotta tiles, soap, leather, glass manufacture; irrigation/drainage techniques = parallel latitude to Florence but on eastern side of Apennines; on plains of Lombardy – very fertile; on River Po; swamps, access to trade routes.

City-States

Finally, how do the various city-states interact with each other?

Politically - treaties, negotiations, letters between leaders for advice/support, politico-military alliances, wars, marriage alliances, territorial alliances

Economically – trade

Culturally – humanists, artists and architects move physically and ideologically between city-states and patrons; exchange of ideas, techniques and knowledge

Historians’ Views: Concept of the Renaissance

• ‘Concept of the Renaissance’ will require you to be able to discuss the various views historians, past and present, have held about the Renaissance.

• You should have learned at least 6 or more quotes from different historians you can use to construct an evaluation of how views change over time or display degrees of similarity or difference

• It would be useful to start with Burckhardt as he set the agenda that later historians developed their ideas, either in agreement or contrast.

• Other important historians to use, as a base showing chronological evolution of views, would be John Hale, Lauro Martines, Gene Brucker, Alison Brown

• There are many other valuable historians your teacher will have introduced to you that you should use

Middle Ages or Renaissance?What are characteristics of the medieval world? Europe dominated by the Roman Catholic Church: faith, education and politics Feudalism firmly in place – societies comprised of mainly villages and few towns of any size existed Fixed places in society and identities Fixed geographical places – little movement of population (excepting aristocracies and armies) Largely illiterate population, from aristocracy to commoners

Chronology: c. 8th to 13th centuriesAccording to Burckhardt – the Medieval world was where a ‘consciousness lay dreaming or half awake’

(Robert Hole: Renaissance Italy)

Alison Brown: Burckhardt’s view is ‘embarrassing and out of date’ (Alison Brown, The Renaissance)

Lauro Martines: two stages to the Renaissance – Stage one = ‘social energies – economics, politics, a vibrant demography … produced the

shaping, long-term values’ = rise of towns (12th and 13th centuries) = Middle Ages?

Stage two = ‘the lead went into cultural energies’ = rise of culture (14th to 16th centuries)

‘Quattrocento humanism would have been impossible without the civic ideals … that rose out of the thirteenth century’

(Lauro Martines, Power and Imagination)

Martines’ Stages: Modelling the RenaissanceStage 1: c. 1100 – 1250: A brave new world

1. Break up of the feudal system2. Rise of towns

Specialisation of trades Growth of industries

3. Rise of new class - middle classes/’new men’ 4. Political ambitions of the new social group –

Overthrowing of authority of traditional rulers - nobility5. Rise of communes – autonomous rule by towns’ landowners (middle classes tradesmen)6. Development of internationalism (trade between towns/countries)7. A more complex system of mercantile exchange

Stage 2: c. 1250 – 1550: New society and progression to cultural changes• Changing needs to be met:

1. Educational2. Political

• Traditional ideas are no longer useful or sufficient• Complexities of trade required greater intellectualism for a broader spectrum of the community• Rise of internationalism = a new concept of identity and personal/family ambition• Political changes = new dominant group and new style of government• New educational needs resulted = advancement in trade and politics

Examples of Historians’ Views• Burckhardt:

‘the concept of man as an individualist with hints of universality and paganism’ (according to Hole) the Middle Ages as a time when human consciousness ‘lay dreaming or half-awake beneath a common

veil… of faith, illusion and childish prepossession’ ‘the Renaissance was a dramatic break with the past, a new age on which man as an individual emerged… a

universal man’

• Hale: ‘man had escaped from the medieval thought-dungeon and the world, with its expanding physical and

mental horizons, became his oyster’

• Martines: ‘the Italian Renaissance came in two stages…[and] were joined inseparably: the first produced the shaping

long-term values from which the second took rise’ ‘the cultural Renaissance had its direction in the needs and consciousness of the upper-class group’

• Brown: ‘the ability of Renaissance historians to distinguish ‘middle ages’ from classical antiquity and the present

meant they were eventually able to distance themselves from the past’ ‘the Renaissance offered a coherent social ‘strategy’ for rising in the world’ ‘the tendency to stress continuity, rather than change…has eroded the distance between the medieval and

modern periods’

• Brucker: ‘it was an age of great achievement…more oriented toward secular goals and objectives’ ‘it was essentially an urban or city phenomenon…the mercantile classes of the Italian cities developed a

social order which was quite different from the rural , tradition-bound society of medieval Europe…it was more fluid and flexible’

‘Italy did not reject or ignore the Christian tradition; Christianity remained a vital and essential element of Renaissance culture’

Humanism: Their Sources of Inspiration

Ancient Rome

Cicero Ovid Tacitus

Plato Aristotle Socrates

Classical Greece

Why?

Why the rise of humanism?• Justification of wealth

• Justification of power• Religious entity – role of man

• Civic duty• Location – surrounded by ancient ruins

Why Rome before Greece? Geography:

• Roman ruins surrounding Italian cities Medieval education:

• Church conducted religious rituals in Latin• Theological education was in Latin• Ancient Romans used Latin as lingua franca

Accessibility of texts:• Monasteries and town archives held predominantly Ancient Roman

books/scrolls Relevance:

• Ancient Rome was the last democracy (Republic) and could be used as an example for new governments

The 3 Types of Humanism

Literary Civic Neo-Platonic (Petrarch) (Bruni) (Ficino)

Key Literary Humanists

Dante (1265 – 1321) -– Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso) – describing men and institutions of his time

and passing political and moral judgements, pointing the way to a truly Christian society.

Petrarch (1304 – 74) - – Found copies of works by Cicero and Livy– Consummate operator who kept out of politics when political life was very unstable yet

formed close associations with all political leaders– Saw Italy as a whole, not actually a collection of city-states– Man of letters with no commitment to place or cause– Believed in the idea of loyalty to yourself, but also believed in the public dimension of what

the individual owes to society– Was always concerned about his interest with pagan antiquity and whether he was a good

enough Christian

Boccaccio (1313 – 75) -– Wrote the Decameron: collection of stories about people in a country house expecting to

die from the plague (‘eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die’)– Wrote a commentary on the Inferno and biography of Dante– Drew attention to the writings of Tacitus

Key Civic Humanists

Salutati (1331 – 1406) - Chancellor of Florence (1376 – 1406) Strong supporter of the republic Saw a ‘political purpose in history writing, observing that a knowledge of the past

inspired princes and taught all men how to act in the present’(Hole, Renaissance Italy)

Bruni (1370 – 1444) – Chancellor of Florence (1410 – 1411 &1427 - 1444) Fervent Republican and patriot Wrote Panegyric to the City of Florence, a History of the Florentine People, and many

other works Wrote ‘the careful study of the past enlarges our foresight in contemporary affairs and

affords to citizens and monarchs lessons of incitement or warning in the ordering of public policy. From history we draw our share of examples of moral precepts.’

De Studias et Literati, c. 1405

Chrysoloras (1355 – 1415) – provides the connection between civic and neo-platonic humanism Pre-eminent scholar of Greek philosophy and learning Invited to Florence from Constantinople by Salutati to train humanists (the study of

Greek is original, therefore promotes Florence as advanced culturally)

Key Neo-Platonic HumanistsFicino –

o Set up the Platonic Academy under the directive from Cosimo de’ Medici (1462)

o Translated all known works of Plato for Cosimo de’ Medici (finally published 1484)

o Wrote On the Soul of Man and many other works

Pico della Mirandola – o Published 900 theses at the age of 23o Precocious geniuso Some of his ideas were considered by the Church to be heretical, but

according to Hole ‘managed to stay on the right side of the Church’

The Advent of Literary Humanism

When is literary humanism?c. 1360 – 1440

Influential civilisation?Ancient Rome

What was its role in society? To provide a secular education (as opposed to traditional theological education),

to broaden knowledge, to improve social standing and business expertise Studias humanitatis – a secular education programme devised for the needs of

this new society. Subjects studied:

o Poetry, Grammar, Rhetoric, History, Moral philosophy (ethics)o Languages – Latin and Greek

Who were leaders in literary humanism?Petrarch, Dante, Boccaccio

The Needs of Government:Civic Humanism

When is Civic Humanism?c. 1360 – 1440

Influential civilisation?Ancient Rome

What is its role in society? Political emphasis

Education – international trade required better business practices, better negotiation skills (rhetoric/persuasion),

Models for communes and republics – how to govern? • break down of the feudal system, expelling of aristocracy• new ruling middle class had no knowledge of self-government• Ancient Rome last working Republic

Civic pride and patriotism – sense of belonging in a changing world, unity, belief that your city was the most culturally advanced, wealthiest and best governed .

The Development of Neo-Platonic HumanismWhen is Neo-Platonic humanism?

c.1440 – 1530

Influential civilisation?Classical Greece

Why the change from civic humanism? Related to changes in the political structures (from increased importance of patrician

hegemony since its increasing dominance between 1380 and 1434) Medicean regime (initiated by Cosimo in 1434) consolidating its hold on Florentine politics Medicean hold non-elective Contrary to concepts of civic humanism of republicanism and democracy Rise of princely family dominance (ie Medici) No further need to learn how to govern/be a republic (role of civic humanism and study of

ancient Romans such as Cicero)

Predominant emphases? Greek philosophical sources predominate (ie Plato) More aesthetic Identity of man; self control and how to be a better Christian Not ideologically political

Common Characteristics of the Forms of Humanism

• Time – Belief in antiquity– ideas are contemporaneous (existing in the same time)

• Nature of elite – Active and reflective go together– Only through reflection can you act virtuously and respectfully– By mastering classical culture you can do anything (adaptable)

• Look more critically at sources

• Interchange of ideas

• Universality of ideas– Education in some sense becomes pan-elite (elite circle is expanded – anyone can

join)

• Relationship of things and ideas

Influences of Humanism in Art

Rise of the new mercantile men = new views and interests The desire for realism and naturalism beauty

This led to a mix of old and new genres of art1. Religious art (traditional)2. Portraiture3. Narrative (both religious and political)4. Mythological5. Landscape6. Sculpture

And new styles and methods from classical Greece and ancient Rome1. Proportion2. Perspective3. Harmony/balance4. Naturalism/realism5. Use of space

Also the use of chiaroscuro (shading)

Art and Humanism:Religion

Giotto‘Madonna and child’1326 il Bronzino, ‘Eleanor of Toledo and her son Giovanni dei Medici’ 1545

Masaccio ‘Madonna and child’ 1426

Art and Humanism:Portraiture

Domenico Ghirlandaio,Giovanna Tornabuoni, 1493

Leonardo da Vinci,Mona Lisa, c. 1503

Art and Humanism:Mythology

Sandro BotticelliPrimavera, 1477-78

Art and Humanism Landscape

Giorgione, 1508The Tempest

Art and Humanism:Political narrative

Gozzoli,Procession of the Magi, 1459-60

Botticelli,Adoration of the Magi, c.1475

Art and Humanism:Sculpture

MichelangeloDavid, 1501-4

Michelangelo,Pieta, 1501

Patronage

What are the types of patronage?– State – Church– Guilds and confraternities– Individuals

Why do groups or individuals become patrons?1. Piety ‘for love of God’2. Prestige - personal/social

- political (advertising their success)3. Pleasure (result of humanist education)4. Investment

What is the role of patronage? Support of artist – economic and social Commissioning of works Expansion/transmission of ideas

How did patronage influence and drive the Renaissance? Wealth Networks Competition Ideas

Previous Exam Questions

There will be 2 questions, each worth 10 marks.

20121. Explain the similarities and differences of the political structures of one republican and one non-

republican city-state.2. Discuss two or three problems associated with the use of the term ‘Renaissance’. In your response, you

should refer to the different interpretations of the period by historians. 2011

1. Explain how geographic features shaped economic activity in different types of city-states. Refer to at least one republican and one non-republican city-state.

2. Explain the ways in which the investment of both public and private patrons contributed to the growth and development of Renaissance art and architecture.

20101. Explain how a principality and a republican city-state interacted economically or politically during the

Renaissance. (Students should provide a range of examples.)2. Explain the growth of humanist studies that occurred during the 15th century. (Students should refer to

both humanism and education.) 2009

1. Compare and contrast the political structures of a republic and one other different type of city-state such as a principality, kingdom, papal state or duchy.

2. How did patronage of the visual arts benefit both the patron and the artist? In your answer consider a range of patrons such as families, private patrons, the Church, the State and corporations like guilds. Your answer should also provide specific examples of commissioned art.

20081. Explain the economic background of one Italian city-state. This may include trade, industry, products,

banking and commerce.2. Explain why humanism involved a renewed emphasis on the knowledge of Latin and an appreciation of

Latin texts and /or scholarship.

Summary of Previous Section A Exam Questions

2012:1. City-states – comparison of political structures 2. Concept of Renaissance – historians’ views

2011:1. City-states – influence of geography on economy2. Patronage in art/architecture

2010:1. City-states – interaction: politically or economically2. Humanism

2009:1. City-states – comparison of political structures2. Patronage and art

2008:1. City-states – economic background2. Humanism

FLORENCE POLITICS

The Study Design: Section B

The changes in political institutions and societal attitudes helped to shape urban communities which had a sense of their own uniqueness

The application of classical ideas by the elitist groups to the political facets of urban life

Florence as a walled urban environment featuring a diversity of occupations and functions

Florence in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries

The desire for political involvement

The need to retain republican institutions

System of government based on councils with short-term offices

Power struggles in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by family groups and power blocs to control the organisation, distribution and use of power and to narrow the power base

The Study Design: Section B

Key knowledge

Political institutions of Florence

Changes and continuities in the organisation, distribution and use of power in Renaissance Florence from 1293 – 1513

Medicean Florence from 1434 – 1494

Views of the Florentine political system expressed by contemporary writers and historians, such as Bruni and Machiavelli

Section B

In this section you will be given anything between 2 and 4 excerpts from primary and secondary documents to read.

• You would be advised to read these a first time in the 15 minutes reading time at the start of the exam, after you have looked through the entire exam

You will then be asked 3 to 5 questions of varying complexity relating both to the documents and the topic overall.

• The first 2 -3 questions will be of a basic comprehension nature with your responses based solely on the documents provided

• Later questions will require a mix of the use of the given documents and your own knowledge of the wider topic

• The final question will require you to extend your response beyond any of the documents and to use your own knowledge to discuss an aspect of the topic in an extended answer. You should not use the documents given for this answer – the examiners have tested you sufficiently on them. They want to know what else you know and how you can apply it to the question asked.

To Hold Power

For in the past, many sought to gain political power and office for glory and fame; today no one seeks it except for private advantage and profit … It is to be feared that if it is not checked, civic dissension will lead to our ruin … Our only hope for safety lies in concord; dissent must be suppressed, and the Signoria should delegate some citizens to achieve this …’

(Berardo di Berardo, Consulte, 1413)

THE ORDINANCES OF JUSTICE1293 - 95

• Marks the change from commune to republic

• Is a constitution

• Uses Ancient Rome as the model of a republican system of government

• Categorises Florence as a limited republican democracy; a guild regime

• Defines the political/spatial layout of Florence: four quarters/districts divided into gonfalones or wards: Santa Spirito, Santa Maria Novella, Santa Croce, San Giovanni

• Clearly identifies the various bodies of government and terms of office: eg Priori (2 per district/quarter), Standard-bearer of Justice (rotated electorally around the districts) = Signoria; 16 Gonfalonieri, 12 Goodmen, Collegio, 8 of War, balia…; with terms between 2 – 6 months (or unlimited for some balia), depending on weight of power

• Clearly identifies who is eligible to vote and be elected (age, financial liquidity…)

• Clearly identifies who is not eligible to vote and be elected (bankruptcy, family background…)

WALTER OF BRIENNEPodesta: 1343

• Marks a low point in Florentine government where the system has descended into chaos

• Wealthy rival families (ottimati) have contested control of the power base

• A balia meets and selects a podesta to re-install order

• Walter of Brienne tries to re-install the system based on the Ordinances of Justice and eliminate the social and economic injustices that have entered the political system

• This means wresting control from the dominance of the ottimati

• Opposition (ottimati) against Walter of Brienne grows and he is variously reported to be a) removed from office and expelled from Florence, or b) violently removed from office and literally torn into pieces.

CIOMPI REVOLT1378 - 82

• The lowest economic and social group in Florence begin to speak out against what they see as injustices.

• They say they are unfairly taxed, pay unwarranted penalties and are not treated equally under the law.

• They further and later add that they want to be politically represented by being allowed to vote and have their own guilds

• They riot through the streets and force the existing government to give way. New Standard-bearer of Justice is wool carder: Michele di Lando.

• Three new guilds are created – adding vastly to the voting populace. They dominate the elections by sheer numbers.

• The ottimati are not happy and manage to dominate the signoria and councils in 1382, when they are able to rescind the new guilds and restore the previous electoral rolls.

PATRICIAN HEGEMONY1382 - 1433

• With the ousting of the Ciompi, the ottimati narrows the electoral system

• Key positions are shared between the wealthy leading families (the new aristocracy)

• Minor guilds are restricted in their access to power.

• Major guilds restrict who is eligible and desirable. Families like the Bardi, Alberti, Strozzi and Albizzi take control and dominate the political system.

• None of these changes are official – the ottimati do not change the constitution

• By the 1420s and early 1430s, the Albizzi are the dominant family in the government (the Albizzi regime) after an earlier attempt in 1382 to control Florence. They are trying to create a dynasty , but do not succeed. It is the Medici who achieve this political ambition.

THE MEDICI YEARS1434 - 1494

• There are four Medici: – Cosimo (1434 – 1464)– Piero the Gouty (1464 – 1469)– Lorenzo the Magnificent (1469 – 1492)– Piero the Fatuous ( 1492 – 1494)

• They are not elected leaders of the Republic

• They hold power unofficially, but with the apparent agreement of all levels of society, but not all members of the ottimati.

• There are challenges to the dominance of Piero the Gouty (in 1466) and Lorenzo (1478).

• Piero the Fatuous is expelled from Florence and dies in battle after a few years. He never enters the city again.

Cosimo dei Medici

COSIMO• Between 1410 and 1433, Medici money is supporting the Albizzi regime

with the result that Cosimo asks for a greater say in government. The Albizzi refuse. They imprison him, try to seize his money, but fail

• Cosimo is exiled from Florence in 1433 by the Albizzi, where he uses his money to destabilise the Albizzi regime from afar

• Is invited back in 1434 by the Signoria• Exiles the Albizzi• Is the puppet master• Is at pains to appear ‘a private citizen’ with no more influence than any

other Florentine of his rank• Uses his wealth to maintain power, in the same way as it was used to

attain power• Changes the political system: introduction of Cento, manipulates the

accopiatori and the commission of scrutators and allows the previously banned groups, magnates, back into the political system

• When he dies, Florence mourns and name him ‘The father of the country’.• With his death, there is a danger of political instability.

Piero the Gouty

PIERO THE GOUTY• Continues the Medicean regime when he takes control after

the death of his father, Cosimo.• Is very ill and not expected to live long• Has a number of sons; the two eldest being Lorenzo and

Giuliano, but both are in their early to mid teens• Is trying to live long enough to allow Lorenzo to reach age of

political eligibility• There is a move against his control by members of the

ottimati, but Piero negotiates with Luca Pitti and sees off the challengers

• Piero dies, leaving no heirs of legal age to inherit control of the Medici regime

Lorenzo the Magnificent

LORENZO• Lorenzo is only 20 when his father dies. His brother Giuliano is younger

still.• Lorenzo is 10 years under the legal voting age• He later writes that ‘principal men of the city’ came to his house and

begged him to take control.• Lorenzo agrees, admitting ‘it is ill living in Florence for the rich unless

they rule’• He begins his rule carefully, and possibly too gently, probably as a result

of being underage. • He overcomes an insurrection from Volterra, under Florentine control• Lorenzo also has his authority challenged by the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478

where he survives an assassination attempt, although Giuliano is killed.• Lorenzo’s rule becomes much more ruthless after this.• Makes further changes to the political system: narrows the Cento to

Seventy, creates two new councils: the Eight and the Twelve• Later still he is challenged by the preacher, Savonarola.

PAZZI CONSPIRACY1478

• Ringleader was Jacopo de’ Pazzi• Other conspirators included the Riario family, Archbishop Salviati of Florence, the

Archbishop of Pisa and the Pope• There had been a number of aborted plots before the final attempt to kill Lorenzo

and Giuliano, but various circumstances conspired against the conspirators• Desperation plan was for the assassination to occur in the Cathedral, which so

scared the paid assassin that he refused. • Assassination was delegated to two priests who both stabbed Giuliano whilst a

wounded Lorenzo sought safety in the Sacristy• Jacopo de’ Pazzi fled crying “People and Liberty” in attempt to enlist the popolo.• Failed• Within hours the Archbishop of Pisa and other leaders were killed and their

hanging bodies bedecked the windows of the Palazzo della Signoria.• All conspirators were hunted down to be executed• Machiavelli warned that if an assassination attempt failed, which they invariably

did, the all sympathy would go to the victim, not the assassin, wherein lay the danger.

• This is what happened: the Pazzi were reviled and the Medici reaped public adulation

Piero the Fatuous

PIERO THE FATUOUS

• Piero is in control of Florence for barely two years.

• He tends to ignore the Signoria, something his predecessors were careful not to do

• When Italy was invaded by the French King, Piero tried to prevent Florence being invaded and ransacked by riding out and offer the keys of the city to the King (without the Signoria’s permission).

• The Signoria and the rest of Florence are furious, turn on Piero and he and his family barely manage to escape Florence with their lives. He never returns.

Means by which the Medici Kept ControlMethods of attaining and maintaining power:1. Popularity wealthy guildsmen

middle class guildsmen (commoners) popolo – miserabili (non-guildsmen)

2. Church observance/piety3. Social work – confraternities4. Social networks friends, marriage

associations with powerful families 5. Wealth use as an entrée to socio-political levels

bribery humanism – culture: art/learning

spectacles and public displays6. Destabilise the existing government

false accusations – corruption, incompetence dissenting populace – build dissatisfaction foreign power networks

7. Propaganda8. Change the political system9. Fear/public punishments

Savonarola

THE SAVONAROLA YEARS1494 - 1498

• Savonarola is a Dominican monk who is not a native of Florence.

• He is invited in initially by Lorenzo

• Savonarola preaches against the excesses of the Medicean regime

• When the Medicis are expelled, Savonarola acts as guide and advisor to the new government of ottimati

• Venerated as a prophet

• Medicean changes to the political system are dismantled and electoral rolls are revised

• Savonarola seems to grow too arrogant, and challenges the Pope’s authority.

• He is excommunicated and in 1498 he is burned as a heretic in the Piazza de Signoria

Piero Soderini

THE GREAT COUNCIL YEARS 1498 - 1512

• After Savonarola there is an attempted return to the a similar form of the patrician hegemony of the last century

• The popolo do manage to wrest more control and there is a degree of instability in Florence as the two groups – Ottimati and popolo vie for power

• Any existing Medicean ‘reforms’ are further dismantled and electoral rolls continue to be revised

• Eventually in 1502 Piero Soderini is elected as a lifetime head of state, in the style of Venice’s Doge, but with much more political power.

• In 1512, Soderini is deposed.

• The Medici have their first return and finally return as permanent Princes of Tuscany in 1530.

Previous Exam Questions

2012 (5 questions)• Focus – liberty/democracy/Medicean years

Final question – To what extent did ideas of liberty and equality remain important under the Medicean regime (with reference to the rule of at least two Medicean leaders, using primary and secondary sources.

(10 marks)

2011 (5 questions)• Focus – Ordinances of Justice/distribution of power

Final question – To what extent was 15th century Florence still a guild-based republic under Lorenzo de Medici (using primary and secondary sources)?

(10 marks)

Previous Exam Questions

2010 (3 questions)• Focus – public displays of political power

Final question – To what extent did the Medici use unofficial means to dominate the city? (using primary and secondary sources)

(10 marks)

2009 (3 questions)• Focus – Ciompi Revolt

Final question- Evaluate the extent to which the Ciompi Revolt brought about change in the organisation, distribution and use of political power from 1378 – 1433 (using primary and secondary sources.

(10 marks)

Previous Exam Questions

2008 (3 questions)• Focus – liberty/democracy

Final question- In his panegyric, Bruni praises Florence’s ‘internal order… and harmonious cooperation’ yet there had been, and were to be, challenges to political power such as the Ciompi Revolt (1378), the Albizzi challenge (1382), Cosimo de Medici’s return from exile (1434), the Pitti challenge to Piero di Cosimo (1466), and the Pazzi conspiracy (1478).

From the above list, discuss one challenge to the organisation and distribution of power, and the response of the ruling group.

(10 marks)

Questions?