01: Introductions


google maps: Florence

 

Modern arrival: from the modern Train Station Via Panzani Baptistery and Cathedral City Hall

SMN Stazione

Battistero

SIgnoria

Maps and Geography as historical sources

Map of Roman roads in Roman Era City

FI

The early region: Etruscans:

  •           Greek: Tyrsenoi  or Tyrrhenoi (Tyrrhenian Sea)
  •            Latin:   Tusci or Etrusci
  •            Etruscan: Rasna
  •        Region:  from Tiber to Arno
  •        metal mining:  copper, iron, tin
  •         First contact with Greeks ca 775-750 BCE
    •              Writing
    •              ceramics
  •       “ritus etruscus”: street layout of Roman cities
  •       toga

arr

Arringatore (Aule Meteli)(ca. 100 BCE), discovered 1556

chimera

Chimera of Arezzo, discovered 1553

vase

 

Etruscan Vase ca 300 BCE. Penn Museum

      6th  c: a league of 12 cities

      Fiesole

Fiesole, Tuscany, Italy

      90 BCE:  all Italic peoples granted Roman citizenship

      Wars between Marius and Sulla (80-79);  centers of rebellion seized, given to loyal soldiers

     1st century CE: Augustus/Octavian:  a Latin-speaking region.

   Florence: Roman

plastico: Florentia

  •   59 BCE  Julius Caesar; a colony mostly of retired soldiers
  •    Location:  Via Cassia crosses Arno
  •    Small town, few classical references

   Church of San Lorenzo: legendary foundation by St. Ambrose of Milan (first cathedral)

 

 

4th c: Empire split between east and west

476 end of Western empire; Gothic kingdom

6th c Lombard invasions: Kingdom of Italy, capital  Pavia

Florence: Lombard duke

8th c: Charlemagne: still part of Kingdom of Italy  Counts of Tuscany

Post-Carolingian: rural lords, urban bishops

tower

Byzantine tower, now Hotel Brunelleschi

 

   Eleventh century: a turning point

      “Second wave” of economic development (First wave: mainly port cities)

      major landmarks:  Baptistery  (Baptistery detail)S. Miniato

     Construction of San Miniato: focus of big political powers:

     Holy Roman Empire; Papacy

    Issues: Church reform.

  •           ca 1013: Hildebrand, Bishop of Florence. Wife Alberga
  •          Abbot Guarinus: Badia a Settimo
  •           Saint Minias: d. ca. 250
  •          Financial support of Emperor Henry II
  •        Giovanni Gualberto:  Vallombrosan Order

Matilda of Canossa, Countess of Tuscany

more walls