HIST 308 05 Italian CIties in the Fifteenth Century
Portraits of the urban environments
14th c: 5 biggest cities in Latin Europe: Naples, Venice, Milan, Paris, Florence
Florence in the 15th century
major center in many fields
humanists
Visual arts
Vernacular literature/volgare: Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio
Population 1340s over 100,00: 1400: 50,000-70,000
Public buildings
ex: Cathedral: begun 1299, Dedicated 1436
Economy: wool trade and banking
- papacy, house of Anjou (France, Naples)
- expenses of war
- silk industry
- conquest of Pisa 1406—a fleet. Trade, defense
- guilds: 7 great guilds, 14 lesser
Government: republic
- legislative assemblies, executive committees
- from 1293: guild membership to participate in govt
- scrutinies
- 9 priors: signoria; chosen by lot
- buonuomini and gonfaloniere: Policy advising
- magistrates
- 2 legislative assemblies
rise of Medici family
- Cosimo il Vecchio (1389-1464)
- Piero (d. 1469)
- Lorenzo (1449-92)
Humanists
Chancery
Coluccio Salutati, chancellor 1375-1406
- diplomatic correspondence; circle of humanists active in city life;
- study of Greek language
Leonardo Bruni (c. 1370-1444); chancellor from 1427
book collecting
Precedents
Library at S. Marco, Florence
Medici patronage
Niccolò Niccoli wills books
Ties to subsequent development of Vatican Library
Venice
Venice: La Serenissima
republic (oligarchic)
merchants
Cultural and intellectual center
Unique features
Economy: trade plus industry
shipbuilding; printing (late 15th c +)
a post-classical city
location: lagoon
historical development: early from Byzantine control
Government
oligarchy 1297
- Maggior Consiglio—patricians over 25.
- practical govt: senate
- smaller councils with a variety of functions
- doge
Giovanni Bellini, Leonardo Loredan
- mixed constitution
sestieri
Patricians; cittadini
arsenalotti
15th c:
Turkish threats
subject cities:
a) stato di mar
b) stato di terrafirma
cultural landscape
- humanists: patricians and citizens
- universities and scholastics
- University of Padua
- Lectureships in city of Venice
- printing center: more Greek, later Hebrew, Arabic
churches
scuole
private residences: palazzi