LEADING CITIES OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE Florence "City of Flowers" Cradle of the Renaissance Sep 21 1:59 PM Florence Major businesses textiles (wool industry weavers) and banking. At the end of the 13th century merchants and bankers acquired control of papal banking (tax collectors for the papacy) stepping stone to domination of European banking. Sep 17 1:19 PM The Medicis governed as a veiled despotism from 1434 to 1494 and from 1512 to 1527 and as over hereditary rulers from 1530 to 1737. they made their money as merchants and bankers. Setback in 1344 when 1. Edward III of England repudiated his debt to Florentine bankers 2. half of the population succumbed to the Black Death 3. labor unrest occurred ciompi (poor, propertyless workers) revolted in1378 Sep 17 1:22 PM Cosimo de Medici 1389 1464 Wealthiest man of 15th century. He ruled Florence from 1434 until his death, not by holding the highest office (the priorate), but by ensuring that only eligible his followers were eligible for important offices. he created a balance of power in Italy by allying with Milan and Naples in 1454. He patronized the arts and founded the Platonic Academy in Florence. He also founded the first free public library in the western world. He was loved by his subjects and soon after his death was given the title Pater Patriae (father of his country). he was succeeded by his son, Piero de'medici,1416 69, who in turn was succeeded by his son Lorenzo the Magnificent. Sep 17 1:30 PM Sep 17 1:28 PM Lorenzo de Medici (1449 1492) He created a brilliant court culture of painters, poets and philosophers. He was a patron of Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Filippo Lippi, and Michelangelo. Lorenzo, however, antagonized Pope Sixtus IV, who supported an assassination plot against the Medici by the rival Pazzi family in 1478. Lorenzo's brother, Guiliano, was killed, but Lorenzo survived his wounds and restored order by the brutal extermination of his opponents. Two years after Lorenzo's death, his son and successor, Piero, 1471 1503, was expelled from Florence by King Charles VIII of France. Florence was then a republic until the Medici regained control in 1513 under Lorenzo the Magnificent's grandson, Lorenzo, 1492 1519, who became duke of Urbino. Sep 21 9:37 AM 1
Girolamo Savanarola (1452 1497) A Dominican reformer who attempted to establish a theocratic government in Florence. He preached sermons that warned against the coming doom. He became prior of San Marco in Florence and his sermons became direct attacks on the vices and tyrannical abuses of the Medici government. When French intervention allowed the Florentines to expel the Medici and establish a republic, Savanarola became virtual dictator of the city, imposing a program of sweeping moral reforms. MILAN Savonarola began to see himself as a prophet of God sent to announce judgment on Italy and on the church. Pope Alexander VI summoned him to Rome to explain himself. The pope excommunicated Savonarola but, when this censure was published in Florence, Savonarola denied its validity. Soon his intransigence and defiance alienated his supporters in the Florentine government. When popular feeling turned against him, he was arrested, tortures, tried, and condemned to death for heresy and schism. He was hanged and then burned Francesco I Sforza (1401 1466) Milan was controlled by the Sforza family between 1450 and 1535. The founder of the dynasty was Muzio Attendolo (1369 1424), a peasant farmer who achieved his fortune as a condottiere, or mercenary soldier. He took the surname Sforza, which means "force". Muzio's son conquered Milan in 1450, through the claim of his wife, Bianca Maria Visconti,the illegitimate daughter of the last Visconti lord of Milan. Massimiliano Sforza (1493 1530) Ludovico Sforza (1452 1508) Muzio's second son, called "Il Moro" because of his swarthy complexion, became duke of Milan in 1480. In 1494, he sought the aid of Charles VIII of France against Florence and Naples, thus facilitating the French invasion of Italy, but the French soon turned against him and he lost Milan to King Louis XII in 1499. He was captured by the French and imprisoned. With his wife, Beatrice d'este, Ludovico was the patron of several great Renaissance artists, including Leonardo da Vinci. Son of Ludovico, retook Milan in 1512, but was defeated at the Battle of Marignano and had to cede Lombardy to France. 2
Franceso II Sforza (1495 1535) Ludovico's second son received Milan from the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1522 and ruled until his death without an heir, when Lombardy passed to the Spanish Hapsburgs PAPAL STATES DURING THE RENAISSANCE: dominated by the Borgia family Pope Callistus VI: founder of the family's influence as Alfonso de Borgia. Became pope in 1455 Cesare Borgia (1475 1507) Pope Alexander VI Rogrigo, nephew of Alfonso, became pope in 1492. He had several illegitimate children by his mistress Vannozza Cattani. Rodrigo's son was perhaps the most ruthless prince of the Italian Renaissance. He was the apparent model for Machiavelli's The Prince. made a cardinal by his father in 1493, he renounced his ecclesiastical career in 1498 and was sent by his father to pacify the territory of Romagna in the Papal States. Granted the title of duke of Valentinois by the French king Louis XII, Cesare, now known as Il Valentino, crushed many of the noble families of central Italy in his quest to establish absolute power over the Ronagna. When Alexander VI died in 1503, Cesare was imprisoned by the new pope, Julius II. Later he escaped to Spain, where he fought for the royal house of Navarre (into which he married) until he aws killed in a skirmish near Viana, Spain. Lucrezia Borgia (1480 1519) Cesare's sister was renowned as a master of political intrigue as well as a patron of the arts. She was married three times: 1) to Giovanni Sforza, lord of Pesaro, a marriage annulled by her father in 1497 2) to Alfonso (illegitimate son of Alfonso II of Naples), who was assassinated in Rome 3) to Alfonso d'este who became duke of Ferrers in 1505. Lucrezia then presided over a brilliant Renaissance court in Ferrera that included the painter Titian. VENICE Authority was held by the Doge beginning in 697. The doge, from Latin dux (leader), was the chief magistrate. Initially, the doge was a nearly absolute ruler but by the 12th century his power was curbed by the aristocracy. The geographic position of the city encouraged maritime activities. Venice gradually took control of the Adriatic Sea and, as a staging area for the Crusades, was instrumental in diverting the Fourth Crusade to conquer Constantinople in 1204. From that time Venice dominated most east west commerce. In 1275, the Venetian Marco Polo reached Beijing, opening a trade route between Europe and the Far East. 3
Pinnacle of Power In 1300 Venice defeated Genoa, its only European rival for the mastery of the seas. At the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, Venetian ships helped destroy the Turkish fleet. Decline Portugal's discovery of an all water route to the Far East around Africa and the growing importance of the Western Hemisphere would reduce Venice's commercial importance. KINGDOM OF NAPLES Conflict: Possession of southern Italy was claimed by the Normans, the popes, and the Hohenstauffens. In 1263, the papacy offered the crown to Charles of Anjou he ruled Naples and Sicily as Charles I from 1268. Revolt: A 1282 revolt in Sicily in resulted in the separation of the island from the mainland kingdom the Kingdom of Naples remained under the rule of the Angevins. GENOA Early History: Genoa was already an important trade center by the 5th century BCE. After the fall of Rome the city suffered numerous Germanic and Arab invasions The Aragonese: Following the death of Joan II, the last Angevin ruler of Naples, Alfonso V of Aragon defeated her adopted son, Rene of Anjou, and ushered in a period of Aragonese rule that lasted until the 18th century 4
Republic: Genoa became a free commune in the 12th century and its maritime power increased. In the 13th century it gained control of Sardinia and Corsica. The Crusades brought Genoa great wealth, and for a time it was Venice's chief rival in trade with the East until its defeat in the War of Chioggia (1378 80) End of Independence: Beginning in the 14th century, Genoa went through a long period of foreign domination. France, Milan, Spain, and Austria all controlled the city at various times. Sep 27 7:33 AM 5