HSTEU401    

ITALlAN  CITY-STATES  (commune): Republics versus “Tyrannies:

 

    Republics: communal self-government = Italian medieval political tradition
                       longest lasting republican city states are Florence and

          Venice: oligarchy = rule by the few; patrician regime (nobles, merchants)

                          Grand Council: membership "closed" in 1297 (hereditary elite)

            Doge: head of state for life, elected by Grand Council

            Council of Ten (dieci): executive council, holds real power
                          subject territories: terra firma (mainland) & Dalmatian coast:

                           by 15th century, the Veneto borders Milanese territory
            Venetian system of indirect election of Doge by alternating lottery & votes:

            Grand Council chooses 30 of its members by lots from list of all eligible names

                                    30 reduced to 9 by lot; 9 elect 40;

                                    40 reduced to 12 by lot; 12 elect 25

                                    25 reduced to 9 by lot; 9 elect 45;

                                    45 reduced  to  11  by  lot;  11  elect committee  of  41;

                                    committee of 41 elects the doge.

            Purpose: to avoid factions, partisan politics & campaigning for office

                       

      Signori (Lords)  of 14-15th C.: rule by one man or family (tyrannies, despotisms)
                                      who displace existing republican communal governments by force
            Dante 1313 “The cities of Italy are full of tyrants.”  (Purgatorio vi.124-5)

                                  Written in exile while the guest of the Signore of Verona.

 

            General pattern in northern Italy: examples will be seen late in Machiavelli's Prince

                        Mantua = Gonzaga; Ferrara = Este: Verona = Scaglieri; Padua = Carrara
                        more effective centralized government, especially for military expansion

            MILAN: best example of rise of one man rule = VISCONTI Dukes of Milan

                        13th C. republican regime overthrown by both electoral strategy & force:
                        Visconti gain office of "Captain of the People," = head of republican militia
                           1311  purchase title of Imperial Vicar  from Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII

                        military expansion at expense of smaller signori & republics:

                                    from 1350 become signori (Lords) throughout Lombardy, conquering:

                                    Cremona, Piacenza, Pavia, Bergamo, Brescia, Parma, Como, Novara

                                    attempt to conquer Florence: Gian Galeazzo Visconti 1397-1402

                        1447 Filippo Maria dies without heirs; illegitimate daughter Bianca married to

                                             Francesco Sforza condottieri (mercenary captain) for Milan
            1447-1450 Ambrosian Republic brief restoration of republican government
            1450 Sforza takes control of city by military force; becomes the new  Duke

               - Burckhardt’s theme of illegitimacy (lack of submission to authority or group norms)
                 individualism, self-assertion, unbridled egotism, aggression, will
                 Francesco Sforza is Machiavelli’s model in The Prince, along with Cesare Borgia