15th C.
I. Florentine Politics & Civic Humanism Republican careers for humanists:
Coluccio
Salutati: lawyer, Chancellor (1375-1406) skills:
formal Latin correspondence,
oratorical ability (rhetoric),
panegyrics (speech in
praise of city, ruler etc.); history (Bruni,
Guicciardini, Machiavelli
all write Histories of Florence or
Baron thesis: Leonardo Bruni (Chancellor,
1406 )
In Praise of
the City of Florence, 1400: republican liberty as
distinguishing
element of
II. Florentine Government in the late
l4th & early 15th C:
Oligarchic
Republic, l382-1434:
1378 Revolt of the Ciompi: expansion
of the electoral franchise
l382 restoration of oligarchy: power
returned to greater guilds; dominant merchant family = Albizzi (exile of
Alberti)
Foreign
policy: from self defense to territorial expansion:
1390-1402 resistance against
1384: purchase of
1405: purchase of
1406: revolt of
1421: purchase of Livorno (seaport) from
1422-8: resumption of Milanese war against
Duke Filippo Maria Visconti
1429-33: Lucchese war: unprovoked attack on
Florentine war cry = "Ave Maria, grazia
piena, avuto
(Hail Mary, full of grace; we’ve taken
III. Cosimo de Medici: (1434-1464) emerges as head of anti-war faction
1433 communal elections in favor of
Medici faction; Albizzi fear revolt;
Cosimo arrested, banished to
1434 Cosimo recalled: controls republic in
quasi-hereditary rule through
manipulation
of electoral system; scrutino:
open examination of names
by 10
electors (accoppiatori) controlled by Medici
exiles: action against enemies of 1433:
especially Albizzi & Strozzi
Cosimo’s office holding: gonfaloniere of justice 3 terms
(6 mos/30 yrs)
low key presence democratic/merchant style of government;
role = control of foreign affairs, anti-Visconti policy
1440:
Milanese Duke Filippo Maria Visconti allies with Albizzi exiles,
defeated
at
Foreign
Policy under Cosimo:
Milanese succession crisis: 1441 Bianca Visconti (illegitimate
daughter)
marries Francesco Sforza, lowborn
condottiere for
1447: death of
Duke Filippo Maria Visconti during war with
1447-1450: Ambrosian Republic restored: surviving republican
sentiments
Reversal of traditional alliance system
with
Cosimo supports Sforza against
Outbreak of general Italian
warfare: Milan + Florence vs Venice + Naples
Venice
allies with Naples' King Alfonso; l453 fall of Constantinople
1454
Peace of Lodi: ratified by Italian states; ends territorial expansion
Balance
of power established between surviving major Italian powers:
1454-1494 Period of (relatively) stable
inter-state relations
development of diplomatic procedures (e.g. resident
ambassadors)
1464 death of Cosimo, succeeded by his
son Piero (Piero il Gottoso = the Gouty)