The Italian Renaissance
I. Rise of the Italian City-States
- A. Urban Centers
- 1. While the rest of Europe was still rural, a number of cities prospered in northern Italy.
- 2. By the late 1300s, Florence, Venice, and Milan all had populations of about 100,000.
- B. Wealthy Merchants
- 1. In the absence of hereditary kings, wealthy merchants formed oligarchies that governed the independent city-states in northern Italy.
- 2. Wealthy merchant families dominated political, economic, and artistic life in the northern Italian cities.
II. Florence and the Medici
- A. The Primacy of Florence
- 1. During the fifteenth century or quattrocento, Florence became the acknowledged center of the Renaissance - the rebirth of classical learning, literature, and art.
- 2. The golden age of Florence was based on the wealth earned by its textile merchants and bankers.
- B. The Leadership of the Medici
- 1. The Medici family dominated Florence’s economic, political, and artistic life for much of the fifteenth century.
- 2. The Medici earned their wealth as bankers. Led by Cosimo (1389-1464), Piero (1416-1469), and Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-1492), the Medici financed libraries, built churches, sponsored the Platonic Academy of Philosophy, and commissioned hundreds of artworks.
- 3. The Florentine Renaissance reached its peak during the lifetime of Lorenzo the Magnificent.
