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Republic of Florence - 1292-1737

The balance of power to which Italian politics tended could not have been established without the concurrent aid of Florence. After the expulsion of the duke of Athens in 1343, and the great plague of 1348, the Florentine proletariate rose up against the merchant princes. This insurgence of the artisans, in a republic which had been remodeled upon economical principles by Giano dclla Bella's constitution of 1292, reached a climax in 1378, when the Ciompi rebellion placed the city for a few years in the hands of the Lesser Arts. The revolution was but temporary, and was rather a symptom of democratic tendencies in the state than the sign of any capacity for government on the part of the working classes.

Florence - tbe most flourishing republic of Middle Italy and the seat of mediaeval Italian literature - rivalled ancient Athens in the freedom of her political institutions, and in her patronage of literature and the fine arts. The great poets, Dante and Petrarch, and the great novelist, Boccaccio, flourished at Florence. The commercial spirit of her citizens made Florence a wealthy and powerful republic. The Florentines wove in silk and wool, made jewelry, and were the leading bankers of Europe. The gold florin-first coined in 1252-became the standard currency of Europe.

The inland republic of Florence has left a deeper impress upon the Italian character and upon the art and literature of the world than Venice or Genoa. The Florentine government was far more democratic than that of Venice, and rested upon the industries of the citizens. Chief magistrates could be chosen from members of the Arts, or trades' unions, which resembled the Guilds of England and the Netherlands. These officers were chosen every two months, and the Council of State every four months; so that the whole mass of citizens were qualified for office, and were elevated in turn to public trust. No magistrate received any reward for his services. During the Guelfic supremacy Florence conquered the ports of Pisa and Leghorn and half of Tuscany; while the wealth of her bankers, merchants and woolen manufacturers established her commercial fame in Europe.

The necessities of war and foreign affairs soon placed Florence in the power of an oligarchy headed by the great Alhizi family. They fought the battles of the republic with success against the Visconti, and widely extended the Florentine domain over the Tuscan cities. During their season of ascendancy Pisa was enslaved, and Florence gained the access to the sea. But throughout this period a powerful opposition was gathering strength. It was led by the Medici, who sided with the common people, and increased their political importance by the accumulation and wise employment of vast commercial wealth.

Florence - at first a model democracy - in the fifteenth century passed under the absolute rule of the illustrious family of the Medici; and under Cosmo dc Medici (1428-1464) and his renowned grandson, Lorenzo the Magnificent (1472-1492), Florence enjoyed a high degree of prosperity, as the seat of European civilization, culture and refinement.

Cosmo de Medici, who had been a prosperous merchant, who ruled Florence so wisely and well for thirty-six years, simply exercised the power of a citizen among equals; and his power appeared to rest on the esteem and affection of his countrymen, though it was supported by the control which a rich money-lender exercised over needy borrowers. Cosmo de Medici was a man of lofty mind and patriotic spirit, and without assuming either rank or title he governed Florence with almost unlimited power, and rendered the republic flourishing and powerful by successful wars abroad and by encouragement of the arts and sciences at home, so that he was justly called "Father of his Country."

In 1433 the Albuzi and the Medici came to open strife. Cosimo de' Medici, the chief of the opposition, was exiled to Venice. In the next year he returned, assumed the presidency of the democratic party, and by a system of corruption and popularity-hunting, combined with the patronage of arts and letters, established himself as the real but unacknowledged dictator of the commonwealth. Cosimo abandoned the policy of his predecessors. Instead of opposing Francesco Sforza in Milan, he lent him his prestige and influence, foreseeing that the dynastic future of his own family and the pacification of Italy might be secured by a balance of power in which Florence should rank on equal terms with Milan and Naples.

Lorenzo the Magnificent trod the same path as his renowned grandfather, and made his name illustrious by rendering Florence the seat of every art and science and a university for all Europe. His court was ornamented with artists, poets £Uid writers; and learned men from Constantinople, fleeing from the sword of the conquering Turks, taught the Greek language and literature in Florence. Under his rule the arts of sculpture, painting and music commenced unfolding their choicest blossoms.

After Cosiino de' Medici's death in 1464, the presidency of the Florentine republic passed to his son Piero, who left it in 1469 to his sons Lorenzo and Giuliano. These youths assumed the style of princes, and it was against their lives that the Pazzi, with the sanction of Sixtus IV, aimed their blow. Giuliano was murdered. Lorenzo escaped to tighten his grasp upon the city, which now loved him and was proud of him. During the following fourteen years of his brilliant career, he made himself absolute master of Florence, and so modified her institutions that the Medici were henceforth necessary to the state. Apprehending the importance of Italian federation, Lorenzo, by his personal tact and prudent leadership of the republic, secured peace and a common intelligence between the five powers. His own family was fortified by the marriage of his daughter to a son of Innocent VIII, which procured his son Giovanni's elevation to the cardinalate, anil involved two Medicean papacies and the future dependence of Florence upon Rome.

The power of Cosmo de Medici and Lorenzo the Magnificent resembled that of Pisistratus in Athens. They so well succeeded in winning the affection of their fellow citizens by their benevolence and their kindness to the poor, and by their friendly affability toward the illustrious, that their power was securely established. The public entertainments which they gave rendered life in Florence a perpetual scene of gay and brilliant festivity. Their policy exalted the intellectual fame of Florence at the expense of her freedom, and their influence among the Italian states was frequently exerted on the side of despotism, as in the case of Milan. Still Florence largely owes her title of " Mother of Modern Art" to their liberal and enlightened tastes.

After Lorenzo's death the earnest discourses of the Dominican monk and reformer, Savonarola, induced the Florentines to drive out the Medici and to restore the democratic republic; but the "bold prophet of Florence " was excommunicated by Pope Alexander VI, and, at the instigation of the clergy, was tried, convicted, and burned to death as a disturber of the Church and a corrupter of the people. The Medici returned and recovered their power, and after being again banished were restored by the forcible intervention of Pope Clement VII. and the Emperor Charles V, who besieged and took Florence, and placed Alexander de Medici as Duke over the conquered republic. Alexander's tyranny caused his assassination, but Florence remained under the Medici until 1737. Among the great men who ornamented the court of the Medici were the artist Michael Angelo and the historian and statesman Machiavelli.