Everything about Republic Of Florence totally explained
==Roman origins==
Florence was founded in 59 BCE as a settlement for former soldiers and was named
Florentia, allotted by
Julius Caesar to his veterans in the rich farming valley of the
Arno. The city was built in the style of a military camp with a
castrum in a chessboard pattern and the main streets, the
cardo and the
decumanus, intersecting at the present
Piazza della Repubblica, which can still be seen in the city center. Florentia was situated at the
Via Cassia, the main route between Rome and the North, which position enabled it to rapidly expand as a commercial center. Emperor
Diocletianus made Florentia capital of the province of
Tuscia in the 3rd century CE.
St Minias was Florence’s first
martyr. He was beheaded at about 250 CE, during the anti-Christian persecutions of the Emperor
Decius. The
Basilica di San Miniato al Monte now stands near the spot.
While visiting the ruins of Rome during the
jubilee celebration in 1300, the banker and chronicler
Giovanni Villani (c. 1276–1348) noted the well-known history of the city, its monuments and achievements, and was then inspired to write a
universal history of his own city of Florence. Hence he began to record—in year-by-year format—the history of Florence in his
Nuova Cronica, which was continued by his brother and nephew after he succumbed to the
Black Death in 1348. Villani is praised by historians for preserving valuable information on statistics, biographies, and even events taken place throughout Europe, but his work has also drawn criticism by historians for its many inaccuracies, use of the supernatural and
divine providence to explain the outcome of events, and glorification of Florence and the
papacy.
Early medieval Florence
The seat of a bishopric from around the beginning of the 4th century CE, the city was alternatingly under
Byzantine and
Ostrogothic rule as the two powers fought each other for control of the city, taking it by siege only to lose it again later. The fighting over the city may have caused the population to have sunk to as few as 1,000 people.
Peace returned under
Lombard rule in the 6th century. Conquered by
Charlemagne in 774, Florence became part of the
Margraviate of Tuscany, which had
Lucca as its capital. The population began to grow again and commerce prospered. In 854 Florence and
Fiesole were united in one county.
Medieval Florence
Margrave Hugo chose Florence as his residence instead of Lucca at about 1000 CE. This initiated the Golden Age of Florentine art. In 1013 the construction was begun of the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte. The exterior of the
baptistry was reworked in Romanesque style between 1059 and 1128.
Reviving from the 10th century and governed from 1115 by an autonomous commune, the city was plunged into internal strife by the 13th-century struggle between the
Ghibellines, supporters of the
German emperor, and the pro-
Papal Guelphs, after the murder of Buondelmonte from the
Amidei for his missed promise to marry one from the
Amidei family. In 1257 the city was ruled by a
podestà, the Guelph
Luca Grimaldi. The Guelphs had triumphed and soon split in turn into feuding "White" and "Black" factions led respectively by
Vieri de' Cerchi and
Corso Donati. These struggles eventually led to the exile of the White Guelphs, one of whom was
Dante Alighieri. This factional strife was later recorded by
Dino Compagni, a White Guelph, in his
Chronicles of Florence.
Political conflict did not, however, prevent the city's rise to become one of the most powerful and prosperous in Europe, assisted by her own strong gold currency. The "fiorino d'oro" of the Republic of Florence, or
florin, was introduced in 1252, the first European gold coin struck in sufficient quantities to play a significant commercial role since the seventh century. Many Florentine banks had branches across Europe, with able bankers and merchants such as the famous chronicler
Giovanni Villani of the
Peruzzi Company engaging in commercial transactions as far away as
Bruges. The florin quickly became the dominant trade coin of Western Europe, replacing silver bars in multiples of the mark. This period also saw the eclipse of Florence's formerly powerful rival
Pisa, which was defeated by
Genoa in 1284 and subjugated by Florence in 1406
(External Link
). Power shifted from the aristocracy to the mercantile elite and members of organized
guilds after an anti-aristocratic movement, led by
Giano della Bella, enacted the
Ordinances of Justice in 1293.
Renaissance Florence
Of a population estimated at 80,000 before the
Black Death of 1348, about 25,000 are said to have been supported by the city's woolen industry: in 1345 Florence was the scene of an attempted strike by wool combers (
ciompi), who in 1378 rose up in a brief revolt against oligarchic rule in the
Revolt of the Ciompi. After their suppression, the city came under the sway (1382-1434) of the
Albizzi family, bitter rivals of the Medici.
Cosimo de' Medici was the first Medici family member to essentially control the city from behind the scenes. Although the city was technically a democracy of sorts, his power came from a vast
patronage network along with his alliance to the new immigrants, the
gente nuova. The fact that the Medici were bankers to the pope also contributed to their rise. Cosimo was succeeded by his son
Piero, who was shortly thereafter succeeded by Cosimo's grandson,
Lorenzo in 1469. Lorenzo was a great patron of the arts, commissioning works by
Michelangelo,
Leonardo da Vinci and
Botticelli.
After Lorenzo's death in 1492 and his son Piero's exile in 1494, the first period of Medici rule ended with the restoration of a republican government, influenced until his execution (1498) by the teachings of the radical Dominican prior
Girolamo Savonarola, whose monomaniacal persecution of the widespread Florentine
sodomy and of other worldly pleasures foreshadowed many of the wider religious controversies of the following centuries. However, in due time, Savonarola lost support and was burned at the stake.
A second individual of unusual insight was
Niccolò Machiavelli, whose prescriptions for Florence's regeneration under strong leadership have often been seen as a legitimisation of political expediency and even malpractice. Commissioned by the Medici, Machiavelli also wrote the
Florentine Histories, the history of the city. Florentines drove out the Medici for a second time and re-established a
republic on
May 16,
1527.
Restored twice with the support of both Emperor and Pope, the Medici in 1537 became hereditary dukes of Florence, and in 1569 they became the
Grand Dukes of Tuscany, ruling for two centuries. Only the Republic of
Lucca (later a
Duchy) was independent from Florence in all Tuscany.
There was also a darker side to the Renaissance of Florence. Mobs were both common and influential. Families were pitted against each other in a constant struggle for power. Politically, double-crossings and betrayals were not uncommon, sometimes even within families.
Florence and the Renaissance
The surge in artistic, literary, and scientific investigation that occurred in Florence in the 14th-16th centuries was precipitated by Florentines' preoccupation with money, banking and trade and with
the display of wealth and leisure.
Added to this, the crises of the
Catholic church (especially the controversy over the French
Avignon Papacy and the
Great Schism) along with the catastrophic effects of the
Black Death were to lead to a re-evaluation of
medieval values, resultant in the development of a
humanist culture, stimulated by the works of
Petrarch and
Boccaccio. This prompted a revisitation and study of the
classical antiquity, leading to the
Renaissance. Florence benefited materially and culturally from this sea-change in
social consciousness.
Early modern Florence
The extinction of the Medici line and the accession in 1737 of Francis Stephen, duke of Lorraine and husband of Maria Theresa of Austria, led to Tuscany's inclusion in the territories of the
Austrian crown. Austrian rule was to end in defeat at the hands of France and the kingdom of
Sardinia-Piedmont in 1859, and Tuscany became a province of the united kingdom of
Italy in 1861.
Florence and United Italy
Florence replaced Turin as Italy's capital in 1865, hosting the country's first parliament, but was superseded by
Rome six years later following its addition to the kingdom.
Florence in the 20th century
After doubling during the 19th century, Florence's population tripled in the 20th with the growth of tourism, trade, financial services and industry. During
World War II the city experienced a year-long German occupation (1943-1944). During the German retreat, Florence was declared an "
open city" avoiding major war damage. The Allied soldiers who died driving the Germans from Tuscany are buried in cemeteries outside the city (Americans about 9 kilometers (6 miles) south of the city
(External Link), British and Commonwealth soldiers a few kilometers east of the center on the north bank of the Arno
(External Link))
On
November 4 1966 the
Arno flooded parts of the centre, killing at least 40 and damaging millions of art treasures and rare books. There was no warning from the authorities who knew the flood was coming, except a phone call to the jewellers on the Ponte Vecchio. Volunteers from around the world came to help rescue the books and art, and the effort inspired multiple new methods of
art conservation. Forty years later, there are still works awaiting restoration.
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