A History of Florence 1200–1575

John M. Najemy is Professor of History at Cornell University and the author of Between Friends: Discourses of Power and Desire in the Machiavelli-Vettori Letters of 1513-1515 (1993) and Corporatism and Consensus in Florentine Electoral Politics, 1280-1400 (1982). For the former he won the Marraro Prize of the Society for Italian Historical Studies and for the latter the Marraro Prize of the American Historical Association. He has also edited Italy in the Age of the Renaissance, 1300-1550 (2004).

List of Illustrations. List of Maps. Acknowledgments. Introduction. 1. The Elite Families. Lineages. Knighthood and Feuds. Political Alignments and Factions. Culture and Religion. 2. The Popolo. Definitions. Guilds. Culture and Education: Notaries. Religion. Critique of Elite Misrule. 3. Early Conflicts of Elite and Popolo. Before 1250. Primo Popolo. Angevin Alliance. Priorate of the Guilds. Second Popolo and the Ordinances of Justice. Elite Resurgence: Black and White Guelfs. 4. Domestic Economy and Merchant Empires to 1340. Population: City and Contado. Textiles, Building, and Provisioning. Merchant Companies and the Mercanzia. Taxation and Public Finances. 5. The Fourteenth-Century Dialogue of Power. Elite Dominance, 1310-40. Crisis of the 1340s and the Third Popular Government. Funded Public Debt and Bankruptcies. Elite Recovery and Popular Reaction. War against the Church. 6. Revolution and Realignment. Workers' Economic Conditions. The Ciompi Revolution. The Last Guild Government. Counterrevolution. Fear of the Working Classes. Consensus Politics. 7. War, Territorial Expansion, and the Transformation of Political Discourse. First Visconti Wars. Territorial Dominion: The Conquest of Pisa. Civic Humanism. The Civic Family. 8. Family and State in the Age of Consensus. The Family Imaginary. Households, Marriage, Dowries. Women, Property, Inheritance. Children, Hospitals, Charity. Policing Sodomy. 9. Fateful Embrace: The Emergence of the Medici. A New Style of Leadership. Fiscal Crisis and the Catasto. Cosimo's Money and Friends. Showdown. 10. The Medici and the Ottimati: A Partnership of Conflict. Part I: Cosimo and Piero. Institutional Controls. External Supports: Papacy and Sforza Milan. Cosimo's Coup. The Ottimati Challenge Piero. 11. The Luxury Economy and Art Patronage. Poverty and Wealth. Public and Private Patronage. Family Commemoration and Self-Fashioning. 12. The Medici and the Ottimati: A Partnership of Conflict. Part II: Lorenzo. Lorenzo's Elders. Lorenzo's Volterra Massacre. Pazzi Conspiracy and War. The (Insecure) Prince in All but Name. Building a Dynasty. 13. Reinventing the Republic. French Invasion and Expulsion of the Medici. The Great Council. Savonarola's Holy Republic. Domestic Discord and Dominion Crises. Soderini, Machiavelli's Militia, and Pisa. 14. Papal Overlords. The Cardinal and a Controversial Marriage. Fall of the Republic and Return of the Medici. A Regime Adrift. Aristocratic and Popular Republicanisms. The Nascent Principate. 15. The Last Republic and the Medici Duchy. Revolution. Siege. Imposition of a New Order. Ducal Government. Finances and Economy. Courtly and Cultural Discipline. Victor and Vanquished. Epilogue: Remembrance of Things Past. Index.