1. Florence and Venice in the Renaissance HI320
Political Structures
Florence and Venice in the Renaissance HI320

2. How does Venetian and Florentine government evolve in the period and why?
What are the sources of power and who has it?
How do you achieve stable government?

3. C11-12 communal governments elected own leaders riven with conflict
Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Allegory of Justice, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, C14th

4. The Venetian Commune general assembly elects dux (doge)
no feudal nobility
short terms of office
Great Council (Maggior Consiglio)

5. Giovanni Bellini, Doge Leonardo Loredan (1501-2)
The doge
Giovanni Bellini, Doge Leonardo Loredan (1501-2)

6. Sala del Maggior Consilio, Ducal Palace
Serrata
late C13th: limiting of guild power
closing of the Great Council c
hereditary status to nobles
libro d’oro
Sala del Maggior Consilio, Ducal Palace

7. cittadini class
popolani excluded

8. Pyramid of Government Doge: elected for life
Signoria: Doge + 6 councillors + 3 heads of the Forty (8 month term)
Pien Collegio: Signoria + 16 Savi
Senate (Pregadi): c. 300
(1 year term)
Maggior Consilio: all adult male patricians

9. Chamber of the Council of Ten, Doge’s Palace
created 1310 after Querini Tiepolo conspiracy
state security
by-pass bigger councils
quick, secretive, summary justice
Chamber of the Council of Ten, Doge’s Palace

10. Florence’s Palazzo dei Priori (Palazzo Vecchio), 1290s

11. The Florentine Republic
Signoria = 8 priors (6 month term)
Gonfaloniere della giustizia
12 Buonuomini + Gonfalonieri di compagnia + Signoria = Tre Maggiori
scrutiny (scrutinio)

12. The Medici Giovanni di Bicci (c. 1360- 1429) builds fortune
banker to pope
Cosimo di Giovanni ( ) takes over 1420s
1433 exile
1434 triumphant return!

13. Cosimo ‘il vecchio’ de’ Medici
Medici power
accoppiatori
elections a mano
use of balìa
Cento council created 1458
international network
peasant army
patronage: parenti, amici, vicini
Cosimo ‘il vecchio’ de’ Medici

14. Piero di Cosimo ‘the gouty’ (1416-70)

16. Lorenzo di Piero ‘the Magnificent’ (1449-92)
takes over 1469
charisma, international support
‘Golden age’ of culture
Pazzi conspiracy 1478
Council of 70

17. Lorenzo de’ Medici’s death mask
Lorenzo dies 1492
1494 son Piero di Lorenzo kicked out
new Great Council
influence of Savonarola
1502 Gonfaloniere a vita Piero Soderini
Lorenzo de’ Medici’s death mask

19. Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici, later Pope Leo X
1512 Medici return
1527 Florentine Republic
Clement VII (r )
1532 Alessandro de’ Medici = ‘First Duke of the Florentine Republic’
Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici, later Pope Leo X
(r )

20. Duke Cosimo de’ Medici (r. 1537-74)

22. Government contado vs. distretto
bigger towns left to administer, judge, tax
negotiation with individual communities
resistance
revolt of Pisa

23. Italy at the Peace of Lodi, 1454

25. Renegotiation of statutes Venetian justice
Rule by consent
Degree of autonomy
Renegotiation of statutes
Venetian justice
Elites could not join Great Council
Major ecclesiastical positions for Venetians
Lion of St. Mark, Verona