Europe · High and late Middle Ages
Republic of Florence
1115–1532/1569
Latin Res publica Florentina; the "Florentine Republic." Originated in 1115 when the Florentines rebelled and formed a commune following the death of Matilda of Tuscany, ruler of the Margraviate of Tuscany.
- Existed
- 1115–1532/1569
- Shown on the map
- 1260–1737
- Peak area
- 20k km²
- Region
- Europe
Names
Latin Res publica Florentina; the "Florentine Republic."
Founding
Originated in 1115 when the Florentines rebelled and formed a commune following the death of Matilda of Tuscany, ruler of the Margraviate of Tuscany. Governed by the Signoria, headed by a gonfaloniere; sovereignty rested with the popolo, an elite drawn from the major guilds (arti maggiori).
Ordinances of Justice (1293–1295)
The constitutional cornerstone, associated with Giano della Bella, barred "magnates" (152 named powerful families) from the highest offices and vested government in priors drawn from the guilds, selected by lot every two months, alongside the Gonfaloniere di Giustizia. This entrenched guild oligarchy.
Guelphs, Ghibellines, and Dante
Florence was riven by the Guelph-Ghibelline conflict and then the Black/White Guelph schism (the Cerchi vs. Donati), which drove Dante Alighieri into exile (1302). Florentine banking (the Bardi, Peruzzi, and later Medici) made the city Europe's financial capital after Siena's Bonsignori bank collapsed in 1298; the gold florin (from 1252) became the continent's dominant trade coin.
Ciompi Revolt (1378)
A rising of the ciompi (wool-carders and unskilled textile workers), partly fomented by Salvestro de' Medici, briefly brought the woolworker Michele di Lando to power as gonfaloniere. It was the era's most remarkable proletarian revolt but was suppressed; the Albizzi-led oligarchy dominated 1382–1434.
The Medici and the end of the republic
Cosimo de' Medici established de facto Medici dominance in 1434. The family ruled (with interruptions in 1494–1512 and 1527–1530) as unofficial first citizens; Savonarola's theocratic republic (1494–1498) was an interlude ending in his execution. After the 1527–1530 republic and an 11-month siege aided by Emperor Charles V, Pope Clement VII (a Medici) installed Alessandro de' Medici as the first Duke of the Florentine Republic in 1532, converting the republic into a hereditary monarchy. Under Cosimo I it absorbed Siena (1555) and was elevated to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in 1569.
Legacy
Florence was the cradle of the Renaissance and of humanism — Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Machiavelli.
Common questions
- What was the Republic of Florence?
- Latin Res publica Florentina; the "Florentine Republic." Originated in 1115 when the Florentines rebelled and formed a commune following the death of Matilda of Tuscany, ruler of the Margraviate of Tuscany.
- When did the Republic of Florence exist?
- The Republic of Florence existed 1115–1532/1569. On this map it is drawn 1260–1737.
- How large was the Republic of Florence?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Republic of Florence covered about 20,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
- How did the Republic of Florence end?
- Florence was the cradle of the Renaissance and of humanism — Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Machiavelli.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each polity as the primary basis, cross-checked against Encyclopædia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia and the scholarship of Donald Queller, Thomas Madden and Jonathan Harris on the Fourth Crusade, whose post-conspiracy reading of 1204 this document follows. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Republic of Florence en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Florence
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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