Florence
Steven Dutch
University of Wisconsin – Green Bay
Florence
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Birthplace of the Renaissance
“Athens of the Middle Ages”
Florentine Italian became the literary standard
Florentine bankers financed the birth of
modern capitalism
• Florence is a World Heritage Site
Famous Florentines
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Dante Alighieri
Giovanni Boccaccio
Sandro Botticelli
Filippo Brunelleschi
Michelangelo
Donatello
Raphael
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Galileo Galilei
Lorenzo Ghiberti
Niccolò Machiavelli
Amerigo Vespucci
Leonardo da Vinci
Frescobaldi Family
Medici family.
The Medici
• Initially weavers and textile merchants
• Dynasty founded about 1400
• Medici Bank founded 1397
– Double Entry Bookkeeping
• Cosimo di Medici dominates Florence, 1434
• Lorenzo di Medici: Good Ruler, Bad Banker
• Lorenzo’s Son was Incompetent and the
Medici were expelled 1494-1512
The Medici Bounce Back
• Dominated Italian politics in the 16th and 17th
Centuries
• Major Patrons of the Arts and Science
• Two Popes were Medici
• Catherine de Medici became Queen Consort
of France
• Dynasty declines after 1650; Main Line died
out in 1743
Florence
Santa
Croce
Machiavelli’s
Tomb
Dante’s
Tomb
Galileo’s
Tomb
Santa Maria Novella
Synagogue of
Florence
Palazzo Vecchio
Uffizi
Perseus and
Medusa
(Cellini)
Michelangelo's
David (Copy)
Ponte Vecchio
On the Ponte Vecchio
Fortified
House
Dante’s House
The Duomo
Entrance to
the Duomo
Dome of the Cathedral
Dress for the Weather
Pisa
Cinque Terre