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Florence: The Gradleof the Renaissance29.1 Introduction

In the last chapter, you learned that the Renaissance began in Italy. In this chap-ter, you will visit the Italian city of Florence to learn about a number of advancesthat were made during the Renaissance.

Florence is located on the Arno River, just north of the center of Italy. The city isoften called the "cradle of the Renaissance." Between 1300 and 1600, it was hometo some of the greatest artists and thinkers of the Renaissance.

Renaissance Florence was a beautiful city. One of its most notable buildings wasthe duomo, or cathedral, of Santa Maria del Fiore. The domed cathedral was the cen-ter of the city's religious life. Nearby was the Palazzo Vecchio (Old Palace). Thisbuilding was the headquarters of the city government. The grand Palazzo Mediciwas the home of Florence's ruling family, the Medicis. A more humble house wasthe Casa di Dante (Dante's House). It was the home of Italy's most famous poet.

During Renaissance times, Florence was the banking center of Europe. Peoplefrom around Europe came to the Mercato Nuovo (New Market) to trade their coinsfor florins, the gold coins of Florence. Another busy spot was the Ponte Vecchio

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(Old Bridge). This beautiful bridgespanned the Arno River and waslined with the shops of fine jewel-ers and goldsmiths.

Florence's wealth helped tomake it a cultural leader duringthe Renaissance. In this chapter,you lvill visit several places in thecity to learn about Renaissanceadvances in a number of fields.You'll explore Renaissancearchitecture and engineer-ing, paint ing, sculpture,literature, and science andmathematics. You'll also findout about Florentine politicsand commerce and trade.

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Florence: The Cradle of the Renaissance 323

The Palazzo Vecchio housed the gov-ernment of Florence. Local authoritieswanted to awe people with theirpower and also have a place ofsafety, so this building was madeto look like a fortress or castle.

29.2The Gity of FlorenceFlorence was Italy's leading cultural center

during the Renaissance. The city was the birth-place of the great poet Dante Alighieri. The famedpainter and sculptor Michelangelo grew up there.So did the brilliant thinker and artist Leonardoda Vinci. Other Florentines, such as the sculptorDonatello, also made their mark on theRenaissance.

What made Florence so special? One answeris its location. As you remember from the lastchapter, in Renaissance times Italy was dividedinto city-states. Florence was one of these city-states. The city's location on the Arno River madeit an important center for trade and commerce.Florence became the hub of woolen-cloth tradingfor all of Europe. About 100,000 residents livedinside the city walls.

Renaissance Florence was dominated by asingle family, the Medicis. The Medicis acquiredtheir wealth through Florence's major industry:banking. In the early 14th century, Florencebecame Europe's banking center.

The banking and wool trades created wealththat supported intense cultural activity inFlorence. The city and its rich residents couldafford to be patrons of talented artists and

thinkers. The Medicis, for example, spent lavish sums on art. Theirhome was a gathering place for artists, philosophers, and poets.Michelangelo once lived for a time in the Medici household, wherehe mingled with other artists.

Over time, the work produced by Florentines inspired still morecreative activity. People learned from one another, and they sometimescompeted to produce even greater work. Florentines were also influ-enced by ideas from other places. The city drew travelers from manyparts of the world. Some came to do business. Some came to study artwith Florence's master artists. Others came to learn at the city's schoolsand libraries. These visitors brought new ideas, goods, and technologiesthat enlivened the city.

Florentines were also inspired by the freedom of ideas that was atthe core of humanism. Recall that humanists prized the individual andtried to look with fresh eyes at nature and human society. You'll see theinfluence of humanism throughout this chapter as you study examplesof Renaissance advances.

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29.3 Advances in Architectureand Engineering

You have learned that the humanist scholars of the Renaissancewere influenced by classical ideas. So too were architects and builders.Renaissance architects studied Greek and Roman ruins, and they mod-eled their own buildings on what they learned. They were particularlyattracted to rounded arches, straight columns, and domed roofs.

Architects also added their own ideas to classical building styles.During the Renaissance, wealthy families built private townhousesknown as palazzi (palaces). Many had shops on the ground floor andhomes above. Most palazzi were builtaround a private courtyard, which mightcontain statues and other works of art.

Public spaces were often influencedby humanist ideals. For example, human-ists valued good citizenship. Architectsdesigned public buildings where citizenscould interact in settings that were grandyet welcoming. They used Roman-inspired, roofed porches called loggia tojoin buildings and create outdoor plazas.

Advances in engineering made newkinds of architecture possible. Forinstance. one of the most impressivearchitectural feats of the Renaissancewas the great cathedral, the Duomo diSanta Maria del Fiore. Florentines startedbuilding this eighrsided cathedral in1296,but they had to leave an openingfor the dome. At the time. thev didn'tknow how to build a large enough dome that would not collapse. Ittook a Renaissance architect, Filippo Brunelleschi, to solve the problem.

Brunelleschi had studied ancient ruins in Rome. He had also learnedabout the mathematics involved in creating buildings. The dome hedesigned and built for the cathedral took true engineering genius. It

'rsed no internal support beams or columns. Instead, eight huge stone&rches met at the top of the dome and leaned against each other. Hoopsof iron, wood, and brick wrapped around the arches, keeping them inplace. Brunelleschi invented machines called hoists to raise buildingmaterials and food to workers at the top of the dome as they werebuilding it.

T'he magnificent dome was finished in 1436.It stood more than3t\0 feet above the city. It still stands today, over 500 years later. Fromits tcrp you can see most of the city of Florence.

The dome of the Duomo di SantaMaria del Fiore r ises from the octa-gonal (eight sidedl cathedral, l tsdesign is one of the great engineeringachievements of the Renaissance.

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L Florence: The Cradle of the Renaissance 325

29.4 Advances in PaintingWealthy patrons made Renaissance Florence a thriving center of

art. The Medicis spent huge sums of money on fine palaces' paintings'

andstatues.ThePa|azzoMediciwasfilledwithworksofartthatwerecommissioned bY the familY'

Patrons like the Medicis created opportunities for talented painters,

who made a number of advances in style and technique' As you learned

in the last chapter, Renaissance painters were influenced by the renewed

interest in classical culture and the spread of humanism' They wanted

to depict real people who were posed in lifelike ways and who showedfeelings. TheY also wanted toinclude realistic backgrounds'The result was a very differentstyle from the more flat, rigidpainting of the Middle Ages.

One key advance made bYRenaissance Painters was thediscovery of perspective. Paintersuse perspective to create theappearance of dePth on a flatsurface. Renaissance artists usedseveral techniques to indicatedepth. One was the size ofobjects. The smaller a Paintedobject, the farther awaY it appearsto be. The larger an object, thecloser it aPPears to be. Paintersalso learned that a feeling of depth

could be created by lines that came closer together as they receded into

the distance. They discovered that careful shading could make figures

and objects look three-dimensional' Adoration of the Magi' a famous

painting by Sandro Botticelli, shows some of these techniques'

Science and mathematics helped artists make other advances' The

Florentine artist Masaccio used geometry to figure out how to divide

the space in a painting to make scenes appear more as they would in

real life. Leonardo da Vinci and others studied anatomy' They observed

bodies and how they moved. Their studies helped them to portray the

human bodY more realisticallY'Renaissancesciencealsogavepaintersnewmaterials,suchasoi l -

based paints, to work with. Oil paint was made by mixing powdered

pigments (colors) with linseed oil' This type of paint was thicker and

dried more slowly than the older, egg-based paint' Oil paint also

allowed artists to paint over previous work and to show details and

texture in new waYs.

! r , tRenaissance painters were the firstto use techniques of PersPective'This is Bottic elli's Adoration of theMagi. Notice the sense of distance,or depth, in the Painting'

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29.5 Advances in SculptureLike painters, Renaissance sculptors were influenced by the human-

ist interest in realism. They were also inspired by ancient Roman statuesdug up from ruins. Sculptors began carving figures that looked like realpeople and showed emotions.

For the first time since the days of ancient Greece and Rome, sculp-tors made freestanding statues that could be viewed in the round. Thiswas very different from the relief sculptures of medieval times. Thenew statues caused quite a sensation. They seemed to symbolize thehumanist ideals of independence and individuality.

Donatello, a Florentine, was one of the first sculptors to use the new,more lifelike style. His work expressed personality and mood. A goodexample is his statue of David, the young warrior in the Bible storyof David and Goliath. In the 1500s, Giorgio Vasari, an architect andpainter, wrote that Donatello's David is "so natural...it is almost im-possible...to believe it was not molded on the living form." This statueis thought to be the first life-size nude statue since classical times.

Donatello's work influenced Florence's other great sculptor,Michelangelo. This famous artist is renowned both for his paintingand his sculpture. He was also a talentedpoet and architect. Of all these arts, hepreferred sculpture because it seemed tobring his subjects to life.

Michelangelo created his ownmajestic statue of David. It may be theworld's most widely admired sculpture.Carved in white marble, Michelangelo'sDavid stands about 17 feet tall. It isfamed as an ideal of male beauty, yet itreflects humanist ideas. David's expres-sion shows the concentration and tensionof a real youth on the verge of battle.

Michelangelo's David was installedin the Piazza della Signoria, the plaza infront of the Palazzo Vecchio. It becamethe prized expression of Renaissancegenius in Florence.

' Mi"h"lungelo had an enonnousinf luence on other artists. Giorgio Vasariwais one of his followers. He wrote,"Wlhat a happy age we live in! Andlcu'l fortunate are our craftsmen, whohard: been given light and vision byMichelangelo."

Moses (above) by Michelangelo sitsat the tomb of Pope Julius ll in Rome.Michelangelo's David is perhaps themost admired sculpture in the world.t ;

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secular relating to earthly liferather than to religion or spiritualmafters

Dante, a Renaissance writer inFlorence, wrote a long poem calledThe Divine Comedy. Dante is paintedhere with scenes of heaven and hellas described in his poem.

29.6 Advances in LiteratureLiterature, like other Renaissance art forms, was changed by the

rebirth of interest in classical ideas and the rise of humanism. Duringthe ltalian Renaissance, the topics that people wrote about changed.So did their style of writing and the language in which they wrote.

In medieval times, literature usually dealt with religious topics. Mostwriters used a formal, impersonal style. Most Italian writers wrote inLatin. Their work could be read only by a few highly educated people.

In contrast, Renaissance writers were interested in individual exper-ience and in the world around them. Writing about secular, or non-religious, topics became more common. Writers used a more individualstyle, and they expressed thoughts and feelings about life. By the end ofthe Renaissance, most writers were writing in their own dialect insteadof Latin. As a result, far more people could read their work.

Dante Alighieri, a native of Florence, was the first well-known writerto create literature in his native language. His besrknown work, TheDivine Comedy, was written in the early 1300s. This long poem describesDante's imaginary journey through the places where Christians believedthat souls went in the afterlife. With the spirit of the ancient Romanpoet Virgil as his guide, Dante witnesses the torments of souls con-demned to Inferno, or hell. Virgil also takes him to Purgatory, a place

between heaven and hell wheresouls await entry into heaven.Then a beautiful woman namedBeatrice shows him Paradise. orheaven.

Like other humanist art, TheDivine Comedy highlights strongemotions and the experiences ofindividuals. Dante's poem is asocial commentary, too. It is filledwith real people. The inhabitantsof hell included people Dante dis-approved of. People he admiredappeared in heaven.

Dante's work became a modelfor other Renaissance writers. He,strongly influenced two importaritFlorentine writers, Petrarch and 1Boccaccio. They described peoiple's lives with a new intensityf offeeling. Like Dante, they wrot{:using the local dialect, so theirlwords touched many more people.

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29.7 Advances in Science and MathematicsThe Renaissance was not. just a t ime cl f progress in thc arts. Scholars Leonardo da Vinci studied many

and others also made great advances in sciencc and mathematics. things, including human anatomy.Befbre the Renaissance. most of what people bel ieved about the These sketches of the muscles oJ

natural world was based on ideas in ancient Greek and Rornan texts. the arm are from his notebooks.As the humanist spirit took hold. pcople startcdquest ioning old ideas. They began careful ly observ-ing the world around thern. Instead of rclyin-u onold books and theories. scicntists began to pedirrrnexperiments. They analyzed the results usin-9mathematics and logic. This approach to researchchanged the study ol- :c iertce.

One of the nrost creat ive Renaissance thinkcrswas Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo was r.ur artist. ascient ist . and an inventor. He studicd under art rnas-ters in Florence and did hrs early work there. lt issaid that he was often to be fbund thinking anclsketching at his favori te church. Orsanmichelc.

Leonardo was endlessly cur ious. Hc did notaccept anythin-s as true until he hacl proved it hirn-self. In his notebooks. he sketched and wrote abolrtan amazing variety of topics. He wrote about -ucom-etry. engineering. sound, motion. and architecture.He studied anator.ny. includin-e the circulat ionof blood and the workings of the eye . He learnedabout the efl'ects of the moon on Earth's tides. Hewas the first person to draw r.naps fron.r a brrcl's-eye view (above the ground). As an inventor,he designed brrd-res. weapons. and many othermachines. Amon-rr his rrany farsighted ideas wasan underwater diving sui t .

Other I tal ian scient ists and mathernat ic iansmade breakthroughs as wel l . Girolamo Cardanosolved complex equations in algebra. Cardano. whowas interested in garnbl in-u. also did pioneeringwork in probabi l i ty. the science of chance. Gal i leoGal i le i did important experinrents concernin-g grav-i ty. He proved that a heavier object and a l ighterobject fall at the same rate. I1'the two objects are dropped f}om thesame height. they reach thc ground at the same tirr-re. Galileo also builtthe f i rst telescope that could be used to look into space. He used histelescope to discover slurspots and the nroous of the planet Jupiter.By emphasizing observat ion and experir .nent. Gal i leo and otherRenaissance scient ists pavecl the way fbr modern science.

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Florence: The Cradle of the Renaissance 329

29.4 Florentine PoliticsThe local government of Florence was housed in the Palazzo

Vecchio. Like other ltalian city-states, Florence was ruled by a govern-ing board. As you learned in Chapter 28, however, these boards wereoften controlled by rich families. The powerful Medici family con-trolled Florence for nearly three centuries.

The Medicis maintained their power in a number of ways. Theybuilt palaces and kept a strong military. They were involved in allaspects of life in the city. They were great supporters of artists, writers,and musicians. The Medicis also defeated enemies who plotted againstthe family or even to murder some of its members.

One of the most powerful members of the Medicis was Lorenzo theMagnificent. A leading patron of art and scholarship, Lorenzo ruledFlorence for more than 20 years, from 1469 until his death in 1492.Two years later, a revolution forced the Medicis into temporary exile.In 1512, the family regained power.

A Florentine statesman and historian, Niccolo Machiavelli, watchedthese struggles for power. During the Medicis' exile, he reorganized thecity's defenses. He also served as a diplomat and spent time observingthe actions of other Italian rulers.

Machiavelli drew on his expe-riences in a famous book calledThe Prince. The book was a frankaccount of how politics and gov-ernment really worked. Machia-velli advised rulers to maketheir states strong by doing whatworked best, rather than by beinggood or moral. He said that theyshould even lie if if helped themto rule. In his view, the end, orpurpose, justified the means (theactions taken to achieve a certainpurpose). Rulers, he wrote, shouldbe feared rather than loved.

The Prince seems to contradicthumanist ideals about people'sgoodness. Its cold realism shock-ed many readers. Yet in other waysthe book shows the influence of

humanist ideas. It was the product of one individual's careful obser-vation and thinking. It was concerned with how things really workedin the world. It also separated ideas about government from religion.In this respect, The Prince was a very modern work.

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Flor ins were the most valuablecoins in al l of Europe dur ing theRenaissance.

The Procession of the Magiis afresco from one of the Medici familv'soalaces in Florence,

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29.9 Florentine Gommerce and TradeAs you have learned, one reason that Florence became a cultural

center was the wealth that trade and commerce brought to the city.Let's conclude our visit to Renaissance Florence with a look at thispart of the city's life.

The economy of Florence was unusuallyflexible. Its first great industry was woolen-clothmaking, but people often worked in severalkinds of business. The owner of a cloth factorymight also deal in banking and real estate. Agrain dealer might also be a lawyer. People oftenbelonged to several of Florence's guilds at once.

The shift to a money economy during theRenaissance helped create a thriving bankingindustry in Florence. The Medicis, for example,started out as merchants and moneylenders.Over time, Florence became Europe's bankinghub. The Medicis became one of the wealthiestfamilies in Italy, and Florence became richerthan the largest kingdoms in Europe. Popesand kings borrowed money from its 80 banks.

There were two market centers in the city.At the Mercato Vecchio (Old Market), peoplebought everyday items like vegetables, fruits,bread, fish, meat, medicine, and shoes. The Mercato Vecchio was Florence's Mercato Nuovo (Newcrowded, noisy, and smelly. Still, people from all over Europe came Marketlwas much cleaner and nicerthere to buy and sell goods. than the city's Mercato Vecchio (Old

The Mercato Nuovo (New Market) was built in the mid 1500s as s Market). The Mercato Nuovo repre-center for the cloth and banking industries. City officials banned food sented Florence's high status inand weapons from this new market. They wanted it to be clean and Europe as a center of commerce.orderly as a sign that commerce was highly regarded in Florence.

The Mercato Nuovo became one of the largest financial marketplacesin Europe. People traveled from far and wide to get loans or to converttheir money into florins, which could be used anywhere in Europe.

29-10 Chapter SummaryIn this chapter, you visited Florence to learn about Renaissance

advances in a number of fields. You saw how humanism influencedartists and thinkers like Michelangelo and I-eonardo da Vinci. Youalso learned about Machiavelli's political ideas and Florentine tradeand commerce.

In the next chapter, you will learn how Renaissance ideas spreadfrom Italy across Europe. Then you will meet l0leading figures ofthe Renaissance-people who changed the world with their ideas.

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29.7 Advances in Science and MathematicsThe Renaissance was not just a t ime of progress in the arts. Scholars Leonardo da Vinci studied many

lt- and others also made great advances in science ancl mathematics. things, including human anaromy.Befbre the Renaissance, most of what people believed about the These sketches of the muscles o{

natural world was based on ideas in ancient Greek and Roman texts. the arm are from his notebooks.As the humanist spirit took hold. people startedquestioning old ideas. They began carefully observ-ing the world around them. Instead of relyin-e onold books and theories. scientists began to perlormexperiments. They analyzed the results usingmathematics and logic. This approach to researchchanged the study ol 'science.

One of the most creat ive Renaissance thinkerswas I-eonardo da Vinci. Leonardo was an artist. ascientist. and an inventor. He studied under art rnas-ters in Florence and did his early work there. It issaid that he was ofien to be fbund thinking andsketching at his favorite church, Orsanmichele.

Leonardo was endlessly curious. He did notaccept anything as true until he had proved it him-self. In his notebooks. he sketched and wrote aboutan amazing variety of topics. He wrote about geom-etry, engineering. sound, motion, and architecture.He studied anatomy. including the circulat ionof blood and the workings of the eye. He learnedabout the eff'ects of the moon on Earth's tides. Hewas the first person to draw nraps fiom a bird's-eye view (above the ground). As an inventor.he designed bridges, weapons, and many othermachines. Among his many larsighted ideas wasan underwater div ing sui t .

Other Italian scientists and mathematiciansmade breakthroughs as well. Grrolamo Cardanosolved complex equations in al-eebra. Cardano, whowas interested in gambling. also did pioneeringwork in probability, the science of chance. GalileoGal i le i did important experinrents concerning grav-ity. He proved that a heavier object and a li-chter

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object fall at the same rate. I1'the two objects are dropped f}om thesame height, they reach the ground at the same time. Galileo also builtthe first telescope that could be used to Iook into space. He used histelescope to discover sunspots and the moons of the planet Jupiter.By emphasizing observation and experiment, Galileo and otherRenaissance scientists paved the way for modern science.

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