Florence

Steven DutchUniversity of Wisconsin – Green Bay

Florence• 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

• Dante Alighieri• Giovanni Boccaccio • Sandro Botticelli• Filippo Brunelleschi• Michelangelo• Donatello• Raphael

• 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