Table Of ContentPraise for The Measure of Man
“The Measure of Man offers us the Florentine Renaissance as at once a
political suspense thriller, a riveting intellectual adventure tale, a study
in the character and complex motives of key Florentine personalities,
and a lyrical reverie on the psychological and political meaning—as
well as the tantalizing radiance and essential mystery—of the city’s
astonishing works of art. In a remarkable achievement, Rothfield has
combined all these riches into a brief, vivid, and unified story. Through
his eyes, we see the Florentine Renaissance as most fundamentally a
struggle over the nature and possibilities of liberty: a long tragic arc
from the cultural pinnacle of republican idealism in the early fifteenth
century, through the aesthetic flowering and civic vicissitudes of the
age of the Medici and Savonarola, to the brooding meditations of Ma-
chiavelli and Michelangelo over the fate of the dying republic.”
—Ric Burns, documentary filmmaker
“Larry Rothfield is one of today’s great minds and finest writers. In
this elegant volume, he turns his attention to examining the creative,
ingenious, complex, and fascinating history of Florence, from nefarious
assassinations to masterful paintings, from courtly intrigue to wondrous
inventions. Florence may have been small, but like its mascot, David,
it packed a powerful punch and made an indelible mark on the history
books.”
—Noah Charney, professor of art history and best-selling author of
Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art
“Want to feel the majesty and drama that made Florence the glory
of Renaissance Italy? Rothfield’s propulsive, witty, erudite history of
the city-state is a must. Here’s a guide to the genius, passions, politics,
and noble and base motives of its creators, its rulers, and those who
sought to favor them and usurp them. Rothfield helps us feel how the
outsized impact of this remarkable city grew and ultimately faded, and
why its power dimmed but its splendor endures. Readers may want to
draw contemporary parallels to Renaissance Florence’s bravura cultural
ambitions and political machinations—go right ahead—but this book’s
real strength is making a magnificent place magnificently alive.”
—Ted C. Fishman, best-selling author of
China, Inc. and Shock of Gray
“Democracy, freedom, civic participation, prosperity, and social vigor
battle tyranny, foreign interference, suppression, disparities of wealth,
and pandemics in the rise and fall of the republic. Though the themes
strongly resonate today, the setting is Renaissance Florence. Lawrence
Rothfield provides a highly readable account of the shaping of this
most influential of cities, wonderfully blending the republic’s political
and economic tensions with tales of artistic creativity and innovation,
and adeptly using such characters as the Medicis, Machiavelli, and
Michelangelo to do so.”
—Richard Kurin, Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar
“A warm and welcoming introduction to Florence and its history, per-
fect for students and for travelers who want to understand the stories
hidden in the city’s layers and architecture, all written with true erudi-
tion and love.”
—Ada Palmer, author of Reading Lucretius in the
Renaissance and the award-winning Terra Ignota series
“This is just the book I wanted but couldn’t find when I first became
interested in Renaissance Florence. It’s a delightful read, full of fasci-
nating color and detail.”
—Jo Walton, award-winning author of
Among Others, The Just City, and Lent
“A vibrant chronicle of the political and artistic ventures of Renais-
sance Florence, whose citizens attempted to stave off encroaching
tyranny as humanists delved into ancient texts to forge a new culture
and painters and sculptors created glorious artworks. As Rothfield
persuasively argues, we still have much to learn from the ways political
struggle and artistic experiment intertwined in the scintillating and
tumultuous Quattrocento.”
—Rebecca Zorach, Northwestern University
The Measure of Man
Liberty, Virtue, and Beauty in the Florentine Renaissance
Lawrence Rothfield
Rowman & Littlefield
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Rowman & Littlefield
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com
6 Tinworth Street, London SE11 5AL, United Kingdom
Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK
Copyright © 2021 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval
systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who
may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rothfield, Lawrence, 1956– author.
Title: The measure of man : liberty, virtue, and beauty in the Florentine
Renaissance / Lawrence Rothfield
Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2021] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020037175 (print) | LCCN 2020037176 (ebook) | ISBN
9781538143360 (cloth) | ISBN 9781538143377 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Renaissance—Italy—Florence. | Florence (Italy)—Civilization.
| Florence (Italy)—History—1421–1737.
Classification: LCC DG737.4 .R67 2021 (print) | LCC DG737.4 (ebook) |
DDC 945/.505—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020037175
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020037176
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Contents
Map of Renaissance Italy, c. 1500 vii
Map of Florence viii
Chapter 1 Florence Rising 1
Chapter 2 The Work of Man 19
Chapter 3 The Age of Cosimo 45
Chapter 4 Magnificence 79
Chapter 5 New Jerusalem, New Republic 111
Chapter 6 The Twilight of the Republic 139
Coda 161
Notes 167
Bibliography 175
Index 185
v
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C H A P T E R O N E
Florence Rising
The enormous surge of creativity we call the Florentine Renaissance burst
forth around 1400. But its foundations had been laid long before, over
several centuries, an era marked by the normal medieval curses of urban
life—floods, fire, famine, and plague—but also, in Florence’s case, by leg-
endarily bloody vendettas, vicious factional strife, financial fortune-making,
and failure on a scale unmatched before or since, and the first confrontation
between urban workers and capitalists in Western history. Out of this welter
of ambition, passion, and class conflict the Florentines of the Trecento would
haltingly develop the institutions, habits of thought, and political attitudes of
free people in a self-governing republic. And they would begin to shape—both
literally and symbolically—the civic stage on which the high drama of the
Renaissance would unfold.
Everyday Life in Late-Medieval Florence
In 1312 the Florentine merchant Dino Compagni declared of his
hometown:
This city of Florence is very populous and its good climate promotes
fecundity. Its citizens are well-bred, and its women lovely and adorned;
its buildings are beautiful and filled with many useful crafts, more than
any other city in Italy. For these reasons many come from distant lands
to see Florence—not because they have to, but because of its crafts and
guilds, and the beauty and decoration of the city.1
1
