Florence

Florence is a city in central Italy and the capital of Tuscany. Its wealth, civic institutions, and artistic patronage made it a major center of the Renaissance.

Florence Cathedral: Florence’s cathedral, formally the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower, is a Gothic church crowned by Filippo Brunelleschi’s dome. The dome became the city’s defining architectural achievement.
Roman Florence: Roman Florence, known as Florentia, was a colony founded in the Arno valley in the first century BCE. Its street plan and location shaped the later city.
Medici family: The Medici were a Florentine family whose banking wealth enabled them to dominate the city’s politics and support the arts. Their patronage and political influence transformed Florence across generations.
Venice: Venice is a historic Italian city and maritime republic built across islands in a lagoon. Its commercial empire and oligarchic government differed sharply from Florence’s inland civic politics.
Italian Renaissance: The Italian Renaissance was a period of artistic, intellectual, and political change in Italy from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries. Florence became one of its earliest and most influential centers.
Uffizi Gallery: The Uffizi Gallery is an art museum in Florence, housed in a palace built for the Medici administration. The Medici offices became a repository for works central to Florentine art.
Arno: The Arno is a river in Tuscany that flows through Florence before reaching the Ligurian Sea. The river supported trade while exposing Florence to destructive floods.
Cosimo de' Medici: Cosimo de’ Medici was a fifteenth-century Florentine banker and political leader who became the family’s leading power in the city. His wealth and patronage established the Medici’s lasting cultural influence.
Milan: Milan is a city in northern Italy that became a powerful Renaissance duchy under the Visconti and Sforza families. Milan’s princely rule offered a rival model to Florence’s republic.
Renaissance humanism: Renaissance humanism was an intellectual movement that revived classical learning and emphasized the study of human life and letters. Florentine scholars and patrons helped give humanism civic purpose and visibility.

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