Living on the Edge in Leonardo's Florence: Selected Essays

238 Pages·2005·2.08 MB·English

by  Gene Brucker

Living on the Edge
in Leonardo’s Florence
SWISS
FEDERATION HOLY ROMAN
EMPIRE
MARQUISATE
FRANCE OF MANTUA
DUCHY
OF SAVOY Milan
SALUZZO REPUBLIC
OF VENICE
DUCHY
Mantua
OF MILAN
Genoa Venice
ISTRIA
KINGDOM
OF HUNGARY
REPUBLIC
DUCHY OF
OF GENOA
MONFERRATO FERRARA &
Lucca
Florence MODENA
REPUBLIC
R OTTOMAN
OF LUCCA REPUBLIC
EMPIRE
OF FLORENCE
Sienna PAPAL
STATE
CORSICA DALMATIA
REPUBLIC
A D R I A T I C
OF SIENA
S E A
Rome
SARDINIA KINGDOM OF
NAPLES
Naples
Bari
T Y R R H E N I A N
S E A
Taranto
Brindisi
KINGDOM OF
SICILY
M E D I T E R R A N E A N 0 50 100 mi.
S E A
0 50 100 150 km
Map 1. Italy in 1494
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Living on the Edge in
Leonardo’s Florence
Selected Essays
Gene Brucker
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous contribution
to this book provided by the Ahmanson Foundation Humanities
Endowment Fund of the University of California Press Associates.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2005 by the Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brucker, Gene A.
Living on the edge in Leonardo’s Florence : selected
essays / Gene Brucker.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 0-520-24134-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Florence (Italy)—History—To 1421. 2. Florence
(Italy)—History—1421–1737. 3. Italy—History—
1268–1492.
4. Renaissance—Italy—Florence. I. Title.
DG737.55.B839 2005
945⬘.5105—dc22 2004017983
Manufactured in the United States of America
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (R 1997)
(Permanence of Paper).
CONTENTS
List of Maps
vii
Acknowledgments
ix
Permissions
xi
Introduction
xv
1. The Italian Renaissance
1
2. Civic Traditions in Premodern Italy
22
3. From Campanilismo to Nationhood:
Forging an Italian Identity
42
4. “The Horseshoe Nail”: Structure and Contingency
in Medieval and Renaissance Italy
62
5. Fede and Fiducia: The Problem of Trust in
Italian History, 1300–1500
83
6. Florence Redux
104
7. Living on the Edge in Leonardo’s Florence
114
8. Florentine Cathedral Chaplains in the
Fifteenth Century
128
9. The Pope, the Pandolfini, and the Parrochiani of
S. Martino a Gangalandi (1465)
143
10. Alessandra Strozzi (1408–1471):
The Eventful Life of a Florentine Matron
151
Notes
169
Index
195
MAPS
Italy in 1494 ii
City Plan of Florence xiv
Tuscany xiv
vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Some time ago, James Clark, then director of the University of Califor-
nia Press, suggested that the Press might be interested in publishing a
collection of my recent essays. I am grateful to Jim Clark, whom I have
known since the 1950s, for supporting this enterprise. I also thank Mari
Coates, Stephanie Fay, and Erin Marietta of UC Press, Sherrill Young
of the staff of Berkeley’s History Department, and Lisa Kaborycha, a
graduate student in that department, for their invaluable assistance in
preparing these essays for publication. Finally, I want to express my ap-
preciation to the members of the Florentine Mafia and to my colleagues
in Berkeley’s History Department for their encouragement, their con-
structive criticism, and their camaraderie over the past half-century.
ix