The Republican Response to the Medicean Oligarchy

“the best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of a passionate intensity” W.B. Yeats ‘The Second Coming’

Piero di Lorenzo

• He assumes power on the death of his father in April 1492

• Parenti, Guicciardini and Cerretani all located the cause of Piero’s troubles in the resentment of the ottimati excluded from the inner circle

• Martines calls Piero a ‘gaffeur’

Piero’s exile

• after his incompetent attempts to negotiate with Charles V111, the Florentines threw him and his family out

• 60 years of Medici control ended

Charles V111 enters Florence

Florence in 1494

• Lauro Martines says this was a period of ‘marked instability’ in Florentine political and social life

• Lorenzo Polizzotto says “the expulsion of the Medici released latent social, political and religious rivalries which it proved impossible to resolve”

Girolamo Savonarola

• Savonarola plays an important part in the negotiations with Charles and along with the resistance of the Florentine people Charles leaves Florence

Girolamo Savonarola

Immediate Post Medici Events

• Ottimati were in control

• A large practica recommended calling of a Parlemento

• The Cento and the Seventy were abolished

Donatello’s Judith and Holofernescommissioned by the Medici in 1460

Judith and Holofernes

• In 1495, the sculpture was placed on the Piazza della Signoria, at the side of main door the Palazzo Vecchio, in memory of the expulsion of Piero di Medici from Florence.

• The statue came to symbolize the expulsion of

the Medici.

Savonarola’s political reforms

• He proposed a modified Venetian model, without the position of the doge

• He proposed the 16 standardbearers conduct political debates within their gonfalone and bring back their proposals to the Signoria

The Great Council

• In the Prologue to the law the Signoria announced its intention

• “to attend with all its ability and strength to the preservation of the liberty that was for so long nearly suppressed and has recently been recovered”

Eligibility

• All citizens of legitimate birth whose names had ever been drawn for the Signoria or Colleges whether or not they assumed office, (those seated or seen) or whose fathers, paternal grandfathers or great grandfathers who had been ‘seated’ or ‘seen’.

• Everyone approved of in the 1484 scrutiny• members of the Councils of the Commune and

the Popolo.

Hall of the Great Council

• No hall in the Palazzo Signoria was big enough to accommodate a council of this size.

• New Hall to be built as an addition to the Palazzo Signoria

• It was rapidly constructed and the first meeting was held in February 1496

Savonarolan Moral and Social Reforms

• He attempted to organise religious organisations of young boys to oppose sodomy. The Council resisted this

• He proposed self governance for women, within the quarters. This idea met with opposition

• He opposed usury and urged charity for the poor

Execution 1498

• His criticism of the Papacy had brought upon him excommunication.

• Some Florentines supported the Papacy• Executed by burning in the Piazza della

Signoria

Savonarola’s execution in the Piazza della Signoria

Battle of Angiari 1505

Michelangelo’s David

Post Savonarolan political life

• Some members of the elite thought the great Council would not survive.

• Sortition was reinstated in 1499 for most political offices

• Power struggle between the ottimati and the popolo

• Demands for constitutional reform

Additional Reform

• Gonfalonier for life

• Guicciardini claimed that the reason for this was that if his appointment was for life he would act with the welfare of the city as his first concern.

Soderini as Gonfalonier a Vita

• Soderini held this position for 10 years from 1502

• As Gonfalonier, Najemy says he was part of most aspects of government

Medici return 1512

• Cardinal Giovanni de Medici returned to the city with the alliance of Pope Julius 11 and the Spanish

• Soderini escaped into exile in Pisa• Break with the popular government

symbolised by the treatment of the Hall of the Great Council