The Growth of Italian City States

Changing ideals brought Europe to the brink of a new era, called the Renaissance, a French word meaning “rebirth” that referred to the revival of contemporary arts and letters that took place in the cities of northern Italy in the 1300s.  Several factors made this region the cradle of the Renaissance.  Italian cities were independent from feudal monarchs and lords because of a long struggle between the popes and the Holy Roman Emperors.  Both popes and emperors exhausted funds and soldiers by battling unsuccessfully for control in northern Italy.  As unceasing wars drained strength from these traditional feudal powers, cities like Florence, Siena, and Venice established supremacy over the countryside surrounding their municipalities.  These cities that ruled their surrounding region became known as city-states.

City-states were governed by guild members.  All guild members had a say in selecting the citizens elected to run city government, though a term on the governing board usually lasted only two months.  In Florence, in the early 1300s, 6,000 of the estimated 50,000 people in the city were guild members.  The panel of citizens selected by their peers—called the Signoria, in Florence—made decisions about security, trade, foreign policy, and city planning.  Positions on city councils were supposed to rotate often, but in all Italian city-states, leading merchant families vied for control of the city government.  Selection of civic leaders was often shrouded in intrigue and death, as exile and assassination became a regular part of Italian policies. 

The Italian city-states capitalized on the proximity of Italy to the eastern Mediterranean world to establish strong commercial ties with Byzantine and Muslim merchants.  Each Italian city-state carved out a niche in  the world of trade to become prosperous centers of European commerce.  Some cities manufactured a product that was sought after in Europe and the East.  For example, Milan concentrated on the production of metal goods and armor.  Others, such as Florence raised capital through a flourishing cloth industry and became important banking centers, in turn using their profits to buy goods in the east to market in the rest of Europe.  Still others, like Venice—which was a transit port at the mouth of the transalpine passage that linked Europe and the Byzantine world—established themselves as trade centers, attracting merchants from around Europe to their markets and warehouses, which stocked Asian goods.  Italian city-states converted this wealth into political power by expanding their rule to far-flung trade empires.  European monarchs and nobles, who needed money to finance wars and programs of expansion, became indebted to Italian merchants from whom they sought loans.

Florence was the most influential of all Italian city-states.  Florentine merchants created a thriving industry in the wool and textile trade by importing wool from England and Flanders.  In some 200 workshops located on the banks of the Arno River, artisans dyed and worked the fabric into rich, beautiful woolen cloth.  Approximately one third of Florence’s citizens worked in the cloth industry, producing close to 70,000 bolts of cloth per year in the mid-fourteenth century.  Florentine merchants used profits from the wool trade to purchase luxury items like silk, linen, spices, ivory, and porcelain which in turn were sold across Europe for high profits.  Some Florentine merchants sold insurance to sea traders to protect their overseas investments.  Many Florentine merchants used their profits to begin banks.  Banking became the most lucrative aspect of Florentine business because of the low costs involved and because the Florentine coin, the florin, became the most respected currency in Europe.

The most famous Florentine merchant family was the Medici.  The Medici grew wealthy after the early thirteenth century, making their money buying and selling cloth and other goods.  Eventually the family rose to prominence through banking, and by the 1300s became the chief bankers for the pope.  By 1430, the Medici had branches of their bank in Milan, Venice, Pisa, Rome, Avignon, Geneva, Bruges, and London.  In one 5-year period, the Medici banking network profited 290,791 florins, worth more than 4 million dollars by contemporary standards.  Because of the Medici clan’s vast wealth, family members ruled Florence behind the scenes for three generations, starting with Cosimo de Medici I, in 1434.  Even though other wealthy families, such as the Pazzi, constantly vied for power, the Medici’s shrewd political tactics helped them maintain control.  Despite sitting on the city’s governing board for only 6 months during the 30 years he reigned, Cosimo always had great sway over the council.  When he passed away, his son Piero and later his son Lorenzo would fill the same role as unnamed ruler of the city-state.

The Medici ruled Florence during the height of the Italian Renaissance in large part because of their interest in the civic and cultural life of the city.  Under their guidance, Florence maintained peace by forging treaties with Milan, Naples, and Venice.  Often times, peace or war was achieved by a decision by one of the Medici; both Venice and Naples suffered military defeats after Cosimo denied them loans from the Medici bank.  Lorenzo, called “The Magnificent,” was an energetic, talented man—the ideal of a well-educated, cultured Renaissance gentleman.  Lorenzo was a scholar, poet, composer, banker, philanthropist, patron of many arts, and a politician who was proud of Florence’s republican form of government.  Lorenzo gave money to the church and threw lavish festivals to which rich and poor alike were invited.  Like his grandfather, Cosimo, he raised money to help finance civic projects such as the building of the enormous, beautifully domed Cathedral of St. John.

Each Medici leader encouraged the development of the arts, becoming important patrons of painters, sculptors (such as Michelangelo), architects, and scholars.  The Medici set up artists’ workshops, supported young artists, and collected some of the finest works for their palaces. Under the patronage of powerful families like the Medici, the Renaissance became a time of renewed interest in the scholarship, art, and architecture of classical Greece and Rome, and a revival of public life with the participation of citizen bodies.  The financial support of Italian city-states and their important families inspired a mighty upsurge in optimism, experimentation, and creativity.