Florence During The Renaissance

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The Renaissance began in Florence because of its government, location, education, and humanistic views. The period before the renaissance were the Dark Ages; filled with death, wars, and even a mini ice age. It was time for a rebirth and Florence was the perfect place. The city’s painters, writers, philosophers and economy made Florence the ideal model for the Renaissance. It is also important to understand that the rulers during most of this time period, the Medici played a huge role in the success of the Renaissance. The Dark Age’s were originally a term coined by Petrarch, who is also known as the father of humanism. Petrarch had consideration for what came before, and wanted to explore the human personality and mind. During the time…show more content…
While most of Italy was Papal States, Florence was a republic. This means that people had a say in their government. It was a state ruled by the people. During the 1400’s Giovanni de Medici, who was the banker for the Papal Court, established headquarters in Florence. Medici was a wealthy and influential citizen and had virtually no choice but to participate in public life. He held every political office in Florence at some point. Unfortunately, Giovanni died in 1429 but he did leave behind a legacy of patronage for the arts, an immense fortune, and a son, Cosimo de Medici, who was educated in the principles of humanism (Brucker, Gene). Cosimo took over and built up his father’s fortune, while establishing business connections all over Europe. Cosimo was not admirable, and he was extremely manipulative. He supported the arts, education, and architecture, but I don’t think that he was the most important ruler. Lorenzo was, and he came to power after Cosimo. Lorenzo was the most important ruler during the time of the Renaissance. He helped school and arts flourished, and because of him the Florentines lived in prosperity. Lorenzo was an extremely unique ruler because during this time in Europe it was rare to have a ruler that listened to the people, and allowed for them to have a say in the government. Lorenzo went above and beyond to keep the people entertained with festivities, and jousts. So between there highly educated people, and their great ruler its clear to see why the renaissance started in Florence (Howard,

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