Italian Renaissance ular regimes were hardly ever open to the lower echelons of society, or the popolo minuto Most were in fact headed by what was often termed the popolo grasso—the educated lawyers, successful merchants, and nonnoble landowners with the financial and social wherewithal to bring them to the forefront of the political stage Only isolated occasions such as the 1378 Ciompi revolt in Florence brought the popular minuto to power, and their political lifespans were inevitably short Despite efforts at curtailing noble power, elite families were never entirely sidelined from most civic governments In Venice, for example, participation in government was reserved for the hereditary elite Some families, such as the Visconti, and later the Sforza in Milan, the Carrara in Padua, and the della Scala in Verona, became the de facto lords of the city Even Florence, arguably the most republican, had by the 1430s in all but rhetoric accepted the Medici as the city’s primary power In response to the complex diplomatic conditions of the time, political thought in the Italian city-states flourished Thinkers such as the notary Bruno Latini (c 1220–94), Marsilius of Padua (c 1275–1343), and the jurist Bartolus of Sassoferrato (1314–57) all elaborated political theories that justified and paid tribute to republican government Others such as the Florentines Coluccio Salutati (1331–1406) and Leonardo Bruni (1370–1444) wrote highly rhetorical pieces aimed at illuminating the ideological struggle between what they saw as virtuous republican government and the champions of tyranny in the signoria of other cities such as Milan And Niccolò Machiavelli, whose political acumen derived from observing the civic strife of Florence and her neighbors at the turn of the 16th century, left an indelible imprint on Western political thought with his theories of republican and princely government Art and architecture flourished as well in the Italian city-states Economic prosperity allowed for great public building projects such as cathedrals, libraries, and government palazzi, all of which proclaimed the city’s greatness Artists like Ambrogio Lorenzetti illustrated the benefits and ills of good and bad government in his 1338–39 frescoes in Siena’s Palazzo Pubblico Venice from the late 15th century on was at the forefront of printing press technologies, while Rome in the same period served as a center for a mature humanistic culture See also Genoa; Italian Renaissance Further reading: Black, Antony Political Thought in Europe 1250–1450 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992; Jones, P J The Italian City State: From Commune to Signo- 213 ria Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997; Martines, Lauro Power and Imagination New York: Alfred Knopf, 1979 Alizah Holstein Italian Renaissance As the opening two phases of the grand cultural and intellectual rebirth (literal meaning of the French term Renaissance) of the late medieval period, the Italian Renaissance, or Quattrocentro (Italian for 1400s), and early northern renaissance sparked tremendous achievements in literature, art, architecture, and music that were inspired by creative interaction with rediscovered sources of classical antiquity Launched from Florence, the Italian Renaissance concentrated its energies in the northern regions of Italy before moving south to Rome, where its spirit was embraced by the Renaissance popes It reached its zenith in the late 15th century prior to its dissolution, aggravated both by an ecclesiastical backlash against its perceived secularism and sensuality and by the series of Italian Wars, or foreign invasions against Italy, starting in 1494 The Renaissance fervor was not to be extinguished, however, as its ideals migrated northward to France, then to the Low Countries and Germany, and finally to England and Scandinavia by the close of the 16th century Most common people of the time were unaffected by these innovations and did not view their age as distinctive Producers of its main aesthetic streams, such as authors, artists, and their patrons, willfully rejected the culture of the preceding era (the Middle Ages) and set out to create a new one Sensing only a limited attraction to the courtly motifs of the medieval secular literary tradition and disillusioned by the elaborate argumentation of Scholasticism, the sophisticated urban ruling classes searched for a new culture that would enable them to cope with the quandaries of human existence and empower them to deal with and even manipulate other people Perfectly suited for this aim was the literature of ancient Rome, with its strongly political and ethical outlook and the prominence it placed upon oratorical and rhetorical training To gain a deeper understanding of Latin literature, the urban elites were quickly drawn to the Greek literature that Roman authors frequently cited and presupposed of their readers as background knowledge Hence the classical Latin and Greek texts of antiquity served as a common springboard for the era’s multifaceted and interdisciplinary cultural shift