guardians of republicanism the valori family in the florentine renaissance may 2008

[...]... Ammirato’s Valori Family Tree This page intentionally left blank Introduction: The Valori Family in the Florentine Renaissance On 1 August 1537, the army of the new ruler of Florence, Duke Cosimo I, routed the forces of Florentine exiles intent on toppling the fledgling Medici regime The future of Medici power in Florence hung in the balance that day No one, Cosimo included, expected him to assume the ducal... small family dangerously so from their perspective, since at several critical moments the lineage was in danger of dying out altogether.⁶ In spite of their size, however, they were key contributors to Florentine history Indeed, if one considers all the ways in which they affected the development of Florentine history during the Renaissance, they were second only to the Medici in their impact on the city’s... a role in restoring the Medici to the city as the earlier republicans had had in ousting the ruling family eighteen years earlier Owing to the intervention of the young pro-Medicean Valori, most of the Valori returned to political life relatively unscathed following the Medici restoration In the wake of the 1527 sack of Rome that suspended the Medici pope Clement VII’s temporal sway in Italy, the Medici... Introduction The fifth chapter returns to the private papers of the Valori, examining a collection of documents gathered by Baccio that consider the relationship of the family to the Medici and the larger role of the family in Florentine history The sixth and final chapter contrasts two seventeenth-century histories of the Valori, the first a markedly Savonarolan and republican interpretation by the Dominican... realized in the establishment of the Great Council, caused a profound change in the exercise of power and the composition of the ruling élite.⁹ Certainly many Florentine contemporaries of those turbulent years believed themselves to have witnessed the rebirth of a pure, quasi-Divine Florentine republicanism, attested to by the contemporaneous revival of ⁵ Martines (2006), 152–3 ⁶ Weinstein (1979), 272 On the. .. an examination of the tensions between their ways of understanding the purpose and pursuit of political life The Valori family consistently maintained a republican tradition in their family papers that borrowed equally from all three styles of republicanism Several members of the family particularly stressed the importance—for the family and for Florence of the family s simultaneous patronage of and... where they comfortably remained for most of the fourteenth century They were early allies of the Medici family, and as that family rose to dominate Florentine political life during the fifteenth century, the status and authority of the Valori family in Florence rose commensurately Two Valori were members of Cosimo il vecchio de’ Medici’s inner circle during the 1430s and 1440s; two Valori were members of. .. Magnifico’s inner circle during the 1470s and 1480s The family was also a central participant, however, in the expulsion of the Medici from Florence in 1494 and the republican revival that followed The family split along political lines during the Florentine republic of 1494–1512 Most remained committed, active, and in uential republican of cials, while a junior member of the family joined the Medici... republic in Guicciardini (1994), 48–50 14 Introduction In the years immediately following the 1494 coup against the Medici, the only dimension of the family s tradition and former commitments that survived the political transition to the republic was their friendship with and support of Marsilio Ficino Prior to 1494, the Valori were second only to the Medici in their patronage of Ficino; after 1494 they... political life The family entered the ranks of the political elite in ⁵ Goldberg (1988), 5, and larger discussion in 3–10 ⁶ On the genealogy of the Valori family, see BNCF, Passerini, 175, insert 3; see also Litta (1819), Disp 17: Valori di Firenze, tavv i, ii; Ammirato (1615), 97–108; Ildefonso di San Luigi (1783), 261–73 The Valori Family in the Florentine Renaissance 5 the communal period of the late . Introduction: The Valori Family in the Florentine Renaissance On 1 August 1537, the army of the new ruler of Florence, Duke Cosimo I, routed the forces of Florentine exiles intent on toppling. 261–73. The Valori Family in the Florentine Renaissance 5 the communal period of the late Middle Ages, where they comfortably remained for most of the fourteenth century. They were early allies of the. they affected the development of Florentine history during the Renaissance, they were second only to the Medici in their impact on the city’s cultural and political life. The family entered the ranks of the