The Society of Renaissance Florence: A Documentary Study

by Gene A. Brucker (editor)

First published in 1971 by Harper & Row, The Society of Renaissance Florence is an invaluable collection of 132 original Florentine documents dating from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and covering a wide range of subjects from taxes to social mobility, to family, death, and civic life, to violence, crime, and morality. Also included are seldom seen documents addressing the state of the poor and such groups as Jews, heretics, sorcerers, and homosexuals. 'I have made a conscious effort to select material which reveals something about the emotions, passions, and temperaments of Renaissance Florentines. 'These documents are examples of the raw material with which the historian works, as he attempts to describe social structures, patterns of behavior, and value systems. They should convey some sense of the complexity of this society, and of the formidable task which confronts the student who seeks to generalize about its character... They can serve as models for the student interested in the problems of urban history in pre-industrial Europe.' - From the Preface.

Genres: History, Renaissance, Nonfiction, Italy

282 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1971

Reviews

[Redsteve]

While this is a very good book, I can't really recommend it as someone's first book on the history of the Italian Renaissance. The author has assembled a collection of period documents that illuminate how people in 14th and 15th Century Florence interacted with each other, their families, and various government organizations. These are grouped under: Economic Structure, The Family, Collectivities, Violence and Its Control, Crime and Punishment, Public Mores, The Populo Minuto (that's 'The Poors'), and Aberrants and Outgroups. The author gives a brief introduction to each section, but after that, the documents are presented without comment. These include letters, state archives, tax documents, memoirs and private diaries, wills, and petitions. Quite interesting, but if you don't already have a basic knowledge of Renaissance Italy, you're probably going to find this tough going. Individual excerpts range from the dry and highly technical (tax valuations) to colorful and personal (letters and diary entries). One thing that I hadn't noticed previously is that in all of the period documents that mention them (in Florence anyway), when mentioning the Guelfs (pro-Papal party), they stress their alliance to the Holy Mother Church, but when mentioning the pro-Imperial Ghibellines, they never refer to the Holy Roman Emperor and instead just imply that they're an unholy bunch of lower class revolutionaries. Multiple mentions, not a SINGLE one says what the Ghibellines stand for. I suppose this makes sense as the Florentine Guelfs were in power for almost all of that period. 4 stars.

[Angela Boord]

A collection of primary documents from 14th and 15th century Florence, all collected in the city’s Archive. Nearly every single one of these documents could form the basis for an excellent story, novel, movie, or Netflix series. An absolute treasure trove.