Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-hqlzj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-31T03:00:50.859Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Civic Humanism and the Rise of the Medici*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Mark Jurdjevic
Mark Jurdjevic*
Affiliation:
Northwestern University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article analyzes the intellectual content of civic humanism in the specific context of Medici power, asking the question: what ideological role did civic humanism play in Medicean Florence? It argues that there is no contradiction between the ideals of civic humanism and support for the Medici regime. On the contrary, civic humanism could be used to justify and legitimate Medici power. The article analyzes the writings of principal humanists such as Leonardo Bruni, Poggio Bracciolini, and Francesco Filelfo, showing that Hans Baron's republican “civic humanism “ was compatible with different constitutional forms and different distributions of power.

Information

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , Winter 1999 , pp. 994 - 1020
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Alberti, Leon Battista. I Libri della Famiglia. Ed. Ruggiero, Romano and Alberto, Tenenti. Turin, 1969.Google Scholar
Baron, Hans. Humanistic and Political Literature in Florence and Venice at the Beginning of the Quattrocento: Studies in Criticism and Chronology. Cambridge, MA, 1955.Google Scholar
Baron, Hans. “Moot Problems of Renaissance Interpretation: An Answer to Wallace K. Ferguson.” Journal of the History of Idea. 19 (1958): 26–34.Google Scholar
Baron, Hans; The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance: Civic Humanism and Republican Liberty in an Age of Classicism and Tyranny. Revised One-Volume Edition with an Epilogue. Princeton, 1966.Google Scholar
Baron, Hans. From Petrarch to Leonardo Bruni: Studies in Humanistic and Political Literature. Chicago, 1968.Google Scholar
Baron, Hans. In Search of Florentine Civic Humanism: Essays on the Transition from Medieval to Modern Thought. 2 vols. Princeton, 1988.Google Scholar
Black, Robert. Benedetto Accolti and the Florentine Rennaissance. Cambridge, 1985.Google Scholar
Black, Robert. “Humanism.” In The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume 7: c. 1414-1500. ed. Christopher, Allmand, 243-77. Cambridge, 1998.Google Scholar
Brown, Alison. Bartolomeo Scala, 1430- 1497, Chancellor of Florence: The Humanist as Bureaucrat. Princeton, 1979.Google Scholar
Brown, Alison. The Medici in Florence: The exercise and language of power. Perth and Florence, 1992.Google Scholar
Brucker, Gene. The Civic World of Early Renaissance Florence. Princeton, 1977.Google Scholar
Brucker, Gene; “Humanism, Politics and the Social Order in Early Renaissance Florence.” In Quattrocento (Florence and Venice: Comparisons and Relations, 1), ed. Sergio, Bertelli, Nicolai, Rubinstein, and Craig Hugh, Smyth, 3–11. Florence, 1979.Google Scholar
Bruni, Leonardo. Laudatio Florentinae Urbis. In Baron, 1968, 217-63.Google Scholar
Bruni, Leonardo. History of Florence, Book One. In Humanism and Liberty: Writings on Freedom from Fifteenth-Century Florence. ed. and trans. Reneée Neu, Watkins, 27–91. Columbia, SC, 1978.Google Scholar
Bruni, Leonardo. The Humanism of Leonardo Bruni: Selected Texts. ed. and trans. Gordon, Griffiths, James, Hankins, and David, Thompson. Binghamton, 1987.Google Scholar
Bullard, Melissa Meriam. Lorenzo HMagnifico: Image and Anxiety, Politics and Finance. Florence, 1994.Google Scholar
Crevatin, Giuliana. “La Politica e la Retorica: Poggio e la controversia su Cesare e Scipione Mainenti. Con una nuova edizione della lettera a Scipione Mainenti.” In Poggio Bracciolini 1380-1980: Nel VI centenario della nascita. ed. Riccardo, Fubini, 281–326. Florence, 1982.Google Scholar
Davies, Jonathan. Florence and Its University during the Renaissance. Leiden and Boston, 1998.Google Scholar
Dees, Russell. “Bruni, Aristotle, and the Mixed Regime in On the Constitution of the Florentines.” . In Medievalia et Humanistica. n.s. 15 (1987): 1–24.Google Scholar
de Roover, Raymond. “Cosimo de’ Medici come banchiere e mercante.” Archivio Storico Italian. 123 (1965): 467-79.Google Scholar
de la Mare, A. C. “Cosimo and his Books.” In Cosimo “tl Vecchio’ de’ Medici, 1389-1464: Essays in Commemoration of the 600th Anniversary of Cosimo's Birth. ed. Ames-Lewis, , 115-56. Oxford, 1992.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Wallace K. “The Interpretation of Italian Humanism: The Contribution of Hans Baron.” Journal of the History of Idea. 19 (1958): 14–25.Google Scholar
Field, Arthur. The Origins of the Platonic Academy of Florence. Princeton, 1988.Google Scholar
Filelfo, Francesco. De Paupertate. In Prosatori Latini. ed. Garin, , 1952, 494–517.Google Scholar
Fraser Jenkins, A. D. “Cosimo de’ Medici's Patronage of Architecture and the theory of Magnificence.“ Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute. 33 (1970): 162-70.Google Scholar
Fubini, Riccardo. “La rivendicazione di Firenze della sovranita statale e il contributo delle Historia. di Leonardo Bruni.” In Leonardo Bruni: Cancelliere della Repubblica di Firenze. ed. Paolo, Viti, 29–62. Florence, 1990.Google Scholar
Fubini, Riccardo. “Renaissance Historian: The Career of Hans Baron.” Journal of Modern History. 64 (1992): 541-74.Google Scholar
Ganz, Margery. “Donato Acciaiuoli and the Medici: A Strategy for Survival in ‘400 Florence.” Rinasciment. 22 (1982): 33–47.Google Scholar
Garfagnini, Gian Carlo, ed. Lorenzo de’ Medici e il suo tempo. Florence, 1992a.Google Scholar
Garfagnini, Gian Carlo, ed. Lorenzo de’ Medici: Studi. Florence, 1992b.Google Scholar
Garfagnini, Gian Carlo, ed. Lorenzo il Magnifico e il suo mondo. Florence, 1994.Google Scholar
Garin, Eugenio, ed. La disputa delle arti nel Quattrocento. Florence, 1947.Google Scholar
Garin, Eugenio. Prosatori Latini del Quattrocento. Milan and Naples, 1952.Google Scholar
Garin, Eugenio. Portraits from the Quattrocento. Trans. Victor, A. & Elizabeth, Velen, 55–117. New York, 1963.Google Scholar
Garin, Eugenio. Italian Humanism: Philosophy and Civic Life in the Renaissance. Trans. Peter, Munz. Oxford, 1965.Google Scholar
Gill, Joseph. The Council of Florence. Cambridge, 1959.Google Scholar
Goldthwaite, Richard. “The Medici Bank and the World of Florentine Capitalism.” Past and Present 114 (1987): 3–31.Google Scholar
Gombrich, Ernst. “The Early Medici as Patrons of Art: A Survey of Primary Sources.” In Italian Renaissance Studies: A Tribute to the Late Cecilia M. Ady. ed. E.F., Jacob, 279–311. London, 1960.Google Scholar
Gombrich, Ernst. “Alberto Avogadro's Descriptions of the Badia of Fiesole and of the Villa of Careggi.” In Italia Medioevale e Umanistic. 5 (1962): 217-29.Google Scholar
Gombrich, Ernst. “From the Revival of Letters to the Reform of the Arts: Niccol6 Niccoli and Filippo Brunelleschi.” In Essays in the History of Art Presented to Rudolph Wittkower. ed. Douglas, Fraser, Howard, Hibbard, & Milton J., Levine, 71–82. London, 1967.Google Scholar
Gombrich, Ernst. “Introduction.” Cosimo ‘il Vecchio’ de’ Medici, 1389-1464: Essays Commemorating the 600th Anniversary Of Cosimo's Birth. Ed. Frances, Ames-Lewis, 1–3. Oxford, 1992.Google Scholar
Grafton, Anthony and Lisa, Jardine. From Humanism to the Humanities: Education and the Liberal Arts in Fifteenthand Sixteenth-Century Europe. London, 1986.Google Scholar
Guarino, da Verona. Guarinus Veronensis cl. v. Poggio apostolico secretario sal. pl. d. In Prosatori Latini. ed. Garin, , 1952, 314-77.Google Scholar
Gundersheimer, Werner. “Hans Baron's Renaissance Humanism: A Comment.” American Historical Revie. 101 (1996): 142-44.Google Scholar
Gutkind, Curr S. Cosimo de'Medici, Pater Patriae, 1389-1464. Oxford, 1938.Google Scholar
Hale, John. Florence and the Medici: The Pattern of Control. Plymouth, 1977.Google Scholar
Hammond, N. G. L. and H. H., Scullard, ed. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford, 1970.Google Scholar
Hankins, James. “Cosimo de’ Medici and the ‘Platonic Academy'.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute. 53 (1990): 144-62.Google Scholar
Hankins, James. “The Humanist, the Banker, and the Condottiere: an unpublished letter of Cosimo and Lorenzo de’ Medici written by Leonardo Bruni.” In Renaissance Society and Culture: Essays in Honor of Eugene F. Rice, Jr., ed. John, Monfasani & Ronald G., Musto, 59–70. New York, 1991a.Google Scholar
Hankins, James. “The Myth of the Platonic Academy of Florence.” Renaissance Quarterly. 44 (1991b): 429-75.Google Scholar
Hankins, James. “Cosimo de’ Medici as a Patron of Humanistic Literature.” In Cosimo ‘il Vecchio’ de’ Medici, 1389-1464: Essays in Commemoration of the 600th Anniversary of Cosimo's Birth. ed. Frances, Ames-Lewis, 81–90. Oxford, 1992.Google Scholar
Hankins, James. “Lorenzo de’ Medici as a Patron of Philosophy.” Rinasciment. 34 (1994a): 15–54.Google Scholar
Hankins, James. “Marsilio Ficino as a Critic of Scholasticism.” Vivens Homo. Rivista Theologica Fiorentin. 5 (1994b): 325-33.Google Scholar
Hankins, James. Plato in the Italian Renaissance. 3rd ed. Leiden and New York, 1994c.Google Scholar
Hankins, James. “The ‘Baron Thesis’ after Forty Years and some Recent Studies of Leonardo Bruni.” Journal of the History of Idea. 56 (1995): 309-38.Google Scholar
Hankins, James. “Humanism and the Origins of Modern Political Thought.” In The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism. ed. Jill, Kraye, 118-41. Cambridge, 1996.Google Scholar
Holmes, George. “How the Medici Became the Pope's Bankers.” In Florentine Studies: Politics and Society in Renaissance Florence. ed. Nicolai, Rubinstein, 357-80. Evanston, 1968.Google Scholar
Holmes, George. The Florentine Enlightenment 1400-1450. Oxford, 1969.Google Scholar
Hardi, Vincent. “The Banker-Statesman and the Condittiere-Prince: Cosimo de’ Medici and Francesco Sforza, 1450-1464.” In Studies in Italian Renaissance Diplomatic History. London, 1986.Google Scholar
Kallendorf, Craig. “The Historical Petrarch.” American Historical Revie. 101 (1996): 129-41.Google Scholar
Kent, Dale. The Rise of the Medici: Faction in Florence 1426-1434. Oxford, 1978.Google Scholar
Kraye, Jill. “Lorenzo and the Philosophers.” In Lorenzo the Magnificent: Culture and Politics. ed. Michael, Mallett and Nicholas, Mann, 151-66. London, 1996a.Google Scholar
Kraye, Jill. “Philologists and Philosophers.” In The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism. ed. Jill, Kraye, 142-60. Cambridge, 1996b.Google Scholar
Mallett, Michael and Nicholas, Mann, ed. Lorenzo the Magnificent: Culture and Politics. London, 1996.Google Scholar
Martines, Lauro. The Social World of the Florentine Humanists, 1390-1460. Princeton, 1969.Google Scholar
Martines, Lauro. Power and Imagination: City-States in Renaissance Italy. New York, 1979.Google Scholar
Molho, Anthony. “Cosimo de’ Medici, Pater Patria. or Padrino?” Stanford Italian Revie. I (1979): 5–34.Google Scholar
Najemy, John M. Corporatism & Consensus in Florentine Electoral Politics, 1280-1400. Chapel Hill, 1982.Google Scholar
Najemy, John M. “The Dialogue of Power in Florentine Politics.” In City States in Classical Antiquity and Medieval Italy. ed. Anthony, Molho, Kurt, Raaflaub, & Julia, Emlen, 269-88. Stuttgart, 1991.Google Scholar
Najemy, John M.. “Baron's Machiavelli and Renaissance Republicanism,” American Historical Review. 101 (1996): 119-29.Google Scholar
Najemy, John M.. “Civic Humanism and Florentine Politics.” Forthcoming in Renaissance Civic Humanism: Reappraisals and Reflections. ed. James, Hankins. Cambridge, 2000.Google Scholar
Oppel, John. “Peace vs. Liberty in the Quattrocento: Poggio, Guarino, and the Scipio-Caesar Controversy.” Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. (1974): 221-67.Google Scholar
Oppel, John. “Poggio, San Bernardino of Siena, and the Dialogue On Avarice.” Renaissance Quarterly. 30 (1977): 564-87.Google Scholar
Palmieri, Matteo. Delia vita civile. Ed. Felice, Battaglia. Bologna, 1944.Google Scholar
Partner, Peter. “Florence and the Papacy in the Earlier Fifteenth Century.” In Florentine Studies: Politics and Society in Renaissance Florence. ed. Nicolai, Rubinstein, 381–402. Evanston, 1968.Google Scholar
Pintor, Fortunato. “Per la storia della libreria Medicea nel Rinascimento.” Italia Medioevale e Umanistica. 3 (1960): 190-99.Google Scholar
Rabil, Albert Jr. “The Significance of ‘Civic Humanism’ in the Interpretation of the Italian Renaissance.” In Humanism in Italy (Renaissance Humanism: Foundations, Forms, and Legacy, 1), ed. Albert, Rabil Jr., 141-74. Philadelphia, 1988a.Google Scholar
Rabil, Albert Jr.. Humanism beyond Italy ﹛Renaissance Humanism: Foundations, Forms, and Legacy, 2). Philadelphia, 1988b.Google Scholar
Rubenstein, Nicolai. The Government of Florence under the Medici (1434- 1494). 2nd ed. Oxford, 1997.Google Scholar
Savonarola, Girolamo. Trattato circa il Reggimento e Governo della Citta di Firenze. In Scrittori Politici. vol. 6. Milan, 1839.Google Scholar
Seigel, Jerrold. “'Civic Humanism’ or Ciceronian Rhetoric? The Culture of Petrarch and Bruni.” Past and Presen. 34 (1966): 3–48.Google Scholar
Skinner, Quentin. The Foundations of Modern Political Thought. 2 vols. Cambridge, 1978.Google Scholar
Toscani, Bernard, ed. Lorenzo de’ Medici: New Perspectives. New York, 1993.Google Scholar
Trinkaus, Charles. “Hans Baron's Two Works on Quattrocento Humanism.” Journal of the History of Ideas. 17 (1956): 426-32.Google Scholar
Ullman, Berthold Louis & Philip A., Stadter. The Public Library of Renaissance Florence: Niccolb Niccoli, Cosimo de’ Medici and the Library of San Marco. Padua, 1972.Google Scholar
Vespasiano, da Bisticci. Le Vite. 2 vols. Ed. Aulo, Greco. Florence, 1976.Google Scholar
Vespasiano, da Bisticci “Florentine Politics and the Ruling Class, 1382-1407,” Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 6 (1976): 243-68.Google Scholar
Vespasiano, da Bisticci. Hercules at the Crossroads: The Life, Work, and Thoughts ofColuccio Salutati. Durham, 1983.Google Scholar
Vespasiano, da Bisticci. “Introduction: Hans Baron's Renaissance Humanism” and “ The Crisi. after Forty Years.” American Historical Review. 101 (1996): 107-18.Google Scholar
Vespasiano, da Bisticci and Benjamin, Kohl, with Elizabeth, Welles. The Earthly Republic: Italian Humanists on Government and Society. Philadelphia, 1978.Google Scholar