Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Late Medieval Tuscany
During the 13th century Tuscany grew rich on textile
manufacturing and trade. Commercial contact with the
Arab world led the Pisan mathematician Fibonacci to
introduce Arabic numerals to the West; a new under-
standing of geometry followed and Tuscan architects
began to build ambitious new buildings. At the same
time, Tuscan bankers developed
the book-keeping principles that
still underlie modern accountancy
and banking practice. It was also
an age of conflict. Cities and
factions fought ruthlessly and
incessantly to secure wealth
and power.
Defensive towers
protected the city.
Contented citizens
had time for leisure.
Condottieri
(mercenaries) were
hired to settle conflicts.
Dante's Inferno
Dante
(in blue)
was caught in
the Guelph-Ghibelline conflict
and was exiled from Florence
in 1302. He took revenge in
his poetry, describing his
enemies' torments in Hell.
GOOD GOVERNMENT
Ambrogio Lorenzetti's early
14th-century allegorical fresco
in Siena's Palazzo Pubblico
(see pp218-19)
shows thriving
shops, fine buildings and
dancing citizens, symbolizing
the benefits of good govern-
ment. Another fresco,
Bad
Government
, shows rape,
murder, robbery and ruin.
Petrarch and Boccaccio
Petrarch and Boccaccio
(top
and bottom left)
, like Dante,
wrote in the Tuscan dialect,
not Latin. Petrarch's sonnets
and Boccaccio's tales
were very popular.
TIMELINE
1260
Siena defeats
Florence at Montaperti
1215
Start of conflict
between Guelph
supporters of the pope and
Ghibelline supporters of
the Holy Roman Emperor
1252
First gold
florin minted
1278
Campo Santo
begun in Pisa
1220
1240
1260
1200
1280
1224
St Francis
receives the
“stigmata” (the
wounds of
Christ) at
La Verna
1284
Pisan navy defeated
by Genoa; the beginning of
Pisa's decline as a port
1220
Frederick II of Germany
is crowned Holy Roman
Emperor and lays claim to Italy
Florin stamped with
the lily of Florence
