The Fruit of Liberty: Political Culture in the Florentine Renaissance, 1480–1550 by Nicholas Scott Baker (review)

The Fruit of Liberty tells the fascinating story of the rise of the Medici and the changing political fate of Florence as it changed from a republic into a ducal principality. Nicholas Scott Baker examines the role of the elite office-holding class – that is, all those Florentines who had the possibility of accessing political power, but not necessarily those who formed the governing regime – in Florentine politics from 1480–1550. He demonstrates that the dramatic reorganisation of Florence’s political institutions in this period occurred with the assistance and participation of this group. The civilian magistrates allowed this change in the political status of Florence because they believed it was the best way to preserve their traditional values and the republican tradition. Baker draws upon a wide variety of sources, including artworks, correspondence, and diaries, with a particular focus on the writings of Piero di Jacopo Guicciardini (father of historian and political theorist Francesco).

Fourteenth-century Florence was stato popolare, a republic, but the Medici family dominated Florentine politics throughout the fifteenth century. In 1434, Cosimo il Vecchio Medici had become a principal citizen of the city and its unofficial head of state. His son, Piero, and grandson Lorenzo il Magnifico, inherited these positions. Despite such prominent figures, Florence remained a republic in both practice and culture. Lorenzo’s sons, Cardinal Giovanni and Giuliano, were exiled after his death in 1494, but returned in 1512 to defend Florence against the Spanish army that had sacked Prato, only a few kilometres away from Florence, after which they were considered liberators of the city.

By this time, however, the Medici family’s interests and focus had switched to Rome. From the liberators of 1512, they became a threat to Florence’s independence and left the city financially drained supporting the Medici pope, Clement VII’s anti-imperial policies. In May 1527, in an effort to restore the Republic, the Medici were again exiled from Florence.

The fragile republic did not last long and after a ten-month siege beginning in October 1529 the Medici returned. The office-holding class was preserved as much as possible and of the ninety-eight most prominent men of the failed Republic only twenty-one received prison sentences and only six were executed. The new Medici regime of Alessandro sought stability and security in Florence. However, there were further erosions of the stato and in 1532 the 250-year-old institution of the Signoria was abolished and replaced by two new councils: the Dugento (Two Hundred) and the Quarantotto (Forty-Eight). After the murder of Alessandro in 1537, nineteen-year-old Cosimo I replaced him and soon annihilated any trace of the Republic, becoming the Duke of Florence in name and practice. The community of office-holders had transformed themselves into courtiers and Baker succinctly demonstrates that the creation of the Medici principate was completed with the support of the office-holders of Florence.

The traditional iconography of the city had long been David and Goliath – exemplified by Michelangelo’s David that was placed in front of the Palazzo dela Signoria in 1504 – which represented the virtù of the Florentine stato, and for the office-holding class the overcoming of hardship and the ideals of the Republic. Throughout these periods the iconography of virtù continued to embody the ideals of the Republic despite its erosion by the rule of the Medici. At the 1549 celebrations of the feast of St John the Baptist, the patron of the city, a float depicting the battle between David and Goliath halted at the doors of the home of Cosimo I. It represented Cosimo I as David. The iconography of David, defender of virtù, had undergone a political transformation: ‘David was no longer a communal symbol but an avatar for the...