The intellectual world of sixteenth-century Florence: humanists and culture in the age of Cosimo I

Abstract

"The city of Florence enjoyed a lively intellectual and artistic community in the middle and later decades of the sixteenth century. The city's literary academy, the Accademia Fiorentina, sponsored weekly public lectures on Petrarch and Dante as well as a series of lectures for members"--

Contents

Florence and Cosimo -- The city -- Who were the Florentines? Etruscan roots -- Received traditions -- Gelli and Giambullari on Florentine origins -- Supporters and detractors -- Florentine histories -- Past witnesses -- Diaries and private records -- Histories of recent times -- Medieval histories -- History, politics, customs -- Language and its study -- From Dante to Bembo and beyond : the century's first decades -- The Florentine language and its study : the Aramei -- Modern language practice -- Philological approaches -- Girolamo Mei on verse and prose -- Bendetto Varchi on language -- Vincenzio Borghini -- Writing about the arts -- Vasari and the Lives, 1550 -- The Accademia del Disegno -- Vasari's Lives, second or Giuntia edition, 1568 -- Florentine customs and practices -- The wedding of Francesco and Giovanna -- The dispute : the early history of Florence -- The Discorsi : city and diocese -- Urban culture : money and elites -- Conclusions -- Transitions -- Florentine studies.