The Medici become the leading family of Florence and foster and inspire the birth of the Italian Renaissance, along with other families of Italy, such as the Visconti and Sforza of Milan, the Este of Ferrara, and the Gonzaga of Mantua.

Greatest artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Giotto, Donatello, Titian and Raphael produce inspired works—their paintwork is more realistic-looking than had been created by Medieval artists and their marble statues rival and sometimes surpass those of Classical Antiquity.

Humanist historian Leonardo Bruni also splits the history in the antiquity, Middle Ages and modern period.

The ideas and ideals of the Renaissance soon spread into Northern Europe, France, England and much of Europe.

In the meantime, the discovery of the Americas, the new routes to Asia discovered by the Portuguese and the rise of the Ottoman Empire, all factors that erode the traditional Italian dominance in trade with the East, cause a long economic decline in the peninsula.

The Renaissance, a period of vigorous revival of the arts and culture, originates in Italy thanks to a number of factors, as the great wealth accumulated by merchant cities, the patronage of its dominant families, and the migration of Greek scholars and texts to Italy following the Conquest of Constantinople at the hands of the Ottoman Turks.

The Italian Renaissance peaks in the mid-sixteenth century as foreign invasions plunge the region into the turmoil of the Italian Wars.

Northern-central Italy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is divided into a number of warring city-states, the rest of the peninsula being occupied by the larger Papal States and the Kingdom of Sicily, referred to here as Naples.

Though many of these city-states are often formally subordinate to foreign rulers, as in the case of the Duchy of Milan, which is officially a constituent state of the mainly Germanic Holy Roman Empire, the city-states generally manage to maintain de facto independence from the foreign sovereigns that had seized Italian lands following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.

The strongest among these city-states gradually absorbs the surrounding territories, giving birth to the Signorie, regional states often led by merchant families that found local dynasties.

War between the city-states is endemic, and primarily fought by armies of mercenaries known as condottieri, bands of soldiers drawn from around Europe, especially Germany and Switzerland, led largely by Italian captains.

Decades of fighting eventually see Florence, Milan and Venice emerge as the dominant players who agree to the Peace of Lodi in 1454, which sees relative calm brought to the region for the first time in centuries.

This peace will hold for the next forty years.

The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli’s controversial work written in 1513, is posthumously published in 1532, five years after his death.

This is done with the permission of the Medici pope Clement VII.

It is generally agreed that it was especially innovative, although it was written as if it were a traditional work in the mirrors for princes' style.

This is only partly because it was written in the vernacular Italian rather than Latin, a practice which had become increasingly popular since the publication of Dante's Divine Comedy and other works of Renaissance literature.

The Prince is sometimes claimed to be one of the first works of modern philosophy, especially modern political philosophy, in which the effective truth is taken to be more important than any abstract ideal.

It is also in direct conflict with the dominant Catholic and scholastic doctrines of the time concerning how to consider politics and ethics.

Although it is relatively short, the treatise is the most remembered of Machiavelli's works and the one most responsible for bringing the word "Machiavellian" into usage as a pejorative.

It also helps make "Old Nick" an English term for the devil, and even contributes to the modern negative connotations of the words "politics" and "politician" in western countries.

In terms of subject matter it overlaps with the much longer Discourses on Livy, which was written a few years later.

In its use of near-contemporary Italians as examples of people who perpetrated criminal deeds for politics, another lesser-known work by Machiavelli which The Prince has been compared to is the Life of Castruccio Castracani.

The descriptions within The Prince have the general theme of accepting that the aims of princes—such as glory and survival—can justify the use of immoral means to achieve those ends.

Unique among political works of the period in examining the real, rather than the ideal, bases of a sovereign's power, The Prince, although partly based on Machiavelli’s reading of classical historians, is the first European work to deal openly with the use of force in the state and to claim that the pursuit of stable government condones amoral actions.

At the book’s conclusion, Machiavelli issues an impassioned call for Italian unity and an end to foreign intervention.

It seems, from the first design of the Tomb of Pope Julius II (1505), that a series of "Prigioni" was planned for the bottom level of the mausoleum, a series of statues larger than life size of chained figures in various poses, leaning on pilasters which would frame niches containing winged Victories and be surmounted by herms.

With a pair on each side of each niche, there must initially have been sixteen or twenty such statues planned.

This number was reduced in successive designs, to twelve (second version, 1513), eight (third version, 1516) and finally maybe only four (fourth version, 1526, or fifth version, 1532), before being eliminated from the project altogether in the final version of 1542.

The first members of the series, who are mentioned in Michelangelo's letters, are the two Prigioni of Paris, named the "Slaves" in the nineteenth century: the Dying Slave and the Rebellious Slave.

They were carved in Rome around 1513.

The Florentine Prigioni (Young Slave, Bearded Slave, Atlas Slave and the Awakening Slave) were probably carved instead in the second half of the 1520s, while Michelangelo was employed at San Lorenzo in Florence (but historians suggest dates between 1519 and 1534).

The Bearded Slave is the most finished of the Florentine Prigioni and gets his name from his thick, curly beard.

The way his muscular torso twists indicates a deep knowledge of anatomy, typical of the best works of Michelangelo; his legs, slightly bent and separated, are covered by a band of fabric.

His right arm is raised to hold his bent head, while his left hand remains unfinished, but seems to hold the band of fabric.

The whole surface retains many traces of the various chisels and scrapers used on the sculpture.

Along his hips there is a repaired fracture, whose cause is unknown.

Its unfinished state creates an extraordinary energy (already noted by Bocchi in 1591), with the figure caught in a sort of primordial act of freeing himself from the cage of the rough stone, an epic battle with the forces of chaos.

The iconographic meaning of the figures was probably linked to the motif of the captivi in Roman art, and indeed Vasari identified the Prigioni as personifications of the provinces controlled by Julius II.

Marriage of Henry, Duke of Orléans, and Catherine de' Medici (1533)

In 1533, Henry, Duke of Orléans, the second son of King Francis I and Claude, Duchess of Brittany, married Catherine de' Medici, daughter of Lorenzo II de' Medici, Duke of Urbino. The marriage, celebrated on October 28, 1533, at the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye near Paris, was politically significant, aiming to strengthen alliances between the French crown and the powerful Medici family of Florence.

Context and Significance

Henry’s early life was marked by the traumatic experience of captivity. Following his father's capture by Emperor Charles V at the Battle of Pavia in 1525, Henry and his older brother had been sent to Spain as hostages to secure their father's release, enduring imprisonment for over four years. This experience profoundly influenced Henry's personality, making him reserved and cautious in later life.

The marriage to Catherine introduced significant Italian cultural influences into France, notably transforming the French court’s culinary traditions. Catherine, raised in a Florentine court renowned for its luxury and refinement, brought with her Italian chefs and delicacies, introducing the French aristocracy to dishes such as quenelles (fish dumplings), zabaglione (egg yolk and wine custard), and scaloppini, as well as Italian vegetables like artichokes and broccoli, thereby marking the beginning of a culinary revolution at the French court.

The Influence of Diane de Poitiers

Despite his marriage to Catherine, Henry would soon become romantically involved with Diane de Poitiers, a widow twenty years his senior. Diane had held a longstanding affectionate relationship with Henry, having publicly embraced him upon his departure for captivity in Spain. Her influence grew significantly after their relationship became romantic around 1534. For the next twenty-five years, Diane acted as Henry’s confidante and unofficial political advisor, wielding substantial power behind the scenes, to the detriment of Catherine’s own position and influence. Catherine, despite her powerful connections, found herself largely powerless to counter Diane’s sway, although Diane notably insisted on Henry fulfilling his marital duties with Catherine to secure the royal succession.

Long-term Consequences

Henry’s marriage to Catherine de' Medici had profound long-term consequences for France. Catherine would later become a pivotal figure during a turbulent period in French history, acting as regent and mother to three future kings of France—Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III. Her political maneuvering, influenced by the complexities of her marriage and Henry’s powerful relationship with Diane de Poitiers, shaped French politics and courtly life profoundly in the second half of the sixteenth century.

Work on the Medici Chapel ceases in 1534, after Michelangelo departs permanently for Rome.

The unfinished chapel’s square gray-and-white interior (thirty-nine feet/11.89 meters wide) has a very high vertical space (eighty-two feet/twenty-five meters) from the floor to the crown of the dome and is bathed in soft natural light.

The two principal tombs, identical in design, are those of Lorenzo de'Medici, duke of Urbino, set in the north wall, and of Giuliano de'Medici, duke of Nemours, set in the south wall.

Two brooding figure—a female Dawn and a male Dusk—recline on the arched sarcophagus lid below the pensive figure of Lorenzo.

Another recumbent pair—a female Day and a male Night—lie beneath the alert figure of Giuliano.

Bartolommeo Bandinelli, a Florentine Mannerist sculptor, painter, and goldsmith completes nine years of work on his major sculpture, “Hercules and Cacus,” which he had boasted would surpass his rival Michelangelo's “David,” standing nearby in the Piazza della Signoria.

The sculptural group instead appears labored and awkward in comparison and is much criticized.

Duke Alessandro’s many enemies among the exiles declare that his rule is harsh, depraved and incompetent, an assessment debated by later historians.

One relic of his rule sometimes pointed out as a symbol of Medici oppression is the massive Fortezza da Basso, today the largest historical monument of Florence.

The Florentine opposition in 1535 had sent his cousin Ippolito to appeal to Charles V against some actions of the Duke, but Ippolito died en route; rumors are spread that he had been poisoned at Alessandro's orders.

In a late replay of the kind of medieval civil politics that had long revolved around pope and emperor, commune and lord, the Emperor supports Alessandro against the republicans.

He marries his natural daughter Margaret of Austria to Alessandro in 1536.

Her mother, Johanna Maria van der Gheynst, a servant of Charles de Lalaing, Seigneur de Montigny, is a Fleming.

Margaret has been brought up by the Douwrin family, under the supervision of two powerful Spanish and Austrian Habsburg Imperial family relatives, her great-aunt, the Archduchess Margaret of Austria, and her aunt Mary of Austria, who are successive governors of the Netherlands from 1507 to 1530 and from 1530 to 1555, respectively.

Margaret had in 1529 been acknowledged by her father and allowed to assume the name Margaret of Austria, and in 1533, the eleven-year-old girl had been brought to live to the north of Italy.

Though she is multi-lingual, she is to prefer the Italian language for the rest of her life.

In 1527, in the year she turned five, she has become became engaged to the Pope's nephew, Alessandro de' Medici, to assist her father's ambition in gaining influence in Italy.

The marriage negotiations had been initiated in 1526, and in 1529 the agreement had been officially signed by her father and the Pope.

She had in 1536 married her betrothed.

For his own inclinations, Alessandro seems to have remained faithful to one mistress, Taddea Malaspina, who will bear his only children: Giulio de' Medici, who also will have illegitimate issue, and Giulia de' Medici, who will marry her cousin Bernardetto de' Medici, Signore di Ottaiano, and have issue.

His distant cousin Lorenzino de' Medici, nicknamed "Lorenzaccio" ("bad Lorenzo"), assassinates him on January 6, 1537. (This event is the subject of Alfred de Musset's play "Lorenzaccio.")

Lorenzino had entrapped Alessandro through the ruse of a promised arranged sexual encounter with Lorenzino's sister Laudomia, a beautiful widow.

For fear of starting an uprising if news of his death got out, Medici officials wrap Alessandro's corpse in a carpet and secretly carry it to the cemetery of San Lorenzo, where it is hurriedly buried.

A solemn funeral is celebrated in Valladolid, Spain, where the imperial court of Charles V is established.

Lorenzino, in a declaration published later, will say that he had killed Alessandro for the sake of the republic.

When the anti-Medici faction failed to rise, Lorenzino fled to Venice, where he will be killed in 1548.

The Medici supporters (called "Palleschi" from the balls on the Medici arms) ensure that power now passes to Cosimo I de' Medici, the first of the "junior" branch of the Medici to rule Florence.

Benvenuto Cellini was born in Florence, in present-day Italy.

His parents were Giovanni Cellini and Maria Lisabetta Granacci.

They were married for eighteen years before the birth of their first child.

Benvenuto was the second child of the family.

As the son of a musician and builder of musical instruments, Cellini had been pushed towards music, but when he was fifteen, his father had reluctantly agreed to apprentice him to a goldsmith, Antonio di Sandro, nicknamed Marcone.

At the age of sixteen, Benvenuto had already attracted attention in Florence by taking part in an affray with youthful companions.

He was banished for six months and lived in Siena, where he worked for a goldsmith named Fracastoro (unrelated to the Veronese polymath).

From Siena he moved to Bologna, where he became a more accomplished flute player and made progress as a goldsmith.

After a visit to Pisa and two periods of living in Florence (where he was visited by the sculptor Torrigiano), he moved to Rome, at the age of nineteen.

His first works in Rome were a silver casket, silver candlesticks, and a vase for the bishop of Salamanca, which won him the approval of Pope Clement VII.

Another celebrated work from Rome is the gold medallion of "Leda and the Swan" executed for the Gonfaloniere Gabbriello Cesarino, and which is now in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence.

He also took up the flute again, and was appointed one of the pope's court musicians.

The troubled times, together with his propensity for rivalry and violence,will lead him to move successively from Florence to Siena, Mantua, Ferrara, Venice, Naples, Rome, and France, working for the papacy and the aristocracy.

In the attack on Rome by Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, Cellini's bravery proved of signal service to the pontiff.

According to his own accounts, he himself shot and injured Philibert of Châlon, prince of Orange (allegedly Cellini also killed Charles III, Duke of Bourbon during the Siege of Rome).

His bravery led to a reconciliation with the Florentine magistrates, and he soon returned to his hometown of Florence.

Here he had devoted himself to crafting medals, the most famous of which are "Hercules and the Nemean Lion", in gold repoussé work, and "Atlas supporting the Sphere", in chased gold, the latter eventually falling into the possession of Francis I of France.

From Florence he had gone to the court of the duke of Mantua, and then back to Florence.

On returning to Rome, he was employed in the working of jewelry and in the execution of dies for private medals and for the papal mint.

His brother Cecchino killed a Corporal of the Roman Watch in 1529 and in turn was wounded by an arquebusier (rifleman), later dying of his wound.

Soon afterward Benvenuto killed his brother's killer—an act of blood revenge but not justice as Cellini admits that his brother's killer had acted in self-defense.

Cellini had fled to Naples to shelter from the consequences of an affray with a notary, Ser Benedetto, whom he had wounded.

Through the influence of several cardinals, Cellini had obtained a pardon.

He has found favor with the new pope, Paul III, notwithstanding a fresh homicide during the interregnum three days after the death of Pope Clement VII in September 1534.

The fourth victim was a rival goldsmith, Pompeo of Milan.

The plots of Pier Luigi Farnese led to Cellini's retreat from Rome to Florence and Venice, where he was restored with greater honor than before.

At the age of thirty-seven, upon returning from a visit to the French court, he is imprisoned on a charge (apparently false) of having embezzled the gems of the pope's tiara during the war.

He is confined to the Castel Sant'Angelo, escapes, is recaptured, and is treated with great severity; he is in daily expectation of death on the scaffold.

The intercession of Pier Luigi's wife, and especially that of the Cardinal d'Este of Ferrara, eventually secures Cellini's release, in gratitude for which he gives d'Este a splendid cup.

He will begin work on his “Autobiography” in the following year.