A History of Florence in 100 Objects

The history of Florence is a dramatic tale, one in which ambition, rivalry, money, violence, corruption, luck, even myth, all play leading roles. An insignificant settlement in Roman times, she had become an independent republic by 1300, a singular achievement in the feudal world of medieval Europe, and a commercial powerhouse at the forefront of political and cultural progress. By 1500 her republican ideals had been compromised by the ambitions of rich bankers, leaving her an impoverished theocracy soon too be starved into surrender by foreign armies. In 1600 she was the magnificent capital of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany before declining into provincial gentility, though she did retain the nous to offer Galileo sanctuary from his enemies in Rome. By 1800 she was the highlight of the English aristocrat’s Grand Tour and a haven for foreign exiles before becoming, briefly, the capital of the new kingdom of Italy. A bastion of Fascism in the 1920s, vandalized by Hitler’s troops in 1944 and devastated by floods in 1966, the city is now major centre of tourism, boasting 3.75 million visitors in 2000.

Inspired by Neil MacGregor’s History of the World in 100 Objects, this book exploits Florence’s reputation as a cultural icon by using the buildings, paintings, sculpture and artefacts which have made her famous as vehicles for relating the events that have shaped this remarkable city.

Book Author

Mary Hollingsworth has a B.Sc. in business studies and a Ph.D. in art history. Her doctoral thesis dealt with the role of the architect in Italian Renaissance building projects and led to research on the role of the patron in the development of Renaissance art and architecture, a subject she taught to undergraduates and postgraduates, and published in two books (see below). Her subsequent work on the papers of Cardinal Ippolito d’Este considerably broadened her horizons, and expertise, well beyond the confines of art history into the everyday world of Renaissance Europe. She has publ...
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