Creating the Florentine State Peasants and Rebellion, 13481434 [Paperback]

A comprehensive approach to the political history of the Renaissance, examining the mountainous periphery of the Florentine state.This book takes a new approach to the political history of the Italian Renaissance. It examines the Florentine state from its mountainous periphery, where Florence met its most strenuous opposition to territorial incorporation. From a tributary state, which treated its surrounding countryside as little more than a tax reservoir and a buffer against foreign invaders, Florence began to see its own self-interest as intertwined with that of its region and its rural subjects--a change brought about by widespread and successful peasant uprisings, hitherto unrecorded by historians.This book takes a new approach to the political history of the Italian Renaissance. It examines the Florentine state from its mountainous periphery, where Florence met its most strenuous opposition to territorial incorporation. From a tributary state, which treated its surrounding countryside as little more than a tax reservoir and a buffer against foreign invaders, Florence began to see its own self-interest as intertwined with that of its region and its rural subjects--a change brought about by widespread and successful peasant uprisings, hitherto unrecorded by historians.This book takes a new approach to the political history of the Italian Renaissance. It examines the Florentine state from its mountainous periphery, where Florence met its most strenuous opposition to territorial incorporation. From a tributary state, which treated its surrounding countryside as little more than a tax reservoir and a buffer against foreign invaders, Florence began to see its own self-interest as intertwined with that of its region and its rural subjects--a change brought about by widespread and successful peasant uprisings, hitherto unrecorded by historians.Introduction; Part I. Culture, Demography, and Fiscality: 1. Networks of culture and the mountains; 2. Mountain civilization anl3)