Guardians of Republicanism The Valori Family in the Florentine Renaissance [Hardcover]

Guardians of Republicanismanalyses the political and intellectual history of Renaissance Florence-republican and princely-by focusing on five generations of the Valori family, each of which played a dynamic role in the city's political and cultural life. The Valori were early and influential supporters of the Medici family, but were also crucial participants in the city's periodic republican revivals throughout the Renaissance. Mark Jurdjevic examines their political struggles and conflicts against the larger backdrop of their patronage and support of the Neoplatonic philosopher Marsilio Ficino, the radical Dominican prophet Girolamo Savonarola, and Niccol? Machiavelli, the premier political philosopher of the Italian Renaissance. Each of these three quintessential Renaissance reformers and philosophers relied heavily on the patronage of the Valori, who evolved an innovative republicanism based on a hybrid fusion of the classical and Christian languages of Florentine communal politics. Jurdjevic's study thus illuminates how intellectual forces-humanist, republican, and Machiavellian-intersected and directed the politics and culture of the Florentine Renaissance.

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
The Valori Family Tree
Scipione Ammirato's Valori Family Tree
Introduction: The Valori Family in the Florentine Renaissance
1. Francesco Valori and the Savonarolan Republic
2. Marsilio Ficino and the Valori Family
3. The Valori Family and Machiavelli's Portraits of Francesco 'il vecchio'
4. The Valori Family and Luca Della Robbia's Vita di Bartolomeo
5. The Valori Self-Portrait Under the Medici Grand Dukes
6. The Last Portraits of the Valori Family
Conclusion: The Valori Family in Florentine Historiography
Bibliography
Index
Index of Manuscripts

Jurdjevic's arguments are subtle and imaginative. --Journal of Modern History

Mark Jurdjevicwas born and raised in Toronto, Canadl“$