Q: Explore the economic, social and political conditions in the Italian city states in the period of the Renaissance.

A: Renaissance is the name attributed to the remarkable outpouring of a cultural movement of intellectual and artistic energy and talent that accompanied the transition of Europe from Middle Ages to the Modern epoch. The changes that occurred can be extended to economic and political aspects which affected a change in man’s attitude towards human existence. This period approximates between1330 CE and 1530 CE. The two ways in which it can be thought of are as a period of revival based on old learning spread through the traditional methods and also as a period of innovations with new knowledge generated which was the foundation of modern thought.

The Renaissance had its initial flowering in Italy and then spread to other parts of Europe. Italy did not exist as a political entity in this period. Instead, it was divided into smaller city states and territories: the Kingdom of Naples controlled the south, the Republic of Florence and the Papal States at the center, the Genoese and the Milanese to the north and west respectively, and the Venetians to the east. These city states form an important subject of study as they are representative of a whirlpool of social, economic and political changes that characterized Renaissance Italy. Otto of Freising, a German bishop visiting north Italy during the 12th century, noticed a widespread new form of political and social organisation, observing that Italy appeared to have exited from feudalism so that its society was based on merchants and commerce. Linked to this was anti-monarchical thinking, represented in the famous early Renaissance fresco cycle Allegory of Good and Bad Government in Siena by Ambrogio Lorenzetti whose strong message is about the virtues of fairness, justice, republicanism and good administration

If we observe political structures of the city states we note that the autonomy of cities and towns varied from state to state. Towns might have a considerable degree of independence, for the region was a loose confederation of some hundreds of different political units, some of them independent cities. But all cities and towns possessed certain shared characteristics: collective authority exercised by a group which was selected or elected, and not hereditary. Political historians of the19th century saw in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the emergence of phenomenon of ‘modern’ nation states with a bureaucracy, secular values in public policy and balance of power. Peter Burke referred to it as the ushering in of a modern age. We shall look at briefly, the history of these city states.

In the 12th and 13th centuries, Italy was dominated by communes which were independant towns, large or small, freed of royal or noble authority managing its own affairs with an element of lordship which was not yet destroyed. It controlled substantial areas outside town walls, called Contado which did not get benefit of political enfranchisement. The role of the population of Contado was to obey and pay taxes. Around the year1200 CE some two or three hundred units existed out of which some developed to be described as city states. The city states of Renaissance Italy differed from Northern European states because the territorial rivalries of the Holy Roman Empire and popes in Italy in the 10th and 13th centuries made the evolution of a national state possible. They won independence by playing off these two powers against each other. By 1320, the brief interlude of communal governments was drawing to a close with a decline in communal republicanism. The period of 1350-1450 was torn by internecine wars between pope’s supporters, the Guelfa, and emperor’s supporters, Ghibellina. Also, it witnessed the beginning of the Great Schism of 1378, a stage in emergence of Italy from domination of Northern European armies and the decline of Northern powers, according to Holmes. Between the Great Schism and French invasion, Italy was mostly left to itself. The states of Florence, Venice, Milan and Naples couldn’t throw off each other and there was uneasy equilibrium of power till 1494 when French king at Milan’s insistence invaded Italy to assert its dynastic claims. War between Hapsburg emperor and French kings ravaged till sack of Rome in 1527. Due to lack of strong central power in peninsula in the Renaissance period, cities were virtually independent, with no pope or emperor especially in Northern and Central Italy. There was either assumption of power by local lords or elevation of wealthy citizens and in others republican institutions remained, as in Florence and Venice. There was continuous expansion of larger powers at the expense of smaller and at times one power dominated over others, where Holmes makes special reference to Milan. The three chief sates in Northern Italy were Milan, Venice and Florence; the latter two were ruled by city republics. Other major powers were effective monarchies like the hereditary one in Naples and elective in the Papal States.

The Visconti family led Milan and the empire that extended over large areas in Northern and central Italy. It was torn by invasion and war. The Visconti family led Milan and the empire that extended over large areas in Northern and central Italy. In the 13th and 14th centuries the Visconti produced a series of rulers, like Giagaleazzo, for whom primary purpose was to absorb other states into their own. His death ended Visconti ambitions.

The Republic of Venice had a constitution which was celebrated as a stable balance with a mix of elements of three main types of government, with doge representing a monarchy, the senate representing aristocracy and the Great Council, democracy. In practice the monarchical element was weak. In contrast, the Great Council did take part in decision making but was not exactly democratic. According to Burke, this council of nobles embodied conflicts hiding behind a fiction of consensus. Its twin, Genoa had extreme political instability with politics traditionally dominated by strong families especially the Doria Fieschi.

The Northern region was dominated by Florence in the Toscana region. By 1320 it was a Republic. At the head of the state there were seven men: six priori to represent the wards of the city from among gild members and a standard bearer of justice. These held office only for two months lived in palace acted as heads of state, initiating laws and conducting diplomatic negotiations. It remained a republican commune until the slow erosion of republican institutions begun by Medici a century later. The constant class conflict of this region during the 14th century eventually led to an “unofficial” dictatorship by the Medici banking family which was a princely merchant family. Florence, in contrast to Venice, was endowed with an unstable political system which was compared by Dante in The Divine Comedy to a sick woman twisting and turning in bed, uncomfortable in every position. Change was the norm in Florence. For instance, political changes took place which affected the lives of the people such as the rise of Medici and their exit in 1494 and 1527 then subsequent return in 1512 and 1530. When, in 1494 they were driven out, decisions in Florence were made by a group comprising 300 individuals who staffed chief governmental committees in rotation. The constitution was redesigned with safeguards against formation of parties. The Great Council was established whose membership was open to one out of every four or five lay adult males living in the city. The final decline of Florence was partly due to the disorder of French invasions, fall of house of Medicis and the dictatorship of Savonarola.

When we look at the relations between states, they are often charecterised by infighting and warfare. The first part of the Renaissance saw almost constant warfare on land and sea as the city-states vied for preeminence. On land, these wars were primarily fought by armies of mercenaries known as condottieri, hired bands of soldiers drawn from around Europe, but especially Germany and Switzerland, led largely by Italian captains who sold their service to the highest bidder At sea, Italian city-states sent many fleets out to do battle. The main contenders were Pisa, Genoa, and Venice, but after a long conflict the Genoese succeeded in reducing Pisa. On land, decades of fighting saw Florence, Milan and Venice emerge as the dominant players In the course of the 15th century, these powerful city-states annexed their smaller neighbors. Florence took Pisa in 1406, Venice captured Padua and Verona. These two powers finally set aside their differences and agreed to the Peace of Lodi in 1454, which saw relative calm brought to the region for the first time in centuries. This peace would hold for the next forty years, and Venice’s unquestioned hegemony over the sea also led to unprecedented peace for much of the rest of the 15th century. Also in Renaissance Italy diplomacy became specialised and proffessionalised.

We now look at some general features of the city states and their political structures. Here and in smaller states like Ferrara, the key institution according to Burke was the court. The court was numbered at hundreds of people. For example in 1527 the Papal court was 700 strong, of which the population was heterogeneous including great nobles holding offices like constable, chamberlain, steward or master of horse; lesser courtiers like the bedchambers, secretaries, pages, servants, trumpeters, cooks, stable boys, entertainers for the princes like fools and midgets, who are hard to place in the hierarchy and poets and musicians. A crucial feature of the court was its dual function- private and public; it was the household of prince and administration centre of the state.

Italian historian Federico Chabod explained the existence of a Renaissance state based on the rise of a bureaucratic government which is impersonal as opposed to. patrimonial government which is personal. At least some states of Renaissance were precociously bureaucratic, due to Italian urbanisation, spread of literacy, numeracy, existence of republics, loyalty not to ruler but impersonal state and capital of the huge international organisation the Catholic Church. There were institutional means of preventing officials from confusing public and private to own advantage- the Sindacato. When the term ended activities of officials were investigated by them. But this was not the case everywhere. According to Peter Burke the administration was not like Max Weber’s model off impersonally efficient bureaucracy since, in appointments and promotions, prime necessity was prince’s favour. At the court of Rome, official positions were regularly sold, especially in the reign of Leo X. In states of Milan, Naples, offices were seen as investment, expected to bring income. Full time officials were relatively numerous. With a corporate ethos developing, fixed money salaries were not uncommon, for example. in Venice in the 16th century, the secretary of chancery received 125 ducats a year. But there were also salaries which were low so administrators relied on presents, fees, other prerequisites, such as the right to proportion of confiscated goods. Italians called the underbelly of administration, sottogoverno.In some Italian states there was demarcation of function of officials, for instance, in Milan there was a secretary for ecclesiastical affairs, justice, foreign affairs etc. Florence and Venice had special committees set up to look into trade, naval affairs and defense.

Economic changes were integral to these states in bringing about a new and changing context for the cultural movement. There was a commercial revolution in economy with the destruction of the old feudal system and the emergence of a new elite based on wealth rather than birth. Social and economic changes were a necessary prelude to the Renaissance. These changes can be seen as part of the great expansion of 1000-1300, which was accompanied by the moneterization of the economy, commercialization and growth of industry. The leading sectors in development after the11th century were towns, and international trade. In the 13th century, much of Europe experienced strong economic growth. By the 15th century, cities such as Florence and Venice had achieved material and artistic sophistication

According to Hale, the Italian economy began to decline starting even in the14th century when there was a decline of communes, establish ment of signori, decline in social life, alienation of classes from public administration, political adherences and favouring of tradition over merit and initiative. In fact, as Hale explains, that the second half of the16th century was called the Indian Summer of the Italian economy.

We now look briefly at what were the elements that led to the commercial revolution. The principle factor was the emergence of commerce and banking. In the13th century states like Piacenza and Lucca took the lead in establishing business connections. The travelling merchant was replaced by the sedentary businessman who operated through agents. By 1300, Italian mercantile and banking companies were set up all across Europe in cities like Paris. Italy became the birthplace of innovations in business techniques, organization of fairs, manuals of commerce, techniques of accounting, check, double entry book-keeping, joint stock companies, systematized foreign exchange market governmental endorsement and marine and land insurance. There were other financial devices also like arrangements for sharing profits with partners or depositors, accounting systems, letters of exchange etc. There was an efficient system of mail with the use of private and company letters and couriers for contact and notarized agreements. There was a building up of uniform customs and rules of law as the spread of Italian business methods took place all over Levant and Western Europe. The existence of these institutions encouraged a mode of thought characterized by numerate mentality.

As a result banking became an Italian specialty. The leading firms were Bardi, Peruzzi, Naples etc. Banking and credit were the most rewarding forms of investment. Credit operations included loans to government; bankers came to dominate business of exchange in 16th century Europe. There were also communal pawnshops, which could borrow and lend money with the pay of a regular interest. Florence also had something called a dowry fund where the investor received money back with interest on marriage of daughter. It was also possible to insure against loss of ships in Venice especially. In Genoa on the wife’s death in childbirth.

We now turn attention to trade which was integral to urban revolution. The Crusades had built lasting trade links to the Levant, and the Fourth Crusade had done much to destroy the Byzantine Empire as a commercial rival to the Venetians and Genoese. The main trade routes from the east passed through the Byzantine Empire or the Arab lands and onwards to the ports of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice. Luxury goods bought in the Levant, such as spices, dyes, and silks were imported to Italy and then resold throughout Europe. From France, Germany, and the Low Countries, through the medium of the Champagne fairs, land and river trade routes brought goods such as wool, wheat, and precious metals into the region. The extensive trade that stretched from Egypt to the Baltic generated substantial surpluses that allowed significant investment in mining and agriculture. Thus, while northern Italy was not richer in resources than many other parts of Europe, the level of development, stimulated by trade, allowed it to prosper. The trade routes of the Italian states linked with those of established Mediterranean ports and eventually the Hanseatic League of the Baltic and northern regions of Europe created a network economy in Europe for the first time since the 4th century. Florence became the centre of this financial industry and the gold florin became the main currency of international trade.

Towns were the main center of the commercial revolution as urban life contributed to commerce. Cities and towns were centers of wealth production and of creativity. In the 10th century the first mercantile towns such as Bari came up. By the end of the 11th century, the crusades led to the development of maritime cities of Northern Italy, Venice Pisa and Genoa who were engaged in trade with areas like the eastern Mediterranean which brought wealth to towns Expenditure was not just a personal matter; it was a matter of corporate status as well. In the towns that emerged we look at the importance of new families from among wealthy merchant bankers and industrialists who dominated the city’s politics. The new mercantile governing class, who gained their position through financial skill, adapted to their purposes the feudal aristocratic model that had dominated Europe in the Middle Ages. In much of the region, the landed nobility was poorer than the urban patriarchs in the High Medieval money economy whose inflationary rise left land-holding aristocrats impoverished. The decline of feudalism and the rise of cities influenced each other; for example, the demand for luxury goods led to an increase in trade, which led to greater numbers of tradesmen becoming wealthy, who, in turn, demanded more luxury goods

The siting of the major urban centers of Renaissance Italy owed a good deal to the communication system inherited partly from nature and partly from ancient Rome, Genoa, Venice, Rimini, Pesaro, Naples, Palermo. Rivers were the easiest way to move goods so towns along the rivers grew as important trade centers also. The Danube, Rhone and Rhine rivers all became important trade routes and the towns along their banks grew. The towns also developed in response to demands from other places for which services were performed.. In pre-industrial Europe, Burke distinguishes three types of service and city. The first kind is a commerce city with a port, like Venice. The second is a craft-industrial town, like Milan or Florence. The third is a service city, which is most profitable.

There was a lot of migratory movement of population, with an influx from rural areas. The reason for this was attraction and repulsion; the “frontier” was a new and dynamic world which could break ties with an unpleasant past and had opportunities for economic and social success. The town would fill with people who left the feudal world without regret. The walls of the town became a boundary between two cultures in conflict. The cities controlled the countryside around them, their Contado, at the expense of the country. The Contado paid more than its share of taxes which became an incentive for prosperous peasants to migrate. Citizens had political and legal privilege which inhabitants of the country lacked. Pregnant women from Lycca would travel to the city so that their children would be born in city.

Despite the growing importance of grain imports urban structure rested on foundation of agriculture particularly the fertile Po valley. By 1500, 85% of land between Pavia and Cremona was under cultivation. Dairy farming was becoming important. South of Po valley picture is less rosy. By 14th and 15th centuries it was going out of cultivation with 10 % villages disappearing. Southern agriculture was in decline and the landlords abandoned estates to the managers’ care in order to settle down in the towns.

Economic organisation in the towns, according to Burke, remained traditional with small workshop within a family business. Economic organisation within towns was usually through guilds. Within the guild, masters protected their position against apprentices and journeymen; the very small scale of most industry facilitated this kind of control. Relationships between guilds were also far from equal. Merchants belonged to elite guilds whose economic power was protected by the urban government (which of course they constituted) or the state; artisans belonged to less prestigious guilds which had far less stake in urban government and whose activities were closely overseen by the urban magistrates.

One important question discussed by Burke is whether the economy is capitalist. There were rich entrepreneurs like Averardo Di Bicci De Medici which showed that it was possible to accumulate wealth. As in some leading industries like cloth many workers were employed who were no longer independant craftsmen. There was a division of labour of the most highly developed kind involving men who were paid by day. In Genoa and Lucca, silk merchants provided raw material and spinning machines which were hired out to spinners and looms to weavers. This system was different from the industrial capitalism of the 19th century as it was not large scale and lacked direct control of manufacturer but it was clear that the manufacturer played a central role in the control by indirect means.

We now briefly look at the economic specifications of individual cities. Florence became a wealthy city in spite of its inland location away from the major trade routes The prosperity of Florence was based on three things- commerce, industry and banking. Family fortunes were made in Florence in banking and industry. The Medici, then Europe’s largest, bank, owned by Cosimo de Medici accumulated huge profits. They came up by challenging the influence of the House of Albazzi. Industry employed one third of the 90, 000 population of the city-state. In industries it was textiles and woolen which took the lead. Florence was a capital of textiles. Florence had seven major gilds into which artisans and craftspeople were organized. The Calimala gild and the Lana gild were cloth related, the rest were involved in areas of silk weavers, bankers, notaries druggists and ferries and included all great merchants at the heart of the economic life of Florence.

In the last decade of the 15th century, there was a sharp contraction of Florentine trade since the English were manufacturing their own cloth while Flemish were showing greater skills in dyeing and dressing cloth. 

Venice in the Middle Ages, was the core state of smaller Mediterranean regional economy, and center of trade in textile, and linked to Flanders, Bruges vi overland route involving Rhine and the alps. In the 15th century, it was the greatest merchant city in world, exporting 10 million ducats worth of goods every year and importing cotton silk spices paid in woolen cloth. Its merchant fleets serviced Mediterranean transport and its navy protected its position against rivals. Venice was Europe’s gateway to trade with the East, and a producer of fine soap and glass

Genoa was a city of sea as it had a commercial empire in Eastern Mediterranean which was a rival to Venice for Byzantine favours.

Rome was an important cosmopolitan town of the16thcentury where industry and trade were focal in scale and activity. Banking was controlled by foreigners as there was no local moneyed aristocracy at the time. The great houses were under those who either owned land as feudal lords or were members with an eminent position in church.

Naples was the largest city which failed to develop into major industrial centers because opportunities were not available.

 

If we now turn our attention to society we will see how changes in political and economic scene were inextricably linked with the social ferment of the period. The term society did not exist but the awareness of social differences was acute in Italian society. Unlike the medieval model where social classification was primarily centered around the rich, middling and poor, the social classification developed to signify and differentiate families and individuals, as noble or not (nobili, gentilhuomini), as citizens (cittadini), in possession of political rites or members of greater or lesser guilds.

If we take a closer look at social groups we that they were innumerable as part of a framework which it is generally agreed consisted of four social classes. The Church was represented by the pope, cardinal, patriarch, bishop, abbot, canon, monk and hermit.

The nobility by emperor, king, duke, count and knight. The nobles owned much of the land, and lived on large estates outside the city walls. They behaved according to the rules of chivalry and distained the merchants.

Then there was the group which broadly consisted of the academic, magistrate, councilor, rich merchant, astrologer, doctor, advocate and jurist. These were also the most important educated groups as they were dealing with commercial and industrial activities. Lawyers and notaries had a mastery of Roman law and Latin and could quote from Classical and Christian authors, The cities were dominated by this commercial elite. It was this group that was the main patron of and audience for Renaissance culture. The merchants were the newly rich, who gained wealth in industries like wool processing, boat making and banking. The merchants sought to protect their wealth by controlling the government and marrying into noble families.

Below them there was a large class of artisans and guild members who lived comfortable lives and had significant power in the republican governments. This was in sharp contrast to the rest of Europe where artisans were firmly in the lower class. Literate and educated, this group did participate in the Renaissance culture. The largest section of the urban population was the urban poor of semi-skilled workers and the unemployed.

At the lowest level were the workers, who did not have job protection and were very dependent on their employers. As difficult as their lives were, however, these urban workers were better off than the peasants who lived in rural areas. Inequality in society was very high. An upper-class figure would control hundreds of times more income than a servant or labourer.

In the towns, there was loyalty to one’s quarter of town or ward into which they were divided for administrative purposes, which was variously called rione in Rome or sestiere in Venice. Within that, there was a neighbourhood or vicinanza- a stage for social dramas of solidarity and enmity. The parish was often a community and the street frequently dominated by a particular trade such as goldsmiths in Via del Pellagrino in Rome. Town life catered to the cultural recreational interests of the business community.

In the countryside the rural parish was a self-administering and fairly democratic unit where the church brought everyone together not only on Sundays and festival days and for births, marriages and deaths but for all stepping stones of the agricultural year for instance, pray for rain to start or stop, to give thanks for harvest.

In terms of population statistics, we see that only two cities had over 100,000 people. Naples and Venice. In Italian cities the population was a young one as those under 15 made up a third of it. Historians refer to the period of 1350-1450 as a period of contraction or depression. There was a decline in population especially due to the Black Death. For instance in the Contado around Pistoia near Florence, the population fell from 30, 000 in mid 13th century to about 24, 000 before Black Death plague and then to under 10 000 in 1404. The Black Death that decimated the populations of the densely populated cities of Northern Italy returned at intervals thereafter. It produced a labour shortage, so that the reduced population was much wealthier, better fed, and significantly, had more surplus money to spend on luxury goods like art and architecture so it in a way assisted the Renaissance.

A high proportion of people never married and also there was an advanced age of marriage. They avoided marriage for economic reasons like to preserve a family estate from too many divisions. High death rate meant frequent remarriages planned by kinsmen. The importance of lineage can be seen in noble and patrician circles which explains the family chapel, tombs and focus of ancestor worship. There were rituals involving large group of kinsmen. For the individual, Hale expounds, that the family was the most important.

The women of the Renaissance, like women of the Middle Ages, were denied all political rights and considered legally subject to their husbands. Women of all classes were expected to perform, first and foremost, the duties of housewife. Women were frequently discouraged from participating in the arts and sciences Peasant women worked in the field alongside their husbands and ran the home. There was widespread use of women in labour who produced most commodities at home. In Florence within wool weavers women constituted 83% of the labour force in 1627. They also were involved in work considered for men such as metallurgical. The gamesome ladies of Venice were courtesans, known for their refinement and culture. In Rome in the 16th and 17th centuries there were 10, 000 to 40, 000 prostitutes. The wives of middle class shop owners and merchants often helped run their husbands’ businesses as well. Even women of the highest class, though attended by servants, most often engaged in the tasks of the household, sewing, cooking, and entertaining, among others. Women who did not marry were not permitted to live independently. Instead, they lived in the households of their male relatives or, more often, joined a convent. A few wealthy women of the time were able to break the mold of subjugation to achieve at the least fame, if not independence. Lucrezia Borgia, the daughter of Pope Alexander VI, was one such woman. She was an influence in Ferrara politics and social life, and a noted patron of the arts.

Renaissance society was essentially aristocratic, offering economic political intellectual opportunities only to a small number. It didn’t possess universally accepted standard of nobility. The Commercial Revolution had already undermined aristocracy of blood; the great depression and stagnation shook the financial security of aristocracy of wealth but it was not submerged by the merchant class. As a cultural movement, the Italian Renaissance affected only a small part of the population. Northern Italy was the most urbanized region of Europe, but three quarters of the people were still rural peasants. For this section of the population, life was essentially unchanged from the Middle Ages as most of peasants worked on private farms or as sharecroppers.

As political power was in the hands of the rich group of merchants, the landed sections in the state were aloof and deprived of political privileges. New families arose as result of expansion of trod and comm. which demands share in political power form older rich ruling families. There was disunity among old and new rich and revolts became popular and the growing class of shopkeepers, skilled artisans participated in these. These were temporary clashes of class interest such as the revolt of ciompi at end of the War of the Eight Saints, caused by prosecution of war, heavy taxation and autocratic behaviour.

Social circumstances were favourable to artists and craftsmen, as money and energy poured into arts. There was a competition of artists and competition for artists. Services of architects, sculptors, painters, musicians writers were desired. In terms of organization of arts, for painters sculptors the fundamental unit was the workshop, the Bottega, which consisted of a small group of men producing wide variety of objects in collaboration with artist; it was often a small family affair

As a result of the ambiguous status of the artist it was hard to find a place in the social structure for someone who wasn’t a priest, warrior or peasant. However, in cities they were accepted perhaps because it was probably easier for achievement oriented merchant cultures to recognize d worth of artists and writers than it was for birth oriented militant cultures like France and Spain.

A question posed by Burke was whether the society was bourgeoisie. In the 15th and 16th centuries Italy was one of most urbanized societies. In 1550 about Italian towns had a population of 10, 000 and 20 had a population of 25, 000. In the rest of Europe there were probably not even more than 20 of these. Renaissance Florence and others rested on the backs of the populo minuto which were labouring classes. The importance of towns was linked with the importance of merchants, professional men, craftsmen, shopkeepers- all groups sometimes called bourgeoisie. Machiavelli expressed contempt for Florence as a city governed by shopkeepers. But we must be careful about assuming that this society was bourgeoisie.

Historians debate how easy it was to move between these groups during the Italian Renaissance. Examples of individuals who rose from humble beginnings can be instanced, but Burke notes two major studies in this area that have found that the data do not clearly demonstrate an increase in social mobility. Most historians feel that early in the Renaissance social mobility was quite high, but that it faded over the course of the 15th century. Individual cases of upward mobility are striking such as that of Giovanni Antonio Campano who was a shepherd boy who became a university lecturer in Perugia, and went on to be later named bishop by Pius II. This reflects on the traditional function of the church as an avenue of advancement. There were also cases of peasants who turned artists. The literature of the period was unusually concerned with social mobility and was sometimes hostile to it, like Dante. Some were favourable to it like Poggio’s dialogue ‘On True Nobility’. He talks of life as a race in which the best man wins. After the 15th century the ranks had closed and in Venice itself there was little opportunity for new men to enter the patriciate even if there was mobility at lower levels.

We have thus seen that Italy during the Renaissance was a period marked by distinctive social, economic and political conditions that interacted with e ach other to distinguish this period in history from the preceding and the following.

Bibliography:

  1. The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance– J.R. Hale
  2. Europe: Hierarchy and Revolt, 1320-1450– George Holmes
  3. The Italian Renaissance- Peter Burke
  4. Rise of the Modern West– Meenaxi Phukan
  5. Before the Industrial revolution: European Economy and Society, 1000-1700– Carlo Maria Cipola