Calliope articles from April 2001

Calliope archives from April 2001

There should be many judges, for a few will always be ruled by the few.
April 1, 2001... Excerpted from the Discorsi ("Discourses") by Machiavelli The Medici rank as one of the most influential families ever in Italian politics. In fact, their power reached far beyond politics into the fields of art, architecture, banking and...

THE RISE OF THE PRINCE.(medieval guilds in Florence, Italy)
April 1, 2001... IN FLORENCE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES, GUILD MEMBERS HELD CONSIDERABLE POWER, AS THEY CONTROLLED MUCH OF THE CITY'S ECONOMY. EXCEPT FOR NOBLEMEN AND COMMON LABORERS, EVERY FLORENTINE male citizen was required to belong to a guild. Some even...

From Rural Merchant to City Financier.(Giovanni de' Medici)
April 1, 2001... ORIGINALLY FROM THE MUGELLO REGION ABOUT 20 MILES TO THE north, the Medici migrated to Florence sometime in the 1100s. As the city and its economy grew, so, too, did the number of newcomers. Some were landless peasants seeking employment in the...

The Banking Connection.(Medici family of Florence, Italy)
April 1, 2001... Historians often use information gathered from bank registers such as this one from the 1400s to learn more about Medici business practices. The gold coins are Italian and date to the same period DESPITE CHRONIC POLITICAL INSTABILITY, THE...

Pater Patriae: COSIMO DE MEDICI.
April 1, 2001... WHEN COSIMO DE' MEDICI (1389-1464) APPEARED ON THE STREETS OF FLORENCE IN LATER LIFE, THE CITIZENS AFFECTIONATELY DUBBED HIM "THE Old Guy" (Il Vecchio). Conservatively dressed, he would tip his hat and politely return their greetings, calling...

Lorenzo, IL Magnifico.
April 1, 2001... LORENZO DE' MEDICI WAS BORN ON JANUARY 1, 1449. As THE ELDEST SON OF PIERO "THE GOUTY" AND GRANDSON OF COSIMO THE ELDER, HE WOULD INHERIT BOTH THE POLITICAL FOLLOWING AND THE CONSIDERABLE WEALTH AND BUSINESS INTERESTS OF HIS MEDICI ANCESTORS....

MACHIAVELLI'S The Prince.
April 1, 2001... MENTION THE NAME MACHIAVELLI, AND MOST PEOPLE WILL THINK OF DICTATORS, LEADERS WHO will stop at nothing to gain and keep absolute control over their fellow citizens. In the United States, as in most of the world, absolute power is a hateful and...

Make a Gonfalon.(flag displaying coat of arms)
April 1, 2001... Each of Florence's 21 arti or "guilds" could be identified by an emblem or coat of arms. The Arte del Cambio, the bankers' and money changers' guild, for example, used gold circles, representing coins, on a scarlet ground. A lamb was featured...

THE PALAZZO MEDICI.
April 1, 2001... Symbol of Medicean Power and Patronage IN 1444. ONE OF COSIMO DE' MEDICI'S critics reported, "He has begun a palace that throws even the Colosseum at Rome into the shade." Cosimo had his massive new house erected on the corner of Via de'...

A Treasure for Your `Palace'.(how to simulate pietro dure)
April 1, 2001... The Medici surrounded themselves with art. Their palazzo was filled with paintings, sculptures, and sumptuous fabrics. Tables and sideboards were laden with carved bowls, vases, and boxes in pietre dure or "semiprecious stone." Marble,...

WORD ORIGINS.
April 1, 2001... Patronage The words "patronage" and "patron" both trace their origins to the some Latin noun, pater, meaning "father." Rightly so, for a patron shores many characteristics with a father: Both act as benefactors, protectors, supporters, and...

ITALIAN WORDS IN MUSIC.
April 1, 2001... Ever look at a page of sheet music? Ever wondered what the "foreign" words sprinkled on the page mean? Ask anyone who sings in a choral group or plays a musical instrument. You'll discover that they are Italian and that they tell you how...

FLORENCE'S GOLDEN AGE: POPE LEO X.
April 1, 2001... CARDINAL GIOVANNI DE' MEDICI WAS ELECTED POPE ON MARCH 11, 1513. CONFORMING TO ANCIENT PRACTICE, GIOVANNI TOOK A NEW NAME: LEO X. ONE MONTH LATER, LAVISH CELEBRATIONS HERALDED HIS ELECTION AS THE BEGINNING OF A NEW, GOLDEN AGE. The second...

Clement VII and the Sack of Rome.
April 1, 2001... At dawn on May 6, 1527, an army of Spanish and German soldiers led by Charles, duke of Bourbon, attacked Rome. Although the duke was killed in the early stages of the assault, his troops swiftly took control of the city. Pope Clement VII and 13...

Catherine de' Medici.
April 1, 2001... Born in Florence on April 13, 1519, Catherine de' Medici was orphaned three weeks later, when fever killed both her parents. She went to live with her grandmother and later an aunt, who died in 1528. Because an anti-Medici government controlled...

The Medici Women.
April 1, 2001... O, One does not want to be born a woman if one wants one's own way! --Nonnino de' Medici Throughout the ages, women have often complained that their husbands will not listen to their advice--indeed, that they cannot get their own...

LORENZO'S HEIRS.(Medici family)
April 1, 2001... IN 1537, 17-YEAR-OLD COSIMO, GREAT-GRANDSON OF LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT, MADE A BOLD BID for power in Florence. The council members granted his wish to become duke of Florence because they saw him as a weak leader and planned to keep the power...

The Legacy of the Medici.
April 1, 2001... CONTROL OF TUSCANY HAD PASSED TO FRANCIS OF AUSTRIA, WHO LATER RULED AS HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR, AFTER THE DEATH OF GIAN GASTONE IN 1737. HOWEVER, GIAN GASTONE'S SISTER, ANNA MARIA LUISA, CONTINUED TO LIVE IN THE PITTI PALACE UNTIL HER DEATH SIX...

BEHIND THE SCENES IN THE MEDICI ARCHIVE.
April 1, 2001... FOR THE MILLIONS OF TOURISTS WHO VISIT ITALY EVERY YEAR, FLORENCE IS still the city of the Medici. Two and a half centuries after the last surviving Medici heirs (Gian Gastone and Anna Maria Luisa) died, art lovers and history buffs still come...

ART ON THE ASPHALT.(street painting festivals )
April 1, 2001... At religious and folk festivals in 16th-century Italy, artists who made chalk paintings of madonna icons on the streets were called madonnari or "madonna painters." Onlookers threw coins on the drawings to show appreciation. This...

BOOKS.(books on the Renaissance)(Bibliography)
April 1, 2001... Art and Civilization: The Renaissance by Paul Procter (Peter Bedrick, 2000) Artists of the Renaissance by James Barter (Lucent Books [History Makers Series], 1999) The Italian Renaissance by Paul Robert Walker (Facts On File [World...

MEDIA.(information sources on the Renaissance)
April 1, 2001... Italian Renaissance Art and Architecture by Ann Campbell (Alarion Press, revised 1998) The following issues of CALLIOPE cross-references for this issue on "The Medici": Introduction to the Renaissance (May/June 1994) The Doges of...

What is a Poet?(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2001... A poet is like an animal who needs to eat. If she does not write poetry, her life is incomplete. Her ideas bloom inside her head like a flower. Her lives have many changes like the seasons. Spring, Summer, Winter,...

The Medici Family.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... The Medici family was a powerful family throughout the 1300s-1600s. They controlled banks in Europe. The Medici family supported painters such as Leonardo da Vinci.... They ruled over Florence, Italy. Some people in their family were popes,...

ON THE NET.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... For a fact-filled site that follows the Medici chronologically and includes a glossary, images, and links to many related sites, try: http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/galileo/People/medici.html