國際關係

義大利北部於14世紀分裂為幾個好站的城邦，其中最強大的幾個是米蘭、佛羅倫斯、比薩、席耶那、熱那亞和威尼斯。義大利北部在教宗和神聖羅馬帝國為了爭奪誰才擁有至高主權而發起的長期紛爭中進一步被分裂。每個城邦會和其中一方結盟，然而城邦內部又會分裂成兩個派系。每個城邦之間戰事頻仍，不過來自於義大利之外的入侵則較少。在這個軍隊主要是由傭兵所組成的時代，儘管這些城邦人口不多，它們卻能夠維持龐大的軍力。Eventually, the most powerful city-states annexed their smaller neighbours. 佛羅倫斯在1406年兼併了，威尼斯拿下了 Padua 和 Verona，while the Duchy of Milan annexed a number of nearby areas including Pavia and Parma.

The first part of the Renaissance saw almost constant war on land and sea as the city-states vied for pre-eminence. On land, these wars were fought primarily by armies of mercenaries known as Condottieri, bands of soldiers drawn from around Europe, but especially Germany and Switzerland. The mercenaries were not willing to risk their lives unduly , and war became one largely of sieges and manoeuvring with few pitched battles. It was also in the interest of mercenaries on both sides to prolong any conflict, as this would continue their employment. Mercenaries were also a constant threat to their employers; if not paid, they often turned on their patron. If it became obvious that a state was entirely dependent on mercenaries, the temptation was great for the mercenaries to take over the running of it themselves -- this occurred on a number of occasions.[8]

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. Venice proved to be a more powerful adversary, and while at first relatively equal, the Genoese fleet was destroyed in a Venetian assault in 1380; from then on, Venice was pre-eminent.

On land, decades of fighting saw Florence and Milan emerge as the dominant players, and 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.

In the beginning of the 15th century, adventurer and traders such as Niccolò Da Conti (1395–1469) travelled as far as Southeast Asia and back, bringing fresh knowledge on the state of the world, presaging further European voyages of exploration in the years to come.

梅第奇家族統治下的佛羅倫斯

From the late fourteenth century, Florence's leading family had been the Albizzi. Their main challengers were the Medicis, first under Giovanni de' Medici, then under his son Cosimo. 梅第奇家族 controlled Europe's largest bank and a wide array of other enterprises in Florence and elsewhere. In 1433, the Albizzi managed to have Cosimo exiled. The next year, however, saw a-pro Medici Signoria elected and Cosimo returned. The Medici became the town's leading family, a position they would hold for the next three centuries. Florence remained a republic, but the instruments of government were firmly under the control of the Medici and their allies. Cosimo only rarely had an official post, but was the unquestioned leader of the town.

Cosimo de' Medici was highly popular among the citizenry, mainly for bringing an era of stability and prosperity to the town. One of his most important accomplishments was negotiating the Peace of Lodi with Francesco Sforza ending the decades of war with Milan and bringing stability to much of Northern Italy. Cosimo was also an important patron of the arts, though some modern historians have argued the extent of his patronage has long been exaggerated.

Cosimo was succeeded by his sickly son Piero de' Medici, who died after five years in charge of the city. In 1469 the reins of power passed to Cosimo's twenty-one-year-old grandson Lorenzo, who would become known as "Lorenzo the Magnificent." Lorenzo was the first of the family to be educated from an early age in the humanist tradition and is best known as one of the Renaissance's most important patrons of the arts. Under Lorenzo, the Medici rule was formalized with the creation of a new Council of Seventy, which Lorenzo headed. The republican institutions continued, but they lost all power. Lorenzo was less successful than his illustrious forebears in business, and the Medici commercial empire was slowly eroded. Lorenzo continued the alliance with Milan, but relations with the papacy soured, and in 1478, Papal agents allied with the Pazzi family in an attempt to assassinate Lorenzo. Although the plot failed, Lorenzo's young brother, Giuliano, was killed, and the failed assassination led to a war with the Papacy and was used as justification to further centralize power in Lorenzo's hands.[9]

文藝復興的傳播

The Renaissance ideals first spread from Florence to the neighbouring states of Tuscany such as Siena and Lucca. The Tuscan culture soon became the model for all the states of Northern Italy, and the Tuscan variety of Italian came to predominate throughout the region, especially in literature. In 1447 Francesco Sforza came to power in Milan and rapidly transformed that still medieval city into a major centre of art and learning. Venice, one of the wealthiest cities due to its control of the Mediterranean Sea, also became a centre for Renaissance culture, especially architecture.

在1378年，教皇回到了羅馬，但是這個曾經的都城，在文藝復興早期依舊貧窮並且破敗不堪。^[4] 在1447年，教皇尼古拉斯5世即位後，他發起了一個龐大的重建羅馬的計畫，成果顯著。As the papacy fell under the control of the wealthy families from the north, such as the Medici and the Borgias the spirit of Renaissance art and philosophy came to dominate the Vatican. Pope Sixtus IV continued Nicholas' work, most famously ordering the construction of the Sistine Chapel. The popes also became increasingly secular rulers as the Papal States were forged into a centralized power by a series of warrior popes.

The nature of the Renaissance also changed in the late fifteenth century. The Renaissance ideal was fully adopted by the ruling classes and the aristocracy. In the early Renaissance artists were seen as craftsmen with little prestige or recognition. By the later Renaissance the top figures wielded great influence and could charge great fees. A flourishing trade in Renaissance art developed. While in the early Renaissance many of the leading artists were of lower- or middle-class origins, increasingly they became aristocrats.[11]

一般大眾

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. [12] For this section of the population life was essentially unchanged from the Middle Ages. [13] Classic feudalism had never been prominent in Northern Italy, with the peasants mostly working private farms or as sharecroppers. Some scholars see a trend towards refeudalization in the later Renaissance as the urban elites turned themselves into landed aristocrats. [14]