Introduction

Research into new ways of interpreting late medieval political change has modified the attitude of historians towards Tuscany: traditional topics such as ‘Renaissance Florence’ have been overtaken by an approach ‘beyond Florence’, aiming to focus on different models of state-building. This new perspective allows historians to analyse the Florentine model in closer comparison with the experiences of the surrounding city-states, the Tuscan republics of Siena and Lucca.

Following these new approaches, I shall focus on the social and institutional evolution of Florence and Siena at the end of the Middle Ages, comparing them to Lucca in the final part of the chapter: the purpose will be to identify some features of the Tuscan political systems and to underline their contribution to the development of the Italian Renaissance state.

Florence: from commune to respublica

Robert Davidsohn took his fundamental Geschichte von Florenz up to 1328: even if his decision was partially due to the difficulty of extending such comprehensive research to the far too richly documented fourteenth century, Davidsohn’s choice provides a useful starting point. The emperor’s absence from the Italian political scene and the displacement of the papal court to Avignon in fact gave the most important city-states in central Italy new chances to fulfil their ambitions.