Republic of Florence

The Republic of Florence was a medieval and Renaissance city-state in Tuscany that became one of the richest and most influential states in Europe. It emerged as a commune in the early twelfth century and expanded through the wool trade and banking, issuing the gold florin, which became a standard coin. It was governed by guilds and then increasingly dominated by banking families, most famously the Medici, from the fifteenth century under Cosimo and Lorenzo the Magnificent. The city was a centre of the Renaissance, home to artists and thinkers such as Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The republic was restored twice, but it ended after a siege by imperial and papal forces, and the Medici became hereditary dukes and, later, Grand Dukes of Tuscany.

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