Tim Parks - Medici Money - Banking, metaphysics and art in fifteenth-century Florence

see also democracy

Poliziano, Angelo, 219, 220–21, 225

Pollaiuolo, Antonio, 225

poor, poverty:

Church teachings and, 18–19

cost of warfare and, 77

Good Men of San Martino and, 108–9

picciolo as currency of, 32

sumptuary laws and, 35–36

taxes and, 33, 77, 79–80, 226, 246

Third World, 15

usury and, 11

popes (Curia), 87, 109

Church wealth and, 25–26

cost of bureaucracy of, 169

discretionary deposits and, 23–24

dispute over authority of, 113, 134–35

failure to pay debts owed to, 33

three simultaneous claimants as, 51–52

tributes paid to, 20–21

see also specific popes

Portinari, Accerito, 112, 171–73, 182, 217

Portinari, Beatrice, 83

Portinari, Bernardo, 112–14, 174

Portinari, Folco, 112, 171

Portinari, Giovanni d’Adovardo, 83, 112

Portinari, Maria di Francesco di Bandini Baroncelli, 178, 214

Portinari, Pigello, 112, 171–73

Portinari, Tommaso, 112, 125, 171, 173–79, 182, 196, 197, 211, 213–14, 220, 228, 230 , 231–32

Portinari family, 83, 112, 171

Pound, Ezra, 1–2, 10

printing press, 219

priors, 99, 138–40, 143, 160, 192, 216

Cosimo de’ Medici invited back to Florence by, 100

election of, 87–88

function of, 94, 137

length of term served by, 87, 145

number of, 19, 87, 137, 144

political favors and, 143–44

prostitutes, 31, 115–16, 121

purgatory, 12, 20, 54, 123

quattrino bianco , 226, 246

referendums, 95

reggimento , 142, 154

relics, 131, 132 , 152

religious confraternities, 62, 84, 108–9, 116, 121

Renaissance:

forward vs. backward-looking views of, 5

as product of money and political power, 2

Republic, The (Plato), 207

Riario, Girolamo, 204, 212–13, 215, 217

Riario, Pietro, 211

Riario, Raffaele, 215

ribellione dei ciompi , 6–7

Ridolfi, Antonio, 164

Rinuccini, Alamanno, 227

riputazione , 74–76

Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank, The (Roover), 107

Roman Church, 6, 64, 211

alum and, 195–98, 204, 205

discretionary deposits and, 23–24

excommunication from, see excommunication

fundamentalists vs. compromisers in, 23

international cash flow and trade and, 20–22, 109–10

Medici bank and, 47–48, 51–52, 91, 92, 93, 97, 113, 169, 224, 242

monopolies viewed as unnatural by, 193–94

price of official positions in, 20

as religion of the establishment and the rich, 18–19

schism between Eastern Church and, 116, 134–35

transfers of wealth of, 25

usury viewed as sin by, 1–2, 10–11, 13–15, 23–24, 45–46

see also popes

Roman Empire, 16, 66

Roman florin, 43

Roman numerals, used in written banking transactions, 30

Rome, 6, 28, 87, 127, 149, 193, 201

alum deposit discovered near, 195

Cosimo de’ Medici in, 61, 63–64, 76

credit denied to merchants from, 49

Donation of Constantine and, 93

international trade and, 20–22, 109–11

in Italy’s internal wars, 67–71, 76, 84, 244

Medici bank branch in, 47–48, 52, 61, 64, 83, 91, 110–11, 167, 168, 169, 172, 175, 180, 190, 198, 219, 224, 232

in “Most Holy League,” 147

as “pit of iniquity,” 236

as political and economic center, 20–22

sacking of, 9

see also Papal States

Rome, ancient, 57, 121

Roover, Raymond de, 24, 73, 107

Roses, War of the, 181

Rossi, Lionetto di Benedetto d’Antonio de’, 175, 229, 231

Rossi, Maria de’ Medici de’, 162, 175

Rossi, Roberto de’, 55

Rossore, San, Donatello’s bust of, 132 , 133

round ships, 40

Rubinstein, Nicolai, 107–8

Rucellai, Giovanni, 127, 131

Rushdie, Salman, 14

Saint Gemme, priory of, 233

Sallust, 211–12, 219

Salviati, Francesco, 204–5, 211, 212, 216, 217

San Giorgio Maggiore Monastery, 99

San Giovanni Battista, Church of, 8

San Lorenzo, Church of, 85, 127

Cosimo de’ Medici’s tomb in, 152

San Marco, Monastery of, 92, 123, 133–34, 169

Cosimo de’ Medici’s paying for restoration of, 11, 122, 124–28, 126

Cosimo de’ Medici’s private prayer cell in, 114, 128, 210, 241

Savonarola at, 240–41

San Miniato al Monte, Monastery of, 92

Santa Maria del Carmine, Church of, 74, 75

Santa Maria Novella, 127, 166 , 168

Sant’Antonio, Convent of, 183

Santa Trinità, Church of, 170

Santissima Annunziata, 127

Santo Spirito, Church of, 201

Sassetti, Cosimo, 229, 233

Sassetti, Francesco, 125, 149–50, 165, 169–71, 180–81, 220, 228, 232, 240

Savonarola, Girolamo, 234–38, 240–43, 245

Apocalypse sermons of, 240

background of, 236

birth of, 136

execution of, 246

fundamentalist preaching of, 234–35

portrait of, 237

as prior of San Marco, 241

Scrovegni, Arrigo degli, 10

Scrovegni, Reginaldo degli, 10, 14

scrutinies, 137, 139, 142, 143, 148, 204

Second Coming, 18–19

“secret books,” 50

“secret things of our town,” 136–38, 142, 151, 209

seduto, 144

“ semper ,” as Cosimo de’ Medici’s motto, 63

Sforza, Francesco, 141–42, 148, 151, 154–55, 172

as condottiere , 90, 116, 120, 146

death of, 157, 173, 190

as duke of Milan, 65, 106, 146, 150

illegitimate background of, 65

Medici bank and, 106, 117–18, 146, 150

Sforza, Galeazzo, 151, 159, 184, 189, 201, 205, 211–12, 214, 219

Sforza, Ippolita, 190

Sforza, Lodovico, 214, 244

ships:

galleys, 118, 178–79, 198

round, 40

signoria , 88, 89, 97, 143, 147–48, 157, 165, 199, 216, 222, 224, 240

composition and function of, 94–95, 96, 137

power of Council of 100 over, 200

silver-based currencies, 43

of Florence, see piccioli

silver imperial, 43

Silvestrine order, 122–23

sin:

blasphemy viewed as, 14

clarity and, 54

Islamic view of, 14

monopolies viewed as, 193–94, 197

mortal, 24

sodomy viewed as, 13–14

usury viewed as, 1–2, 10–11, 13–15, 23–24, 45–46, 188

Sixteen Standard Bearers, 95, 137

Sixtus IV, Pope, 201, 203–5, 210–11, 212, 217–18, 223–24, 241

slaves, 10, 11, 34, 63–64, 86, 149, 152

Slavic countries, as source of slaves, 10, 63

social order:

currency and, 32–34

money as means of change in, 15, 18, 158

sumptuary laws and, 34–35

taxation and, 80

Soderini, Niccolò, 155, 156, 164, 167, 192, 202, 206

Soderini, Tommaso, 155, 202

sodomites, in Dante’s hell, 13–14

soldi a fiorino , 37

Soliloquia (Augustine), 207

“Song of the Bakers” (Medici), 209–10

“Song of the Peasants” (Medici), 210

sovrabbondanza , 81

Spain, 9, 68, 135

Spinelli, Lorenzo, 229, 239, 240

stare sugli avvisi , 47

“station in life,” 15, 25

Stendhal, 223

Storie fiorentine (Guicciardini), 222

Strozzi, Alessandro, 143

Strozzi, Palla, 96, 98, 100, 107, 111, 153, 158

Strozzi family, 164

sumptuary laws, 35–36

Supreme Good, The (Medici), 210

Switzerland, 9

Sylvester, Pope, 93

Symposium (Medici), 201

Tani, Agnolo, 175, 177, 179–82

taxes, 17, 19, 20, 87

catasto , 73, 81–83, 85

evasion of, 9, 73–74, 75 , 82, 104, 109, 177