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Through the use of new sources (some of which have been discovered on this occasion), the check of old data, and a different reading of the available information, the article throws light on the little known life of Alberto degli Albizzi, scion of a prominent family of the Florentine patriciate, which was powerful in the 14-15th century until the advent of the Medici family. So far this particular figure, who was a close friend of Coluccio Salutati, Lapo da Castiglionchio and Franco Sacchetti, had been known above all for some poems and a letter to pope Martin V. But his story had been blurred and mistakenly built by 19th century genealogists and later scholars who had relied on them. Whereas now it is available for the first time in its objective aspects, all linked to a crucial phase of Florentine history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I examine friendship as a subject of political theory rather than as a social practice relevant to political life. As suggested by Francesco d'Altobianco Alberti in the poem recited at the first certame coronario, two ideas of political friendship existed side by side in Medicean Florence. They appeared in full in Palmieri's Vita civile and in Platina's De optimo cive. As I will show, the Ciceronian language of friendship is used in these works to resolve two key problems of Renaissance political thought: the need for political unity and the just way of appointing the governing elite. Palmieri placed friendship in the political sphere of concord: he was a republican imperialist who believed that civic friendship protected the political unity of the city, without which Florence would not have been able to expand. Platina, on the other hand, situated friendship in the political sphere of counsel: his concern was to support the selection of the most virtuous and knowledgeable citizens, worthy of access to public office. While Palmieri looked back to the city's medieval past, Platina cast light on the politics of friendship that allowed the Medici to stay in power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses sexuality and politics in 16th century Florence, Italy, particularly focusing on Alessandro de' Medici (ca. 1511-1537), who was the duke of Florence, and Cosimo I de' Medici (1519-1574), his successor, and their sexual behavior and what this tells scholars about sexuality during the Renaissance. The medical opinions about the anatomical differences between men and women at that time are discussed. The popular opinion about Alessandro amongst his contemporaries was that he was a poor ruler and effeminate, which was in sharp contrast to Cosimo's reputation for monogamy and his respectful view of women. A history of Florence, beginning with the takeover of the government by the Medicis, is presented and details about the rule of Alessandro and Cosimo are discussed.

During the Medicean ascendancy in Renaissance Florence, the city's Dominican Archbishop, Sant' Antonino Pierozzi, used the power of the pulpit to ensure that deeds undertaken by citizens were motivated not by self-interest ( bonum particulare), but rather by the honour of God and the good of the republic – the common good of all ( bonum commune). This article considers a range of texts from which he derived a language to express his particular vision of the city and its governance. I argue that preachers kept the idea of libertas alive in the consciousness of the city's inhabitants by drawing on sets of words that had both historical and contemporary resonance. Indeed, in the case of Florence and Archbishop Antonino, direct verbal borrowings served, at least implicitly, to link particular utterances to a long tradition and to shared ideals originating in the city's past. The article concludes with an examination of his hitherto unrecognized borrowings from the treatise on the cardinal virtues by Henry of Rimini OP, addressed to the citizens of Venice of the late 1290s, and with a reflection on how these words, envisaged for the polity of another time and place, had potency and authority within contemporary circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]