Title The Medicean succession : monarchy and sacral politics in Duke Cosimo dei Medici's Florence / Gregory Murry

Published Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, [2014] ©2014

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Description 1 online resource Series I Tatti studies in Italian Renaissance history I Tatti studies in Italian Renaissance history. Contents The familiarity of terrestrial divinity -- Divine right rule and the providential worldview -- Rescuing virtue from Machiavelli -- Prince or patrone? Cosimo as an ecclesiastical patron -- Cosimo and Savonarolan reform -- Defense of the sacred Summary Main Description:In 1537, Florentine Duke Alessandro dei Medici was murdered by his cousin and would-be successor, Lorenzino dei Medici. Lorenzino's treachery forced him into exile, however, and the Florentine senate accepted a compromise candidate, seventeen-year-old Cosimo dei Medici. The senate hoped Cosimo would act as figurehead, leaving the senate to manage political affairs. But Cosimo never acted as a puppet. Instead, by the time of his death in 1574, he had stabilized ducal finances, secured his borders while doubling his territory, attracted an array of scholars and artists to his court, academy, and universities, and, most importantly, dissipated the perennially fractious politics of Florentine life. Gregory Murry argues that these triumphs were far from a foregone conclusion. Drawing on a wide variety of archival and published sources, he examines how Cosimo and his propagandists successfully crafted an image of Cosimo as a legitimate sacral monarch. Murry posits that both the propaganda and practice of sacral monarchy in Cosimo's Florence channeled preexisting local religious assumptions as a way to establish continuities with the city's republican and renaissance past. In The Medicean Succession, Murry elucidates the models of sacral monarchy that Cosimo chose to utilize as he deftly balanced his ambition with the political sensitivities arising from existing religious and secular traditions Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject Cosimo I, Grand-Duke of Tuscany, 1519-1574 Medici, House of. Cosimo I, Grand-Duke of Tuscany, 1519-1574 Medici, House of Monarchy -- Italy -- Tuscany -- History -- 16th century Divine right of kings. HISTORY -- Europe -- Italy. HISTORY -- Renaissance. Divine right of kings Kings and rulers Monarchy Politics and government Florence (Italy) -- Politics and government -- 1421-1737. Tuscany (Italy) -- Politics and government -- 1434-1737. Florence (Italy) -- Kings and rulers -- Biography Tuscany (Italy) -- Kings and rulers -- Biography Italy -- Florence Italy -- Tuscany Genre/Form Biographies History Biographies. Biographies. Form Electronic book ISBN 9780674416192 0674416198

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