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

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

on the poor, 33, 77, 79–80, 226, 246

property, 147–48

proportional, 80–82, 84

quattrino bianco and, 226, 246

for waging war, 73, 77, 78

tax loans, 80–81

Ten of War committee, 86, 89, 90

Third World poverty, 15

Thomas Aquinas, Saint, 14, 15

Tolentino, Niccolò da, 97–98

Tolfa, 195–96, 197

Tornabuoni, Francesca Pitti, 165, 167

Tornabuoni, Giovanni, 125, 166, 167, 168–69, 175, 178, 179–80, 196, 198–99, 211, 224, 228, 229, 232, 240

Tornabuoni family, 162

Tornaquinci, Neri di Cipriano, 50–51

trade:

bankers and, 22–23, 39–40, 46–47

bank failures and, 173, 240

currency exchange and, 40–46

florin as currency of, 32

galley ships rented for, 118

imbalance in, 109–11, 112–14, 135–36

risks involved in, 39–40

Rome and, 20–22, 109–11

triangular movements in, 22, 135–36, 174

Traini, 19

Traversari, Ambrogio, 55

triangular trade movements, 22, 135–36, 174

Tribute Money, The (Masaccio), 74, 75, 80

Trinity, 116, 134–35

Turks, Ottoman, 67, 134–35, 147, 176, 194–95, 197, 223, 244

Tuscan language, 225

Tuscans, as bankers, 28

Tuscany, 77, 79, 141, 219

Twelve Good Men, 94–95, 137, 143

usura, 1–2

usury, 9, 104

Dante’s hell and, 13–14

debt bonds viewed as, 80–81

discretionary deposits as means of avoiding, 23–24

exchange deals as, 45–46

legalized in Protestant England, 243

“manifest,” 31

“mental,” 24

modern definition of, 1

Pound on, 1–2

standard provision in wills made for, 9–10

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

see also interest; money

utile, 74

Uzzano, Niccolò da, 81, 86–87, 90

Valla, Lorenzo, 93

Vasari, Giorgio, 218

veduto, 143–44

Venetian ducats, 43, 90, 92

Venetian-style bookkeeping, 33–34

Venice, 22

alum and, 196–98

Cosimo de’ Medici in, 98

doge of, 87

in Italy’s internal wars, 67–68, 71, 76, 79, 84, 99–100, 106, 117, 141, 146–47, 150, 218, 221, 225, 244

Lorenzo di Giovanni de’ Medici exiled to, 98

Medici bank branch in, 48, 50–51, 63, 83, 91, 96, 99, 112, 116, 135, 146, 172, 201, 231, 232

in “Most Holy League,” 147

Venturi, Giovanni, 135

Venturi & Davanzati, 135, 174

Vernacci, Leonardo, 168, 175, 182

Verrocchio, Andrea del, 191, 219, 225

Virgil, 14–15

Visconti, Bianca, 117, 141

Visconti, Filippo, 67–68, 71, 77, 79, 84, 90, 116, 141

Volterra, 85–86, 216

alum and, 199–203

sacking of, 201–3

wealth tax (catasto), 73, 81–83, 85

women:

Boccaccio’s writing on, 55–57

clothing regulations and, 36, 103, 178

dowries and, 9, 19–20, 154, 161–62

wool trade, 44, 179–80, 213–14, 228

anti-Italian sentiment of English in, 114

bookkeeping and, 34

decline in, 176, 240

English export restrictions on, 111, 114

triangular movements in, 22, 135–36

see also alum

woolworkers:

1378 revolt by, 7, 62

association of, 194

workers’ unions, 194