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| 1405 |
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| Pisa was bought and reduced to obedience (1406), giving Florence direct access to the sea. Filippo Maria Visconti's drive into Tuscany led Florence to declare war. The peace party was led by Giovanni de' Medici, a wool dealer and international banker, probably Italy's richest man. Several defeats of Florence were accompanied by a decline of Florentine credit and a number of serious bankruptcies. Alliance with Venice and defeat of the Visconti, who accepted peace on onerous terms (1429); Venice monopolized the gains of the war. | 1 |
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| 1424–94 |
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| Judicial records confirm the complaints of the Franciscan preacher Bernardo of Siena (1380–1444) that homosexual activity was widespread among all social classes in Renaissance Tuscany. For many individuals, homosexual relations were only one aspect of what we call bisexuality, and the activity (anal relations) involved mainly adult men (active) and adolescent boys (passive). Male (ecclesiastical) ignorance of female psychology and biology, and the great reluctance even to mention or name lesbianism, means that very little evidence of such activity survives. | 2 |
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| 1427 |
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| Taxation reform, the catàsto, an income tax intended to be of general and democratic incidence. | 3 |
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| 1433 |
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| The fiasco of the war on Lucca (1429–33) led to Cosimo (son of Giovanni) de' Medici's imprisonment as a scapegoat, and his sentence to ten-year exile. The next election to the signory (governing body) favored the Medici, and Cosimo was recalled (1434). Medici dominance in Florence began, opening three centuries of close identity between the fortunes of the family and those of Florence. Cosimo, without holding office himself, determined who should hold office. | 4 |
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| 1434–64 |
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| COSIMO (Pater Patriae). His power rested on his great business and financial skills, which brought enormous wealth, and his shrewd political genius. | 5 |
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| 1434–94 |
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| Domination of the Medici. | 6 |
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| 1440 |
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| Florence and Venice in alliance defeated Filippo Maria Visconti at Anghiari. The catàsto was replaced by a progressive income tax designed to lighten the burdens of the poor (i.e., the Medici adherents). Cosimo supported Francesco Sforza's contest for the duchy of Milan and aided him in his war with Venice. For commercial reasons he favored France, but backed Ferrante of Naples against the Angevin claims. He was thus the real creator of the triple alliance of Florence, Milan, and Naples in the interest of the Italian equilibrium and security. | 7 |
| In the 14th and 15th centuries, Italians invented a basic principle of modern diplomacy and the machinery by which that principle functioned. Whenever one state appeared to gain a predominant position within the peninsula, other Italian states combined to establish a balance of power against the major threat. A pattern of shifting alliances resulted. In addition, permanent embassies with resident ambassadors, in capitals where political relations and commercial interests needed monitoring, became regular features of diplomatic relations among states. | 8 |
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| 1464–69 |
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| Piero the Gouty, son of Cosimo, a semi-invalid who was opposed by Luca Pitti. | 9 |
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| 1469–78 |
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| Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici. | 10 |
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| 1478–92 |
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| Lorenzo de' Medici (the Magnificent). Lorenzo continued the general policy of Cosimo. He enjoyed the power and prestige of a prince, though he had neither the title nor the office. His marriage to Clarice Orsini was the first princely marriage of the Medici. | 11 |
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| 1471 |
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| Lorenzo's effort to conciliate Pope Sixtus IV netted him a confirmation of the Medici banking privileges and an appointment as receiver of the papal revenues. | 12 |
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| 1474 |
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| Pope Sixtus and Ferrante of Naples were asked to join the alliance of Florence, Venice, and Milan (concluded in 1474), but Ferrante, feeling isolated, and Sixtus, angered at Lorenzo's opposition to his nephews, the Riarios, drew together. Italy became divided into two camps. The Pazzi family, rivals of the Medici, were given the lucrative position of receiver of the papal revenues. | 13 |
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