histofthought1

184 Economic thought before Adam Smithfrom the 1380s to the 1450s, by the Visconti family of Milan. GiangeleazzoVisconti, signor and duke of Milan, set out in the 1380s to reduce all northernItaly to his subjection. By 1402, Visconti had conquered all northern Italyexcept Florence, and that city was saved by the sudden death of the duke.Soon, however, Giangeleazzo's son, Duke Filippo Maria Visconti, launchedthe war of conquest again. All-out war between Florence and imperial Milancontinued from 1423 until 1454, when Florence induced Milan to recognizethe independence of the Florentine republic.The embattled status of the Florentine republic led to a revival of republicanhumanism. While these early fifteenth century Florentine humanists weremore philosophically oriented and more optimistic then their early fourteenthcentury Paduan and other Italian predecessors, their political theory was verymuch the same. All these leading Florentine humanists (much better knownto later historians than the earlier Paduans) had similar biographies: theywere trained as lawyers and rhetoricians, and they became either professorsof rhetoric and/or top bureaucrats in Florence, in other cities, or at the papalcourt at the Vatican. Thus the doyen of the Florentine humanists was ColuccioSalutati (1331-1406), who studied rhetoric at Bologna and became chancellorat various Italian cities, in the last three decades of his life at Florence. OfSalutati's main disciples, Leonardo Bruni (1369-1444) studied law and rhetoricin Florence, became secretary at the papal curia, and then became a topbureaucrat and finally chancellor of Florence from 1427 until his death. PierPaolo Vergerio (1370-1444) began training in law in Florence a:ld then roseto secretary at the papal curia; and similarly Poggio Bracciolini ~ 1380-1459)studied civil law at Bologna and Florence and then became a professor ofrhetoric at the papal curia.The second generation of the Salutati circle also followed similar careersand had kindred views. Here should be mentioned the distinguished architectLeon Battista degli Alberti (1404-72) of the great banking family, who earneda doctorate in canon law at Bologna and then became a papal secretary;Giannozzo Manetti (1396-1459) was educated in law and humanistic studiesin Florence, and then served for two decades in the Florentine bureaucracy,later becoming secretary at the papal curia and finally secretary to the king ofNaples; and Matteo Palmieri (1406-75) became a top bureaucrat for fivedecades in Florence, including eight different ambassadorships.6.3 Italian humanism: the monarchistsThe political and economic decline of the Italian city-states after the turn tothe Atlantic in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, was marked inforeign affairs by the repeated invasions of Italy by armies of the burgeoningnation-states of Europe. The French kings invaded and conquered Italy repeatedlyfrom the 1490s on, and from the early 1520s to the 1550s the armies