Pursuit of Italy and Civilization of the Renaissance 

A. Did Florence’s political and economic culture create the conditions that made it such a hotbed of brilliant art and science, or did the city’s strong humanist thinking shape its politics and economy? What made it so much more successful artistically and culturally than, say, Milan, Rome, or Naples?

B. Which of the Italian city states would strike you personally as the best place for the era? What are the positives and negatives of the relatively stable but somewhat tyrannical Milan? Elite-led commercial republic of Venice? Guild and commerce -driven Lucca and Florence? Church-centered Rome? Naples with its landed gentry?