TEXT: An e23 Sourcebook for GURPS
  ®
  STEVE JACKSON GAMES
  Stock #37-0660
  Version 1.0 – May 2009
  ®
  Written by MATT RIGGSBY
  Edited by NIKOLA VRTIS
  Hot Spots:
  Renaissance
  Florence
  TM
  TM
  
   INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . 3
  Florence, Europe, and 
  the Renaissance. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  About GURPS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  1. GEOGRAPHY. . . . . . . . . 5
  ITALY AND TOSCANA . . . . . . . . . . . .5
  THE CITY AND ITS ENVIRONS  . . . .6
  Adventure Seed: Losing 
  Your Marbles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  2. HISTORY . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  EARLY HISTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
  GOLDEN AGE OF THE MEDICI  . . . .7
  Adventure Seed: Takin’ 
  It to the Streets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
  UNREST, REVOLT, 
  AND OCCUPATION . . . . . . . . . . .8
  Adventure Seed: City on the Edge 
  of a Nervous Breakdown . . . . . . 9
  FINAL TRIUMPH OF
  THE MEDICI  . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
  Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
  3. THE APPARATUS
  OF POWER . . . . . . . . 11
  LAW AND POLITICS . . . . . . . . . . . .11
  The Government in Theory. . . . . 11
  The Government in Practice . . . . 12
  Adventure Seed: 
  Election Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
  ECONOMY AND INDUSTRY . . . . . . .13
  Banking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
  Using Banking Services . . . . . . . . 14
  Textiles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
  Trade and Minor Industries . . . . 15
  ARMS, ARMOR, AND
  THE MILITARY . . . . . . . . . . . .15
  Condottieri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
  Troop Types and Weapons. . . . . . 16
  Pikes and How to Use Them . . . . 17
  Organization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
  Civilian Arms and Armor . . . . . . 18
  Using GURPS Mass Combat . . . 18
  4. NOTABLE PEOPLE. . . . 19
  POLITICIANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
  Cosimo de Medici. . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
  Lorenzo de Medici, 
  il Magnifico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
  Gout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
  Girolamo Savonarola. . . . . . . . . . 20
  Catarina Sforza. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
  Niccolo Machiavelli . . . . . . . . . . . 20
  Giovanni dalle Bande Nere . . . . . 21
  Catherine de Medici. . . . . . . . . . . 21
  Grand Duke Cosimo I 
  de Medici . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
  FOREIGN DIGNITARIES  . . . . . . . . .21
  Francesco Sforza . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
  Pope Alexander VI . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
  Charles VIII, King of France. . . . 22
  Contacts and Patrons . . . . . . . . . . 22
  Cesare Borgia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
  ARTISTS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
  Filippo Brunelleschi. . . . . . . . . . . 23
  Donatello. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
  Allesandro Botticelli. . . . . . . . . . . 24
  Leonardo da Vinci . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
  Michelangelo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
  Raphael Sanzio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
  Adventure Seed: 
  Brunelleschi’s Dome. . . . . . . . . 24
  5. DAILY LIFE . . . . . . . . 25
  CLOTHING  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
  FOOD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
  RELIGION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
  Adventure Seed: 
  Cardinal Sin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
  LIFE OF THE MIND  . . . . . . . . . . .26
  Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
  HOMES AND SHOPS  . . . . . . . . . . .28
  IMPORTANT BUILDINGS  . . . . . . . .28
  The Duomo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
  The Palazzo della Signoria . . . . . 28
  Uffizi Palace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
  Other Notable Spots. . . . . . . . . . . 29
  SPECTACLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
  Sports and Games . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
  Bonfires of the Vanities . . . . . . . . 30
  Adventure Seed: Vanity, 
  Thy Name Is Firenze . . . . . . . . 30
  Festivals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
  OTHER AMUSEMENTS  . . . . . . . . .30
  6. CAMPAIGNS . . . . . . . . 31
  FIRENZE AS DESTINATION  . . . . . .31
  FIRENZE AS HOME . . . . . . . . . . . .31
  MILITARY CAMPAIGNS  . . . . . . . . .31
  POLITICS AND INTRIGUE . . . . . . . .32
  Adventure Seed: 
  Lega di Giustizia . . . . . . . . . . . 32
  CROSSOVERS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33
  Infinite Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
  Espionage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
  Martial Arts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
  Fantasy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
  Clockpunk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
  Horror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
  Science Fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
  BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . 35
  Nonfiction Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
  Primary Sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
  Fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
  Discography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
  INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
  CONTENTS
  2
  CONTENTS
  Playtesters: Peter Dell’Orto, Phil Masters, Bill Stoddard
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  GURPS System Design ❚ STEVE JACKSON
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  e23 Manager ❚ STEVEN MARSH
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  JUSTIN DE WITT
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  VICKY “MOLOKH” KOLENKO
  
  INTRODUCTION
  3
  Late in the Middle Ages, Europe began to recover from a
  series of catastrophes ranging from the collapse of the Roman
  Empire to the Black Death. This political and economic
  revival, accompanied by a renewed interest
  in Classical literature, became the
  Renaissance. Scholars in different fields
  use different dates and definitions for the
  Renaissance, but undeniably the height of
  the period was what the Italians call the
  quattrocento, the 1400s. Just as undeniably,
  the center of the Renaissance was Italy,
  and one of the most important players in
  that revival was the City of the Flower,
  Florence, or, to the Italians, Firenze.
  This book deals with the city of Florence
  during 
  the 
  height 
  of 
  the 
  Italian
  Renaissance and its immediate aftermath,
  from about 1400 to the 1550s. During this
  period, Florence produced a political
  dynasty that ruled for nearly a century
  without holding formal office, a man
  whose name is synonymous with practi-
  cal politics, and many of the most
  important figures in the history of
  Western art. All of this happened
  against a backdrop of warfare,
  intrigues, international trade, civil
  unrest, and the invention of modern 
  diplomacy. Finding adventure in Florence isn’t a problem, but
  getting away from it might be.
  FLORENCE, EUROPE, 
  AND THE RENAISSANCE
  Much that happened in Florence won’t make a lot of
  sense without knowing what’s going on with the rest of Italy,
  the rest of Europe, and the Renaissance as a whole.
  Although Italy had been touched by feudalism, a system
  built around scattered rural military strongmen, it never
  completely took root there. Italy retained urban centers bet-
  ter than the rest of Europe after the fall of the Roman
  Empire. Many of those cities, almost all of which were inde-
  pendent city-states, established republican or broadly oli-
  garchic forms of government instead of setting up military
  autocracies like the north (with some exceptions – southern
  Italy, long dominated by Normans, acquired a more feudal
  character).
  While northwestern Europe was getting into the High
  Middle Ages, full of Crusades, courtly love, and Gothic
  cathedrals, 
  Italy 
  was 
  reviving 
  trade 
  across 
  the
  Mediterranean, creating links with the Byzantine empire
  and the Muslim world. Expanding trade led to an increas-
  ingly educated urban middle class. Merchants, after all,
  needed mathematical skills to keep track of ever larger and
  more complex transactions. They also benefited from an
  education in rhetoric and law, the better to persuade potential
  customers and write contracts. It further helped them partici-
  pate in communal government.
  For their better education, and
  to indulge in a new taste for the
  arts and philosophy, the Italians
  pursued once-lost Classical
  texts. They sought works in the
  Iberian peninsula, which was
  undergoing the Reconquista
  (an expansion of Christian
  kingdoms at the expense of the
  crumbling Muslim emirates,
  which had separately preserved
  the works of Classical authors).
  They also found writings in
  Byzantine territories, which was
  collapsing under the advance of the
  Turks. The Classical texts provided
  the rising merchants with ideas cre-
  ated by a society more like their own
  than the rest of medieval society,
  more urban than rural and, particu-
  larly when it came to Greek philoso-
  phy, 
  more 
  republican 
  than
  authoritarian. It also presented them
  with a sophisticated set of philosophies
  entirely free of Christian concerns. This
  created a new school of thought, humanism. Renaissance
  humanism in no way rejected religion, but it did accept nonre-
  ligious topics as worthy of consideration and did not necessar-
  ily leap to theology for all of its arguments.
   INTRODUCTION
  Glossary
  This book uses a few Italian terms, mostly place names,
  but there are a few technical terms well worth knowing.
  condottiero: Literally, a contractor, but in general use, a
  mercenary, particularly a mercenary officer.
  Firenze: Florence.
  Milano: Milan.
  Napoli: Naples.
  palazzo: Literally, palace, but in use, more like a large
  urban house (as opposed to a villa in the countryside).
  piazza: Plaza or public square.
  Quattrocento: Literally, 400, meaning the 15th century, or
  the 1400s; preceded by the Trecento (1300s) and fol-
  lowed by the Cinquecento (1500s).
  Roma: Rome.
  Sicilia: Sicily.
  Toscana: Tuscany.
  Venezia: Venice.
  
  This, then, was the beginning of the Renaissance: wealthy,
  educated city dwellers participating in a growing revival of
  Classical learning, and supporting new philosophy and art deal-
  ing more directly with their own world. It saw its earliest flow-
  ering in the 14th century (Florence was a leader here as well,
  with the painter Giotto and writers such as Boccaccio, Dante,
  and Petrarch). Its finest hour, however, came a bit later, in the
  mid-15th century. Two events in the early 1450s made this pos-
  sible. First, in 1453, Constantinople fell to the Turks, finally
  bringing the Byzantine empire to an end. A last wave of Greek
  refugees filtered into Italy, the nearest unthreatened Christian
  land. They brought copies of Classical texts long lost to the
  West. Second, the Treaty of Lodi led to improved diplomatic
  relations between Italy’s major players. The treaty was initially
  just a nonaggression pact between two cities signed in 1454.
  Subsidiary agreements allowed others to join, and join they did.
  Within the next few years, the major Italian powers and many
  of the smaller ones had become part of the “Most Holy League,”
  which the treaty had established. Italian wars did not stop com-
  pletely, but for the next 50 years, they were
  much smaller and shorter. The need for con-
  stant communication between governments
  to head off or limit fighting led to the world’s
  first permanent, resident ambassadors.
  Prior to this period, ambassadors visited
  foreign governments to perform specific
  missions (the negotiation of a peace treaty,
  petitioning for trade privileges, etc.) and
  then returned home. The establishment of
  permanent embassies kept governments
  much better informed about their neigh-
  bors’ intentions and sped negotiations. For
  five decades, the relative peace allowed
  Italy to get on with other matters.
  Then there was the rest of Europe.
  Whatever the achievements of the Italian
  Renaissance might have been, one thing the
  Italians would never have even dreamed of
  doing was creating a large nation-state.
  Despite some consolidation in their own
  territories, the Italian cities were mostly
  concerned with maintaining a balance of
  power. Meanwhile, nations like France and
  Spain were building themselves into large,
  centrally governed kingdoms. Compared to
  those two nations and the Holy Roman
  Empire (essentially Germany), even the
  most powerful Italian city-states were
  minor players. Their minor status became
  sorely felt later in the Renaissance as the
  larger countries worked out their own con-
  cerns on Italian soil, using lessons in diplo-
  macy they had learned from the Italians.
  The balance of major powers meant that France might be
  allied with the Papacy against Spain and Germany one year,
  and Spain and the Papacy against France and Germany the
  next, all the while fighting wars in their Italian possessions and
  client states. The Italian powers, used to cutting deals to keep
  one another in check, were unable to unite against them. The
  best artists, merchants, and scholars could do little to stop the
  massive armies descending on them from outside, taking the
  ideas of the Renaissance with them but leaving considerable
  destruction where those ideas had first sprung up.
  ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  Matt Riggsby is trained in anthropology and archaeology
  and, like the rest of his generation, has a job in computers. He
  works for an international medical technology company and
  lives with his lovely and talented wife, above-average child, and
  a pack of dogs. He is unique among game writers in that he
  owns no cats.
  INTRODUCTION
  4
  About GURPS
  Steve Jackson Games is committed to full support of GURPS players.
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  a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) any time you write us! We can
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  available only on e23! Just head over to e23.sjgames.com.
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  Internet. Visit us on the World Wide Web at www.sjgames.com for
  errata, updates, Q&A, and much more. To discuss GURPS with our staff
  and your fellow gamers, visit our forums at forums.sjgames.com. The
  GURPS Hot Spots: Renaissance Florence web page can be found at
  www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/renaissanceflorence.
  Bibliographies. Many of our books have extensive bibliographies, and
  we’re putting them online – with links to let you buy the resources that inter-
  est you! Go to each book’s web page and look for the “Bibliography” link.
  Errata. Everyone makes mistakes, including us – but we do our best to
  fix our errors. Up-to-date errata pages for all GURPS releases, including this
  book, are available on our website – see above.
  Rules and statistics in this book are specifically for the GURPS Basic
  Set, Fourth Edition. Page references that begin with B refer to that book, not
  this one.
  And thus it is seen in all human affairs . . . that you cannot avoid one
  inconvenience without incurring another.
  – Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, VI
  
  Italy long resisted being a unified country. The Romans man-
  aged it, but after the empire collapsed, Italy wasn’t even remotely
  unified again until the late 19th century. Through the
  Renaissance, Italy was a collection of dozens of small city-states.
  One of the contributing factors was its geography. The
  Apennine Mountains split most of Italy into eastern and western
  halves. The northern part of the peninsula up to the Po valley is
  particularly montane, with extensive areas of forest and hilly
  land more suitable for grazing and vineyards than large-scale
  agriculture. The most sizable areas for farming are the
  broad, fertile Po valley in the north and portions of
  southeastern Italy. For most of its area, though, hills
  and small rivers divide the peninsula into small ter-
  ritories backed by mountains and looking either east
  to the Adriatic or west to the Ligurian and
  Tyrrhenian. The sea and the Swiss Alps provide
  some protection from causal invaders, though not
  enough to stop determined outsiders.
  Toward the end of the Middle Ages, Italy’s
  chaotic political scene began to settle down into five
  major centers of power. From north to south, these
  centers were the following.
  Venezia, an island at the northwestern corner of
  the Adriatic Sea that controlled the eastern half of the
  Po valley.
  Genoa or Milano: Until the end of the 14th century,
  Genoa, near the northernmost point of Italy’s western
  coast, was a long-time rival with Venezia for control of
  the north; after the beginning of the 15th century, Milano
  overtook and absorbed Genoa.
  Firenze, in Toscana in central Italy.
  Roma and its client territories, the Papal States, which
  stretched across the peninsula from east to west.
  Napoli, which dominated the southern third of Italy. It iden-
  tified itself as the kingdom of Sicilia, after the island it laid
  claim to, but since Sicilia was actually controlled by the
  Spanish, historians refer to it by its capital.
  The territories governed by these powers were fluid. For
  example, in addition to Milano’s conquest of Genoa, the line
  between Venetian and Milanese spheres of influence in northern
  Italy shifted back and forth several times. Firenze intermit-
  tently exercised authority over Pisa and took over Sienna in
  1555. Napoli briefly regained control of Sicilia in the 1440s and
  1450s. Several second-rank powers such as Friuli and Bologna
  were incorporated into the Papal States in the early 1500s.
  Firenze is located in Toscana, a roughly triangular, envi-
  ronmentally diverse region in northwestern Italy. The region
  sits between the Po valley and the northern arm of the
  Apennines to its north, and Lazio (the region dominated by
  Roma) to its south. Firenze
  itself is on land best
  suited for small-scale
  farming, but the nearby
  mountains provide grazing
  and lumber, while an
  extensive 
  wine-growing
  region is just down the
  Arno, with good land for
  olives and grain just
  beyond to the south and
  west.
  Despite having few sig-
  nificant metal deposits –
  whatever metal ores it
  once 
  possessed 
  were
  mined out by the time of
  the Renaissance – Italy
  had considerable min-
  eral wealth avail-
  able at the time.
  Good limestone for
  building 
  could 
  be
  found in many places throughout the coun-
  try, and Toscana had a number of important marble quarries,
  including those at Carrara. (The Carrara quarries provided
  material for some of the finest architecture and sculpture of
  the age.) Ironically, though, the mineral deposit with the
  greatest influence on Firenze’s fortunes was nowhere near
  Firenze. Rather, the great alum mines that enabled Firenze’s
  massive textile industry were near the town of Tolfa, a few
  miles northwest of Roma.
  GEOGRAPHY
  5
  To my lord the Bishop of Oxbridge, greetings, on the fourth day
  of May, in the year of our Lord fourteen hundred and eighty-one.
  . . . Tuscany is a pleasant land, less miasmal than Rome,
  from whence I have just arrived, and both warmer and drier
  than our own land at this season. The hills here are fairly 
  covered with vines and olives such as those which grace the
  Roman urns which are in your cabinet of curiosities. The city
  itself presents a most pleasing aspect as well. The walls and
  rooftops have a hue resembling old pottery, save for the remark-
  able white of the cathedral . . .
  CHAPTER ONE
  GEOGRAPHY
  ITALY AND TOSCANA
  
  GEOGRAPHY
  6
  Firenze lies in northeastern Toscana, about halfway
  between Roma and the “fan” at the top of the “boot” of Italy, in
  a west-turning bend of the Apennine mountains. It sits astride
  the river Arno, about fifty miles upstream from the nearest
  port, Pisa. It is a similar distance south of Bologna and north
  of Sienna, Italy’s previous banking powerhouse but by the
  Renaissance something of a backwater. The Apennines lie
  close to the north and east, and the land rolls into gentle hills
  to the south and west.
  Firenze sits at the southeast end of an oval plain five to six
  miles across for most of its length and extending 30 miles to
  the northwest. The surrounding hills, steeper to the north than
  to the south, are picturesque, but much too far away to be a
  staging platform for artillery for use against the city. The river
  makes a broad curve to the west a few miles past the city, flow-
  ing through the hills to the southwest toward Pisa and the sea.
  During the Renaissance, the Arno was bridged in four places
  as it flowed through Firenze. The riverbanks were equipped
  with many boat ramps. The river also provided some opportu-
  nity for fishing and powered waterwheels. In times of war, a
  ditch immediately before the walls was flooded with river
  water to serve as a moat.
  The area protected by the city walls was about a mile and
  a quarter across at its widest extent. Then (as now), most of
  the city lay on the north side of the river; about a quarter, a
  neighborhood called the Ortrarno, was on the south. The city
  walls were about 30 feet high, with 60 square towers and rec-
  tangular gatehouses about twice that height set at even inter-
  vals. In addition to surrounding the city, the walls also
  followed the course of the river for a few hundred yards as it
  passed through the city, so enemies couldn’t bypass the city’s
  defenses just by sailing up or down the Arno. By the late
  Renaissance, tall towers and medieval walls were ineffective
  for defense against growing numbers of cannon, so many
  were pulled down and their material recycled for housing. To
  replace them, the early Medici dukes built star-shaped fortifi-
  cations such as the Fortezza da Basso.
  The area inside the walls was lightly populated during
  most of the Renaissance, so the walls encompassed a signifi-
  cant amount of open ground. This green space was mostly
  around the edges of the city near the walls. The open land was
  used for gardens and small-scale agriculture, though some sec-
  tions likely served as public parks as well.
  The inner city was packed with buildings, and it became
  more so as the population grew. Structures lined the entire
  length of the roads leading through the city gates. As in many
  medieval and Renaissance cities, some of the bridges were as
  heavily built up as the streets, lined with houses, shops, and
  even churches and a small monastery.
  The cobble-paved streets were narrow by modern stan-
  dards. Most were wide enough for two horses or a wagon to
  pass comfortably, perhaps 10 to 12 feet, but usually little more.
  Major thoroughfares were wider, and a commentator of the
  1500s noted that Firenze’s streets were relatively generous.
  Traffic flow was made difficult, however, by the practice of
  treating the street in front of one’s house like a porch. People
  worked, socialized, and watched life go by from their front
  doors. Narrow sidewalks, uncommon in many cities, were in
  use along a number of streets in Florence, and many had gut-
  ters that carried away rainwater.
  An area of suburbs surrounding the city walls quickly
  gave way to fields and scattered villages. Firenze’s suburbs
  extended farthest along the courses of the roads leading into
  the city; the roadsides immediately outside the walls were
  nearly as built-up as areas within the city proper. In addition
  to fields, woods, monasteries, and tiny villages, the country-
  side was dotted with the villas of Firenze’s aristocrats. The
  typical villa was a combination farm and country retreat,
  where wealthy urban merchants could go to relax and play at
  being rural noblemen.
  At the beginning of the period, just after the end of the
  Black Death, Firenze’s population was 40,000 to 50,000.
  However, within a few generations, the city’s population rose to
  as high as 100,000, leaving only a few patches of open land,
  essentially public parks and gardens, within the walls.
  For more specifics about homes, shops, and important
  buildings, see pp. 28-29.
  CLIMATE
  Because it sits in a walled-off river valley, Firenze can be
  humid. In the hot summers (average high temperatures
  approach 90ª F), the climate can be oppressive; this gave the
  upper classes another reason to run off to villas in the hills.
  Winters can be very wet, but temperatures rarely dip below
  freezing, so snow and ice are rare. Like the rest of the
  Mediterranean, earthquakes are an occasional threat, though
  not so much of a hazard as in southern Italy and Sicilia. Unlike
  two of Firenze’s rivals, Venezia and Roma, Firenze was far
  enough from swampy ground that malaria was never a serious
  problem, and healthy air was one of the city’s selling points.
  THE CITY AND ITS ENVIRONS
  Adventure Seed:
  Losing Your Marbles
  A great but temperamental sculptor has received a huge
  commission to carve a monumental marble statue for a
  wealthy Florentine patron, and the PCs must bring him a
  particularly fine block of marble from Carrara. The trip is
  about 100 miles down the coast to Livorno, then up the
  Arno to Firenze. Unfortunately, Pisa and Firenze are at war
  again, and the PCs have to drag a barge with a 30-ton block
  of gleaming white marble across battle lines and through
  territory with more than its usual share of bandits taking
  advantage of the temporary chaos.
  
  . . . Friar Benedicto tells me that antiquities are not found
  here in great numbers, and there is little to interest you, my
  lord, from before the time of Christ, but the people of Firenze
  make many memorials to their own age. Only this past day, as
  Benedicto directed me around the city to view the public
  palace, he showed me paintings on its wall depicting the tor-
  ture of priests who had rebelled against Ser Lorenz, even an
  archbishop!
  HISTORY
  7
  CHAPTER TWO
  HISTORY
  EARLY HISTORY
  The first definite signs of occupation of the site of Firenze
  come from the Roman period. The rectangular outline of the
  original Roman settlement is still visible at the center of the
  city’s modern street plan. When the empire collapsed, central
  authority over the Italian peninsula went with it, but the idea
  of the city as the basic unit of society remained.
  Firenze was inhabited continuously through the Middle
  Ages. In the ninth century, Firenze, along with the rest of
  northern Italy, fell under the theoretical authority of
  Charlemagne and what was to become the Holy Roman
  Empire. Although officially under the rule of a count of
  Toscana, the Florentines displayed an independent streak.
  Many civic conflicts in the later Middle Ages involved strife
  between the Ghibellines, a political faction that was aristo-
  cratic, pro-German, anti-French, and more or less anti-papal
  (in that they opposed closer ties with the Papal States), and
  the Guelfs, who were largely the opposite. Firenze had a
  communal government running the city’s internal operations
  by the 12th century. In the early 13th century, the tri-
  umphant Guelfs dealt with the emperor’s habit of appointing
  Germans to rule Toscana with a series of revolts driving
  them out. By the 1260s, Firenze had become a completely
  independent city. The Guelfs themselves fractured repeat-
  edly, and the very terms Guelf and Ghibelline soon ceased to
  have meaning. By the time the names were forgotten, the
  Guelf cause had won out.
  Despite the occasional revolt or political domination by this
  or that prominent family, Firenze prospered in the 13th and
  14th centuries. It became a significant banking center, a major
  textile producer, a center of the arts, and a wealthy trading hub.
  It is in this environment that a family arose whose course is
  worth following into the 16th century: the Medici.
  GOLDEN AGE OF THE MEDICI
  The story of Renaissance Firenze is inextricably intertwined
  with the story of the Medici, the family that ruled the city with
  a few brief interruptions from the mid-15th century until 1737,
  when Firenze passed to the Habsburgs. The Medici were a
  prominent family, but just one of many at the beginning of the
  15th century. The first important character in this history is
  Cosimo de Medici, born in 1389. When he was eight, his father
  Giovanni de Bicci de Medici established the Medici bank in
  Firenze, having moved to the city of his birth from managing a
  branch of a relative’s bank in Roma. Giovanni’s early invest-
  ments paid off exceptionally well, in part because of Cosimo’s
  efforts as a negotiator and traveling agent for the bank. When
  Giovanni died in 1429, leaving the bank to Cosimo and his
  brother Lorenzo, the Medici bank was the wealthiest in Firenze,
  if not Italy as a whole, with branches as far away as the shores
  of the North Sea. Cosimo had excellent relationships with for-
  eign rulers, and acts of charity and an easygoing manner made
  him popular among the lower classes in Firenze itself.
  Cosimo’s rising power threatened Firenze’s political strong-
  man at that time, Rinaldo degli Albizzi. The Albizzi had been
  Firenze’s leading political family for a few decades, but Rinaldo
  was in trouble for a series of military defeats against the
  Milanese, and Cosimo threatened to replace him. Rinaldo
  manufactured charges of treason against Cosimo, but between
  demonstrations by commoners with whom Cosimo had culti-
  vated good relations, appeals by foreign dignitaries with whom
  Cosimo did successful business, and bribes from Cosimo to the
  right officials, the worst sentence Rinaldo could arrange
  against Cosimo was exile.
  Cosimo had prepared for this eventuality. He had already
  moved most of his money out of the city, and he went to lie low
  in Venezia. After an election that the Albizzi failed to fix,
  friends of Cosimo’s came to power in the fall of 1434. Cosimo
  was recalled, and many of his enemies, already in disarray,
  were exiled. As wealthy as ever and, for the moment, free of
  enemies, Cosimo took control of the city.
  Nevertheless, the power of the Medici was unofficial.
  Instead of keeping high offices for themselves or declaring
  themselves rulers, the Medici worked within Firenze’s 
  republican structure, or at least made a pretense of doing so.
  
  Despite Cosimo’s popularity and influence, the Florentines
  would not have voluntarily given up a government in which
  their interests were at least theoretically represented. Instead,
  Cosimo preferred to operate behind the scenes. He actively
  avoided political office, but he used his wealth and popularity
  to intimidate his enemies and to have his allies appointed to
  high offices.
  Under Cosimo’s rule, Firenze strengthened its ties with
  France in their diplomatic struggle against Spain and entered
  into the Peace of Lodi in 1454. Cosimo also ensured that
  Firenze had close ties with Milano, which was ruled by his
  close friend Francesco Sforza.
  Despite periodic challenges, Cosimo ruled the city until his
  death in 1464, followed briefly by his son Piero, “the Gouty.”
  Piero proved nearly as able as his father, holding off an attempt
  by the Pitti family, one of Cosimo’s old allies, to take power
  themselves when the Medici’s old ally Francesco Sforza died.
  However, his effectiveness was doubtless curtailed by his poor
  health. Piero was regularly afflicted with gout and other joint
  problems and was often confined to bed. He had sufficient
  force of will to respond well to crises even when bedridden, but
  he passed away only a few years after his father.
  When Piero died in 1469, Cosimo’s grandson Lorenzo,
  called il Magnifico (the Magnificent), followed him. At the time,
  he was a mere 20 years old. Lorenzo may not have had quite as
  much of Cosimo’s head for business, but he was every bit as
  good a diplomat and politician. Lorenzo also followed
  Cosimo’s example of ruling from the shadows, but he indulged
  in expensive tastes and used his influence more openly.
  Medici rule did not go unchallenged. It was increasingly
  clear that the Medici were the city’s true rulers, with the ques-
  tion being whether one was on their side. In 1478, the Pazzi
  family was under attack by a government loyal to the Medici.
  The Pazzi bank had loaned the pope money to purchase the
  strategically placed town of Imola, which Lorenzo wanted to
  bring under Florentine rule. (Lorenzo had previously turned
  down the pope’s request.) The Pazzi assembled a conspiracy to
  assassinate Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano and establish
  themselves as new leaders with the support of mercenaries
  waiting just outside Toscana before Medici allies could rally
  their own support. For this, they enlisted a mercenary com-
  pany, several priests, and the archbishop of Pisa, and obtained
  the tacit, if underinformed, consent of the pope. They sprang
  their trap during Easter Mass, but it went wrong in detail. They
  killed Giuliano but only lightly wounded Lorenzo, who sensed
  the attack at the last moment, and conspirators who were to
  take the city’s official leaders hostage ended up imprisoned 
  in the Palazzo de Signoria.
  The Medici response was swift and decisive. With public
  sympathy behind him, Lorenzo obtained emergency powers.
  The Pazzi and their co-conspirators were wiped out, either exe-
  cuted or exiled. This brought Firenze in conflict with the pope,
  who used the execution of the archbishop of Pisa and the
  priests who had attacked Lorenzo as a pretext to put Firenze
  under interdict until Lorenzo paid a massive fine. The interdict
  led in turn to a standoff between the Papal States and Napoli
  on one side and an alliance of Firenze, Venezia, and Milano on
  the other. The standoff threatened to break the Peace of Lodi.
  Unrest in Genoa (supported from Napoli) distracted Milano,
  which exposed Firenze to direct attack, but a personal visit by
  Lorenzo to the Neapolitan court neutralized Napoli as an
  enemy. When a Turkish attack threatened the next year (which
  never materialized), the pope was forced to settle for a token
  apology from Florentine envoys.
  The end result of the Pazzi conspiracy, then, was
  that Firenze found itself in a slightly worse diplomatic
  position, estranged from its usual allies Venezia and
  Milano, while Lorenzo was in a far superior position,
  with his enemies decisively defeated and himself with
  new powers.
  During this period, the influence of Firenze and the
  Medici was at its height. Artistically, wealthy
  Florentines employed, at one time or another, most of
  the important artists of the era, and consequently sev-
  eral of the most important figures in Western art.
  Politically, Firenze’s wealth made the city’s influence
  felt internationally. Lorenzo, whose trade partners
  included Muslim sovereigns, provided material sup-
  port for rulers as distant as the sultan of Egypt. In
  1489, Lorenzo managed to have his son Giovanni, who
  was 14 at the time, made a cardinal.
  HISTORY
  8
  UNREST, REVOLT, AND OCCUPATION
  By the last decade of the 15th century, the Medici were hav-
  ing problems overseeing their city. A general economic down-
  turn was causing difficulties for Italy in general and the Medici
  bank in particular, which were not aided by Lorenzo’s preference
  for politics over business. In 1492, Lorenzo died, leaving
  Firenze’s affairs in the decidedly less capable hands of his son
  Piero. Piero was wealthy, good-looking, and from the best of
  families, but like many later-generation descendents of dynas-
  ties, he had little or no political skill. He cultivated a few close
  friends, but he had no interest in keeping up on the minute
  details of current affairs and balancing the interests of potential
  enemies to keep them from becoming real enemies. Combined
  with the late-15th-century depression, Piero’s lack of ability
  caused the Medici’s half-century hegemony to begin to crack.
  Adventure Seed:
  Takin’ It to the Streets
  Political turmoil has boiled over into open rioting, and the
  PCs are in the middle of it. Initially, it will be impossible to tell
  which side is winning, and it might be difficult to determine
  just what the sides are. If the PCs take too long to make up their
  minds what to do about it, it may be too late. Will they attempt
  to join political allies? Establish contact with political foes and
  offer to join them for a price? Start their own side and force
  themselves into any power vacuum that might appear? Or just
  take advantage of the situation to loot a palazzo?
  
  Worse yet, this came at a time
  when Firenze was under threat.
  Milano, which was embroiled in a dis-
  pute with Napoli, appealed to France
  for aid. King Charles VIII of France
  decided to exert an ancient claim to
  southern Italy and set out with an
  army of 40,000 men, huge by Italian
  standards, with a large quantity of
  artillery. Piero, a relative by marriage
  of the king of Napoli, Alfonso II, ini-
  tially aligned himself with his cousin,
  but 
  he 
  wavered 
  as 
  the 
  army
  approached. He handed over territory
  to the French in an attempt to buy
  them off, an act that alienated him
  from a city now completely in opposi-
  tion to him. A week before Charles’s
  arrival at Firenze in November of
  1494, Piero fled Firenze for Bologna
  rather than face a fight for control of
  the city which he was likely to lose. He
  was never to return. Piero continued
  to seek allies who would help him
  return to power, but he always ended
  up on the wrong side, and in 1503, he
  drowned in a river while fleeing a los-
  ing battle.
  The French arrived several days
  after Piero’s departure and used the
  city as a temporary base, but they soon
  moved on. Their departure allowed Firenze to restore its
  republican institutions and recall families who had long been
  exiled. However, they didn’t have the resources to put down a
  revolt in Pisa, losing them the city for years thereafter. Charles
  had several reasons for leaving Firenze behind, but popular
  opinion held that the credit belonged to a Dominican friar
  named Girolamo Savonarola.
  Savonarola was an extremely charismatic preacher who
  had reportedly foreseen a number of events, from the death of
  Lorenzo to the arrival of the French, which made his visions of
  an apocalyptic future more plausible and a claim to moral
  authority. His central message was that people had fallen away
  from true piety into materialism. It was not just laymen who
  had parted ways with the spiritual mission set out for them,
  but clergy who were treating the Church as a job or a way of
  gathering power rather than as a religious calling (which, in
  fact, was true of a great many clergy).
  He led a tremendous religious revival and became the effec-
  tive ruler of the city, turning Firenze, in the words of one con-
  temporary, into a vast monastery. The Jews were expelled, and
  an army of children went everywhere in the city looking for
  signs of sin and heresy.
  Eventually, Savonarola became extreme in his criticisms of
  the pope, going so far as to deny the authority of the current
  Church leadership. The government was increasingly aware of
  a gathering Papal threat to the city, and a backlash was grow-
  ing among the people. In 1498, a riot broke out between
  Dominican friars and an angry mob, resulting in several
  deaths. Savonarola was arrested for his part in provoking it,
  tried and convicted of heresy, and burned at the stake.
  The years that followed were not good for Firenze. The
  Peace of Lodi and the balance of power it had engendered were
  broken. Firenze itself lacked inspired leadership. Piero
  Soderini, who had been elected gonfaloniere-for-life, was
  regarded as an honest man, but dull, and he frequently relied
  on the advice of one of his junior officials, Niccolo Machiavelli.
  Following his advice, Firenze managed to recover Pisa, but the
  city was no match for larger challenges.
  Firenze tried to stay neutral in a number of conflicts, but it
  ran afoul of several papal campaigns to chastise cities that had
  previously resisted papal authority. In 1512, a Spanish army
  under papal authority approached Firenze. Accompanying it
  was a man with a familiar last name.
  HISTORY
  9
  Adventure Seed: City on the
  Edge of a Nervous Breakdown
  When Charles VIII rode into Firenze in the guise of a conqueror despite a
  complete lack of resistance, both the supporters of the Medici and their detrac-
  tors jumped to work trying to influence him. For several weeks, the city teetered
  between becoming a republic under a post-Medici administration, an autocracy
  again under Piero (whom the French might recall), or a subject territory under
  the French. Piero had given in to enough of Charles’s demands to make the king
  reasonably well-disposed toward the deposed Medici, while in the week between
  Piero’s departure and Charles’s arrival, the Florentines had restored their repub-
  lic with enormous relief and not a little pride. The question of the day was how
  far the French king’s inclination toward Piero extended. The newly liberated Flo-
  rentines decorated the city with fleur-de-lis, cheered the king when he rode
  through the streets, and tried desperately hard to convince him that republican
  Firenze was an ally. The supporters of the Medici lobbied the king’s advisors and
  tried to gain access to the king himself to convince him to recall the exiled for-
  mer ruler.
  In this situation, PCs could fall on any side: pro-Medicians trying to convince
  Charles to bring Piero back, anti-Medicians trying to keep him away, or French
  advisors to the king trying to make up their minds (and, of course, their ruler’s
  mind). Adventurers could also be hired to settle the matter decisively by assassi-
  nating Piero in exile, assassinating the leading anti-Medicians to provoke the
  French into action, assassinating the king because they’d rather die than run the
  risk of living under a French yoke, or protecting any of the above from assassins.
  
  The Spanish army brought with it Giuliano de Medici, the
  late Piero’s younger brother. Rather than fight the overwhelm-
  ing force that had already brutally pillaged several cities in its
  path, Firenze surrendered peacefully, Piero Soderini accepted
  exile, and a pro-Medici gonfaloniere was installed with resi-
  dent Medici overseeing the city without taking titles.
  The post-1512 generations of Medicis were more involved
  in international politics than in banking. While Giuliano and
  later relatives stayed to rule Firenze, many left in pursuit of
  power. In 1513, Giovanni de Medici (Lorenzo’s son, the former
  adolescent cardinal), became Pope Leo X, followed by his
  brother Giulio, who became Pope Clement VII in 1523.
  Consequently, Firenze was increasingly a pawn of, or at least
  the object of special attention from, greater powers, particu-
  larly the Medici popes.
  Giuliano, like many of his ancestors, was a ruler without a
  title, which suited the Florentines reasonably well. However,
  when he died in 1516, the exiled Piero de Medici’s son
  Lorenzo replaced him. This Lorenzo was more like his father
  than his namesake was: good-looking, ambitious, and an
  utterly inept ruler. Lorenzo passed away in 1519 from a com-
  bination of tuberculosis, syphilis, and an old gunshot wound.
  Giulio de Medici, a sour-tempered archbishop, replaced him.
  After Giulio’s elevation to the papal came the young, ill-
  equipped, and ill-advised Ippolito and Alessandro, called Il
  Moro because of his dark features (Alessandro was illegiti-
  mate, and his mother may have been a Moorish servant in his
  father’s household).
  In 1527, a German-Spanish alliance pushed Clement VII
  out of Roma, leading to an anti-papal revolt in Firenze that
  likewise drove out Ippolito and Alessandro. For a few years,
  Firenze reverted to its republican government. However, once
  the pope and the alliance against him were reconciled, the
  pope sent the Spanish to force the Florentines to accept the
  Medici for a final time. Alessandro returned in 1531 and was
  soon thereafter named Duke of Firenze by the Holy Roman
  emperor, 
  formally 
  ending 
  the
  Florentine republic.
  The story ends as it began, with a
  Cosimo de Medici. This Cosimo,
  though, was the son of the mercenary
  captain Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, a
  member of a collateral branch of the
  Medici. Cosimo became Duke of
  Firenze in 1537 after the murder of
  Alessandro. 
  Moving 
  quickly, 
  he
  crushed an attempt by an army of
  republican exiles to unseat him, seal-
  ing the fate of Firenze as a republic.
  Moreover, 
  instead 
  of 
  pursuing
  Firenze’s usual independent policy, he
  allied himself with the Holy Roman
  Empire. In 1569, he was created
  Grand Duke of Toscana, putting him
  on a near-equal social footing with
  other monarchs.
  Despite the success of the Medici
  family, Firenze was past its prime.
  Firenze’s peculiar tradition of popu-
  lar rule was dead, and the city’s
  unique identity was blurring as it
  became the capital of Toscana, a
  process that Cosimo I encouraged by
  removing restrictions on subject
  cities, originally imposed to maintain
  Firenze’s primacy over the rest of the
  region. Instead of a leader in its own
  territory, it was a junior partner to a
  Spanish-German alliance against
  France. Though it remained a center
  of art and high culture, it was no
  longer the center of the wave of 
  creativity and new scholarship
  sweeping Europe. For Firenze, the
  Renaissance was over.
  HISTORY
  10
  Timeline
  1397 – Medici bank founded.
  1406 – Pisa conquered.
  1422 – War with Milano starts.
  1427 – Castato (income/property tax) instituted. Conference between Orthodox
  bishops and Catholic clergy.
  1428 – War with Milano ends.
  1429 – War with Luca starts. Cosimo takes charge of Medici bank.
  1430 – War with Luca ends unsuccessfully. War with Milano starts.
  1433 – War with Milano ends.
  1434 – Cosimo briefly exiled but returns when Albizzi are driven out.
  1436 – Brunelleschi completes dome on the Duomo.
  1455 – Firenze joins Peace of Lodi.
  1464 – Cosimo dies.
  1469 – Piero dies.
  1471 – Florentine mercenaries sack Volterra after city surrenders.
  1478 – Pazzi fail to assassinate Lorenzo.
  1482 – Leonardo da Vinci leaves Firenze for Milano.
  1484 – War of Ferrara, between Venezia and the Papacy, settled in part by Floren-
  tine diplomacy.
  1492 – Lorenzo dies.
  1494 – Medici expelled. Medici bank collapses. Pisa regains independence.
  1495 – Decimo (tax on real estate) replaces castato.
  1498 – Savonarola executed.
  1504 – Michelangelo finishes his David.
  1509 – Pisa retaken by Florentine militia.
  1512 – Medici return to Firenze.
  1513 – Giovanni de Medici becomes Pope Leo X.
  1516 – Giuliano de Medici dies.
  1523 – Giulio de Medici becomes Pope Clement VII.
  1527 – Popular revolt drives out Medici.
  1531 – Alessandro de Medici returns, becomes Duke of Firenze.
  1537 – Cosimo I becomes duke.
  1555 – Sienna conquered.
  1569 – Cosimo I named Grand Duke of Toscana.
  FINAL TRIUMPH OF THE MEDICI
  
  . . . The Florentines have great pride in their government, which
  is a republic, though more a republic in the mode of old Rome than
  that of Athens. The leading men of the city take it in turns to be
  great lords, carrying banners and proceeding with great pomp to a
  keep at the center of the town. Yet in a few weeks, they march out
  again to be replaced by several of their fellows. At least, this is what
  they say, but I have seen that no matter what man holds the ban-
  ner, it is Ser Lorenzo who tells him when to wave it . . .
  . . . In revealing to me the sights of the city, our good friar
  showed me a monument to a countryman of ours known as well
  to them as to you, Sir John Hawkwood, who held many lands
  and led their armies in the time of your grandfather. I did think
  to hear, though, a note of disapproval. They are excellent ones to
  work accounts and wear finery, but these burghers presume to
  look down on honest fighting men . . . 
  When important things happened, they usually happened
  because of powerful economic and political interests operating
  through the mechanism of government when they could, or
  through mercenary armies when they had to.
  THE APPARATUS OF POWER
  11
  CHAPTER THREE
  THE APPARATUS
  OF POWER
  LAW AND POLITICS
  Firenze’s government was a complex entity. Its components
  were developed to preserve popular rule, but even before it was
  replaced by autocratic rule, it proved susceptible to control by
  powerful factions.
  THE GOVERNMENT
  IN THEORY
  Firenze’s government wasn’t a democracy as modern citi-
  zens recognize it. The people as a whole didn’t participate in
  government decisions. It was, though, a republic. The govern-
  ment was composed of members of the people, who moved
  through positions of authority so that faction balanced fac-
  tion and all views would eventually be given proper public
  consideration.
  The Signoria
  The core of Firenze’s government was the Signoria, some-
  times called the Council of Eight (with few exceptions,
  Firenze’s governing bodies were named for the number of
  members they contained). The Eight, individually called priors
  or lords prior, were the chief legislators as well as comprising
  the high court and executive body. To be considered, a man
  had to be a member of an important guild whose fathers or
  grandfathers had held office, who was not closely related to
  current or recent office holders, and who did not owe the city
  any debts. The names were written on slips of paper and pulled
  from an urn or purse by a government clerk. Six were repre-
  sentatives of the city’s major guilds, while the remainder were
  representatives of the city’s middle-ranked guilds. They were
  led by another randomly selected official, the gonfaloniere della
  giustizia (standard-bearer of justice), who served as a chief
  administrator. Election as a prior was a great honor, though
  anyone selected could decline the office on payment of a fine
  (Cosimo de Medici did this repeatedly).
  Two other councils of magistrates, the Twelve and the
  Sixteen, advised the Eight. The Twelve were individually called
  buonomini (good men), while the Sixteen were individually
  known as gonfalonieri (standard-bearers; however, references
  to the gonfaloniere invariably mean the gonfaloniere della gius-
  tizia). The members of the Twelve and Sixteen were selected
  from lists of candidates similar to those eligible to serve as pri-
  ors, but limited geographically. Firenze was divided into four
  quarters, each of which was subdivided into four neighbor-
  hoods called gonfalons, or standards. Each gonfalon had its
  own name and symbol, such as the Dragon, the Ladder, and
  the Lion. The gonfalons were so called because each neighbor-
  hood had a different standard around which people would
  gather in times of emergency. Each quarter provided three
  buonomini, and each neighborhood a gonfaloniere. Though
  they had little direct power, the Twelve and Sixteen had consid-
  erable influence on the Eight, and they were a primary source
  for people to serve on ad-hoc committees.
  All of these officials were chosen for two-month terms.
  Government officials were not paid, but they were maintained
  in lavish style in the Palazzo della Signoria, and they both took
  and left office with an elaborate procession. Although a change
  in government every two months may sound inefficient, it
  seems to have worked well for most of the city’s history. 
  
  While the highest levels of government may have consisted of
  constantly cycling sets of 37 men, the number of people actu-
  ally eligible for government was relatively small, so there was
  a great deal of overlap in the composition of councils. A small
  pool also meant that many potential office holders already had
  experience at some level of government. 
  Because the various councils changed on a staggered sched-
  ule, the new priors would find the buonomini and gonfalonieri
  already well-established, new buonomini would come in when
  priors and gonfaloniere were firmly in place, and so on.
  Furthermore, other, longer term councils and officials were in
  place to assist the government.
  Finally, most people able to participate in government were
  already well-acquainted with current office holders and kept
  abreast of current events for their own reasons. 
  Other Officials
  Foremost among the longer-term officials were a notary
  (who kept official records of meetings and made official
  announcements) and a chancellor (who kept track of
  correspondence). These officials had no legislative
  power, but they were at the head of a small bureau-
  cracy that kept the wheels of government turning.
  Several special purpose councils existed as well.
  For example, maintaining lists of people eligible to
  hold office was an ongoing task, which depended on
  current tax status, relationships to current office hold-
  ers, and so on. The Council of Twenty, a body of clerks
  who served for a year at a time, typically performed
  that job, though it was temporarily replaced with an
  appointed Council of Seventy late in the 15th century.
  After the Medici were driven out, a Grand Council was
  constituted to select all city officers and act as a legis-
  lature. This council consisted of the bulk of the male
  population aged 30 or more, making Firenze about as
  democratic one could hope for at the time.
  A Council of Six oversaw the regulation of commerce, while
  in times of war or particularly intense diplomatic strain, the gov-
  ernment appointed a Council of Ten to exert emergency powers
  in the realm of diplomacy and military decisions (imagine a
  modern government organizing a defense department on an ad-
  hoc basis). The Signoria appointed the Ten for terms of six
  months to a year, which might be renewed if crises persisted.
  Additional positions were reserved for non-Florentines, an
  innovation meant to ensure that some government officials
  could be neutral to the city’s internal rivalries. These include
  the Podesta (a sort of police chief and criminal magistrate) and
  the Executor (whose job was to thwart schemes of the aristoc-
  racy that might hurt the people).
  Firenze’s larger councils had elaborate rules for determin-
  ing membership and what constituted a quorum. For example,
  the Grand Council was clearly too large to meet on a regular
  basis, so only a third of the members were called on at a time,
  serving six-month terms. When in session, two-thirds of cur-
  rently serving members counted as a quorum, and they passed
  legislation by a simple majority vote.
  Supporting the Government
  A variety of means supported the government. For example,
  a toll was levied on the value of bulk goods such as salt and
  meat entering the city. Starting in 1427, the government insti-
  tuted the castato, a sort of combined income, inventory, and
  property tax. Heads of household had to submit written
  accounts of their holdings, and a tax was levied on their value,
  subject to certain exemptions. The tax took into account what
  one could pay, but by taxing moveable goods, it discouraged
  trade. It was also extremely difficult to prepare and evaluate. In
  1495, it was replaced with the decimo, a pure real-estate tax.
  THE GOVERNMENT
  IN PRACTICE
  This, at least, was the idea of the Florentine republic: over-
  lapping sets of magistrates chosen from a broad range of the
  population to protect the people from powerful minorities seiz-
  ing control of the government. In actual practice, the machin-
  ery of the state was easily subverted and used as a weapon by
  those in power. Sufficiently powerful family alliances could,
  once brought into power, stay there and keep others out until
  their alliance inevitably began to crack.
  Factions
  From the Middle Ages until 1530, Firenze was, at least in
  form, a republic. At this time, as in much of world history, that
  only meant rule by a group of people rather than by just one.
  Distribution of power among a number of councils and offices
  ensured that no one person could completely control the city. A
  sufficiently clever and powerful faction, though, could.
  A mix of ancestral privilege, membership in professional
  organizations, and chance determined participation in Firenze’s
  peculiar and confusing government. The requirements for office
  excluded women, clergy, noblemen, peasants, the urban poor,
  and much of the middle class. Ultimately, about 4% of the pop-
  ulation were theoretically eligible for office. Nevertheless, the
  common people had some form of power. Particularly unpopu-
  lar legislation or attacks on beloved individuals led to public
  protests and riots. Since little effective crowd control existed, the
  Signoria could be intimidated by a popular uprising.
  During most of the Renaissance, the primary divisions in
  Florentine politics were between Medicians and anti-Medicians.
  The original Medicians were rising “new men,” becoming rich
  from the developing economy, while their opponents were gen-
  erally the older, established aristocracy. In time, however, the
  class distinctions between them blurred. Those factions could be
  split by other issues: preferred alliances with foreign powers
  (other Italian cities, France, the Papacy, etc.), competition 
  for desired offices, rising vs. established families, and so on. 
  THE APPARATUS OF POWER
  12
  Adventure Seed:
  Election Fraud
  A new group of priors is about to be selected, and the PCs are
  going to try to fix the results. They have a leather bag, a list of eli-
  gible candidates, and two days. They must obtain handwriting
  samples from all the members of the Twenty, make convincing for-
  geries of candidates’ names (but only their own candidates’
  names), slip into the Palazzo della Signoria the night before names
  are drawn, and replace the names there with their own pouch.
  
  After the Piero was driven out, the factional picture became
  very complex: conservative anti-Medicians, who were former
  Medici allies wanting to maintain their powerful positions;
  progressive anti-Medicians desired a more democratic gov-
  ernment; puritan Savonarolans; and very quiet pro-
  Medicians. These factions were soon joined by the arrabiati
  (angry men), anti-Savonarolans from across other factions.
  The name later applied to the anti-Medici faction after the
  Medici were restored.
  The political culture of Firenze, like the political culture of
  many historical republics, rarely encouraged cooperation.
  Therefore, when the various methods of appointment, elec-
  tion, and random selection worked as intended, the city’s
  councils were composed of well-balanced groups of people
  who hated one another passionately. Often at odds with each
  other, they ultimately accomplished very little, but that did it
  as loudly as possible.
  Abuse of Power
  The natural consequence of factionalism was abuse of
  power. Those in positions of authority did what they could to
  keep themselves there, and they could use their influence to
  benefit their regular occupations. While in control, the various
  factions did what they could to direct the machinery of the
  state against their opponents.
  The first weapon used against political enemies was election
  fraud. In Firenze, election fraud consisted primarily of influenc-
  ing the clerks who maintained the lists of names of those eligi-
  ble for office. This could be done by bribery, blackmail, or
  appealing to the clerks’ own factional loyalties. The Council of
  Seventy, created by Lorenzo de Medici with the purported job of
  keeping track of electoral rolls, was packed with Medici loyalists.
  Despite creating the appearance of a broad-based popular over-
  sight council, it served to keep Medici enemies out of power.
  Tax assessments were another extremely potent political
  weapon. Assessing all possible taxes an opponent might be liable
  for (while paying few or none themselves) placed a huge and
  often destructive financial burden on them. In addition to that,
  anyone owing tax payments was not eligible for office, forcibly
  keeping them out of power. Repeated tax assessments were a
  major factor that spurred the Pazzi to their ill-fated conspiracy.
  In extreme cases, powerful factions wielded the courts as a
  weapon. The Signoria and other assemblies acted as courts for
  all crimes, political and otherwise. If charges could be trumped
  up, political minorities could be subjected to extraordinary
  punishment. Exile was a frequent penalty. However, since
  alliances could shift and random selection of officials could
  cause sudden changes in the composition of the government
  (at least, where sitting officials didn’t interfere with the lists),
  exiles could be recalled quickly.
  Just as the government could be used to attack one’s ene-
  mies, it could be influenced to aid one’s friends through the
  same devices. Just as people in power could direct tax assess-
  ments toward their enemies, they could fail to have them taken
  on themselves and their allies. They also could acquire the lion’s
  share of business with the government. For example, during
  wartime, the administration was allowed to compel citizens to
  provide loans to support the army. Authorities could arrange to
  be selected for those loans, offer themselves attractive rates of
  interest, and put themselves first in line for repayment.
  Public opposition to the government was often risky, but
  some political agitation was anonymous. It was a long-stand-
  ing custom in uncertain times to write short screeds and throw
  them into the streets, where others would pick them up and
  read them. The writer could champion dangerous causes (for
  example, overthrowing the Medici) but escape detection and
  punishment. This may not have been a directly useful tech-
  nique, but it could indicate popular opinion and start to
  prompt bolder people, assured of some support, to action.
  THE APPARATUS OF POWER
  13
  ECONOMY AND INDUSTRY
  Like most urban economies, Firenze’s system was heavily
  monetized. Although some, notably servants, were paid in part
  with room and board, most people were paid monetary wages,
  and barter was all but unknown.
  The government issued a variety of coins. The smallest was
  the denario (penny) made of billon (a copper-silver alloy) or
  just copper. At the beginning of the 15th century, a denario was
  worth about a quarter of a GURPS $. Twenty denari made a
  soldi (a silver coin), and 12 soldi made a lira (likewise silver).
  Other silver and billon coins with intermediate denominations
  were minted, such as grossi with values from 30 to 128 denari.
  There were also two gold coins: the florin and the large florin
  (worth 20% more than the florin). The value of silver coins fell
  slowly but steadily relative to gold through the Renaissance. In
  1400, the florin was worth about 960 denari. By the end of the
  century, it was worth 1,680. Meanwhile, the large florin
  became more popular, completely replacing the regular florin
  in 1471. Gold coins were used for large transactions: wholesale
  purchases, international trade, financing wars and large build-
  ings, and so on. Anything below that level was “small money”
  and settled in silver.
  Firenze had two major industries: banking and textile manu-
  facture. It was also an important center for long-distance trade
  in other goods, and it hosted a number of other professions.
  BANKING
  During the Renaissance, Firenze, Genoa, and Venezia con-
  stituted Europe’s commercial hub. All participated in trade
  and finance, but coastal Genoa and island Venezia had signif-
  icant natural advantages as shippers, so Firenze leaned more
  toward banking.
  At this time, financial services were limited, particularly for
  the poor and middle classes. For most people, the only formal
  financial services were pawnbrokers. Firenze had a handful of
  small banks that dealt in low volumes of money-changing and
  accepted long-term deposits at interest for the middle class,
  but even the average Florentine had little use for banks.
  Bankers who could deal in serious commerce were members
  of the Arte del Cambio (the moneychangers’ guild), though
  some were also members of the Arte di Por Santa Maria (a
  guild encompassing a number of other luxury trades).
  
  For people who needed to move large sums of money
  around, which included traveling merchants, governments, and
  senior clergymen, bank services were vital. Instead of carrying
  untraceable and irreplaceable gold and gems, one could deposit
  money in one bank and carry a letter of credit, which identified
  the legitimate bearer, to the next branch. If the letter was stolen,
  the thief couldn’t cash it, while the legitimate bearer could sim-
  ply go back for another one. Among other consequences, this
  made international trade much easier. Merchants carried paper
  instruments representing some quantity of money to foreign
  ports, changed them into money or other paper instruments
  circulated locally to exchange goods, and returned home with-
  out risking the loss of a single physical coin.
  Banks would also, for a small charge, exchange foreign cur-
  rencies for native coinage, necessary for traveling merchants
  and dignitaries of all kinds just as it is for modern travelers
  going from one country to another. If the seller and buyer of
  some goods had deposits with the same bank, they could even
  bypass the paperwork and have the banker adjust their bal-
  ances in his ledger by the appropriate amount.
  Banks also provided an easy means of investment. The
  wealthy didn’t just make deposits at banks to withdraw them at
  another location. They could also make deposits to receive
  interest, as though they were making a long-term loan to the
  bank. The banks paid interest out of the interest they received
  from other loans and from the profits of subsidiary businesses
  they might also own. It was not unusual, for example, for a
  Florentine bank to also own interests in textile factories.
  Despite their power, banks of the Renaissance were minus-
  cule by modern standards. A branch consisted of a room fur-
  nished with a few desks for clerks, a strongbox for cash on
  hand and libri segreti (“secret books,” the bank’s confidential
  internal records), and a banco (table) covered by a green cloth,
  on which business was done. The main office of a large bank
  would probably employ fewer than 10 people, and a branch
  office would have at most four or five.
  Moreover, each bank only had a few branches. Five
  branches constituted a large bank, while an exceptional bank
  might have 10 branches. At its height, the Medici bank proba-
  bly didn’t directly employ more than 50 or 60 people. Most
  branches were in or near Italy (for example, Pisa, Venezia,
  Genoa, Roma, and Avignon), but at one point, it had branches
  as far away as Bruges and London. Most bank branches were
  partnerships between the large banking houses (which 
  offered international connections) and local bankers (who pro-
  vided access to the local market). Both offered capital.
  Because they dealt only in very large sums, banks of the
  Renaissance weren’t convenient for day-to-day use for personal
  expenses. Funds might be withdrawn with written notes, but
  preprinted checks were centuries away. Furthermore, some
  banking centers only allowed transfer of funds on the spoken
  request of the depositor and prohibited the use of written
  instruments not created by another branch of the bank itself.
  Money lending was vastly complicated by the fact that, in
  medieval and Renaissance Europe, it was illegal. In particular,
  lending money for interest was illegal, since the Church found it
  immoral. Moneylenders, therefore, had to find ways around the
  problem. Florentine pawnbrokers openly admitted to the sin of
  usury and were fined an annual fee by the government, which
  was the entirety of their punishment. Essentially, it was a license
  fee disguised as an indulgence, but with that came prohibitions
  that kept pawnbrokers from participating in government.
  Bankers who worked on a larger scale, such as the Medici,
  found loopholes in usury prohibitions. For example, rather
  than charging a particular rate of interest, a bank might loan
  money in return for a share of the profits of the venture for
  which the loan was being made. Alternatively, a large fee might
  be added to a money-changing operation as part of a sale of
  goods in a foreign country. Essentially the banks hid interest as
  part of a sales transaction that they facilitated.
  TEXTILES
  In addition to banking, Firenze was the home of a profitable
  textile industry, producing a variety of high-quality finished
  cloth. The significance of clothworking can be seen in the
  number of guilds related to it. Four of Firenze’s most impor-
  tant guilds encompass trades dealing with garments or textiles:
  • Arte di Por Santa Maria (also known as the Arte di Sera):
  gold, silver, and bronze smiths, silk merchants, retail clothiers,
  tailors, hosiers, embroiderers
  • Arte della Lana: wool merchants
  • Arte di Calimala: wool workers
  • Arte dei Vaiai e Pellicciai: furriers
  Additionally, lesser guilds existed for flax and leather
  producers.
  The fibers themselves came from elsewhere: wool from
  England and Spain, silk from the Byzantine and Muslim east,
  and small quantities of flax from the north. The fibers were
  spun, dyed, and woven into cloth in the city, or rough cloth was
  imported and processed to turn it into finer fabric.
  Firenze’s textile industry was enabled by several factors.
  One of the biggest was its prominent place as a trade center,
  which brought in a broad range of dyes. Two other related fac-
  tors were its physical and political proximity to several alum
  mines in Italy. Firenze had a close political relationship with
  the Papacy, mostly through the Medici, whose bank was a
  major financial partner of Roman curia; the Papacy held a
  monopoly on most of the alum mines. Alum, a profoundly
  unexciting mineral on its own, is a mordant, a chemical that
  helps dyes hold fast to textiles. Consequently, a good supply of
  it is vital to any manufacturer of fine cloth. Of course, Firenze
  is also on a river, which provided power for a variety of water-
  driven cloth-processing devices, and with its wealth, the city
  developed a large domestic market for top-quality textiles.
  THE APPARATUS OF POWER
  14
  Using Banking Services
  As a practical matter, PCs can take advantage of
  banking services only if they deal in large amounts. For
  letters of credit and currency conversions, any transac-
  tion involving less than $5,000 is likely to be beneath a
  banker’s notice, and the banker will take a cut of up to
  6% of the total value. Under normal conditions,
  bankers may loan money at annual rates of 25-35%,
  though rates for riskier ventures can be much higher.
  Returns on deposits are typically no more than half
  prevailing rates for loans, with similar variability
  based on risk.
  
  TRADE AND MINOR
  INDUSTRIES
  By the 15th century, there were seven major guilds:
  • Arte della Lana
  • Arte di Calimala: moneychangers
  • Arte dei Giudici e Notai: judges and notaries
  • Arte del Cambio
  • Arte di Por Santa Maria
  • Arte dei Medici e Speziali: physicians and pharmacists
  (painters were included in this guild, possibly because
  physicians and painters share St. Luke as a patron)
  • Arte dei Vaiai e Pellicciai
  These guilds monopolized Florentine political life, since
  they held the majority of seats on the Signoria. There were
  also five middle-rank guilds:
  • Arte di Pietra e Legname: masons, sculptors, carpenters
  • Arte dei Beccai: herders
  • Arte dei Calzolai: cobblers
  • Arte dei Fabbri: iron workers
  • Arte dei Linaioli e Rigattieri: flax workers
  Minor guilds included those for armorers, bakers, innkeep-
  ers, locksmiths, millers, saddle-makers, tanners, vintners, and
  woodsmen. Membership in one guild did not prohibit mem-
  bership in another. Bankers might be members of both the
  banking and, for example, the wool merchants’ guild.
  Firenze was a major transshipment point for a number of
  exotic goods. While it was not a port, it saw considerable
  traffic in gemstones, spices, dyes, and medicines. Firenze was
  a particularly large consumer of pigments, given its large tex-
  tile industry and many painters. Florentine or other Italian
  merchants carried most of the pigments.
  By this time, one-off mercantile expeditions had been
  replaced by a system of merchants stationing factors in foreign
  cities. Regularly scheduled shipping voyages merely provided
  transport between the factor and his home city. The trips
  brought carefully considered, prearranged cargoes that proba-
  bly already had buyers in the destination port.
  Firenze had a modest slave trade. Slavery was legal, and the
  wealthiest families might own a slave or two from as far away
  as Africa or western Asia. However, since taking and selling
  captives during wartime had long since passed out of fashion
  in most of Europe, slaves were few and far between, kept as
  prestigious domestic servants by the rich rather than providing
  mass labor. There appears to have been no particular social
  stigma attached to being a former slave or the child of a slave.
  THE APPARATUS OF POWER
  15
  ARMS, ARMOR, 
  AND THE MILITARY
  During the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance, troops
  for Italian armies came from three sources: civic militias, feu-
  dal levies, and mercenary companies. As Firenze (and, indeed,
  Italy as a whole) became wealthier, the first two sources began
  to fade into the background. Many feudal noblemen were
  absorbed into the civic order, and the wealthier townsmen who
  formed the core of the civic militia realized that they could use
  some of their wealth to convince others to undertake the risky
  and uncomfortable task of fighting in their place. During this
  period of small but frequent wars, footloose adventurers could
  usually find employment somewhere as condottieri. By the end
  of the Renaissance, the cities of Italy had come to realize the
  danger of purely mercenary soldiers and were taking steps to
  tie officers more closely to their cities with honors and com-
  mitments. Firenze, though, was slow to catch on to the trend
  and remained a better source of short-term employment for
  outsiders than its neighbors.
  CONDOTTIERI
  Italy was the home of the condottiero. The literal translation
  is simply “contractor,” but what it really meant in the
  Renaissance was “mercenary.” The quattrocento was just past
  the golden age of the freelance mercenary company, when
  nigh-unstoppable, independent armies roamed the peninsula,
  fighting for the highest bidder and raiding or extorting tribute
  from everyone else. By the beginning of the 15th century, mer-
  cenaries were tied more closely to individual states with long-
  term contracts and civic honors giving them special privileges
  so long as they stayed loyal. In most cities, long-serving merce-
  nary officers and their units, possibly combined with native
  troops, formed the core of an army, supplemented as necessary
  by additional short-term mercenaries. Firenze, which had a
  lingering distrust of soldiers, lagged far behind. Rather than
  trying to buy the loyalty of sometimes-unreliable soldiers, the
  Florentines attempted to minimize their costs by hiring merce-
  naries only as necessary and hiring many small units rather
  than a few captains with higher standing and larger units. The
  Florentines also sporadically tried to make greater use of civic
  militia. Machiavelli had a particularly strong dislike for merce-
  naries and advocated greater reliance on citizen soldiers.
  However, for all of their cost and the treachery feared by many,
  professional mercenary soldiers were more often than not
  worth the money.
  
  Strictly speaking, condottieri were officers, not necessarily
  the soldiers who followed them. With a few exceptions for
  notable veterans and specialists, cities offered contracts to
  officers alone. (This is much the same as someone in the
  modern era who hires a contractor to work on his house and
  lets the contractor worry about the specifics of hiring work-
  men, buying tools, getting the work crew to the job site, and
  so on.) The condotta (contract) spelled out the terms of
  employment for a captain and provided for the maintenance
  of a body of troops that he was responsible for assembling.
  The task of raising troops to fulfill the agreement fell entirely
  on the contracted captain. Typically, the captain already had
  troops, though a new contract might provide him the funds
  to increase their numbers.
  Many condottieri were feudal lords. They were already mil-
  itary men by inclination and had standing relationships with
  groups of warriors, either members of their household or feu-
  dal dependants who were also men of a military bent. Rather
  than sitting around on their estates, ambitious lords in search
  of loot and adventure sold their services to whomever would
  hire them, reaching separate agreements with their followers
  to keep them in the field past the terms of their own feudal
  obligations. This led to considerable overlap between feudal
  lords and mercenary soldiers.
  Condotta were very detailed legal documents. Rights and
  privileges set out in the contract frequently included pay rate,
  types and numbers of troops to be provided, length of service,
  bonuses for signing and exceptional performance, and exemp-
  tion from local taxes and foreign lawsuits. Troops had to buy
  their own supplies, but to protect them from wartime inflation,
  fair prices for provisions were sometimes specified, though
  those were often available only when operating in their
  employer’s home territory. Further abroad, armies had to live
  at least partly by looting or buying local provisions.
  Where possible, Florentine contracts limited service to a
  single fighting season, three to nine months; other cities
  offered contracts for multiple years. Many contracts offered
  options for automatic renewal if the contract expired in the
  middle of a war. Some had retainers, giving the employing city
  the right to call on the condottiero if his services were required
  within a specified period. Where condottieri were subject to
  such retainers, they’d have clauses in any other contract they
  might sign acknowledging their prior obligation and setting
  out their obligations in case they had to leave a current
  employer for their previous one.
  Even the division of loot was spelled out. Real estate (land,
  castles, and such) and certain important people (exiles, for-
  eign rulers, and other persons of particular interest) were to
  be turned over to the employing state. Portable wealth and
  other people who might be ransomed were fair game for the
  mercenaries.
  TROOP TYPES AND WEAPONS
  Armies of this period had five categories of regular troops:
  pikemen, cavalry, crossbowmen and arbalesters, shield-bear-
  ers, and swordsmen.
  Pikemen were the largest single component of most armies.
  They provided some offensive power against other infantry, but
  their main use was to channel and defend against cavalry. The
  great length of the pikes of the era ensured that a formation of
  them would still provide a dense enough concentration of
  sharp points to discourage cavalry charges.
  Many heavy pikes were wielded by two men. Two men
  could move their weapon faster and hold it more firmly than
  one. If attacked by other infantry, one of the men could let go
  of the pike to fight with a sword while the other held on to it.
  The second most common component of an Italian
  Renaissance army, and the primary offensive force, was cav-
  alry. Italian cavalry was heavy cavalry, with long lances, plate
  armor for the riders, and often barding for the horses whose
  owners could afford it.
  Crossbowmen provided the infantry with an effective offen-
  sive weapon that could be used against cavalry and infantry
  alike. They were usually shielded by formations of pikemen.
  The use of guns grew rapidly as the Renaissance progressed,
  displacing crossbows almost entirely by the end of the 15th
  century, but troops armed with arbalests filled the same func-
  tional role as crossbowmen.
  Shield-bearers carried huge shields that offered coverage
  from head to toe. They would stand in the front ranks of both
  pike and crossbow formations, using their shields to protect the
  entire line from missiles and enemy pikes. If enemy troops came
  in too close, they would use swords or other personal weapons.
  Simple swordsmen were rare at the beginning of the
  Renaissance. On an open field, pikemen were far superior on
  defense, crossbowmen on offense, and cavalry all around. As
  battlefield fortifications became more important, swordsmen
  multiplied quickly. Without heavy pikes to drag with them and
  bring back into line, the Italians found that swordsmen, sup-
  plemented by a few troops with shorter polearms, were best
  suited to storm prepared enemy earthworks.
  There was a gray area between cavalry and some infantry
  units. Mounted infantry were widely used. That is, they
  fought on foot, but when not directly engaged in combat, they
  could use horses for mobility. Over half of a fighting force
  might have horses, but only some of the troops would actu-
  ally fight on horseback.
  In addition to the five basic troop types, many armies had
  engineers and artillerists. The use of cannon grew rapidly during
  the Renaissance. Condottieri rarely provided artillery them-
  selves. Expensive to maintain and difficult to relocate, they were
  not well-suited to the small, mobile units that were the rule for
  mercenaries. Cannon needed a wagon train for powder and
  shot, a party of specialists to maintain and use them, and other
  gear and additional personal weapons for the crew, making even
  a few pieces of light artillery a considerable logistical challenge.
  Instead, they were organized and maintained directly by civic
  governments. Prepared defensive positions, particularly cities
  and towns, got the better part of the deal as cannon became
  more common. Without the need for a supply train, cannon in
  defensive positions could be larger and better supplied with
  ammunition. Stationary guns could fire projectiles up to 300
  pounds (though most were much smaller), but field pieces were
  usually in the two- to three-pound range.
  THE APPARATUS OF POWER
  16
  The secret of getting
  things done is to act.
  – Dante Alighieri
  
  As wealthier states could afford more labor, battlefield engi-
  neering also became more important. Engineers would direct
  construction of ditch-and-earthen-wall battlefield fortifica-
  tions, lay out siege works, and plan canals. Permanent defen-
  sive positions might have better cannon, but with enough time
  and effort, attacking engineers could and did flood them with
  diverted streams.
  Many great architects spent at least some time dealing with
  military engineering. Brunelleschi was responsible for a num-
  ber of earthworks and battlefield canals, while Michelangelo
  was once in charge of Firenze’s fortifications (and, apparently,
  his work was effective, standing off the Spanish attack of 1530
  for quite some time).
  ORGANIZATION
  Troops were frequently organized into a small unit called
  a “lance.” The term was used to describe different small units
  across Europe, but during the early Italian Renaissance, it
  consisted of three men. Two members of the lance fought,
  while the third man (or, often, adolescent boy) stood to the
  rear holding spare horses, weapons, and other accessories.
  Fighting men who broke a weapon or had a horse killed from
  under them could quickly rearm and return to the battle. As
  the Renaissance wore on, the size of a lance grew, but the
  additional people usually just held on to more horses or
  looked after more of their master’s gear. (A French-style
  lance, occasionally seen late in the period, included a com-
  bined force of archers, infantry, and cavalry.) A late-
  Renaissance army could have twice as many people as an
  earlier one, but no more fighting strength.
  By the end of the 15th century, some standardization had
  arisen in the organization of army units and ranks. There were
  three to five men per lance. Twenty to 25 lances formed 
  a squadron commanded by a caposquadra or squadriere,
  though squadrons might be subdivided into smaller units of
  five or six lances. Colonello commanded formations of eight to
  10 squadrons, while a marshal or captain general commanded
  larger armies.
  Aside from the “spear-carriers” in a lance, armies were
  essentially composed entirely of fighting men; even the boys
  holding the horses had access to arms and would use them,
  albeit ineffectively, if attacked. Logistical support was provided
  by mostly unofficial camp followers: cooks, cleaners, personal
  servants, prostitutes, smiths, and other people looking to turn
  a quick profit by selling goods and services to soldiers. Being a
  camp follower was lucrative, but it was also dangerous. If
  enemy troops broke through friendly lines, they’d often rush 
  to loot the nearest encampment and slaughter anyone who
  looked like they might possibly get in the way.
  THE APPARATUS OF POWER
  17
  The long polearms of the Renaissance require a new
  maneuver (planting a spear), a new weapon (the pike), and
  a new perk (Two-Man Pike Training).
  Any spear or impaling polearm with a reach of 2 or more
  can be planted against a charge. The butt of the weapon is
  pressed against the ground to take the impact of someone
  running into it. Planting a weapon requires a Ready action,
  and the wielder must Wait until he decides to unbrace it.
  While planted, the weapon cannot parry and can only be
  used to attack someone entering the hex occupied by the tip
  of the weapon from one of its front hexes. When a planted
  spear hits, it does the better of damage for a normally braced
  weapon or damage similar to a couched lance (p. B397):
  Compute collision damage based on the moving target's HP
  and velocity (see p. B430), add the weapon’s damage bonus,
  and apply it to the target as impaling damage.
  A pike is an exceptionally long spear, reinforced near
  the point end to withstand impact. It is ill-suited for indi-
  vidual combat, but an array of closely set pikes is a terrify-
  ing sight to even the heaviest cavalry.
  New Perk: Two-Man Pike Training
  With this perk, you are trained to work with another war-
  rior to move and fight while wielding a large spear or
  polearm (minimum reach 3). Once you and your companion
  have both taken a Ready maneuver to grab hold of the
  weapon, you move and choose maneuvers as a single fighter
  with these stats:
  • The worse Basic Speed, Move, and Spear skill of
  the pair.
  • Effective ST equal to the strongest man’s ST plus 1/5
  the other man’s ST, rounded down, for the purpose of dam-
  age, resisting knockback, etc.
  • Effective HP equal to the larger HP score of the pair
  plus 1/5 the other man’s HP, rounded down, for the pur-
  pose of making or resisting slams.
  The front man can let go with one hand as a free
  action, if necessary. He can even draw a one-handed
  weapon and fight at his usual skill with that weapon,
  although the team still moves as a single fighter with the
  lower Basic Speed and Move, and the pike cannot be used
  to attack during this time. To resume pike use, the front
  man must take another Ready maneuver. If anyone is sep-
  arated, he must take a new Ready maneuver to get back
  on the pike. Until then, he’s fighting individually while his
  partner drags the giant spear.
  If either fighter lacks this perk, the team cannot com-
  bine ST or HP at all, still uses the worst Basic Speed and
  Move, and fights at (lowest Spear skill)-2.
  Pikes and How to Use Them
  Pike
  TL Weapon
  Damage
  Reach
  Parry
  Cost
  Weight
  ST
  SPEAR (DX-5, Polearm-4, or Staff-2)
  2
  Pike
  thr+3 imp
  5, 6*
  0U
  $80
  15
  13†
  
  Since they carried out activities with profound legal and
  diplomatic implications, mercenary armies rarely operated
  without their employer’s oversight. Most armies had a liaison
  between the mercenary general in the field and the government
  that employed him. Whether that political officer would have
  any formal authority over the chief mercenary officer would, of
  course, be specified in his contract. Historically, some were offi-
  cious busybodies who clashed with the general’s decisions,
  while others were valuable allies, smoothing potential points of
  conflict between mercenaries and their employers.
  Other officials were more practically useful. Merchants to the
  end, the Florentines often provided officials whose job was to
  arrange temporary markets in camp, bringing in local farmers
  and merchants to sell to the army as it passed through the area.
  CIVILIAN ARMS AND ARMOR
  Weapons and armor weren’t only carried on the battlefield.
  Civilians and civil authorities sometimes went about armed as
  well. Since city-dwellers were relatively wealthy and the cost of
  metal slowly dropped through the period, many people owned
  swords, which were the sidearm of the day rather than truly
  military weapons. They may not have carried the armaments
  most of the time. Those who did have blades sported them as
  a fashion accessory rather than with the intent to cause harm.
  Nonetheless, swords certainly did come out in times of civil
  unrest and some people carried them as a matter of course.
  There was a brief period of arms control after the failure of the
  Pazzi conspiracy, where the government granted license to
  own weapons only to Medicians, but the phase had passed
  away by the early 1490s. Even if weapons were restricted in the
  city, anyone with a villa in the countryside could easily hide
  them beyond the city walls.
  Anyone who might have to serve in the militia would have
  had a modicum of training with pikes, the lance, or other pri-
  mary military weapons, particularly when the militia was oper-
  ating under Machiavelli’s guidance. However, the Renaissance
  also saw the rise of sophisticated fencing styles concentrating
  on swords and other small weapons (see the Italian School
  style on p. 156 of GURPS Martial Arts). Many styles involved
  the use of a weapon or cloak in the off hand. Such styles might
  not be ideal on the battlefield, but they were perfectly adequate
  to use in the streets.
  On a day-to-day basis, a missile weapon would have been
  an unusual sight on the street. Like swords, a number of peo-
  ple may have owned crossbows (they were the primary hunt-
  ing weapons by this time), Unlike swords, which have
  defensive application, the use of crossbows is purely offen-
  sive. Furthermore, polearms would have been a very unusual
  sight, as well as painfully awkward. The same is true of armor
  and shields.
  Those restrictions did not apply to officials and police
  forces, though. Members of Firenze’s city guard were armed
  with crossbows. Guardsmen and some civic officials wore
  armor, though typically more as a symbol of status and author-
  ity on formal occasions. A breastplate might be worn as a
  badge of office as much as actual protection. Nonetheless, any-
  one – even a policeman  – wearing armor, is expecting serious
  trouble.
  THE APPARATUS OF POWER
  18
  Through the Renaissance, a typical lance has two or
  three effective fighters, so five lances usually comprise an
  element. Renaissance Italian armies are composed mostly of
  Pikemen elements, with some Heavy Cavalry and a mix of
  missile troop (Bowmen early in the period, Musketeers
  later). A thin screen of shield-bearers may be treated as a
  small number of Heavy Infantry (no more than one Heavy
  Infantry element per five Pikemen elements – and probably
  less). Field pieces count as Light Artillery, but cities may
  have with Heavy Artillery. Many forces have Miners, and the
  swordsmen employed to attack their fortifications are
  Medium Infantry. Many foot troops, particularly Pikemen,
  may be accompanied by Mounts. All of these troops are TL4.
  Quality of troops and equipment run the gamut, though
  Good-quality gear is unremarkable. Troops in Italy in gen-
  eral and troops hired by Firenze in particular are typically
  Mercenaries and may be Disloyal.
  Non-combatant members of a lance are essentially
  logistics troops integrated into the unit. Not all infantry
  units were formally organized into lances, but most had
  collections of servants and camp followers performing the
  same function. The Florentine government was particu-
  larly keen to keep expenses low by limiting mercenary
  employment to times they could pay for themselves by
  plundering on other people’s territory (see Campaigning
  Season, p. 14 of GURPS Mass Combat).
  Example: A captain commands a squadron of 20 lances.
  Five are cavalry, 10 are pikemen, and five are crossbow-
  men. Half of the pike lances are mounted. The cavalry
  counts as one element of Heavy Cavalry (cost to raise
  $200K, cost to maintain $40K, plus $200K to raise and
  $20K to maintain logistics). The pikemen count as two ele-
  ments of Pikemen plus one of Mounts (total cost to raise
  $180K, total cost to maintain $36K, plus $180K to raise
  and $18K to maintain logistics). The crossbowmen, all
  unmounted, count as one element of Bowmen (cost to
  raise $40K, cost to maintain $8K, plus $40K to raise and
  $4K to maintain logistics). Total cost to raise the squadron
  is $840K; cost to maintain is $126K. However, since they’re
  probably mercenaries, there is no cost to raise them for
  their employer and a maintenance cost of $189K, or
  $94.5K during the fighting season.
  Using GURPS Mass Combat
  With money on our purse we cannot lose.
  – Ludovico Ariosto, 
  Orlando Furioso, XXVIII.46
  
  . . . The next day, I called on an artisan to whom I was com-
  mended. No mere goldsmith is this man, but painter, sculptor,
  and much else besides. He seems to think himself a philosopher
  as well, though I discern he has no education beyond his craft.
  Still, no matter what airs he puts on, the evidence of his hand-
  iwork is clear. I think you will be most taken with the work of
  this young Leonardo.
  This is a selection of notable people with an impact on
  Firenze during the 15th and 16th centuries: local political
  figures (generally Medici and their relatives), prominent
  artists who were at least temporary residents, and foreign
  politicians who had a significant impact on the city.
  NOTABLE PEOPLE
  19
  CHAPTER FOUR
  NOTABLE
  PEOPLE
  POLITICIANS
  This is a sampling of the most prominent and well-known
  people in politics of the time. They might make excellent
  Patrons, Contacts, or employers.
  COSIMO DE MEDICI
  (1389-1464)
  Friendly and plain-looking, one would never
  imagine that Cosimo was the effective ruler of the
  wealthiest city in Italy and the largest bank in world
  history up to that point. Cosimo’s personal style was
  to present himself as a man of the people, a simple
  banker rather than a nobleman. Despite his fabulous
  wealth, Cosimo dressed plainly, was never seen with
  more than one servant, and built a far smaller and
  less ostentatious house for his family than he could
  have afforded. His style of leadership was to broker
  favors, arranging and managing alliances between ris-
  ing new men who could use assistance and would give their
  loyalty in return. In addition to tremendous skills as a diplo-
  mat and banker, he had a talent for picking skilled and reli-
  able people to whom tasks could be delegated. Nonetheless,
  he continued to oversee even the small details of his business
  through his life.
  Cosimo kicked off the Medici tradition of sponsoring artists
  and scholars. In addition to supporting Brunelleschi and
  Donatello (among others), he sponsored the first complete
  translation of Plato into Italian and founded a school for the
  study of Classical authors. He was also prone to gout, an ail-
  ment that he passed on to generations of his descendents.
  LORENZO DE MEDICI, 
  IL MAGNIFICO (1449-1492)
  Like the rest of the Medici, Lorenzo
  was not a particularly attractive man
  (though, by all accounts, better looking
  than his immediate ancestors), but he
  was quite charming. He was not as
  skilled an administrator or financier 
  as his grandfather and didn’t have his
  attention to detail. However, he was a
  remarkably able diplomat, maintaining
  alliances at home and abroad largely
  through force of personality.
  Despite ruling Firenze more openly
  than his ancestors and surrounding him-
  self with an endless stream of fine art,
  Lorenzo preferred to dress simply when
  he didn’t have to wear official finery. In the years before his
  death, he was increasingly afflicted by gout and was consider-
  ing retiring to study Classical philosophy full time.
  In addition to his political skills, Lorenzo was surprisingly
  competent in the arts. He dabbled in poetry and architecture
  as a talented amateur. Though he produced no immortal works
  himself, his taste in art and artists is unquestionable. Even
  kings and popes asked his opinion on new palaces or artistic
  works. Lorenzo actually commissioned very few artworks him-
  self, but he was in a position to recommend artists to others
  more inclined to pay for them. For his personal collection,
  Lorenzo preferred gold and gems, which are both attractive
  and easily resold, and he had a fondness for antiques.
  
  GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA
  (1452-1497)
  Savonarola was born to a middle-class family, distantly con-
  nected to a princely court, in Ferrara. In 1475, he determined
  to take up a religious life despite the disapproval of his family.
  He was a voracious scholar, studying at the universities at
  Padua and Bologna, and a skilled debater and teacher.
  However, he was not a natural speaker and spent many years
  developing his preaching style.
  Like other reformers of his time, Savonarola was disgusted
  with the materialism of his society and particularly unhappy
  with the way it had overtaken religion. Even as a young man,
  he distinguished between the “true Church” and the “whore in
  Roma.” He promoted asceticism, and he “walked it like he
  talked it,” sometimes quite literally: He walked rather than
  rode on his early travels, and had to be prevented from doing
  so when he acted as an ambassador later in life. He also
  dressed cheaply, ate simple food, and largely avoided women
  when not actively sermonizing to them. He preached against
  luxury, pagan Classical influences, Jews, and anything else that
  might distract from spiritual matters.
  Ironically, given his role in kicking the Medicis out of
  Firenze, he originally came to the city at the express request of
  Lorenzo de Medici. Indeed, Lorenzo was the driving force
  behind Savonarola’s rise to a position of leadership within his
  order, and Savonarola was at Lorenzo’s deathbed and delivered
  a blessing to him there.
  Savonarola was physically unimpressive: small, with a long
  nose and deep eyes. Though devout, Savonarola was not simply
  a wild-eyed fanatic. Certainly, he was emphatic in his beliefs, but
  he was also extremely well-educated and had a firm handle on
  philosophy. Despite a strict medieval morality, he had a remark-
  ably forward-thinking political position. Among other things, he
  preached that real moral improvement was impossible under an
  autocracy, so a Christian society had to be a democracy.
  CATARINA SFORZA
  (1463-1509)
  Despite being an illegitimate child, Catarina was
  acknowledged as a Sforza and managed to marry well,
  becoming countess of Forli, a town near Bologna. She
  obtained a reputation for being a ruthless, even brutal,
  ruler in defending her holdings against both internal
  conspiracy and external attack. She was certainly merci-
  less against failed conspirators, and she was capable of
  leading spirited military defenses. If not a warrior in her
  own right, she was a more-than-usually competent mil-
  itary leader. She was also nearly impossible to intimi-
  date. One story about her claims that when she escaped
  captors who still held her children as hostages, she told
  them in vulgar terms that her former captors could do
  as they liked with her children since she could produce
  more herself. She had recurring battles with rivals to her
  title supported by the papacy, eventually losing Forli to
  Cesare Borgia. She spent the last few years of her life in
  exile in Firenze.
  Her particular importance to Florentine history is
  her brief marriage to Giovanni de Medici. Giovanni
  was descended from a junior branch of the Medici that
  started with the original Cosimo’s brother Lorenzo (after
  whom Lorenzo il Magnifico was named). However, family
  rivalry led to Giovanni’s branch being exiled by Piero not long
  before Piero himself was driven out. (The rivalry also caused
  Giovanni to change his name from de Medici to il Popolano.)
  Giovanni was one of the exiles recalled to Firenze in 1494 (the
  junior Medici disliked their senior cousins as much as anyone
  else, so they were not regarded as politically dangerous), and
  he quickly became a minor political figure and diplomat. He
  and Catarina became romantically involved and married in
  the late 1490s. Their offspring would become the new rulers
  of Firenze.
  NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI
  (1469-1527)
  Born to a distinguished middle-class family, Machiavelli
  started his career as a government official the year Piero de
  Medici was driven from Firenze. He undertook a number of
  official tasks: He acted as chief secretary to the government
  in 1498. He organized the Florentine militia in 1503. (This
  met with limited success – the militia based on Machiavelli’s
  model retook Pisa in 1509 but was dealt a major defeat when
  they attempted to keep the Medici out in 1512.) He accepted
  a variety of ambassadorial assignments, which took him as
  far away as Paris and Aragon. After the return of the Medici
  effectively ended his political career in 1513, he retired to the
  countryside to write.
  Machiavelli’s best-known work, The Prince, is among the
  first works of purely pragmatic political philosophy. Rather
  than outlining a morally ideal society, as most medieval
  philosophers and even many Classical philosophers did,
  Machiavelli set out a philosophy of how power can be most
  effectively maintained, with more attention to what works as
  opposed to what is just. Most of his critics missed
  Machiavelli’s point that small evils could prevent greater ones.
  NOTABLE PEOPLE
  20
  Gout
  Gout is an inflammatory condition of the joints caused, in
  most cases, by consuming too much meat, fats, alcohol, and,
  sometimes, lead. (Lead sugar was a common sweetener.) It
  most often afflicts the feet, making it difficult to walk, but it can
  spread through the entire body. Its symptoms vary from mildly
  inconvenient to completely debilitating, manifesting as the dis-
  advantages Lame, Chronic Pain, or both. The elderly Cosimo
  and Lorenzo had Crippled Legs, while Piero the Gouty effec-
  tively had a limited version of Paraplegic (he had feeling and
  could move his limbs, but he couldn’t use them often) and
  Chronic Pain, which, though probably Mild, recurred fre-
  quently.
  A diet low in animal protein and alcohol can reduce the
  severity of gout. Historically, no effective treatments existed
  until the 20th century. A Renaissance doctor who discovered
  one (for example, sodium bicarbonate, available as a washing
  compound since antiquity, can be an effective short-term treat-
  ment) or a time traveler who brought modern drugs to treat it
  could become a wealthy man.
  
  For example, brutally putting down a revolt or silencing a
  political rival could prevent serious challenges in the future,
  allowing the ruler to reign in peace and justice thereafter.
  Nevertheless, the book’s notoriety, even at the time, over-
  shadowed his works on how to run a republic (a subject he
  was far more interested in), his plays, and his critiques of
  Classical authors.
  GIOVANNI DALLE BANDE
  NERE (1498-1526)
  Not all of the Medici were shadowy behind-the-scenes fig-
  ures. Giovanni was descended from Catarina Sforza and
  Giovanni il Popolano. Giovanni showed a talent for warfare
  early in life; he is said to have first killed a man in his early teens.
  He became a mercenary at the age of 18, frequently employed by
  his cousin, Pope Leo X. He was a successful and dashing cavalry
  officer, but he died at the age of 28 from an infection resulting
  from battle wounds. Though his death didn’t mark the end of
  mercenary soldiers, Giovanni became famous in the years that
  followed as the last of the classical condottieri. By the early 16th
  century, increasing numbers of muskets and field artillery were
  rendering heavy cavalry obsolete. His nickname (“of the black
  bands”) came from his adding black marks to his coat of arms
  as a sign of mourning after Leo’s death.
  CATHERINE DE
  MEDICI (1519-1589)
  Catherine was the last descendant of the first Cosimo to
  use the Medici name. She was, perhaps, a natural survivor.
  When the Medici were briefly kicked out of Firenze in 1527,
  the eight-year-old girl was held as a hostage and threatened by
  angry mobs. Surviving that ordeal, she left Italy at 14 to marry
  Henry II, the king of France, bringing with her Italian cuisine
  and Italian fashion, which formed the basis of French high cul-
  ture for centuries to come.
  Catherine was as formidable a politician as her ancestors
  Cosimo and Lorenzo. Like her great-great-great-grandfather,
  she had a talent for ruling behind the scenes. Through her sons
  (the kings Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III), she was effec-
  tively the ruler of France until her death. Through a series of
  marriages, she was the lynchpin of a set of in-laws and cousins
  ruling most of Europe for decades thereafter.
  GRAND DUKE COSIMO I 
  DE MEDICI (1519-1574)
  Though only a teenager when he rose to power, Cosimo
  displayed not only the confidence of his ancestors but also, at
  last, some of their ability. Despite coming from the minor
  branch of the family, he accomplished a lot in his lifetime. He
  managed to take control of the city. He disposed of his few
  remaining challengers (both the last descendents of the first
  Cosimo and a number of republican exiles). He founded a
  navy, and he conquered Sienna, giving Firenze hegemony
  over all of Toscana. His rule was sufficiently secure that he
  was able to go into semi-retirement in the mid-1560s, letting
  his son Francesco run things.
  Far from presenting himself as a man of the people as his
  ancestors did, this Cosimo acted as a true aristocrat. Like
  many other rulers who didn’t trust their subjects, he obtained
  a bodyguard of Swiss troops; with no ties connecting them to
  local factions and no backing by the people, they had little
  incentive to betray him. Supported by heavy taxes, he also
  built a number of new structures supporting his new govern-
  ment. In addition to moving the offices of the government
  from the Palazzo dei Signoria, the symbolic fortress of repub-
  licanism, into the newly built Uffizi, he constructed the
  Vasari corridor. This corridor permitted him to move without
  touching or seeing the common people, the exact opposite of
  the policy of his ancient namesake.
  NOTABLE PEOPLE
  21
  FOREIGN DIGNITARIES
  Mercenaries, popes, and kings – these prominent people
  might require bodyguards, soldiers, or spies.
  FRANCESCO SFORZA
  (1401-1466)
  Francesco Sforza was one of the great mercenary success sto-
  ries. Born in Toscana, he was the son of a condottiero, and he
  took up the family business at an early age. He was also a minor
  nobleman; he was granted a small territory of his own in his
  early teens. He was famed for feats of strength early in his career,
  bending bars and lifting heavy objects, but he rose rapidly in
  political prominence because of his skills as a battlefield leader.
  He fought for (and against) just about every significant power in
  Italy, becoming particularly honored in the service of Milano.
  During that time, as was common for important condottieri, he
  received authority over a number of towns in the area.
  In 1450, after several years of economic crisis, the govern-
  ment of Milano asked Francesco to step in as duke. It turned
  out to be a good choice – Francesco became as effective a ruler
  as he was a general. Not only did he quell unrest and bring
  Milano into a more prosperous period, he expanded the city’s
  territory to include long-time rival Genoa.
  In addition to being one of the architects of the Treaty of
  Lodi, Francesco was a long-time friend and ally of Cosimo de
  Medici. The association of the Medici and the Sforzas lasted
  beyond the deaths of both Cosimo and Francesco, to the point
  where Milanese retaliation was often a danger to anyone plot-
  ting against the Medici.
  My courage is as great as yours.
  – Catherine de Medici
  
  POPE ALEXANDER VI 
  (1431-1503)
  Born to a noble Spanish family, Roderic de Borja came to
  Roma not long after the elevation of his uncle to the papacy as
  Calixtus III. Roderic himself became pope in 1492 after a con-
  tentious election that involved carefully arranged political
  deals and bribery on all sides. (Funding was supplied by a
  number of governments, each with their own favorite candi-
  date.) Roderic, now Alexander, quickly moved on to putting rel-
  atives into positions of wealth and authority. (This included his
  illegitimate children, who were among the first to be acknowl-
  edged by a sitting pope.) To support them, he started expand-
  ing the Papal States into southern and east-central Italy. He
  was only moderately successful in the face of alliances of
  Italian powers against him and the 1494 French invasion.
  However, the brutal means he used and his openly corrupt
  administration became a scandal across the peninsula. When
  he died after a brief but painful illness, he was only grudgingly
  accepted for burial at St. Peter’s basilica, and his body was
  removed to Spain not long thereafter.
  Though his reputation was somewhat exaggerated,
  Alexander was known as the most corrupt of popes, entirely
  ignoring spiritual matters in favor of empire-building and
  other worldly pursuits. His most lasting achievement, though,
  was his 1493 division of the New World between Portugal
  (which got Brazil) and Spain (which got everything else).
  CHARLES VIII, KING OF
  FRANCE (1470-1498)
  Charles became king at the age of 12. During the regency of
  his older sister Anne, a revolt by a number of noblemen was
  firmly put down, leaving Charles with a free hand and a full
  treasury when he came of age.
  Short, unattractive, and in chronically poor health, Charles
  didn’t present a regal image. He also had a reputation for not
  being very bright, though his enemies probably underesti-
  mated him. Certainly, he was canny enough not to try to con-
  quer all of Italy as he went, tying down his forces with
  occupation and garrison duties. 
  NOTABLE PEOPLE
  22
  Though they might be used as Allies, these historical fig-
  ures are probably better used as Contacts or Patrons. Values
  as Patrons are indicated here, along with hints at skill levels.
  As a Contact, Cosimo has the highest Administration,
  Diplomacy, Finance, and Politics skills in the campaign, as
  well as a high level of Current Affairs. For bribes, he prefers
  to deal in favors rather than money; he’s one of the richest
  men in Europe, so he hardly needs more money. As a
  Patron, he has a base cost of 25 points.
  Lorenzo has exceptionally high Connoisseur, Current
  Affairs, Diplomacy, and Politics skills; good Administration,
  Poetry, and Philosophy; but only moderate Finance skill
  despite being immensely rich. Being fond of sports and
  hunting, he also has better than average physical traits and
  combat skills. He has a base cost of 25 points as a Patron.
  As a Contact, Savonarola has a high Public Speaking
  skill, though he is likely to be offended by bribery attempts.
  During the mid-1490s, Savonarola is head of the local
  Dominican order, during which time he is a Patron worth
  10 points. However, by 1498, his clients may find them-
  selves acquiring enemies.
  Catarina Sforza has good Strategy and Tactics skill, and
  if some conjectures about her are true, tolerable fighting
  skills as well. Until her exile to Firenze, she has a base cost
  of 10 points as a Patron.
  If used as a Contact, Machiavelli has a high Administra-
  tion skill and very good Current Affairs. If it becomes appli-
  cable, he also has high Writing and Philosophy skills.
  During his years in government, he might qualify as a 10-
  point Patron.
  When she becomes queen of France, Catherine de
  Medici is worth 30 points as a Patron, though she’s far from
  Firenze when that happens.
  Giovanni dalle Bande Nere has a high ST and excellent
  fighting and military leadership skills. However, he’s only
  worth 10 points as a Patron.
  Cosimo I has Diplomacy and Politics skills approaching
  those of his ancestors, as well as above-average physical
  traits and fighting skills. He is worth 20 points as a Patron.
  Francesco Sforza has high Strategy and Politics skills, as
  well as excellent physical traits and fighting skills. He is
  worth 20 points as a Patron.
  Alexander VI is worth 30 points as a Patron.
  Charles VIII is worth 25 points as a Patron.
  While he has his father’s support, Cesare is worth 15
  points as a Patron, but he probably has Bloodlust and pos-
  sibly Bad Temper or something like Paranoia as well. Rely-
  ing on him too much invites trouble. (To be fair, Cesare
  isn’t out of touch with reality; it’s Renaissance Italy, so peo-
  ple probably are plotting against him.)
  Most of the artists presented here have negligible value
  as Patrons or Allies (while directing construction on the
  Duomo, Brunelleschi might make an appearance as a very
  inexpensive Patron). However, young artists may have
  them as employers. If used as Contacts, most have, at best,
  one or two moderate social skills, but all have at least one
  Artist specialty at 20+.
  Many of the artists (most notably Leonardo) not only
  never married, they had close relationships with male
  pupils, leading to speculation that they may have been
  homosexual. If true, they may qualify for a Secret, though
  that would be, at worst, a -5-point disadvantage in cosmo-
  politan Firenze; despite a special court to investigate
  sodomy and tens of thousands of trials, hardly anyone was
  actually punished.
  Contacts and Patrons
  
  Nevertheless, his ambitions outstripped his abilities, and
  his invasion of Italy turned out to be a bad idea. One of the fac-
  tors motivating his move against Napoli was a desire to estab-
  lish a base from which he could kick off a Crusade and retake
  Jerusalem. However, even ignoring that the last Crusade had
  ended in failure two centuries earlier, Charles overextended his
  kingdom’s finances by raising a large army and marching them
  up and down the Italian peninsula. He was planning a second
  invasion of Italy when he died after an accidental fall. Though
  it was little consolation, Charles did manage to establish ties
  with Firenze that lasted until the rise of the Medici dukes.
  CESARE BORGIA
  (1476-1507)
  The illegitimate son of Cardinal Roderic de Borja, Cesare
  was long associated with Papal territories and the ambitions of
  Alexander VI. Cesare was another teenage bishop and cardinal,
  but his career as a cleric came to an abrupt end when his older
  brother, who was being groomed as Alexander’s standard-
  bearer in the field, was assassinated in 1497. In the aftermath,
  Cesare traded his cardinal’s hat for a duchy in southern France
  and became the pope’s military commander. He spent the next
  several years enlarging Papal holdings in southern and eastern
  Italy, with definite designs on Toscana.
  Cesare employed Leonardo da Vinci in 1502-1503, during
  which time he also met Machiavelli, inspiring large portions of
  The Prince. In 1503, Julius II became pope, and Cesare, who
  proved of little use to Julius, lost his backing. Cesare was
  arrested and held prisoner for several years in Roma and
  Spain. When he was released, he served as an officer for the
  king of Navarre and was killed in action.
  Though graceful and handsome, Cesare shares a notorious
  reputation 
  with 
  his 
  sister
  Lucrezia. He certainly broke
  promises under which people
  surrendered to him, and he used
  treachery as a weapon against
  some of the cities he attacked. He
  is also believed, with less cer-
  tainty, to have been involved in a
  number of poisonings and assas-
  sinations, including that of his
  own older brother. Cesare was an
  intriguing figure when encoun-
  tered, but people around him
  tended to have short lives.
  NOTABLE PEOPLE
  23
  ARTISTS
  Artists rarely make good Patrons or Allies, but they might
  help as Contacts or employers. They also might need assis-
  tance with obtaining materials, which is especially risky dur-
  ing times of strife.
  FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI
  (1377-1446)
  The son of a minor Florentine public official, Brunelleschi
  was more inclined to the arts than his family’s legal practice. As
  a young man, Brunelleschi traveled to Roma in 1404 to exam-
  ine surviving Roman architecture, but he spent most of his
  career working in Firenze, often associated with the Medici.
  Though he was a reasonably successful painter, he was more
  skilled as an architect, engineer, and mathematician. His most
  visible work is the dome of the Duomo, which,
  in addition to being an architectural marvel
  on its own, required the invention of a num-
  ber of novel lifting devices. He was also
  responsible for the discovery around 1415 of
  perspective and the vanishing point. Tracing
  the outlines of buildings as they appeared on
  mirrors, 
  Brunelleschi 
  discovered 
  that
  straight lines ultimately converged at a point
  on the horizon. Soon, the use of perspective
  and the realistic vistas it produced came to
  dominate Renaissance painting.
  Brunelleschi was gifted in his trade and
  supremely competent in his abilities.
  During the competition to determine who
  would get the contract to build the dome on
  the Duomo, Brunelleschi submitted a model lacking a few
  essential details. When questioned, he pointed out that if he
  revealed all of his plans, anyone could build it, and there
  would be no reason to hire him.
  Brunelleschi had a sharp personality, but even his other-
  wise worshipful biographer admitted that he was not an
  attractive man.
  DONATELLO (1386-1466)
  Donatello was a leading sculptor, working largely in
  bronze, though he produced some works in marble as well.
  He was also a good friend of Brunelleschi and accompanied
  him to Roma on his 1404 trip. Donatello was closely associ-
  ated with Cosimo de Medici, for whom he produced a num-
  ber of important works, including a bronze David and parts
  of the San Lorenzo church.
  Donatello was a loyal and gener-
  ous friend and an excellent artist but
  a poor businessman. In his old age,
  he was unable to support himself in a
  suitable fashion and had no family to
  help take care of him (he never mar-
  ried), so Piero de Medici gave him a
  profitable farm. However, even run-
  ning that was contrary to Donatello’s
  nature, as was country living, and
  within a year, he wanted to return it
  to his patron. Piero understandingly
  took the farm back and granted a
  monetary pension instead.
  
  ALLESANDRO
  BOTTICELLI (1445-1510)
  Except for a brief interlude in Roma in the 1480s, Botticelli
  spent his life in and around Firenze, often working for the
  Medici (at least one of his most famous works, the
  “Primavera,” was a Medici commission, and his “Birth of
  Venus” may have been as well). Primarily a painter, he also
  wrote a bit, even illustrating his own commentary on Dante.
  His style combined Renaissance and earlier Gothic conven-
  tions, using strong contours but gentle shading.
  Botticelli is another great artist of the period who never
  married. He was very much caught up by Savonarola’s preach-
  ing and is believed to have destroyed several of his own paint-
  ings. However, rejecting art is not a viable position for a
  professional painter, so he was at or near poverty for several
  years. He resumed his old profession after Savonarola’s fall,
  but between his association with the Medici and Savonarola,
  he had acquired a number of political enemies.
  LEONARDO DA
  VINCI (1452-1519)
  Leonardo was born in Vinci, a small town about 10 miles
  from Firenze just over the city’s western hills. As a boy, he
  apprenticed in a studio associated with a number of important
  artists, including Botticelli, where he became a pioneer in the
  new medium of oil paint. In 1482, Lorenzo de Medici sent
  Leonardo with some of his artwork to present to the Duke of
  Milano as part of a diplomatic expedition. He spent most of the
  remainder of his career away from Firenze, returning intermit-
  tently between 1500 and 1508. He divided the last decade of his
  life between Milano, Roma, and Paris, where he worked for
  King Francois I.
  During his career, Leonardo repeatedly crossed paths with
  many contemporary artists, most notably Michelangelo and
  Raphael. He also worked for Cesare Borgia in 1502-1503, was
  a friend of Machiavelli, and had a considerable reputation as
  an artist and engineer during his lifetime. Contemporary schol-
  ars, though, tended to disregard his more scientific and philo-
  sophical works because of his poor command of Latin.
  MICHELANGELO
  (1475-1564)
  Michelangelo was born in a town near Arezzo, the son of a
  minor Florentine official. Like da Vinci, he was apprenticed to
  a Florentine art school and began working locally once he was
  old enough. A client of the Medici (Piero is said to have com-
  missioned him to construct a snowman), Michelangelo found it
  expedient to work briefly in Bologna and Venice as Charles VIII
  approached the city, but he returned by the end of
  the year. After a brief sojourn in Roma and the
  death of Savonarola, he was able to find more
  work in his home city. In 1504, he produced his
  famous statue of David. The next year brought him
  back to Roma, where he would soon begin work
  on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
  Michelangelo did not get along with his con-
  temporaries, and he actively disliked both
  Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. He believed, for
  example, that supporters of Raphael were respon-
  sible for putting him to work on the Sistine
  Chapel (doing painting although he was more
  skilled as a sculptor) in order to make Raphael
  look better by comparison.
  RAPHAEL SANZIO
  (1483-1520)
  Raphael spent most of his early life in Urbino,
  but he lived most of the years 1504 through 1508
  in and around Firenze. Primarily a painter, he
  was particularly influenced by Leonardo da
  Vinci. He duplicated much of da Vinci’s use of
  color and his experimental approach to anatomy.
  From Firenze, he moved to Roma, where he
  eventually died.
  Unlike many other artists of his age, who
  tended to be flighty, ill-tempered, or both, Raphael
  was even-tempered, courteous, and hard working.
  He ran an enormous workshop of assistants with
  little trouble and was very close to Pope Leo X. He
  also had a reputation as a rake; though he never
  married, he accumulated a great many mistresses.
  NOTABLE PEOPLE
  24
  Adventure Seed:
  Brunelleschi’s Dome
  Many of Brunelleschi’s innovations in building the dome of the
  Duomo have been lost to history, so learning his secrets would be a
  large, colorful feather in the cap of any time-traveling historian. Con-
  temporary humanist mystics, combining knowledge of math and
  engineering with a near-religious devotion to Platonic forms, might
  also speculate that Brunelleschi’s scaffolding-free design was taking
  advantage of powerful sacred geometries, allowing brick and stone to
  defy gravity and adhere to one another even before being mortared.
  The biggest obstacle, of course, is Brunelleschi himself. He knows his
  secrets are valuable and he wants to keep them. He won’t allow casual
  visitors to the site, and anyone seen trying to inspect the work close
  up will be urged to move along, probably by Brunelleschi hurling
  bricks and sending burly masons to forcibly
  remove the offender. Even the technological
  superiority of time travelers will only be some-
  what useful; the best telephoto lens won’t
  reveal what’s going on inside the dome. Will
  investigators pose as members of the
  work crew? Or will they sneak in 
  at night, climbing up perilous stairways
  in the dark
  and 
  hoping
  the 
  glow 
  of 
  lanterns
  won’t attract
  unwelcome
  attention?
  
  . . . Of the food, perhaps I should say little, for even the
  thought of such things may revive your indigestion. Spices are to
  be had at favorable prices here in good quality, so they are much
  used. Likewise, wine of quality is easily had. A variety of meats
  and birds are plentiful in this season, though they cook them
  with many herbs rather than roasting them plainly. All might be
  well were it not for a dish of which all are exceedingly fond, a
  bowl of long strings like worms made from a paste of flour . . . 
  . . . Of the many sights this city offers, the greatest is their
  cathedral. Never have I seen a church so grand, not even in Rome
  itself. The windows are not so great as at Paris, nor does the
  church present such a forest of pillars and arches, but the height
  of the building seems greater than any other I have seen, and the
  vast expanses of figures of saints and respected men presents a
  truly heavenly prospect.
  DAILY LIFE
  25
  CHAPTER FIVE
  DAILY LIFE
  CLOTHING
  Clothing was a good indicator of social class. Despite the
  profusion of hue around them, the poor wore plain-colored
  clothing, usually black or brown. A typical member of the
  lower classes wore a long, hooded cloak with sleeves; a shirt;
  a belt; hose; and leather shoes. Members of the middle classes
  dressed in similar outfits augmented with a tight-fitting
  jacket under the robe and a brimless cap, often with ribbons
  hanging from the back. The upper classes had similar attire,
  but made from finer cloth in more colors. Cloaks of the well-
  to-do included a hood, a flap that could be pulled over the left
  side of the face, and a sort of false sash on the right shoulder.
  Soldiers and low-class toughs wore capes rather than long
  cloaks or robes. The middle and upper classes also sported a
  variety of chains, ribbons, and colorful buttons, as their
  wealth allowed.
  Sumptuary laws technically prohibited certain kinds of
  elaborate clothing such as dresses with long trains, but the
  laws were widely ignored. Officials charged with enforcing
  sumptuary laws wrote of their frustration: If the number of
  buttons on a garment was restricted, garments would have
  decorative studs that looked like buttons but weren’t actually
  fasteners. If it was illegal to trim a hood with lace, a cloak
  might have a second hood made of lace under the first, giving
  it the same appearance. Women’s outfits were particularly
  elaborate, with finely detailed figurative embroidery (evading
  laws against painted clothing), low-cut bodices, long trains,
  high-heeled shoes, and other embellishments. Despite constant
  outcry from outraged moralists that the women of Firenze
  dressed as harlots, even Savonarola couldn’t rein in the
  Florentines’ voracious appetite for new fashions.
  FOOD
  Wheat bread formed the core of the diets of the middle and
  upper classes. The poor consumed low-grade wheat and barley
  in various forms, while the rustic poor, surrounded by forests,
  consumed quantities of chestnuts. Meat was mostly from
  smaller animals: lamb, kid, and a variety of poultry (pheasant
  was a particularly prized bird). Fish were a staple, particularly
  since, in Catholic Europe, meat was prohibited on Fridays and
  during Lent. Wine was also consumed in quantity. It was not
  necessarily drunk to get intoxicated; rather, wine was safer
  than many water supplies. Coffee was just starting to come
  into use and was still rather exotic during this period.
  In the upper and middle classes, dishes were often heavily
  flavored with spices. The availability of pepper, cinnamon, and
  other seasonings in large quantities was still relatively new and
  cooks experimented lavishly. Sugar was used much like a spice
  as well. Pasta had been introduced to Italy centuries earlier
  (broad pasta shapes resembling lasagna are probably at least
  as old as the 12th century, and spaghetti followed a century
  later). It was popular in the upper and middle classes.
  However, it didn’t become a staple of the Italian diet until
  semolina flour became relatively cheap early in the 19th cen-
  tury. It was associated with luxury-loving upper classes to the
  point where puritanical priests sermonized against eating
  dishes of macaroni rich with garlic and cheese.
  A number of other items associated with Italian food,
  though, did not yet exist in the Renaissance. Tomatoes and red
  peppers, for example, had not yet been introduced from 
  the New World. Likewise, polenta, based as it is on cornmeal,
  hadn’t been invented, let alone become a staple of lower-class
  diets. There was, though, a mush made of wheat or barley that
  filled a similar dietary role. On the other hand, Parmesan
  cheese existed and was highly praised.
  
  Florentines were among the first people in the West to use
  forks at the table. A Byzantine princess married to a Florentine
  aristocrat introduced this utensil. Nevertheless, it was, at first,
  something of a fad among the wealthy. Lower classes generally
  ate their simpler meals with a spoon and eating knife.
  There were typically two meals, one at mid-morning and
  one late in the evening. The day’s first meal was relatively light,
  often bread and fruit (often in the form of jam or a preserve),
  supplemented by greens and herbs. The later meal was far
  more substantial, with more dishes and more protein.
  DAILY LIFE
  26
  RELIGION
  During this entire period, Italy was emphatically Catholic,
  even after the Protestant Reformation began in 1517. Early in
  the Renaissance, up to 3% of the city’s population may have
  been clergy (twice as many as Italy’s already relatively high
  average). That percentage grew slowly through the period.
  Every guild had a patron saint, and rich men demonstrated
  their wealth and virtue by paying for new churches and reno-
  vations of old ones.
  At the same time, though, there was a strong thread of anti-
  clericalism, or distrust of the Church’s authority. Membership
  in the Church did not immediately imply agreement with all of
  its practices and policies, as demonstrated by Savonarola. This
  was partly due to a growing materialism on the part of worldly
  merchants and the educated class to which they belonged.
  These people became skeptical about some of the Church’s
  more outdated or dubious ideas (reconsidered in the light of
  better philosophical tools gleaned from Classical sources).
  Italians also had a front-row seat for problems that shook the
  Church at the end of the Middle Ages. During the late 14th and
  early 15th century, the Church had dueling popes in Roma and
  Avignon, which could easily make one doubtful about the
  authority of the Papacy. Indulgences (fees for forgiveness from
  sins) turned the Church into a marketplace, and many upper
  clergy clearly enjoyed the lavish lifestyle that donations to the
  Church provided them. The politicization of the Papacy, in
  which the Medici were frequently players, made it easy to
  sneer at the spirituality of the Church leadership.
  Consequently, corrupt priests and monks were commonly the
  butt of jokes and occasionally targets of mob violence.
  Florentine clergy showed considerable independence from
  Rome. While the pope placed Firenze under interdict several
  times during the Renaissance, Firenze’s priests could often be
  persuaded to celebrate Mass, officiate at weddings, perform
  last rites, and hear confession anyway.
  Members of other religions were rare. Protestants typically
  were imprisoned or exiled. The best the Protestants could do
  was establish an alliance with a schismatic Waldensian minor-
  ity in the far north, still well away from Toscana.
  Given Firenze’s trade links with the east, Muslim visitors
  from the Ottoman Empire and Egypt were unusual but not
  unprecedented. Sicily had a vestigial Muslim population left
  over from a brief period of Moorish domination in the 10th
  century, and Venice had a small resident Muslim community.
  There was a scattering of Muslims elsewhere in Italy. For
  instance, Pope Alexander VI hosted the brother of the Ottoman
  sultan for several years as a diplomatic hostage.
  In 1427, Firenze hosted a conference attempting to recon-
  cile the Catholic and Orthodox churches, which meant visits by
  Orthodox Byzantines, including the Byzantine emperor him-
  self. Likewise, some Orthodox refugees from the collapse of the
  Byzantine empire visited town from time to time. However, the
  most frequently encountered non-Catholics in Firenze were
  Jews. Indeed, until Savonarola had the Jews expelled, Firenze
  was an important center of Jewish learning and Hebraic schol-
  arship. Often restricted from other lucrative jobs, Jews also
  made up the bulk of Firenze’s pawnbroking industry.
  LIFE OF THE MIND
  The major philosophical movement of the age was human-
  ism. Humanism grew out of an interest in pre-Christian letters,
  specifically in Greek and Roman authors. In contrast to
  medieval philosophy, which was based almost entirely on
  purely Christian thinkers with distant echoes of Aristotle, the
  humanists were heavily influenced by Plato (whose works were
  being rediscovered) and importantly if more subtly by the
  whole range of Classical poets and other authors. In their
  enthusiasm for Classical antiquity, humanists also “invented”
  the Middle Ages. They regarded the Classical period as the high
  point of human civilization and their own era as an attempt to
  return to it. The intervening thousand years was a benighted
  “middle age” of ignorance.
  Adventure Seed:
  Cardinal Sin
  The lovely daughter of a noble house is found
  strangled to death during the visit of a cardinal from
  Roma, who was negotiating a delicate agreement with
  the Florentine government. The PCs are charged 
  with quietly finding the murderer to avoid a scandal.
  It quickly becomes apparent that the murderer was
  someone in the cardinal’s party, if not the cardinal
  himself. Heroes with a strong sense of duty will, of
  course, be unhappy when some members of the Sig-
  noria try to shut down the investigation for fear of
  ruining the ongoing negotiations.
  
  It became possible to discuss beauty and
  learning as virtues desirable in themselves and
  ethics as a separate subject from pure
  Christian morality. Machiavelli’s The Prince
  was the most notorious example of this idea,
  since it discussed how to rule effectively and
  not, necessarily, ruling virtuously. In dealing
  with new and conflicting versions of Classical
  texts, the humanists developed methods of
  textual criticism that became politically
  charged when they were applied to alternative
  versions of Scripture. None of this is to say
  that the humanists rejected Christianity.
  Indeed, many prominent humanists were
  priests or theologians and all accepted the pri-
  macy of Christian thought. However, the ideas
  and techniques of humanism were regarded
  as touching on some areas more immediately
  and effectively than medieval theology.
  Like a handful of other major cities,
  Firenze had a university, chartered in 1321. By
  the 15th century, it was well-established as a
  leading school of theology. Like other univer-
  sities of the period, it was an organization of
  educated men, essentially a scholars’ guild,
  which did not own buildings or a campus.
  Since leading scholars and their students could provide politi-
  cal enemies with rhetorical ammunition, the Medici moved
  some of the faculty to Pisa in the 1470s and again in the early
  16th century, where they’d be a less immediate problem.
  Although Firenze was a center of learning and the written
  word, it was slow to establish printing presses. Presses were
  regarded as cheap and low-class compared to the fine art of
  hand copying. Indeed, Firenze was the birthplace of italic cur-
  sive handwriting in the early 15th century, a faster, more effi-
  cient script than the blocky “black letter” styles of handwriting
  popular at the time. The city didn’t have its first press until
  near the end of the 15th century, years after the other major
  Italian cities had adopted theirs. Nevertheless, new books from
  all over quickly made their way to Firenze, and prominent men
  of the period owned extensive libraries.
  One of the most significant authors in Firenze – Dante
  Alighieri – died long before this period. His most famous work,
  Divine Comedy, had few fans among intellectuals. After all, it
  was written in mere Italian rather than proper Latin, and the
  somewhat mystical, deeply Christian content didn’t interest
  dedicated humanists. However, it was very accessible to and
  well-liked by the ordinary man on the street; most Florentines
  could recite at least a few lines of his verse.
  Dante’s renown extended beyond Firenze and Toscana. The
  popularity of the Divine Comedy is credited by some as an
  influence on the Tuscan dialect becoming a large part of stan-
  dard Italian in later years.
  LANGUAGES
  Through most of history, Italian has been not a single lan-
  guage, but a collection of dialects; modern “standard” Italian
  is the product of 19th-century political unification and 20th-
  century mass communication. Toscano, the dialect of
  Firenze, is a major influence on modern Italian, but it didn’t
  achieve dominance during the Renaissance. Renaissance
  Italian could be divided into many
  dialects, and each major city had
  its own. Besides Toscano, there
  were 
  Ligurian 
  (Genoa),
  Lombardic 
  (Milano), 
  Veneto
  (Venezia), Romanesco (Roma),
  and Campano (Napoli). Other
  regional dialects include Emiliano
  and Romagnolo in northeastern
  Italy, Calabrese in the far south,
  Umbrian in the region between
  Roma and Toscana, and many
  others.
  Separate dialects should be
  treated as different languages, but
  familiarization with one helps with
  the others. Someone who knows
  one can write or speak other
  dialects of the same region at one
  level of fluency lower. For example,
  someone Native with Toscano is
  Accented with Ligurian. However,
  the dialects of the north and south
  (for these purposes, a dividing line
  can be drawn just south of Roma)
  were sufficiently different that
  knowing a dialect from one region provides fluency two steps
  lower for dialects from the other. Thus, someone Native with
  Toscano is Broken in Calabrese.
  Because of a high level of international trade and French,
  German, and Spanish involvement in Italian politics, all of
  those nations’ languages were frequently encountered.
  Languages from elsewhere in Christendom (for example,
  English or Swedish) were used occasionally, though it may be
  difficult to find native speakers.
  Latin was the international language of the Church, the dom-
  inant language of philosophy and scholarship, and the preferred
  language for writers. Any even vaguely serious scholar or poet
  knew at least a little, and a good priest could speak it. Hebrew
  was known as well, though not as widely.
  It was harder to find languages that weren’t used in
  European scholarship. Greek was not well understood in west-
  ern Europe at the beginning of the Renaissance. A few schol-
  ars owned books written in Greek but complained that no one
  could read them. By the beginning of the 15th century, though,
  visiting Byzantines had begun to reintroduce Greek into the
  West (mostly in Italy), and a handful of Western scholars stud-
  ied in Constantinople. The first Italian text on Greek grammar
  was published in Firenze in 1484.
  Given Firenze’s involvement with the East, Arabic and
  Turkish speakers visited from time to time, but they were be
  the exception rather than the rule. Other than some Arabic
  works possessed by a few Italians, manuscripts in Arabic
  were not widely owned or translated. One of the few non-
  Europeans to reside in Italy for any length of time in this era
  was Leo Africanus, a Moorish scholar and diplomat born in
  Andalusia, educated in Morocco, and captured by European
  pirates. He converted to Christianity, probably a necessity for
  any resident of Europe, became a favorite of Pope Leo X, and
  wrote a well-known if somewhat questionable geography of
  Africa. (The errors were not his fault; early transcribers
  embellished on Leo’s manuscript.)
  DAILY LIFE
  27
  
  Most buildings within the city walls were made of kiln-fired
  clay brick or, in poorer areas, sun-dried mud brick, with
  wooden or tile roofs. Expensive edifices, including churches
  and the palazzos of the wealthy, were made from stone.
  Building laws discouraged wooden structures and prohibited
  thatched roofs, both of which pose severe fire hazards.
  The typical construction was three or four stories tall. High
  ceilings were common if the builder could afford them – a
  three-story palazzo might be 60 feet tall. Main living quarters
  were on the lower floors. Upper stories and the occasional cel-
  lar were used for storage.
  Buildings were mostly unpainted or stuccoed, but they
  might be decorated with flowers or banners indicating polit-
  ical, religious, or familial affiliations. Windows were tall and
  narrow. Since window glass was still quite expensive, win-
  dows were typically covered with panes of oiled linen, which
  lets in light but keeps out weather. The linen might be glazed
  in wealthier homes. Doors were often ornately carved and
  embellished.
  In contrast with their plain facades, buildings could be very
  elaborately decorated inside, particularly churches and the
  homes of the wealthy. Rooms typically featured paintings, tap-
  estries, and statuary, as well as ceilings by painted frescoes,
  perhaps depicting heaven or the stars of the night sky.
  A feature of architecture all over the Mediterranean is that
  almost every cluster of small homes or large building has at
  least one courtyard with rooms built around it. That was true
  of Firenze as well. People slept indoors, but most work and
  entertaining and some cooking took place outside. The court-
  yard offered a cool, shaded place away from the noise and traf-
  fic of the city streets while providing more wall space for
  windows to light the dim interiors. In bigger structures, court-
  yards were often lined with sheltered walkways and, with tall
  buildings, a ring of balconies as well. Large buildings often had
  small balconies facing the streets and piazzas.
  A common feature in Renaissance Italian architecture was
  a freestanding, roofed colonnade. In Italian, it’s called a loggia,
  though similar structures can be found in any warm climate
  (for example, the very similar stoa is ubiquitous in Classical
  Greek architecture). The roof provides shelter from the sun
  and occasional rain, while the open sides allow air circulation.
  Narrow loggias appeared as porches attached to the sides of
  buildings, while wide ones, as in the Mercato Nuovo, comfort-
  ably roofed over large areas.
  Shops and other places of business were often built into the
  ground floor of homes. Even the Medici Palazzo had a public
  entrance and an area where business could be transacted.
  However, the primary office of the Medici bank was located in
  the Mercato Nuovo.
  In addition to homes and shops, Firenze had a great many
  religious institutions. Most streets had at least one church,
  small shrine, or monastic institution. (The city was home to
  over 100 small institutions.) There were several “hospitals,”
  which at the time meant charity homes for travelers and the
  poor. Florentines also made a virtue of cleanliness, and the city
  had four public bathhouses.
  DAILY LIFE
  28
  IMPORTANT BUILDINGS
  Buildings in Firenze varied in height from single-story
  dwellings to the huge cathedral. For more information about
  structures within the city, see p. 6.
  THE DUOMO
  The skyline of Renaissance Firenze was dominated by its
  cathedral, the Basilica de Santa Maria de Fiore or, as it is gener-
  ally known, il Duomo (“duomo” simply means a church that as
  been used as a cathedral at some point). Through most of the
  Renaissance, the Duomo was the biggest Catholic church in the
  world (500 feet long by 300 feet wide, 75 feet high for the most
  part but nearly 300 feet high at the top of the dome). It became
  second only to St. Peter’s in Rome at the end of the 16th century.
  Even by itself, Brunelleschi’s octagonal dome is an architec-
  tural marvel. It remains the largest masonry dome in the
  world, and the double-shelled design was built without scaf-
  folding, using specially designed chains to maintain proper
  internal tensions.
  Unlike more northerly Gothic-period cathedrals, it does not
  have long vistas of stained-glass windows (it has some stained
  glass windows, but not to the extent of more northern architec-
  ture) or gargoyle-decorated flying buttresses protruding from
  the exterior. Instead, it is encased in light-colored marble pan-
  els and has just a few small, if exquisite, windows to keep the
  inside dim and refreshingly cool during the day. The southwest
  corner of this cross-shaped building (the bottom right corner
  of the cross) has a square, 90-yard-tall bell tower. A large octag-
  onal baptistery sits immediately to the west.
  THE PALAZZO
  DELLA SIGNORIA
  Also called the Palazzo dei Priori, Palazzo Vecchio (“old
  palace,” after Grand Duke Cosimo moved the seat of govern-
  ment to the Uffizi), and other names depending on how it was
  being used at the time, this building was the seat of Firenze’s
  government. The four-story structure is a mix of new and old
  construction, with the tower and a nearby palazzo being
  incorporated into a single building. It incorporates two court-
  yards; some wide, open shafts for light; a few large galleries
  for ceremonies and large meetings; and a great many smaller
  rooms to use as individual offices and, when necessary, resi-
  dences. It was also decorated by several of the better artists
  active during the period.
  HOMES AND SHOPS
  
  The tower was a common feature of medieval Italian archi-
  tecture. Every important family had its own defensive tower
  where it could take refuge against attacks and survey the town.
  By the Renaissance, most towers had passed away and new
  construction was intended more for industry and comfort than
  warfare. However, since the Palazzo della Signoria retained
  some of its defensive function, that tower remained. The tower
  was equipped with a single-handed clock facing the piazza (the
  current two-handed clock was installed in the 17th century). It
  also contained small prison cells that held, at various times,
  Cosimo de Medici and Savonarola.
  UFFIZI PALACE
  This was the last major building undertaken during the
  period. The name of the building means “the offices.” It was
  commissioned by Grand Duke Cosimo to replace the Palazzo
  della Signoria as the center of Firenze’s government. The long,
  narrow, U-shaped structure was constructed to resemble an
  idealized city street. The ground floor had a long, colonnaded
  gallery all the way around the interior of the U, while upper
  floors were entirely offices and other small rooms.
  OTHER NOTABLE SPOTS
  Palazzo Medici: The Medici palace is notable for its outward
  modesty. The exterior of the three-story building is made of
  rusticated (not entirely smooth) stone, giving it a less grand
  appearance than it might otherwise have. According to con-
  temporary accounts, though, the interior was furnished as
  finely as any other house of the era.
  Mercato Nuovo: One of Firenze’s largest open spaces, the
  Mercato Nuovo was the center of Firenze’s banking industry.
  The Medici and many others set up their tables there. It also
  served as a market for a variety of luxury goods, though all
  food sales were prohibited there. The center of the market
  holds the pietra dello scandalo, or stone of scandal, where
  defaulted debtors were punished. They were stripped from the
  waist down and received a vicious public spanking. In the mid-
  dle of the 16th century, a loggia was constructed in the center
  of the market, providing shelter for merchants.
  Vasari Corridor: This unusual structure is one of the most
  visible symbols of Firenze’s transformation from a republic
  into an autocracy. The corridor consists of sections of elevated,
  sheltered walkway that connect the Palazzo della Signoria and
  the Uffizi palace on one side of the Arno with the Pitti palace
  on the other by way of the Ponte Vecchio. The corridor begins
  with a small section connecting the third floors of the Palazzo
  della Signoria and the Uffizi. The bulk of the corridor goes
  from the Uffizi alongside and then south across the river. It was
  commissioned by Grand Duke Cosimo to allow him and other
  officials to move between important buildings without having
  to expose themselves to the public.
  The Basilica of San Lorenzo: This was essentially the Medici
  family church. It was largely another of Brunelleschi’s projects,
  though a number of other important artists had their hands on
  it at one time or another. Every important Medici from Giovani
  di Bicci through Grand Duke Cosimo and beyond (all but the
  last Grand Duke) was entombed here, as were the sculptor
  Donatello and a handful of other important artists. One of the
  most peculiar aspects of the church is its completely undeco-
  rated brick facade. Brunelleschi died before he could come up
  with a proper design. Decades later, Michelangelo was com-
  missioned to build one, but the project was abruptly canceled
  (though he was later commissioned to construct more monu-
  mental tombs for the Medici buried inside), so the front of the
  church remains undecorated into modern times.
  Palazzo della Bargello: Another fortified building near the
  center of the city, the Bargello was the headquarters of the
  Podesta and Firenze’s criminal court. It also served as a bar-
  racks for the city guard and was adjacent to the Stinche,
  Firenze’s small and, by all accounts, very unpleasant munici-
  pal prison.
  Menagerie: The Medici maintained a small zoo near their
  palazzo. The lion was a particularly favored animal, given
  their symbolism. In 1486, the sultan of Egypt sent Lorenzo
  a giraffe, one of the few to come to Europe since the
  Roman period. It survived less than a year and reportedly
  died when its head became stuck in the rafters of the sta-
  bles where it was kept, breaking its neck. However, the
  giraffe attained a kind of immortality, being represented in
  a handful of paintings.
  DAILY LIFE
  29
  SPECTACLES
  Florentines had a number of pastimes to amuse themselves
  when they weren’t busy engaging in politics or commerce.
  SPORTS AND GAMES
  Florentines enjoyed a number of sports. One of the
  most popular was horse racing. Since Firenze had no
  purpose-built racetracks, jockeys raced through the city
  streets. In a prestigious, regularly staged palio (a race
  named after its prize, an elaborately decorated banner),
  horses entered by both locals and visiting noblemen
  were raced from one end of the city to the other. The
  custom developed of making the horses race without
  jockeys. Cheering spectators kept them moving, though
  they would occasionally crash through the crowds.
  Another, less expensive sport, calcio (football) was popular,
  although the Renaissance version was very different from any
  modern sport. Like soccer, the ball remained in play until a
  goal was scored. Like rugby or American football, it was legal
  to carry and throw the ball as well as kick it.
  Teams were very large, with up to 27 men
  on a side. Pushing, kicking, and punching
  other players were all allowed in order to
  get the ball and score a goal, making the
  game look more like a brawl than a sport.
  During Carnival, young men of the city’s
  leading families would gather in the Piazza
  Santa Croce and play a game that attracted
  huge crowds. It was even played when the
  Spanish besieged the city in 1530.
  
  Other “sporting” events were less sublimated forms of com-
  bat. Despite their republican pretensions and reluctance to
  actually fight, wealthy Florentines staged jousts in the piazzas,
  with full armor and real weapons. Combatants usually
  dropped out if they were wounded, but lasting injuries and
  even deaths were occasionally suffered. During some special
  festivals, hunts of exotic animals were staged in artificial sets
  resembling the countryside.
  BONFIRES OF THE VANITIES
  During the period of Savonarola’s sway over Firenze, games
  and public festivities were replaced by a more peculiar and not
  entirely comfortable kind of spectacle. Citizens were encour-
  aged to collect secular books, indecent artwork, gaming equip-
  ment (such as dice and chessboards), cosmetics, fine clothing,
  and other goods that represented luxury and materialism, pile
  them up, and burn them. Many valuable artworks and books
  were destroyed in the bonfires. Ironically, though, it was also
  how Savonarola was himself executed.
  FESTIVALS
  One of the ways the rich and powerful used their wealth
  and influence was to make a big show of themselves. Pomp
  and circumstance accompanied significant public acts. For
  example, new members of the Signoria took office with a pro-
  cession, so the people of Firenze could be assured of a grand
  parade with banners, relics, and officials in robes of state at
  least every two months.
  Weddings of the rich and powerful were a big
  deal. Celebrations could last for days with enter-
  tainment and staggering feasts for hundreds of
  invited guests, as well as food and alms distributed
  to many of the city’s other residents. Lorenzo de
  Medici’s wedding in 1469 was accompanied by a
  tournament involving 18 men from the city’s fore-
  most families accompanied by crowds of retainers,
  all wearing armor covered by elaborately decorated
  surcoats. The fighting was largely formalized and
  symbolic. Processions, musicians, and endless cer-
  emony accompanied everything. The feast for
  Lorenzo’s sister Lucrezia’s wedding was so
  immense that it required the construction of a new
  kitchen to feed 500 guests.
  The wealthy weren’t the only ones to be involved
  in public festivities. Many holidays saw general cele-
  bration. The feast of St. John the Baptist, Firenze’s
  patron saint, was June 24, and it was a day of
  emphatic civic pride. A procession with models on
  wagons representing towns under Florentine control
  made its way around the Piazza della Signoria, processions of
  people dressed as saints went all over the city, and there were
  two horse races. The one in the morning had horses with rid-
  ers, while the afternoon race involved riderless horses spurred
  on by spiked balls hanging from their sides.
  May Day, not Valentine’s Day, was the holiday for young
  lovers. Unmarried young men hung decorated green branches
  on the doors of women they were fond of. At night, they would
  put on elaborate finery and call to the women to come out to
  them, accompanied by torches and music.
  DAILY LIFE
  30
  OTHER AMUSEMENTS
  The usual amusements of drinking, gambling, music, and
  good companionship were as commonplace in Firenze as they
  are anywhere else, and they faced no particular legal impedi-
  ments beyond the ineffective sumptuary laws. Chess was pop-
  ular, as were gambling games with using dice. Playing cards
  had not yet become cheap enough to be a well-known pastime.
  Despite idealized codes of behavior that maintained that
  women, particularly unmarried women, should stay in their
  homes when not in church, the sexes mingled relatively freely
  for that time. Matchmakers, though, frequently arranged mar-
  riages, and men typically married late in life, if at all.
  Just as the Renaissance yielded vast quantities of visual art, it
  also produced a great deal of music. Many popular instruments
  would be regarded by modern audiences as more medieval 
  than modern, such as the lute (a many-stringed guitar-like
  instrument) and the krumhorn (a reed instrument with a
  buzzing tone similar to that of a bagpipe). However, keyboard
  instruments became increasingly popular, including bellows-
  powered pipe organs and a variety of instruments similar to the
  harpsichord. In the 16th century, Firenze became a center for
  styles of choral music such as the madrigal and the motet, which
  involve multiple voices singing complex sets of separate lines.
  In addition to having no racetracks, Firenze had no pur-
  pose-built theaters. It did, however, have a growing theatrical
  tradition. The religious mystery plays of the Middle Ages were
  giving way to secular plays written by humanist playwrights,
  often in imitation of Greek and Roman originals. Unlike the
  contemporary theaters of northern Europe, actresses were
  allowed on stage instead of having boys and beardless young
  men play female parts.
  Adventure Seed: Vanity,
  Thy Name Is Firenze
  Many items burned under Savonarola were enormously valu-
  able: fine furs, silk garments, books, and so on. Treasure-hunting
  PCs may reason that if other people are getting rid of them, there’s
  no reason why they shouldn’t take them for themselves. The “van-
  ities” were typically collected by Savonarola’s child morality police
  and piled up in public squares. Fleet-footed PCs might snatch
  items from the growing piles or attempt to bribe their guardians.
  (Such attempts are known to have failed miserably; a Venetian
  merchant’s offer of 20,000 florins for the contents of one of the first
  bonfires was turned down and the merchant himself was burned
  in effigy.) They might even try to take them by force, though no one
  should believe the old saying about taking candy from babies, par-
  ticularly not babies at the forefront of a radical social movement.
  
  With so much going on in Firenze, the city has the potential
  to fit neatly into any type of campaign. Whether players seek
  espionage, fighting, politics, or romance, Firenze provides
  many opportunities for any kind of campaign.
  CAMPAIGNS
  31
  CHAPTER SIX
  CAMPAIGNS
  FIRENZE AS DESTINATION
  For outsiders, Firenze has a great deal to offer materially,
  intellectually, and politically. Just about any exotic, high-
  value commodity in Europe can be found in Firenze in quan-
  tities worth shipping. In addition to being a transshipment
  point for items from Africa and the East, it has a booming
  trade in luxury textiles and fine art. Anyone looking for a
  valuable commodity has good reason to visit. For outsiders
  with goods that can’t be found in Europe, Firenze is a reason-
  able place to try to introduce them. Many of Firenze’s wealthy
  inhabitants have a taste for the exotic and the money to make
  bringing it to them worthwhile.
  Since it is a center of scholarship, Firenze is a natural loca-
  tion to search for obscure books or have untranslated texts
  examined. A world-spanning treasure-hunting campaign could
  easily go through Firenze several times as secret journals are
  discovered or maps with peculiar geometry appear.
  Of course, diplomacy is an ongoing concern. Diplomats
  were common visitors, and Firenze hosted international con-
  ferences. Though there was no such conference historically, 
  a meeting between Western and Turkish or Egyptian diplomats
  in Firenze would at least be plausible.
  As a dark counterpart to diplomacy, exiles from other cities
  might use Firenze as a temporary base and meeting place from
  which to organize an uprising in their homeland, and spies
  inevitably shadow regular diplomats.
  All of this activity gives a reason for a broad range of char-
  acter types to get involved in traveling to Firenze: sages in
  search of new or recovered knowledge; merchants looking to
  get rich or use some of their wealth for Firenze’s luxury prod-
  ucts; diplomats and political players coordinating their own
  rise to power; and any hangers-on they might have (such as
  personal physicians and bodyguards).
  Firenze is also well-equipped with inns to host short-term
  visitors, while medium-term temporary residents may be able
  to obtain accommodation at a small monastery. Long-term
  temporary residents, though, are most likely to find a place to
  stay in someone’s house, particularly if they are upper class.
  FIRENZE AS HOME
  Like any other civilized area, Firenze is subject to forces of
  law and order. Characters built with the expectation of doing
  massive violence aren’t likely to find much to do in town; they’ll
  want to go off and rampage through somebody else’s country-
  side (see Military Campaigns, below). Violence at home is typi-
  cally limited to recreational jousting, dueling, riots, and the
  occasional assassination. Firenze itself is better suited to more
  socially oriented campaigns, such as political intrigue or mer-
  cantile activity.
  Any Florentine character, much like any other character
  who stays in one place, is likely to be part of an extensive
  social context. This doesn’t mean that a Florentine character
  must have Allies, Claim to Hospitality, Dependents, Duty or
  Sense of Duty, Enemies, and other social traits, but all char-
  acters of significant social standing will certainly have at least
  a few of those.
  Though they don’t usually figure as adventuring charac-
  ters, artists, scholars, and merchants may be people of con-
  siderable influence. The wealthy are linked to governing
  factions, and given the patronage that Firenze’s ruling class
  provided to scholars and artists, prominent ones will be close
  to the rich and powerful.
  MILITARY CAMPAIGNS
  With the predominance of small wars and small units of
  mercenaries in Renaissance Italian warfare, this is an excel-
  lent setting for a low-tech military campaign. Characters may
  travel all over Italy and fight every kind of military action
  from ambushes to sieges and against everything from
  armored knights to musketeers to rabble armed with rakes.
  
  Most conflicts, particularly in the quattrocento, involved small
  enough units that individual PCs can have a real impact on out-
  comes. It’s quite plausible for a city to seek out and hire a small
  group of specialists, such as one consisting entirely of PCs.
  Successful mercenaries don’t have to be native to the region they
  fight for or even to Italy. The 14th-century English mercenary Sir
  John Hawkwood served as Firenze’s supreme military com-
  mander in the 1390s, and he was lavishly honored for his work.
  The table below sets out how Renaissance military ranks cor-
  respond to the Rank advantage. Unless he has an exceptional
  reputation or is being hired on for a very small conflict, a con-
  dottiero (that is, a mercenary officer) will have at least Rank 4.
  The distinctions between junior and senior versions of a rank
  aren’t formal, but more experienced officers commanding larger
  detachments take precedence in the field. A mercenary officer
  may have a Reputation, Allies, or Patrons within the civic gov-
  ernment hiring him (Allies are more likely than Patrons for
  Firenze). He might take a group of particularly loyal troops as
  Allies, too.. Conversely, common soldiers may be able to take
  their commander as a Patron. Feudal lords moonlighting as
  mercenaries have Status in place of or in addition to Rank.
  Position
  Rank
  Soldier
  0
  Commander of a lance
  1
  Junior caposquadra
  2
  Senior caposquadra
  3
  Junior colonello
  4
  Senior colonello
  5
  Marshal
  6
  CAMPAIGNS
  32
  POLITICS AND INTRIGUE
  Secret plotting approaches the status of a regular pastime
  for the wealthy and powerful in Firenze. Most intrigues are
  plots to advance the interests of a family or other small group
  of conspirators against another. Nonetheless, even a grandiose
  scheme to take over Firenze, Italy, or the world comes down to
  a question of keeping the interests of all the conspirators coor-
  dinated until they can actually get something done. Although a
  successful plot often needs a number of conspirators to look
  after all the details (exert broad action to damage an enemy’s
  business interests, convince the Signoria not to aid an oppo-
  nent when they otherwise might, etc.), few people can be
  trusted very far because of conflicting loyalties. Many of the
  more notable conspiracies in Florentine history involved for-
  mer allies. The Pazzi, for example, were former allies of the
  Medici, while the Pitti who wanted to usurp the elder Piero’s
  position were once supporters of Cosimo. Personal morality
  can even be an issue. For instance, a pair of priests was desig-
  nated by the Pazzi to assassinate Lorenzo because their first
  choice, a condottiero, felt that attacking someone in a church
  was blasphemous.
  Many potential foes are relatives as well. Political power
  was held by only a few hundred families, which were consoli-
  dated into even fewer extended families and power blocs.
  While a cousin might seem like a potential ally, the situation
  becomes far more complicated if he is married to an enemy’s
  sister.
  Many historical plots involved lots of scheming and build-
  ing alliances but very little action. Pitched battles are risky,
  expensive, and unpopular. Anyone who resorts to violence and
  does not win immediately and decisively is in great danger
  not just from his enemies, but from the state, which is usu-
  ally obligated to act against anyone disturbing the peace.
  For example, when the Pitti declined to directly fight Piero
  de Medici, a peaceful accommodation was reached; when
  the Pazzi attempted to assassinate Lorenzo and seize the
  Palazzo della Signoria, the family was decimated. In a way,
  it’s like a game of chess: Plots usually end up in a check-
  mate, with the leading figures rendered unable to act
  (except, perhaps, to flee into exile) rather than destroyed
  outright, but they survive to fight another day.
  Though Status in Firenze mostly belongs to the members
  of the republican government and those able to participate
  in it, the most powerful person in the city usually had no
  office. Except for periods of exile, the highest level of Status
  belonged to the leader of the Medici. Only after 1531 did
  that Status correspond to a title. This table indicates appro-
  priate levels of Status for characters in Firenze.
  Position
  Status
  Reigning head of the Medici
  5
  Gonfaloniere
  4
  Sitting member of the Signoria
  3
  Lesser government official
  2
  Other member of the political class 
  (potential office-holders and voters)
  1
  Adventure Seed:
  Lega di Giustizia
  It’s the mid-1470s, and a group of diplomats from across
  Italy have come up with a radical new idea: Instead of rely-
  ing on the Treaty of Lodi to maintain an uneasy peace, cre-
  ate body of supreme magistrates to rule Italy as a single
  nation. Though no one will speak of it publicly, the Medici
  and Sforzas are intrigued by the idea, and certain members
  of the Venetian Senate and the court of Napoli are inter-
  ested as well. Pope Sixtus IV, however, would certainly
  oppose any plan that didn’t put the pope firmly in charge of
  such a powerful alliance.
  PCs with social and academic skills can act as diplo-
  mats, feeling out potential allies, developing vital details,
  and keeping an eye out for potential traitors and Papal
  agents. More physically oriented characters can act as their
  agents: smuggling secret messages, making contact with
  other agents in dark alleys and livery stables, spying on the
  opposition, and, if it comes to that, taking direct action
  against enemies.
  
  Diplomats may be involved in intrigue as well. On one
  hand, a corps of resident and traveling diplomats was instru-
  mental in keeping Italy peaceful for decades. On the other,
  diplomats quickly came to be recognized as polite spies.
  Despite being foreigners, diplomats could easily be drawn
  into local disputes. Up to the 1490s, rival factions could plau-
  sibly try to enlist the aid of other cities (as, for example, the
  Pazzi involved Roma and Napoli while the Medici often
  relied on Milano). In the 16th century, intrigues could easily
  be colored by how larger powers outside Italy might react to
  local power shifts, making diplomats active players in shady
  affairs. In intrigues, diplomats operate as spymasters, gather-
  ing information from local agents and sending it home. They
  even may find themselves negotiating with members of local
  factions, promising support in revolts, safe exile if things
  don’t go well, or no safe exile for enemies if they do. Since
  diplomats were drawn from the ruling class, diplomat char-
  acters should have Status, Clerical Investment, or Social
  Regard. They also should have Diplomatic Immunity while
  on diplomatic missions. That immunity is personal, though;
  the idea of extraterritoriality for embassies is more than a
  century in the future.
  CAMPAIGNS
  33
  CROSSOVERS
  Though Firenze provides a rich background for a strictly
  historical game, it can fit into a wide range of other campaigns
  with surprisingly little modification.
  INFINITE WORLDS
  Setting aside conventional opportunities posed by a close
  parallel (trade in works by alternate versions of artists,
  research visits, cross-time tourism, etc.), Firenze is an impor-
  tant nexus for alternate histories. For example, if Firenze (or
  any other Italian city) had developed good relations with the
  Ottoman Turks, that might have kept the Eastern spice routes
  open, greatly reducing the incentive for western European
  nations to explore and colonize the New World. If properly
  capitalized on, this could have created an Italian-Ottoman axis
  to dominate Europe and western Asia for a century or more,
  with tremendous potential impact on the colonization of the
  New World, the concurrent native American genocide, African
  slavery, and relations between the West and China.
  Many groups have their own reasons for interfering in an
  alternate Renaissance. Centrum might want to bolster the
  humanist movement and promote constitutional government
  at the expense of Papal authority; they’d hate Savonarola on
  general principle. Homeline Turkish nationalists or militant
  Muslims might try to weaken the Italian cities, including
  Firenze, with the hope of leaving it open to an Ottoman
  Turkish invasion. Alternatively, they might try to strengthen
  them as part of an elaborate flanking move, setting them up
  as a distraction to the Holy Roman Empire to weaken impe-
  rial holdings in the Balkans and giving the Turks an open
  door to Europe.
  ESPIONAGE
  A natural consequence of the importance of diplomacy is
  the opportunity for espionage. Indeed, a network of people
  who can find things out and take subtle actions is a fitting tool
  for the Medici. Rather than being part of a formal espionage
  agency, characters would simply be friends of Cosimo or
  Lorenzo, doing little favors for him.
  In a purely realistic game, spies are disgruntled locals, ser-
  vants, or associates of more important people willing to sell
  out but limited to providing information on or performing
  operations in a very small area. Even so, there’s ample room
  for far more cinematic espionage. In addition to traveling to
  any number of romantic locations, the art of the Renaissance
  and the pomp and grandeur of wealthy Italian cities provides
  an excellent setting for a James Bond-style sophisticate 400
  years before the Cold War. What better to arm him with than
  clockpunk or alchemical gadgets from his more technical
  associates?
  MARTIAL ARTS
  If political intrigue and foreign trade become boring, you
  can always stab somebody. Renaissance Firenze is a natural
  place for both fighting masters and fighting students from
  across Europe to settle, to serve as mercenaries or instructors
  to anyone willing to pay.
  Masters face the same problems during the Renaissance as
  they do elsewhere, trying to teach paying students without
  revealing their secrets to everyone. Dueling is an accepted cus-
  tom, so traditional martial-arts themes of spying on others’
  styles, fighting for honor against other schools of combat, and
  defending one’s personal honor with force all work in this era.
  The normal attractions of festive jousts and other mock com-
  bats, as well as the potential political and legal complications
  of patronage, further add to the adventure possibilities.
  Furthermore, books on fighting styles from everywhere in
  Europe make their way there, in addition to native-grown tac-
  tics. One of the earliest illustrated guides to fighting was writ-
  ten in Italy in the early 15th century.
  Firenze also offers a varied physical environment for fight-
  ing. The countryside provides as much of a featureless fighting
  ground as any combatants so inclined would need (ignoring
  the occasional well-hidden rabbit hole, old tree root, or bit of
  soft ground). Meanwhile, the city proper supplies far more tac-
  tically interesting possibilities. Courtyards and loggias sport
  columns to duck behind. Combatants can use them for
  defense, or they can lie in wait for the enemy to pass by these
  places. Pediments and steps around important buildings pro-
  vide different levels for fighting, as do the stairways that are a
  necessary feature in most Florentine buildings. Moreover,
  fighting outside in a bustling city like Firenze means fighting
  in public at the very least, and quite possibly fighting in the
  middle of a crowd. Even the simplest fencing match might be
  complicated by barking dogs, wagons passing through, chairs
  and tables set out on the streetside, the authorities closing
  down an unseemly brawl, and bystanders placing bets or even
  joining in.
  
  FANTASY
  Another obvious use for Firenze is in a fantasy campaign.
  Firenze hardly has to be retooled at all to fit into a conventional
  fantasy setting. Indeed, with deposit banks, rudimentary clock-
  work, and high-quality plate armor, many fantasy worlds bear as
  much resemblance to TL4 Italy as they do to TL3 feudal Europe.
  Even in a campaign free of mythical monsters, Firenze can
  be an important center for mystics. Medicine was hardly dis-
  tinguishable from magic, and mystical texts of every kind
  could easily make their way there. A number of prominent fig-
  ures studied alchemy, including Grand Duke Cosimo I himself.
  Firenze also would be one of the most likely places in Europe
  to find Jewish Cabalists.
  To turn Firenze into a fantasy city, all that needs be done is to
  make it all true. Magicians might have their own guild (St.
  Cyprian of Antioch is an appropriate patron). The rich and pow-
  erful would sponsor magical scholarship, and they might dabble
  in magic themselves. They would work to recover and import
  magical artifacts and materials. A magical Firenze would be a
  center of mystical as well as mundane commerce and learning.
  CLOCKPUNK
  Magic isn’t the only way to make
  a fantastic Firenze. The city had
  more than its fair share of techni-
  cally gifted artisans, so it may also
  be the center off a clockwork-pow-
  ered industrial revolution.
  In 
  this 
  alternate 
  history,
  Brunelleschi would have started the
  clockwork revolution, inventing
  pendulum-powered cranes to lift
  materials to the top of the Duomo
  and spring-driven temporary sup-
  ports that could walk themselves
  along the walls. Cosimo then saw the advantage of clockwork-
  powered industry, and he built waterwheels along the Arno to
  wind masses of automata. The technology would have spread
  quickly through Europe, particularly as the restless Leonardo
  da Vinci traveled from one high-paying court after another, but
  Firenze kept enough of its native sons like Michelangelo to
  maintain a technological edge.
  This creates a TL(4+1) Firenze, where the streets are full of
  ticking bronze horses pulling trams, and the tower of the
  Palazzo delle Signoria is reached by mechanical elevator.
  Firenze grows even wealthier on the sales of clockwork-pow-
  ered toys, household conveniences, and weapons, and the
  Medici bank is starting to use fast, accurate mechanical adding
  machines. On clockpunk Renaissance battlefields, crossbow-
  men and musketeers are replaced by troops armed with repeat-
  ing spring-powered dart guns, and multi-barreled cannon are
  mounted in slow-crawling armored vehicles shaped like turtles
  and elephants. Meanwhile, rumor has it that Venezia is devel-
  oping a gryphon-shaped ornithopter . . .
  HORROR
  The Renaissance wasn’t all glorious art and new learning.
  The fears and superstitions of the past remained in full force.
  The most obvious threats were ghosts, witchcraft, and
  demonic possession. (However, Italy appears to have been less
  concerned with witchcraft than northern Europe and Firenze
  less concerned than average for Italy.) The Bargello and the
  Stinche should be particularly full of angry spirits, and many
  prominent people of the age, notably the Medici and the
  Borgia family, may have left any number of unhappy ghosts in
  their wake. PCs could pursue a career as ghostbusters just by
  tracing the history of human brutality. If they do, it’s worth
  knowing that it was illegal for laymen to attempt exorcism.
  Unofficial supernatural investigators face the double problem
  of unearthing a past that others would prefer to keep hidden
  and offending the Church as they go.
  Since Firenze’s foundation was recent relative to many
  other Renaissance cities and its underground not at all exten-
  sive, it’s unlikely that it sits atop any long-buried horrors.
  Nevertheless, the Florentines can import them or invent them
  on their own. The collectors of Classical (and older) antiquities
  could easily bring in long-lost books of dreadful knowledge,
  cursed Greek idols, Egyptian sarcophagi containing long-slum-
  bering vampires, or baleful pre-human artifacts. Meanwhile,
  new knowledge can easily become perilous: musicians may
  discover melodies that drive men mad,
  artists may use new techniques that make
  their paintings take on a horrible life of
  their own, and an alchemist may invent a
  universal solvent with the power to destroy
  the world.
  SCIENCE FICTION
  If it can be stripped of its technological
  aspects while preserving that social milieu,
  much about Renaissance Firenze can be
  transported to some very different settings.
  For cyperpunk, by replacing the Black
  Death, humanism, and velvet with a
  biotech catastrophe, cybernetics, and span-
  dex, Firenze moves from the Renaissance to a dystopian
  future. Just as in the historical past, the Medici can be a pow-
  erful dynasty of bankers who use their wealth and influence to
  unofficially assume control of the government. They have sub-
  verted the respected civic cyberdemocracy that randomly
  selects eligible citizens for positions of authority to chose only
  their own candidates. Some of the people of Firenze are avid
  supporters of the Medici family and their unflagging philan-
  thropy. After all, the family constructed one of the most pow-
  erful local area networks in existence, and they support a new
  generation of artists working in direct brain stimulation, to say
  nothing of the combat calcio league. Others distrust the Medici
  and the power that their control of the network and ominous
  new brain-stim technologies give them.
  As a post-apocalyptic example, the world may have been
  shattered by a plague. In the aftermath, a powerful commercial
  interest has quietly taken over the government while an influx
  of new knowledge combined with bold new forms of art trans-
  form society to the great dismay of cultural conservatives.
  In a space campaign, Italy can be a belt of inhabited aster-
  oids, with each city as its own bubble habitat; Spain, France,
  and the Holy Roman empire are highly populated terraformed
  planets, while the Muslim world is a nearby system reached by
  slow FTL. Spheres of influence are determined not just by
  shifting alliances, but by shifting orbits as well.
  CAMPAIGNS
  34
  
  The Renaissance is a well-documented, much-studied era,
  and Florence is one of the most examined places of the period.
  Consequently, there is a great deal of literature on the subject.
  These are some of the more important and accessible works
  used when writing this book.
  NONFICTION BOOKS
  Acidini, Cristina, and Garratt, Kate. Treasures of Florence:
  The Medici Collection 1400-1700 (Prestel, 1997). In addition to
  illustrating the art and precious possessions of Firenze’s most
  powerful family, this could be used to illustrate treasures for
  fantasy European-flavored campaigns.
  Hale, John Rigby. Florence and the Medici (Phoenix Press,
  2001). A history of the Medici dynasty, with particular atten-
  tion to their relationship with the city of Firenze.
  Hibbert, Christopher. Florence: The Biography of a City
  (Penguin, 1994). A general and quite accessible history of
  Firenze’s political and artistic history from its foundation into
  the 20th century. A good first book on the subject.
  King, Ross. Brunelleschi’s Dome: How a Renaissance Genius
  Reinvented Architecture (Penguin, 2001). A brief, fast-moving
  account of the politics and logistics around the completion of
  the Duomo at the dawn of a period of remarkable artistic and
  intellectual creativity.
  Levey, Michael. Florence: A Portrait (Harvard University Press,
  1998). A history of Firenze from the Renaissance onward, mostly
  told in the context of the history of its arts and architecture.
  Lucas-Dubreton, J. Daily Life in Florence in the Time of the
  Medici (Macmillan, 1961). Accounts of diet, dress, and popular
  culture in early Renaissance Firenze.
  Mallett, Michael. Mercenaries and Their Masters: Warfare in
  Renaissance Italy (Rowman and Littlefield, 1994). One of the
  more comprehensive sources on the subject, covering the 14th
  and 15th centuries.
  Mattingly, Garrett. Renaissance Diplomacy (Dover, 1988).
  Currently the definitive work on the subject. A large part deals
  with Italian innovations in diplomatic practice, with much of
  the remainder discussing on how well or poorly the rest of
  Europe learned the Italian lessons.
  Martines, Lauro. April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against
  the Medici (Oxford University Press, 2003). An extremely
  detailed but easily read account of the Pazzi’s failed attempt to
  assassinate Lorenzo de Medici. Could be used as a textbook on
  how real-world conspiracies, which typically involve delicate
  alliances and unreliable participants rather than all-knowing
  puppetmasters, actually work.
  Martines, Lauro. Fire in the City: Savonarola and
  the Struggle for the Soul of Renaissance Florence
  (Oxford University Press, 2006). An outstanding biog-
  raphy of Savonarola, applying Martines’ eye for detail
  and engaging style to a slightly later period than April
  Blood.
  Martines, Lauro. Power and Imagination: City-
  States in Renaissance Italy
  (Johns Hopkins
  University Press, 1988). A somewhat advanced,
  though nonspecialist, history of the Renaissance,
  highlighting the relationship between the interests
  of urban social elites and the rise of humanism and
  Renaissance artwork.
  Muccini, Ugo (Lisa Pelletti, translator). Palazzo
  Vecchio: Guide to the Building, the Apartments, and the
  Collections (Scala, 1989). An architectural history of the
  Palazzo della Signoria. Includes detailed floor plans.
  de Roover, Raymond. Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank
  (Harvard University Press, 1968). A specialist work, but it sets
  out in great detail the scale and operations of Renaissance
  banking and commerce in general.
  Turnbull, Steven. The Art of Renaissance Warfare: From the
  Fall of Constantinople to the Thirty Years War (Greenhill, 2006).
  Less focused on Italy than Mercenaries and Their Masters, but
  more accessible both physically and in its subject matter.
  BIBLIOGRAPHY
  35
  Leave behind your
  beloved isle,
  Leave your delicate and
  beautiful kingdom,
  Goddess Ciprigna, and
  rest beside this stream
  Which waters the fine
  green grass.
  – Lorenzo de Medici, 
  Sonnet iii
  BIBLIOGRAPHY
  
  PRIMARY SOURCES
  These translations are mostly recent print editions.
  However, all are freely available online in a variety of older
  translations that have fallen into the public domain.
  Alighieri, Dante (John Ciardi, translator). The Divine
  Comedy (Norton, 1977). Not a Renaissance work, but very pop-
  ular during the Renaissance, particularly in Dante’s hometown.
  Ciardi is just one in a series of notable poets (including, for
  example, Longfellow) who have translated Dante, and he cre-
  ated one of the more accessible modern versions.
  Ariosto, Lodovico (Guido Waldman, translator). Orlando
  Furioso (Oxford University Press, 1999). This popular epic, writ-
  ten by a poet attached to the Medici court, is a distant ancestor
  of the modern fantasy novel and might give some idea of what a
  Renaissance fantasy roleplaying campaign might have included.
  Castiglione, Baldassare (Thomas Hoby, translator). The
  Book of the Courtier (Kessinger, 2007). Castiglione wasn’t
  Florentine, but his book redefined nobility for the Renaissance,
  claiming education, elegance, and refinement as the most
  important properties of a nobleman rather than just military
  prowess. This book gives some idea of how an upper-class
  Florentine, or any upper-class Italian, might have thought.
  Machiavelli, Niccolo (Harvey Mansfield, translator). The
  Prince (University of Chicago Press, 1988). This bedrock work
  of political philosophy is often men-
  tioned but rarely read, and is far less
  wicked than its critics would claim.
  Vasari, Giorgio (Julia Conway
  Bondanella and Peter Bondanella,
  translators). Lives of the Artists.(Oxford
  University Press, 2008). One of the first
  works to describe the lives of artists,
  and certainly the first of its magnitude.
  FICTION
  Roessner, Michaela. The Stars
  Dispose (Tor, 1998). A fantasy story,
  along with its sequel The Stars Compel,
  about an apprentice growing up on the
  fringes of the later Medici court, with
  Catherine de Medici as a prominent
  character. The descriptions of food are
  particularly plentiful and well-written.
  Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn. Ariosto
  (Tor, 1980). Another fantasy Florence,
  this one shifting between the poet
  Ariosto’s artistic struggles and his char-
  acter Orlando’s adventures. Yarbro has used Florence as a
  setting for other books, such as the historical vampire novel 
  The Palace.
  DISCOGRAPHY
  Concord Ensemble. Trionfo d’ Amore e della Morte (Dorian
  Recordings, 2003). Contains music written by musicians active
  around Florence specifically for the Medici.
  Dufay, Guillaume. Chant & Motets: The Virgin & the Temple
  (Pomerium, 1997). Dufay was Flemish, but he wrote an impor-
  tant motet (on this recording) commissioned to celebrate the
  completion of the Duomo.
  da Firenze, Paolo. Narcisso Speculando: Madrigals of Paolo
  da Firenze (Harmonia Mundi, 2002). Paolo’s music spans the
  end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance,
  setting the stage for the music that will develop later.
  Huelgas Ensemble. In Morte di Madonna Laura (Sony,
  1991). The selections on this recording, written through the
  Renaissance, are based on the works of Petrarch, a Tuscan and
  one of the grandfathers of the Renaissance.
  O’Dette, Paul. Dolcissima et Amorosa: Early Italian
  Renaissance Lute Music (Harmonia Mundi, 1994). In addition
  to being very good, if rather delicate, music, O’Dette is one of
  the better lutenists of his generation.
  BIBLIOGRAPHY
  36
  If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my
  mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all.
  – Michelangelo
  
  INDEX
  37
  Abuse of government power, 13.
  Adventure seeds, 6, 8, 9, 12, 24,
  26, 30, 32.
  Albizzi family, 7.
  Alexander VI, 22, 23, 26.
  Amusements, 30.
  Apennine Mountains, 5.
  Anti-Medici political faction, 
  12-13.
  Arms and armor, civilian, 18;
  military, 16-17.
  Arte dei Beccai, 15.
  Arte dei Calzolai, 15.
  Arte dei Fabbri, 15.
  Arte dei Giudici e Notai, 15.
  Arte dei Linaioli e Rigattieri, 15.
  Arte dei Medici e Speziali, 15.
  Arte dei Vaiai e Pellicciai, 14, 15.
  Arte del Cambio, 13, 15.
  Arte della Lana, 14, 15.
  Arte di Calimala, 14, 15.
  Arte di Pietra e Legname, 15.
  Arte di Por Santa Maria, 13-15.
  Artists, 22-24.
  Banking, 10, 13-14; game rules,
  14.
  Basilica de Santa Maria, 28.
  Basilica of San Lorenzo, 29.
  Bibliography, 35-36.
  Bonfires of the Vanities, 30.
  Borgia, Cesare, 22, 23.
  Botticelli, Allesandro, 24.
  Brunelleschi, Filippo, 10, 17, 19,
  22-24, 28, 29, 34.
  Brunelleschi’s Dome adventure
  seed, 24.
  Buildings, 6, 28-29.
  Buonomini, 11.
  Campaigns, 31-34.
  Cardinal Sin adventure seed, 26.
  Cards, playing, 30.
  Carrara quarries, 5.
  Charles VIII, 9, 22-23.
  Chess, 30.
  Cinquecento, definition, 4.
  City on the Edge of a Nervous
  Breakdown adventure seed,
  9.
  Civic militia, 15.
  Civilian arms and armor, 18.
  Climate, 6.
  Clockpunk campaigns, 34.
  Clothing, 25.
  Condotta, 15.
  Condottieri, 4, 15-16, 21, 32.
  Contact advantage, 22.
  Council of, Eight, 11; Seventy, 12,
  13; Six, 12; Sixteen, 11; Ten,
  12; Twelve, 11; Twenty, 12.
  Crossover campaigns, 33-34.
  Currency, 13.
  da Vinci, Leonardo, 10, 22- 24,
  34.
  Dante Alighieri, 27.
  de Medici, Alessandro, 10;
  Catherine, 21, 22; Cosimo,
  7-8, 10, 11, 19, 20, 22, 23,
  29, 34; Cosimo I, Grand
  Duke,10, 21, 22, 28, 29, 34;
  Giovanni, dalle Bande Nere,
  10, 21, 22; Giovanni, il
  Popolano, 20; Giuliano, 10;
  Lorenzo, il Magnifico, 8, 10,
  13, 19, 20, 22, 24, 30, 32;
  Lorenzo, son of Piero, 10;
  Piero, son of Lorenzo il
  Magnifico, 8-9.
  Decimo, 10, 12.
  Denario, 13.
  Discography, 36.
  Divine Comedy, 27.
  Donatello, 19, 23, 29.
  Duomo, 28.
  Economy, 13-15.
  Election Fraud adventure seed,
  12.
  Espionage campaigns, 33.
  Europe and the Renaissance, 
  3-4.
  Executor, 12.
  Exile as penalty, 13.
  Factions, political, 12-13.
  Fantasy campaigns, 34.
  Festivals, 30.
  Firenze (Florence), as
  destination, 31; as home, 31;
  Renaissance overview, 3-4;
  see also specific topics.
  Florin, 13.
  Food, 25-26.
  Foreign dignitaries, 21-23.
  Forks as eating utensils, 26.
  Games, 29-30.
  Genoa, location, 5.
  Geography, 5-6.
  Ghibellines political faction, 7.
  Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, 10,
  21, 22.
  Glossary, 3.
  Gonfaloniere della giustizia, 11.
  Gonfalonieri, 9, 11.
  Gonfalons, 11.
  Gout, 20.
  Government, in practice, 12-13;
  in theory, 11-12; intrigue and,
  32; supporting, 12.
  Grand Council, 12.
  Grossi, 13.
  Guelfs political faction, 7.
  Guilds, 13-15.
  GURPS Mass Combat rules,
  using,18.
  GURPS, 13; Martial Arts, 18;
  Mass Combat, 18.
  History, 3-4, 7-10.
  Homes, 6, 28.
  Horror campaigns, 34.
  Humanism, 26-27.
  Important buildings, 28-29.
  Industry, 13-15.
  Infinite Worlds campaign, 33.
  Italy, geography, 5.
  Lance (troop unit), 17.
  Languages, 27.
  Law, 11-13.
  Lega di Giustizia adventure
  seed, 32.
  Leonardo da Vinci, 10, 22- 24,
  34.
  Lira, 13.
  Losing Your Marbles adventure
  seed, 6.
  Machiavelli, Niccolo, 9, 15, 18,
  20-24, 27.
  Martial arts, campaigns, 33; in
  Firenze, 18.
  Map of Italy, 5.
  Medici, golden age in history,
  7-8; era of unrest, 8-9; final
  age in history, 10; political
  faction, 12-13; popes, 10; 
  see also de Medici.
  Menagerie (Medici), 29.
  Mercato Nuovo, 29.
  Mercenaries, 4, 15-18, 32.
  Michelangelo, 10, 17, 24, 29, 34.
  Milano (Milan), location, 5.
  Military, 15-18; campaigns,
  31-32.
  Militia, civic, 15.
  Money, 13.
  Music, 30, 36.
  Napoli (Naples), location, 5.
  Palazzo, definition, 4; della
  Bargello, 29; della Signoria,
  11, 28-29, 32; Medici, 29.
  Papal States, location, 5.
  Pasta, 25.
  Patron advantage, 22.
  Pazzi family, 32, 33; conspiracy
  and, 8, 10, 13, 18.
  Peace of Lodi, 8, 10.
  Perk, new, 17.
  Philosophical movement, 26-27.
  Piazza, definition, 4.
  Pietra dello scandalo, 29.
  Pikes, 16; how to use, 17.
  Pitti family, 8, 29, 32.
  Place names in Italian, 4.
  Po valley, 5.
  Podesta, 12.
  Political factions, 12-13.
  Politicians, 19.
  Politics, see Government.
  Population, 6.
  Printing presses, 27.
  Quattrocento, definition, 4.
  Rank advantage, 32.
  Religion, 26.
  Renaissance overview, 3-4.
  Roma (Rome), location, 5.
  Sanzio, Raphael, 24.
  Savonarola, Girolamo, 9, 10, 20,
  22, 24-26, 29, 30, 33.
  Science fiction campaigns, 34.
  Sforza, Catarina, 20, 22;
  Francesco, 8, 21, 22.
  Shops, 6, 28.
  Sicilia (Sicily), location, 5.
  Signoria, 11-13, 15, 26, 30, 32;
  see also Palazzo della
  Signoria.
  Slavery, 15.
  Soderini, Piero, 9, 10.
  Soldi, 13.
  Sports, 29-30.
  Squadron (troop unit), 17.
  Status advantage, 321.
  Streets, 6.
  Sumptuary laws, 25.
  Takin’ It to the Streets adventure
  seed, 8.
  Taxes, 10, 12, 13.
  Textiles, 14.
  Theatrical tradition, 30.
  Time frame of book, 3-4.
  Timeline, 10.
  Tolfa alum mines, 5.
  Toscana (Tuscany), geography,
  5.
  Trade, 15.
  Trecento, definition, 4.
  Troops, organization, 17-18;
  types and weapons, 16-18.
  Two-Man Pike Training perk,
  17.
  Uffizi Palace, 29.
  University in Firenze, 27.
  Using banking services, 14.
  Vanity, Thy Name Is Firenze
  adventure seed, 30.
  Vasari Corridor, 29.
  Venezia (Venice), location, 5.
  Weapons, civilian, 18; military,
  16-17.
  INDEX
  
  STEVE JACKSON GAMES
  STEVE JACKSON GAMES
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