Among the great diversity of republican and signorial governments, it is possible to identify some shared understanding of basic political principles and their implications. One was the idea of Italy as a community of powers, not divided into blocs of republics and princes. The vocabulary of monarchy, of lordship, was used by republican governments of themselves with no indication those terms were considered anomalous in that context. There was no indication that it was thought inappropriate for republics to have subjects. There was also much common ground in the principles underpinning the attitudes of subjects to the governments exercising dominion over them, princely or republican. Citizens of subject towns and cities cherished the idea of their own right to libertà, in the sense of a substantial measure of self-government. Participation in offices, rather than in decision-making, was often what mattered most to members of political communities, large and small, in republics and principalities.

The locus of ultimate authority in the government of an Italian republic was always a corporate entity, a council, or the popolo or comune. When individuals at the head of the government were officially referred to as a “prince” it was an honorific title. Most commonly, it was a legislative council that was identified as the prince, a council seen as representing the political community, as exercising authority most directly derived from it, and not one exercising supreme executive authority. If advisory councils or executive committees with special delegated powers became long-term features of government, that could be seen as encroaching on the power and prerogatives of the prince. Whatever entity was identified as the prince, it was the embodiment of a collective sovereignty, and the sense that citizens participated in the collective sovereignty raised questions of the boundaries and connections between public and private interests in the republic.

This introductory chapter beginswith background. First it describes the shape of Florentine intellectual culture in the early sixteenth century. It then summarizes the political changes in the city beginning with the 1490s through the naming of Cosimo as leader, and summarizes Cosimo’s early years. The years of instability that preceding Cosimo's reign had harmed the city’s intellectual and cultural life. Cosimo worked both to maximize the city’s independence from foreign control and to reestablish the city’s importance as a cultural center. The Florentine Bernardo Segni later summarized these early successes, beginning with the reopening of the university at Pisa and the founding of the Accademia Fiorentina. As a resut, a new generation of scholars built their intellectual careers in the city. They took a particular interest in the study of the Florentine language, its letters, and Florentine culture. Segni also singled out some of the era’s principal scholars: Piero Vettori, Benedetto Varchi, and Giovan Battista Gelli. They, along with Pierfrancesco Giambullari, Vincenzio Borghini, and several others, are the principal focus of this study.