The Culture and Politics of Regime Change in Italy, C.1494-C.1559

This volume offers the first comprehensive survey of regime change in Italy in the period c.1494-c.1559.

Far from being a purely modern phenomenon, regime change was a common feature of life in Renaissance Italy - no more so than during the Italian Wars (1494-1559). During those turbulent years, governments rose and fell with dizzying regularity. Some changes of regime were peaceful; others were more violent. But whenever a new reggimento took power, old social tensions were laid bare and new challenges emerged - any of which could easily threaten its survival. This provoked a variety of responses, both from newly established regimes and from their opponents. Constitutional reforms were proposed and enacted; civic rituals were developed; works of art were commissioned; literary works were penned; and occasionally, aspects of material culture were pressed into service, as well. Comparative in approach and broad in scope, it offers a provocative new view of the diverse political, culture, and economic factors, which ensured the survival (or demise) of regimes - not only in ＂major＂ polities like Florence, Rome, and Venice, but also in less-well-studied regions like Savoy.

This book will appeal to researchers and students alike interested in cultural, political, and military history.

Alexander Lee is a research fellow at the University of Warwick, UK. He is the author of five acclaimed books, including Machiavelli: His Life and Times (2020) and Humanism and Empire: The Imperial Ideal in Fourteenth-Century Italy (2018).

Brian Jeffrey Maxson is professor of history at East Tennessee State University, USA. He has co-edited several projects and is the author of A Short History of Florence and the Florentine Republic (2022) and The Humanist World of Renaissance Florence (2014).