No previous work has examined political exclusion in Early Renaissance
Florence or its significance for the transition from Florentine popular
government to oligarchy. Between the fourteenth and the first half of
the fifteenth century, political exclusion became a normal feature of
political life, regardless of the type of political regime; it was an
essential instrument by which new governments consolidated their control
over the city and the countryside in one of the largest and most
powerful cities of Early Renaissance Europe. Exclusion from the Republic
of Florence-separation from friends and family, business and property,
coupled with the degradation of public humiliation-engendered a new
outlook on life. In Early Renaissance Florence, excluded citizens across
social classes became common outlaws, no different for common criminals
prosecuted for heresy, blasphemy, gambling, or sexual deviance. By
investigating these practices and attitudes of Early Renaissance
Florence, this book shows the dark side of Renaissance republicanism:
its fear of political dissent in any form and its means to crush it at
all costs. This study of the other side of Renaissance republicanism
presents a new and crucial chapter in Renaissance history.