Rulers and Ruled: Freedom, Submission, and Dissent in the Florentine Correspondence (Fifteenth Century)

The analysis of Florentine territorial communities in the 15th century is not easy: the correspondence from the villages and towns to the city is scarce, and the letters sent from Florence to them, rare before 1437, but abundant after the creation of the Florentine second chancery, are more frequently directed to the Florentine officials than to the inhabitants or the councils of the local communities [Tanzini, 2017]. However, the story of the interaction between the city and its ruling elites, and the many layers of the rural world has been modelized – and compared to what happened in other territorial domains – by some scholars as the reproduction on a more or less regional scale of the strict and urbanocentric relationship between the earlier commune and its smaller contado [Petralia, 1996], by others as a clear example of the expanding patronage of the city elites in the countryside (Salvatori, 2000). In both cases, the analysis has mainly been top-down, and the voices of the local groups have been ignored. In order to approach the issue of power relations between Florence and the many urban or rural communities of its territory according to the innovative theme of our conference – that is in order to look for forms of disciplined dissent and critical subordination – I will explore the interaction between Florence and some communities and sub-regions of its domain (such as Volterra or the Mugello) in the 15th century from the point of view of the elaboration and critical reception of a language of mutual – although asymmetrical – relations. Such language was of course partly shaped by the public officials sent by Florence: one of the goals of my research, however, will be to look for the influence indirectly exercised on that language by the various members of the local societies. In order to investigate such twofold influence, I will therefore analyse in parallel the correspondence of Rinaldo degli Albizzi (RdA Commissioni, 1394-1434) and Lorenzo de’ Medici’s (LdM Lettere, 1469-1492), and of the letters preserved in the series of the Signori, Responsive by selecting some distinctive case-studies, and by focusing on concepts such freedom, peace, tranquility, friendship, and their opposite. The language of territorial hegemony based on these concepts was elaborated in Florence in public debates and political and juridical writings, and has mainly been investigated as regards as the ideological international arena, but it had to be daily adapted also to the many, and often antagonistic contexts of the Tuscan territory. Its strategical use in order to negotiate obedience and dissent, cooperation and subordination, once investigated from both sides of the coin, could reveal the reciprocal influences and adaptations between the different agencies at work on the territory – the ruling elites and the local groups external to them and to their culture – and the shared political language that resulted from such a negotiation.