Description: In the sixteenth century, the city-state of Florence failed. In its place the Medicis created a principality, becoming first dukes of Florence and then grand dukes of Tuscany. The Fruit of Liberty analyzes the slow transformations that predated and facilitated the institutional shift from republic to principality, from citizen to subject.
Brief description: Nicholas Scott Baker is Lecturer in Early Modern European History at Macquarie University.
Review Quotes: In a lucid and lively way, Baker has managed to reveal untold parts of what would seem to be a well-worn story. Rather than seeing a pronounced break between republic and principate in Renaissance Florence, Baker emphasizes continuity of language and images, as well as of office holders themselves, from the late fifteenth to the mid-sixteenth century.
-- Sharon Strocchia, Emory University
The Fruit of Liberty provocatively reinterprets the significance of Florentine political culture in the late Renaissance. By interrogating the apparently sharp contrast between republican and ducal Florence, Baker reveals hidden continuities in the Florentine experience that help explain the triumph of post-Renaissance absolutism just as much as the persistence of republican language and traditions.
-- Mark Jurdjevic, Glendon College, York University