ABSTRACT

Both elite and people were necessary to make a revolution; together, their hostility provides convincing evidence of the strength of opposition to this regime before 1494 which the French knew about and exploited. Going beyond the revolution to its aftermath demonstrates the extent of change in Florence. For the new, harsh climate in Florence provoked not only the social radicalism of Savonarola and his followers, but also an overturning of the cultural consensus of the Laurentian period. Since money provided one of the principal sources of popular grievance against the Medici regime when it fell, it offers a means of understanding how their 'youthful love affairs' had repercussions far outside the immediate circles involved. The obvious influence of Lucretius and of new texts like Palladius and Theophrastus might suggest that the poem's novelty has more to do with patronal tastes than with cultural change.