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The Elect Nation: The Savonarolan Movement in Florence 1494-1545
The Elect Nation is the first comprehensive study of the religious, political and cultural movement inspired by Savonarola. Based on a thorough examination of archival material and manuscript sources, the book argues that the followers of Savonarola exercised a profound influence on every facet of Florentine life during the important period of the city's transition from republic to principate. It is the author's contention that their ideology and activities provide the key to understanding not only the political developments of the last years of the Florentine Republic, but also the nature of contemporary political debate and the characteristics of the merging Medicean Principate.
502 pages, Hardcover
First published February 9, 1994
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January 29, 2014
I really enjoyed reading this book (and wished that I had more time to really delve into it). It's a slightly different account of Savanarola than most volumes - the friar himself gets sentenced and burned by chapter two and the narrative promptly gallops off into the sixteenth century. But Savonarola hovers over most of the story that's told here: Polizzotto explores the political and ideological aftershocks that resulted from Savonarola's four years of control, particularly how his followers - the Piagnoni - managed to ebb, flow, but always exist in the cultural and political spheres of Florence for about fifty years after their leader's death.
The book looks at four main 'eras' for the post-Savonarolan Piagnoni: 1500-1512 (when Savonarola had been condemned but his republican government remained), 1512-1527 (the Piagnoni after the restoration of the Medici by the Spanish), 1527-1530 (the Last Florentine Republic, in which the Piagnoni finally get to enact all their republican dreams and it ends really poorly), and 1530-1545 (another Medici restoration and the petering out of the movement).
Polizzotto knows his stuff and has done his research: every chapter here overflows with examples and case studies of how the Piagnoni navigated the rapidly changing political landscape of Florence. On the whole, he puts particular emphasis on how personal, local networks allowed the movement to survive even in periods of Medici dominance. This was particularly true of the confraternities, which had been founded in abundance by Savonarola and his followers: in the sixteenth century they were often used as networks to maintain Piagnoni ties. They also seemed to have been fairly good politicians, and until the 1540s the Medici seem to have always seen the advantage of keeping at least some of the movement in positions of moderate power and influence. There's also a nice section on the differing reactions among the more illustrious and literary members of the group, like Gianfrancesco Pico or Domenico Benivieni.
There were two particularly fascinating sections that I wish were a bit longer. The first was the short-lived Florentine Republic of 1527-1530. Once the Florentines had ousted the representatives of the Medici Pope Clement VII (they were fed up with his heavy taxation of the city in order to carry out papal policy), the Piagnoni sprang up somewhat unexpectedly and implemented the closest thing to an actual Savonarolan republic that ever existed. For every nice bit - alms for the poor, emphasis on peace and amnesty - there were quite a few ugly ones. It was very literally an apocalyptic, theocratic republic, which is a crazy set of words to string together. I wish Polizzotto had spent a bit more time exploring it and the reactions to it, as it felt a bit rushed. Also very interesting was the epilogue, which discussed how post-1545 Savonarola was adapted by the Dominicans into a Counter-Reformation saint (it took a good bit of adapting). It was outside the scope of Polizzotto's work, but sounds really fascinating.
The book looks at four main 'eras' for the post-Savonarolan Piagnoni: 1500-1512 (when Savonarola had been condemned but his republican government remained), 1512-1527 (the Piagnoni after the restoration of the Medici by the Spanish), 1527-1530 (the Last Florentine Republic, in which the Piagnoni finally get to enact all their republican dreams and it ends really poorly), and 1530-1545 (another Medici restoration and the petering out of the movement).
Polizzotto knows his stuff and has done his research: every chapter here overflows with examples and case studies of how the Piagnoni navigated the rapidly changing political landscape of Florence. On the whole, he puts particular emphasis on how personal, local networks allowed the movement to survive even in periods of Medici dominance. This was particularly true of the confraternities, which had been founded in abundance by Savonarola and his followers: in the sixteenth century they were often used as networks to maintain Piagnoni ties. They also seemed to have been fairly good politicians, and until the 1540s the Medici seem to have always seen the advantage of keeping at least some of the movement in positions of moderate power and influence. There's also a nice section on the differing reactions among the more illustrious and literary members of the group, like Gianfrancesco Pico or Domenico Benivieni.
There were two particularly fascinating sections that I wish were a bit longer. The first was the short-lived Florentine Republic of 1527-1530. Once the Florentines had ousted the representatives of the Medici Pope Clement VII (they were fed up with his heavy taxation of the city in order to carry out papal policy), the Piagnoni sprang up somewhat unexpectedly and implemented the closest thing to an actual Savonarolan republic that ever existed. For every nice bit - alms for the poor, emphasis on peace and amnesty - there were quite a few ugly ones. It was very literally an apocalyptic, theocratic republic, which is a crazy set of words to string together. I wish Polizzotto had spent a bit more time exploring it and the reactions to it, as it felt a bit rushed. Also very interesting was the epilogue, which discussed how post-1545 Savonarola was adapted by the Dominicans into a Counter-Reformation saint (it took a good bit of adapting). It was outside the scope of Polizzotto's work, but sounds really fascinating.
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