The Chancellor of Florence held the most important position in the bureaucracy of the
Florentine Republic. Though the chancellor was not officially a member of the Republic's elected political government, unlike the
gonfaloniere
The Gonfalonier (in Italian: ''Gonfaloniere'') was the holder of a highly prestigious communal office in medieval and Renaissance Italy, notably in Florence and the Papal States. The name derives from ''gonfalone'' (in English, gonfalon), the ter ...
or the nine members of the
signoria
A signoria () was the governing authority in many of the Italian city states during the Medieval and Renaissance periods.
The word signoria comes from ''signore'' , or "lord"; an abstract noun meaning (roughly) "government; governing authority; ...
, the role was roughly equivalent to the head of the civil service in some countries today, and its holder could still wield considerable political influence. Holders included some of the most famous scholars, political thinkers and humanists of the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
.
Partial list
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Coluccio Salutati
Coluccio Salutati (16 February 1331 – 4 May 1406) was an Italian humanist and notary, and one of the most important political and cultural leaders of Renaissance Florence; as chancellor of the Republic and its most prominent voice, he was effec ...
(appointed 1375)
*
Leonardo Bruni
Leonardo Bruni (or Leonardo Aretino; c. 1370 – March 9, 1444) was an Italian humanist, historian and statesman, often recognized as the most important humanist historian of the early Renaissance. He has been called the first modern historian. ...
(appointed 1410)
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Carlo Marsuppini
Carlo Marsuppini (1399–1453), also known as Carlo Aretino and Carolus Arretinus, was an Italian Renaissance humanist and chancellor of the Florentine Republic.
Biography
Marsuppini was born in Genoa into a family from Arezzo, but grew up and ...
, known as Carlo Aretino, (1444 - 1453)
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Poggio Bracciolini
Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini (11 February 1380 – 30 October 1459), usually referred to simply as Poggio Bracciolini, was an Italian scholar and an early Renaissance humanist. He was responsible for rediscovering and recovering many classi ...
(1453-1459)
*
Benedetto Accolti (appointed 1459)
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Bartolomeo Scala
Bartolomeo Scala (1430–1497) was an Italian politician, author and historian. Born in Colle Val d'Elsa, he became a protégé of Cosimo and Piero de' Medici, being appointed at the highest positions in the Florentine Republic (Chancellor, Sec ...
(1465-1497)
*
Niccolò Machiavelli
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli ( , , ; 3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527), occasionally rendered in English as Nicholas Machiavel ( , ; see below), was an Italian diplomat, author, philosopher and historian who lived during the Renaissance. ...
(appointed 1498)
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Marcello Virgilio Adriani (February 1498)
[ Dizionario biografico universale, Volume 1, by Francesco Predari, Tipografia Guigoni, Milan (1865); page 33]
See also
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Chancellor
References
Republic of Florence
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