Florence, Italy - History (data useful to the Scholarly Societies Project)

Florence, Italy
(Firenze, Italia)

Historical Notes
Founded in 59 BC as Florentia, it later took the modernized name, Firenze. Under the early rule of the de Medicis, Florence played a leading role in the Renaissance.
Governing Regimes
The information below on governing regimes in Florence is drawn largely from the Encyclopaedia Britannica and Webster's New Geographical Dictionary.
Middle Ages Margraviate of Tuscany
13th -14th centuries members of wealthy guilds
1434 - 1464 Cosimo de Medici (Cosimo the Elder) unofficial ruler
1469 - 1492 Lorenzo de Medici (Lorenzo the Magnificent) unofficial ruler
1494 - 1498 Republic (under Savonarola)
1512 - 1527 the de Medicis, unofficial rulers
1527 - 1530 Emperor Charles V of Spain
1530 - 1537 the de Medicis, unofficial rulers
1537 - 1574 Cosimo I de Medici, official Duke of Florence; after 1569, Grand Duke of Tuscany
1574 - 1737 the de Medicis, official rulers
1737 - 1824 outside rulers: Austrian Empire, then Napoleonic Empire
1824 - 1859 outside rulers: Leopold II of Hapsburg
1860 - 1946 Monarchy of a united Italy
1946 - Republic


Scholarly Societies Project