The Renaissance Times
The Renaissance Times is a podcast that delves into the history, culture, and key figures of the Renaissance period. Hosted by Cameron Reilly and Ray Harris, it offers engaging discussions and insights into one of the most transformative eras in human history. The podcast covers topics ranging from art and science to politics and religion, providing a comprehensive overview of the Renaissance.
Episodes
The Smell of Evil – The Renaissance #247
We’re deep in the witchy end of the Renaissance now…. women falling into trances, communing with the dead, healing the sick, and charging for it, which honestly sounds like a pretty solid business model. Meanwhile men called the Căluşari are dressing as women, leaping around with swords, and apparently killing people with no legal consequences whatsoever. The church is not thrilled abo
Werewolves Lost Again – The Renaissance #246
We’ve finally made it to witch trials…. sort of. First: an 80-year-old man in 1692 Livonia confessing to being a werewolf, werewolves who apparently lose battles against sorcerers armed with broomsticks, and a fertility cult called the Benandanti who leave their bodies in the shape of butterflies to fight for good crops using fennel stalks. Then the Waldensians, who just wanted to prea
Head on a Platter – The Renaissance #245
We’ve been building up to witches for a while now, and this episode we take a detour back to the second century CE…. because of course we do. Before Christians started accusing Jews of ritual murder, cannibalism, and orgies, Romans were accusing Christians of exactly the same thing. The stories just get recycled. Then we get into women flying at night with the goddess Diana, Herodias e
The Devil’s Recipe Book – The Renaissance #244
We finally get to the witches. Only took us a couple of hundred episodes. The trail leads through the Black Death, tortured confessions about poisoned powders and boiled infants, a German theologian named Nider who wrote the first book on witchcraft in 1435, and a judge who apparently knew an extraordinary amount of detail about secret devil-worshipping covens…. under torture, of course, whi
Blame the Jews (The Plague Made Them Do It) – The Renaissance #243
Twelve Genoese galleys dock at Messina in 1347 carrying rats, fleas, and Yersinia pestis…. and within weeks Europe is looking for someone to blame. Spoiler: it’s the Jews. Also the beggars. Also, possibly, the planets. Pope Clement VI tries to point out that Jews are dying of the plague too, which you’d think would settle the matter.
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The Silence of Marguerite – The Renaissance #242
The Beguines were a movement of independent women who lived like nuns, owned property, preached in the vernacular, and answered to no man or church…. which, predictably, the church absolutely could not stand. We work through three of the great Beguine mystics, including Marguerite Porete, who spent 18 months on trial giving the Inquisition the silent finger before being burned alive in Paris
Rats, Jews, and the Man with the Flute – The Renaissance #241
The Jews have been expelled, the lepers have been burned, and somebody clearly had a plan…. we just don’t know who. We dig into the mechanics of medieval conspiracy theories, how the same story spread across France at a speed that makes you go “hmm,” and why the whole thing is basically a template that’s still being photocopied 700 years later. Also: the Pied Piper of
A Goodly Sum – The Renaissance #240
The King of France issues a royal edict blaming the lepers for poisoning the wells…. conveniently leaving out the Jews, who had just paid him 150,000 livres – roughly a third of the entire royal annual revenue. Pure coincidence. We also get a forged letter from the future, a secret room full of incriminating ram-skin, and a dragon that God apparently sent to signal it was time to murde
The Tall Dark Man with a Scimitar – The Renaissance #239
We’re still talking about the Great Leper Scare of 1321 and now we’re deep into the trials. We’ve got lepers across France being rounded up, tortured into confessions, and burned at the stake, because Jesus loves nothing more than the smell of burning human flesh. Under torture, we’ve got Jews implicating the the Muslim King of Granada, the Sultan of Babylon, and a tall da
POISON IN THE WELL – The Renaissance #238 (The Witches Part 2)
We’re still talking about the Great Leper Scare of 1321 – where lepers, Jews, Muslims, and the devil himself are allegedly conspiring to poison the wells and topple Christendom. It’s the juicy tale of how a rumour spiralled into a pyramid scheme of scapegoating that ended with 160 Jews burned alive in a ditch. Today we talk about how it was connected to the Great Famine of the e
Burn the Lepers – The Renaissance #237
We are taking a break from Michelangelo to talk about lepers, Jews and... WITCHES!
Today we start with the 1321 leper panic in France, where thousands of people were burned alive or locked up for life based on tortured confessions of a supposed plot to poison the water supply and take over the world. Along the way we get hot and heavy with the French royal family — adultery, assassinations, a kin
Ghosting the Pope – The Renaissance #236
On this episode, Michelangelo is done waiting around in Rome — he packs up and heads back to Florence, effectively ghosting the Pope before the Pope can ghost him any harder. Julius II is furious and tries every trick in the book to drag him back, including leaning on Florence's own leader Soderini, who knows you can't bully a prima donna and writes the most flattering letter of recommendation in
The Warrior Pope and the Marble Dreamer – The Renaissance #235
Michelangelo gets summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II — the baddest, most belligerent pope who ever lived — to build the greatest tomb the world has ever seen. Mickey heads to Carrara for six months to find the perfect marble, starts dreaming of flooding Rome with giant statues, and then one of the most famous sculptures from antiquity gets dug out of the ground right in front of him. We also get i
The Price Just Doubled: Michelangelo, the Doni Tondo, and the Birth of the Artist as Rockstar – The Renaissance #234
In this episode of The Renaissance Times, Cameron and Ray dive deep into Michelangelo's three extraordinary marble and painted roundels — the tondos — created during his Florence years between 1501 and 1506. Beginning with the origins of the tondo format itself (those circular domestic artworks that started life as elaborately painted birth trays brought to mothers who'd survived childbirth), the
Renaissance #225 – Teenage Michelangelo: The Buff Baby Jesus and the Marble Prodigy (Michelangelo, part 3)
In this episode of The Renaissance Times (Episode 225), Cameron and Ray return to Florence to explore Michelangelo’s earliest surviving sculpture, Madonna of the Stairs (Madonna della Scala)—a marble relief carved when he was […]
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Renaissance #224 – Privilege, Paint, and Patronage (Michelangelo, part 2)
In this episode of Renaissance, Cameron and Ray continue their exploration of Michelangelo’s life and career, digging into the family connections, social structures, and cultural forces that shaped his rise. They trace Michelangelo’s privileged entry into the Medici circle, compare his fortunes to Leonardo da Vinci’s tougher climb, and dive into Florence’s vibrant humanist culture of the late 15th
Renaissance #223 – Mickey The Angel (Michelangelo part 1)
Cameron and Ray dive into the life and legend of Michelangelo, kicking off what promises to be a long-running series on one of history’s most celebrated artists. Drawing on Vasari’s Lives of the Artists […]
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Renaissance #222 Thank Christ: The End of the First Crusade (The Crusades part 31)
In this final instalment of the First Crusade series, Cameron and Ray bring the long march to its bloody climax with the siege and fall of Jerusalem in 1099. They blend dark humour with historical detail as they recount the Crusaders’ desperate conditions, the political and religious fervour driving them, and the brutal reality of the conquest. Along the way, they explore the parallels between med
Renaissance #221 God Doesn’t Do Requests (The Crusades part 30)
In this penultimate episode of _The Renaissance_’s epic First Crusade arc, Cameron and Ray finally march the crusaders to the gates of Jerusalem — nearly three years and 2,000 miles after they first set […]
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Renaissance #220 Valentine’s Day: Blood, Not Roses (The Crusades part 29)
In this wild, irreverent, and historically sharp episode of _Renaissance_, Cam and Ray tear into the chaotic early months of 1099. As Raymond of Toulouse and the other Crusader leaders fumble their way down the Levantine coast, we get siege fails, castle bluffs, and political drama worthy of a reality TV series. Cam debuts his AI-generated theme song, shares the origin of Valentine’s Day (hint: it
Renaissance #219 – Jerusalem or Bust (The Crusades part 28)
In Episode 219 of The Renaissance Times, Cameron and Ray are diving deep into the next leg of the First Crusade. They follow Raymond of Toulouse as he reluctantly resumes the crusade […]
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Renaissance #218- Eat the Rich (aka the Turkish Prisoners) (The Crusades part 27)
In this darkly hilarious and horrifying episode, Cam and Ray dive deep into the Crusades—specifically the winter of 1098–1099—where starvation and power games took centre stage. The guys discuss Bohemond’s Machiavellian brilliance in manipulating […]
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Renaissance #217- Christian Cannibals & Cowardly Crusaders (The Crusades part 26)
In this episode of _The Renaissance Times_, Cam and Ray dive into the chaos and absurdity that followed the siege of Antioch in 1098. With the Pope’s legate dead, the Crusader princes lose their […]
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Renaissance #210 – Jesus Starves (The Crusades part 19)
By Christmas of 1097, the Crusaders continued to lay siege to Antioch but it has gone on so long they are running out of supplies. One out of every seven men was dying […]
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Renaissance #208 – Omar Comin’ (The Crusades part 17)
Kerbogha, the governor of Mosul, with a massive coalition army he’d built, on his way to relieve Antioch, paused to eliminate Baldwin in Edessa. One of his new allies was Ridwan of […]
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Renaissance #204 – A Coalition of Competing Interests (The Crusades part 13)
This episode finds the Crusaders marching through the Anatolian desert, doing deals with French pirates, selling their armour and watching pack animals sliding down wet mountain paths, until finally reaching the city/fortress of Tarsus - where they immediately turn on and kill each other, before eventually moving on towards Antioch. This was less a unified Christian army and more a coalition of co
Renaissance #200 – Raw Meat (The Crusades part 9)
On his way to Constantinople, Bohemond attacked a village of Christian heretics, because having different opinions should not be tolerated. When he arrived at the Byzantine capital, he met with Alexios but didn’t trust […]
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Renaissance #197 – The Prince’s Crusade (The Crusades part 6)
The failure of the People’s Crusade didn’t stop the overall appetite in Europe for pillaging the Holy Land. They still had the Prince’s Crusade. A bunch of rich young men, their vassals […]
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Renaissance #195 – The Holy Goose and the Holy Goat (The Crusades part 4)
At the end of April in 1096, a priest by the name of Volkmar, a monk called Gottschalk, and an army from the Rhineland led by a Count Emich set off on the First Crusade with tens of thousands of soldiers and enthusiastic pilgrims... following a goose that had been inspired by God... and a holy goat. Their first order of business was to kill as many Jews as possible. Why? Because something someth
#138 – Toby Lester, Da Vinci’s Ghost – Leonardo da Vinci Part 27
Our guest today, Toby Lester, has worked as a refugee affairs officer for the United Nations, helped with programmes in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, undertaken Peace Corps work in Yemen. He has written also extensively for national publications, including the Smithsonian, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The American Scholar, The Wilson Quarterly, […]
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#136 – Julia & The Vatican
Taking a short break from Leonardo, our guest today is Julia Charity, an official Vatican tour guide! Julia, who originally hails from the UK, tells us how she ended up as a Vatican tour guide and about some of her favourite art on display in the Pope's fortress, including "The Last Judgment" by Michelangelo, the "Transfiguration" by her "Renaissance husband", Raphael, and the Borgia Apartments.
#120 – Leonardo da Vinci Part 13 – Curtis Wong
Curtis Wong has had an incredible career. He has produced critically acclaimed educational CD-ROMs at Corbis and the Voyager Co., as well as the definitive editions of feature films for the Criterion Collection. He ran the Content Group at Intel, and was granted many patents at Microsoft Research. Today he joins us to tell some stories from his career, including his groundbreaking work with Bill
#118 – Leonardo da Vinci Part 11 – Matthew Landrus
We chat with one of the world’s leading authorities on Leonardo da Vinci – Matthew Landrus from Oxford University, author of Leonardo da Vinci’s Giant Crossbow.
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Where are rest of the episodes?
If you’re wondering “where are rest of the episodes?”, they are on our website as part of our membership program.
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#108 – Leonardo da Vinci Part 1 – A Complete Bastard
"Extraordinary power ... conjoined with remarkable facility, a mind of regal boldness and magnanimous daring." That's how Vasari described Leonardo da Vinci. But how much do we really know about the world's most famous artist? And how much of what we think we know is myth?
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#105 – Savonarola Part 12 – Trial By Fire
With Charles out of the picture, Piero de Medici figures it’s time for him to return to Florence. He marched into Tuscany with a force of four hundred lancers, light cavalry, and foot soldiers. Unfortunately, nobody shows up to welcome him and he goes back into exile. But his attempt at a return sets off a series of political assassinations in Florence, supported by Savonarola. Civil tensions incr
#99 – Savonarola Part 6
Savonarola’s predictions that God was going to punish the Florentines seem to be coming true when, in 1494, King Charles VIII of France invades Italy to take control of Naples. On his way south, he also threatens to attack Florence. When Piero de Medici tries to negotiate a settlement, it’s a complete failure. So the Signoria send Savonarola to meet with the king instead.
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#98 – Savonarola Part 5
In 1492, Lorenzo The Magnificent died. His heir was his eldest son, 20 year old Piero de’ Medici, a useless turd. The Pope died soon afterwards and was replaced by the corrupt Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia as Pope Alexander VI. Savonarola proclaimed that the “Sword of the Lord” would soon descend upon Florence to punish it for its wicked ways. In this case, the sword would soon be carried another 20 yea
#94 – Savonarola Part 1
After Lorenzo de Medici’s death in 1492, Botticelli gave up painting, abandoned his humanist studies, and became a hardcore fundamentalist Christian. As did a lot of Florentines. The reason? They all fell under the spell of the original fire and brimstone preacher. He wasn’t rich. He didn’t have an army. He wasn’t of the nobility. He wasn’t sent by the pope. In fact, the Pope hated him. But he man
#89 – Sandro Botticelli
During Lorenzo de Medici’s life, no fewer than three of the outstanding artists of the Renaissance are thought to have spent at least a brief formative period of their early lives in the Palazzo Medici: Leonardo and Michelangelo and the one we're going to talk about for the next few episodes - the great Sandro Botticelli.
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#86 – Edicts Of Grace
When the Inquisition came to your town, they would grant you 30 days to confess to being a heretic. This was known as the "Edicts Of Grace". If you confessed, you might get a hefty fine, but at least you wouldn't end up in prison or burned at the stake. Of course, many conversos decided it was the smart move to confess - whether they actually were a crytpo-Jew or not.
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#81 – Introducing The Gentleman
On this episode we discuss the artists Poliziano, who popularised the new sophistication and learning expected of a gentleman; Mirandola, who at age 23 decided to debate the entire world; and the magnificent breasts of Simonetta Vespucci.
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#78 – The Pazzi Conspiracy
Early in his rule, Lorenzo de' Medici cracked down on the town of Volterra, resulting in rampage, murdering, looting and raping. Meanwhile, in Milan, on the day after Christmas 1476, Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, was stabbed by three noblemen as he entered church. And Larry upsets Pope Sixtus IV over a loan request, which leads to an assassination attempt in 1478 on both Lorenzo and his brother
#77 – The Marriage Of Lorenzo
Lorenzo de' Medici throws himself a jousting tournament to take Florence's minds off the fact he's marrying a Roman girl. The ‘Queen of the Tournament’ was Lucrezia Donati, a Florentine hottie who Lorenzo was writing love poetry about, even thought she was married to someone else. His bride, Clarice Orsini, arrived in Florence a while later, and they were married just before Piero died.
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#71 – The Greek Invasion
It’s been a while since we have caught up with Cosimo de Medici. Four years after his return to Florence in 1434, he secured a huge opportunity for Florence, that would have far reaching effects on the Renaissance – hosting the Ecumenical Council between the East and West churches. This saw a contingent of 700 […]
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#70 – Gutenberg Part 6
In 1453, when the Turks took Constantinople, Pope Nicky 5 wanted a crusade and authorized the sale of letters of indulgence—religious documents that released the buyers from penalties for their sins. And guess who printed them? Then he finally got around to working on his masterpiece and the book he is most remembered for – […]
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#69 – Gutenberg Part 5
Commercial opportunities for a printing press went beyond books. One of those was the Fall of Constantinople. In 1453, the Ottoman Empire lead by 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed II defeated the army of Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Byzantine Emperor. To tell this story we also need to talk about The Great Schism, how and why […]
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#68 – Gutenberg Part 4
Hand carving a piece of metal type for a printing press would take a skilled craftsman an entire day. Just setting one page of the Bible would take 2600 pieces of type. So Gutenberg needed to come up with an efficient way to manufacture type – which is a lot harder than it sounds. He […]
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#67 – Gutenberg Part 3
One of Gutenberg’s partners died, and the guy’s brothers wanted in on the secret project. Gutenberg refused, so they took him to court. Then in 1444, Gutenberg left Strasbourg and went… where? We don’t know. He disappeared for three years. Some interesting conspiracy theories about where he might have gone. We also talk about the […]
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#66 – Gutenberg Part 2
In 1428, Gutenberg moved to Strasbourg where he would live for the next 20 years. It was there that he had his first big business venture—making holy healing ray containment devices. He brought on investors who later became suspicious that he was holding out on them. He had a secret project that he was working […]
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#65 – Gutenberg Part 1
Today we begin a series about the man without whom our podcasts would not exist because there would be no books. And you know we get all of our knowledge from books. The man who invented movable type and the printing press (or did he?). Johannes Gutenberg.
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#64 – Masaccio
Born 1401 as Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, “Masaccio” (his nickname) was regarded as the first great Italian painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. According to Vasari, he was the best painter of his generation. The first painter in the Renaissance who really understood linear perspective. He died age only 26, […]
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#63 – Fra Angelico & Pope Nicholas V
Born Guido di Pietro but known to us as Fra Angelico which means the “Angelic friar”. Despite his early talent for painting, at age 12 he entered the Dominican order and spent the rest of his life in convents, painting their walls. Admired by Cosimo de Medici and extremely influential to the early Renaissance artists, […]
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#62 The First Renaissance Man
The first written work of art theory, produced during the Renaissance was “De Pictura”, or “On Painting”, written in 1435 by Leon Battista Alberti but not published until 1450, in which he explained the science behind linear perspective. He was a humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, mathematician and cryptographer. He also wrote […]
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#61 That New Car Smell
After returning to Rome to work for the Vatican, Poggio Bracciolini starting making some serious money of his own. Enough to get married and buy a big house. He served as chancellor of Florence for five years. After he died, Lucretius kept working its magic on the people of Europe. Forty years later, the Dominican […]
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#60 The Lie Factory
In 1419, a couple of years after he lost his papal secretary job and discovered Lucretius, Poggio did what everyone does when they are shit out luck and scraping the bottom of the barrel. He moved to England. He accepted the post of secretary to Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester and uncle of Henry V. […]
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#59 Niccolo de Niccoli
Nicky the Nickster was one of the most influential people in Florence in the early 1400s. He was the unofficial minister of culture and probably the guy who influenced Cosimo de Medici to support the humanists and artists. Obsessed with antiquity, he spent his entire family fortune on buying ancient manuscripts, sculptures and other artefacts. […]
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#58 How The Christians Wiped Out Epicureanism
When Christians banned other religions and philosophies in the late 4th century, Plato and Aristotle, pagans who believed in the immortality of the soul, could ultimately be accommodated by Christianity; but Epicureanism could not. The Epicureans believed life was about seeking pleasure and, if there was pain, it would end with death. Christians, on the […]
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#57 Lucretius “On The Nature Of Things”
Let’s get deep into some Lucretius, the Roman Epicurean philosopher poet. Today I want to read from “On the Nature of Things”.
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#56 Poggio Bracciolini Part 4
In 1417, Poggio made the greatest discovery of his career – Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura, aka “On The Nature Of Things”, the last surviving copy of his five-book epic attempt to explain Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience in poem. Little did Poggio realise the impact this book would have on the world. * Scholars […]
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#55 Poggio Bracciolini Part 3
So back to January 1417. Poggio made a number of book hunting trips that winter. So he must have had a lot of funding from back home. Here’s a short clip from today’s episode: Bruni wrote to him, saying “keep going, don’t worry about the cost, I’ll cover them all, just find more books” […]
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#54 Poggio Bracciolini Part 2
Poggio had to use all of his talents to talk his way into monastery libraries. In some he had to be super serious. In others, he would tell wild stories about stupid peasants, or sexy housewives and rapey priests. Whatever it takes to get his hands on their books.
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#53 Poggio Bracciolini
In the year 1417, 17 years before Cosimo De Medici took control of Florence, a man called Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini went hunting in the middle of Germany. Hunting for manuscripts. Thanks to Poggio, we have today several masterpieces of Roman literature, including Quintilian’s Institutio Oratoria, Vitruvius’ De Architectura, and Lucretius’ On The Nature Of […]
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#52 The Rise Of The Medici (part 14)
The return of Cosimo de Medici! On 5 October, 1434, Cosimo arrived at his villa outside Florence and stopped for some food. The Signoria sent him a message begging him NOT to arrive that day, because they thought it would cause a riot. So he sneaks in at night and goes straight to visit the Pope. Rinaldo degli […]
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#51 The Rise Of The Medici (part 13)
By April 1434, six months after Cosimo de Medici’s banishment, the people were turning against Rinaldo degli Albizzi. Even the banking families weren’t supporting him, not sure he could be around much longer. According to Cosimo, nobody could be persuaded to fill the city treasury ‘with so much as a pistachio nut’. He was so unpopular, that supporters […]
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#50 The Rise Of The Medici (part 12)
So Cosimo de Medici is sent into exile by his enemies. As is the rest of the family. But at least he’s alive. And the business survived. So he’s still FILTHY rich. It could have been a lot worse. He ends up living at the San Giorgio Maggiore monastery in Venice. Florence is in the control […]
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#49 The Rise Of The Medici (part 11)
Albizzi tries to get the Signoria to pass the death sentence on Cosimo. Meanwhile, Cosimo waits nervously for his brother Lorenzo, Niccolo da Tolentino and his mercenaries to rescue him from his cell, while expecting his execution to come at any time.
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#48 The Rise Of The Medici (part 10)
Florence’s war with Lucca was like the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. It set off a string of conflicts across northern Italy. When Cosimo gets back to the city, he finds it in chaos and broke. So he bails it out. And then he gets arrested.
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#47 The Rise Of The Medici (part 9)
When the Florentines attack the town of Lucca in 1430, Milan sends mercenary Francesco Sforza to their defense. The Florentines, outmatched militarily, do what rich people always do when they get in trouble – they bribe their way out of it.
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#46 The Rise Of The Medici (part 8)
While in Rome, Cosimo gets himself a sexy slave girl – Maddalena. And when Papa Joe dies, Cosi took over as head of the family. He decided the Medici should have a genuine palazzo of their own and commissioned old mate Bruno to design something nice. And he also commissioned sculptor Donatello to produce a bronze statue of […]
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#45 The Rise Of The Medici (part 7)
Papa Joe Medici dies, leaving control of the Medici Bank and the family fortune – now the largest in Italy – to his son, Cosimo Di Giovanni de Medici.
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#44 The Rise Of The Medici (part 6)
The Medici continue their rise to power. In 1421, Papa Joe became gonfaloniere. Around the same time, Pope Marty finally appointed the Medici as the papal bankers. And Papa Joe retires and […]
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#43 The Rise Of The Medici (part 5)
So Ziggy declared John XXIII was deposed and thrown in jail. The other popes were encouraged – by showing them a stake with wood stacked around it no doubt – to drop their claims to the title. And the Great Schism was finally healed – but electing an entirely NEW pope in 1417 – Martin V. Possibly […]
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#42 The Rise Of The Medici (part 4)
In 1414, the future Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund (aka Ziggy Stardust) suggested to Mr Baldy (aka Baldassare Cossa aka Pope John XXIII) that he should get all of the active Popes – John XXIII, Gregory XII and Benedict XIII – together for a big party to work out the pope situation. Baldy said…. sure, Okay, I’ve heard Cam […]
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#41 David & Goliath
Our guest today is friend of the show, one of our favourite people – artist Alex Kynaston. She was with us in Durham NC while we shot the Jesus film and was also on our inaugural European tour. She and Cameron (and her dad Tony) smoked stogies and caught some jazz in NYC and have hung […]
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#40 The Rise Of The Medici (part 3)
THE MEDICI FAMILY fortunes eventually passed into the hands of Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici, head of the Cafaggiolo branch of the family, so called because it retained property in the Medici’s home village in the Mugello. Things started to really turn around for Giovanni in 1402 because of his relationship with a dodgy bloke called Baldassare […]
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#39 The Rise Of The Medici (part 2)
The rise of the Medici included a few false starts, due to a failed military campaign and a working class revolution. Meanwhile Florence prospered, in part because of the integrity of their coinage – the florin.
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#38 The Rise Of The Medici (part 1)
One of the one of the most powerful and influential families of the Renaissance – the Medici – took centuries to rise to power. But when they did, they changed the world.
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#37 The Avignon Popes – Part III
Against complaints about how much they were demanding, the popes said “hey looking this good isn’t easy!” Clement VI had been forced to lend Philip VI of France 592,000 gold florins – $135 million. And 3,517,000 more to King John II, Philip’s son and heir. Roughly $800 million. Quick quiz – how long did the […]
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#36 The Avignon Popes – Part II
After the death of Clement V, Dante wrote to the Italian cardinals and urged them to hold out for an Italian pope who would return the papacy to Rome. But only six of the 23 cardinals were Italian. And when they met just outside Avignon in their conclave to decide the new Pope, there were […]
The post #36 The Avignon Popes – Part II appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
