History of Florence Timeline

While visiting the ruins of Rome during the jubilee celebration in 1300, the banker and chronicler Giovanni Villani noted the well-known history of the city and was inspired to write a universal history of his own city of Florence, recording events year-by-year in his Nuova Cronica.

Image source: Nuova Cronica

In 1338, there were about 17,000 beggars in the city, highlighting stark economic contrasts amid Florentine prosperity.

Of a population estimated at 80,000 before the Black Death, about 25,000 were engaged in the wool industry. In 1345, Florence was the scene of an attempted strike by wool carders (ciompi).

Giovanni Villani succumbed to the Black Death in 1348, which devastated a population estimated at 80,000 before the plague; his brother and nephew continued his Nuova Cronica.

Image source: Black Death

In 1378, wool carders rose up against oligarchic rule in a brief revolt known as the Revolt of the Ciompi.

Image source: Ciompi Revolt

After the suppression of the Ciompi, the city came under the sway of the Albizzi family, bitter rivals of the Medici family, between 1382 and 1434.

Image source: Albizzi

Cosimo de' Medici (1389–1464) was the first Medici family member to govern the city from behind the scenes. The lottery arrangement organizing Florence's political structure lasted until 1434, when the Medici took power.

Image source: Cosimo de' Medici

In 1465, a movement to reintroduce civic lotteries was halted by an extraordinary commission packed with Medici supporters.

Cosimo was succeeded by his son Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, who was shortly thereafter succeeded by Cosimo's grandson Lorenzo in 1469. Florentine family holdings had representatives in all main economic centers of Western Europe, such as Bruges and Geneva (replaced by Lyon after 1460), as well as Constantinople.

Image source: Lorenzo de' Medici

After Lorenzo's death in 1492, his son Piero the Unfortunate took the reins of government, however his rule was short.

Image source: Piero the Unfortunate

In 1494, King Charles VIII of France invaded Italy and entered Tuscany on his way to claim the throne of the Kingdom of Naples.

Image source: Italian War of 1494–1495

In due time, Savonarola lost support and was hanged in 1498. Medici rule was not restored until 1512.

Image source: Girolamo Savonarola

Machiavelli was tortured and exiled from Florence by the Medici family in 1513, due to accusations of conspiracy, exacerbated because of his ties to the previous republican government. Commissioned by the Medici, in 1520 he wrote the Florentine Histories.

Image source: Niccolò Machiavelli

The Florentines drove out the Medici for a second time and re-established the Republic on May 16, 1527. The 10-month Siege of Florence (1529–1530) by the Spanish ended the Republic and Alessandro de' Medici became ruler of the city.

Image source: Siege of Florence (1529–1530)

Alessandro, who ruled from 1531 to 1537, was the first Medici to use the style Duke of Florence, a title arranged for him in 1532 by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

Image source: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

After the Battle of Marciano in 1554, the city's historical rival Siena was conquered and the only remaining territory in Tuscany not ruled from Florence was the Republic of Lucca (later a Duchy).

Image source: Battle of Marciano

In 1569, Duke Cosimo I was elevated to the rank of Grand Duke of Tuscany by Pope Pius V. The Medici would continue to rule in Tuscany as grand dukes until 1737. The Renaissance thrived locally from about 1434 to 1534, facilitated by Florentines' strong economy based on money, banking, trade, and display of wealth and leisure.

Image source: Grand Duchy of Tuscany

The extinction of the Medici line and the accession in 1737 of Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine, husband of Maria Theresa of Austria, led to Tuscany's inclusion in the territories of the Austrian crown. Habsburg rule ended in defeat at the hands of France and the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont in 1859, and Tuscany became part of the united Kingdom of Italy in 1861.

Image source: Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor

Florence replaced Turin as Italy's capital in 1865 and, in an effort to modernise the city, the old market in the Piazza del Mercato Vecchio and many medieval houses were pulled down and replaced by a more formal street plan with newer houses.

A foreign community came to represent one-quarter of the population in the second half of the 19th century, and writers such as James Irving and the pre-Raphaelite artists captured a romantic vision of the city in their works. In the 19th century the population doubled to over 230,000.

During World War II, the city experienced a year-long German occupation (1943–1944). On September 25, 1943, Allied bombers targeted central Florence, destroying many buildings and killing 215 civilians.

Image source: Operation Achse

In late July 1944, the British 8th Army closed in as they liberated Tuscany. At 04:00 on August 4, 1944, an armored patrol of the South African Imperial Light Horse and Kimberley Regiments found the Ponte Vecchio intact, crossed it under heavy German shelling and became the first Allied soldiers to enter Florence.

Image source: History of Florence

On November 4, 1966, the Arno flooded parts of the city centre, killing at least 40 and damaging millions of art treasures and rare books.

Image source: 1966 flood of the Arno

On May 28, 1993, a powerful car bomb exploded in the via de Georgofili, behind the Uffizi, killing five people, injuring numerous others and seriously damaging the Torre dei Pulci, the museum and parts of its collection.

Image source: Via dei Georgofili bombing

In 2002, Florence was the seat of the first European Social Forum.

Image source: European Social Forum

The theatre was inaugurated on April 28, 2011, in honour of the 150th anniversary of the Italian unification. It hosts a lyrical theatre containing 2000 places, a concert hall for 1000 spectators, a hall with 3000 seats and an open-air amphitheatre with 3000 spaces.

Image source: Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (Florence)