Reforming the Chivalric Elite in Thirteenth-Century Florence: The Evidence of Brunetto Latini’s Il Tesoretto

Chivalry in Late Medieval Tuscany and Florence: Current historiography and new perspectives

“…Indeed, Cardini seems to associate this violent behavior, central to Kaeuper's conceptualization of the chivalric lifestyle and identity, with “antiknights” while going out of his way to emphasize the civic‐patrioticz and spiritual elements of the knightly mentality in Tuscany, especially Florence (cf. Kaeuper, , , and Sposato, , ). This interpretation, very much in line with Keen's understanding of chivalry, highlights Cardini's belief that Tuscan chivalry was first and foremost courtly and ceremonial.…”

“…More recently, Sposato (, , forthcoming) has published a series of studies on Florentine chivalry that attempt, in the tradition of Richard Kaeuper, to combine both approaches and to emphasize the practical nature of chivalric ideology. Indeed, Sposato contends that the constellation of Florentine chivalry contained very similar stars to its counterparts in other areas of the Italian peninsula and across the Alps, with prowess, bravery, honor, and largesse burning brightest.…”

“…As a result, the chivalric cultural community in Florence included practitioners ranging from strenuous knights of noble stock with long traditions of military service to male elites from newer families who owed their wealth and power to banking and international trade. This unique social and cultural terrain also likely resulted in a special emphasis being placed on excessive violence as a marker of chivalric identity (Sposato, , ).…”

“…These studies present a version of chivalry in line with Keen and Cardini, privileging courtliness and civility and downplaying the violence that is readily apparent in the historical evidence and strongly promoted in the contemporary literature. Sabatini () in particular has argued that Naples was the bastion of “gentility, refinement, and knighthood” in an Italian peninsula “in the firm embrace of bourgeois culture,” although recent scholarship has challenged this view (challenged by Larner, , and Sposato, ). Challenges to this interpretation of the nature of Neapolitan, and by extension Tuscan, chivalry have also come from historians who study prominent Florentines residing at the Neapolitan court, most notably the royal seneschal Niccolò Acciaiuoli ( d .1365) and members of his extended family.…”

“…In reality, the designation was political in nature, and many families who exhibited similar behavior avoided the negative consequences of the designation because of their cooperation with and support of the popular elements of Florentine society (Fiumi, ; Pispisa, ). Najemy () has argued that the antimagnate legislation was part of a larger Italian, if not European, process of “civilizing” the Florentine magnates and other martial elites with the intent of fundamentally transforming them into civic and courtly elites, although scholars, including Sposato (), have begun to push back against this idea. It is true, however, that by the fourteenth century, the ruling elite, which included some members of the knightly consular aristocracy, was increasingly dominated by families whose wealth came from international trade and banking and whose lifestyle was underpinned by a civic ideology that was in many ways antithetical to chivalry, even if many of these elites readily adopted the ceremonial and ritual aspects of traditional knighthood (Strocchia, ).…”