Florence Reference library
Concise Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain
... 1881: 590; Aberdeens; also London; Norfolk; Staffs. 1 English: relationship name from the Middle English personal name Florence , used by both sexes (Latin Florentius (masculine) and Florentia (feminine), ultimately from flos , genitive floris ‘flower’). 2 English: locative name from Florence...
Florence Reference library
Anne Button
The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (2 ed.)
... , the capital of Tuscany, figures in All’s Well That Ends Well (Florence is the setting of 3.5 and successive scenes). Florence is also mentioned in The Taming of the Shrew (1.1.14 and 4.2.91) and ‘Florentines’ (people from Florence) in Much Ado About Nothing (1.1.10) and Othello (1.1.19 and 3.1.39). Anne...
Florence Reference library
Dictionary of American Family Names (2 ed.)
... US frequency (2010): 9177 1 English: from the personal name Florence , used by both sexes (from Latin masculine Florentius and feminine Florentia , from florens ‘blooming, flowering’ and ultimately from flos , genitive floris ‘flower’). Both Latin names were borne by several early Christian martyrs. 2 English: habitational name from Florence in Italy, originally named in Latin as Florentia . 3 French: from the female personal name Florence (see 1...
Florence Reference library
Alexander Kazhdan and R. Bruce Hitchner
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
...Florence a chapel of St. Menas , housing his relics, spurred the development of the local cult of St. Miniatus. In 1094 Pope Urban II visited Florence, Pisa, and Pistoia calling for participation in the First Crusade, but Florence remained aloof. Later some of the city's high-ranking clergymen participated in the Crusades: Guido of Florence, the cardinal-priest of San Chrysogono, was the pope's legate to the Second Crusade and contributed to the reconciliation between the Byz. and the Westerners; at the beginning of the 13th C. Walter of Florence was...
Florence Reference library
Oxford Reader's Companion to Trollope
... , northern Italian city, briefly the capital, and centre of foreign diplomatic activity. Charles Glascock courts and marries the niece of the American ambassador here in He Knew He Was Right Florence was well loved by the Trollopes. ‘ Villino Trollope ’, home of Thomas Adolphus , was a centre of expatriate English cultural life, and Anthony frequently visited. HKWR RC Randall...
Florence Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Italian Literature
... 1. Before 1532 2. 1532 onwards 1. Before 1532 Florence (Firenze) was a minor Roman colony founded in the late republican period, not, as was commonly believed in the Middle Ages , by Caesar , and was at first inferior to nearby Fiesole. The medieval attachment to the legendary imperial connection of early Florence was converted in the 15th c., partly for reasons of propaganda, into a republican origin, which was in fact more correct. The medieval commune , including the election of consuls, dates from the 12th c., when Florence was still a city with...
Florence Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance
... or (Italian) Firenze or (Latin) Florentia , The principal city of Tuscany, is situated on both banks of the river Arno. The territory of Florence included Fiesole, on the hill above the city, but the contado (dependent territory) did not extend far into Tuscany; the other Tuscan city-states, which included Lucca , Pisa , and Siena , were from 1222 engaged in a series of wars with Florence. In common with many other Italian cities, Florence was riven by Guelf and Ghibelline rivalries, and the banishing in 1249 of the Guelf leaders...
Florence Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages
...influence than Florence . Further, Siena was the earliest city in Italy to establish a communal government ( 1081 ), and from 1287 to 1355 its merchant regime of ‘the Nine’ provided the longest enduring government of any republican *city-state in Italian history. Even in art history, it may have held hegemony over Florence : at the end of the 13th century, the most expensive commission for a *painting in Florence went to the Sienese *Duccio di Buoninsegna , not to Florence’s own *Giotto . But by the early 14th century, Florence had developed...
Florence Quick reference
World Encyclopedia
... ( Firenze ) Capital of Tuscany and Firenze province, on the River Arno, Italy. Initially an Etruscan town, it was a Roman colony from the 1st century bc to 5th century ad . In the 12th century, it became an independent commune and major trading centre. The site of many factional power struggles, especially the 13th-century war between the Guelph and Ghibellines , it nevertheless became the cultural and intellectual centre of Italy. Florence's period of dominance coincided with the rule of the Medici family. It became a city-state and a leading...
Florence ((Roman Florentia)) Reference library
Neil Christie
The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity
... (Roman Florentia) The gridded colonia of Florence was founded c .30 bc , and saw monumental growth in the 2nd century ad. It became the seat of the Corrector Tusciae et Umbriae in the Tetrarchy ’s provincial reorganization. Theatre, baths , and aqueducts continued in use, and a bishop is attested in 313. The city’s Late Antique life focused on the north and south gates and the churches of S. Reparata and S. Cecilia respectively. Excavations at the former revealed a 52 × 25 m (170 × 82 ft) first church with fine floor mosaics , datable...
Florence Reference library
The Oxford Companion to World Exploration
... . The city-state of Florence may be credited with giving birth to the Renaissance in the mid-fourteenth century, nearly a century before it began to appear in the rest of Europe . From the mid-fourteenth century through the sixteenth century, Florence and Venice were the two most powerful cities on the Italian peninsula , but under the rule of the Medici family, Florence was the leader in banking and commerce. These two activities formed a powerful basis for Florence's contributions to the age of discovery. It was a Florentine, Palla Strozzi ( c....
Florence Reference library
The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts
...The parts that were completed were dismantled and reused in various ways at the end of the 18th century (Florence, S Lorenzo; Florence, Pitti; Florence, Mus. Opificio Pietre Dure), though the decoration of the interior continued until the mid-19th century. Fully rounded statuettes, composed of various polychrome elements of pietre dure (Florence, Pitti) were also created for the chapel. This singular genre of ‘mosaic sculpture’, first produced in Florence at the end of the 16th century with the rock-crystal aedicula containing Christ and the Woman of Samaria ...
Florence Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Chaucer
... , in Tuscany, was in Chaucer's day a powerful republican city-state, turbulent and creative. Its textile industry and its commerce and banking had made it a wealthy urban centre. The English word florin preserves the memory of its international commercial success. The gold florin, first issued in the mid-13th c., became an international coin ( see money ). It was a pile of ‘floryns fyne of gold ycoyned rounde’ which led the rioters in The Pardoner's Tale to destruction. Florence's politics, like those of other Italian states, were marked by...
Florence Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Music (6 ed.)
... Italian city, capital of Tuscany, of great beauty and cultural significance. Sacred music flourished there from 14th cent. and reached a high‐point in 16th cent. under patronage of Medici family. At the same periods a tradition of secular music in the form of madrigals and Ballate developed. Florence is also regarded as the birthplace of opera, which emerged as an offshoot of the court th. fests. held at the celebration of Medici weddings together with the interest of Florentine intellectuals, musicians, and poets in ancient Greek musical and dramatic...
Florence (Canada, Italy, USA) Quick reference
Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names (6 ed.)
...Florence , Canada, Italy, USA 1. Italy (Tuscany): locally Firenze ‘Flowering City’ or ‘City of Flowers’ from the Old Italian fiorenza , itself from the Latin florere ‘to blossom’, perhaps because the city was built on a flowery meadow. Founded in 59 bc as a Roman military garrison, its Latin name Florentia meant ‘The Flourishing Town’. A republic during the 15th century , it was the capital of Italy 1865–71 . The ‘Flo’ of Florentia evolved through ‘Fio’ to ‘Fi’. 2. USA (Alabama): founded in 1818 and named after the Florence in Italy by its...
Florence Reference library
William Caferro
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History
...Florence . The story of Florence's economic development is intrinsically linked to its cultural and artistic achievements. Florence emerged in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and early sixteenth centuries as both a commercial and industrial leader of Europe and the home of the Renaissance. The beginnings of Florence's economic expansion are not well documented. The city benefited from the great demographic surge of the high Middle Ages ( 1000–1350 ). The population of the city quadrupled in that time. A small but vibrant merchant community traveled to...
Florence Reference library
Oxford Reader's Companion to George Eliot
... . George Eliot and G. H. *Lewes spent a fortnight in Florence on their first visit in 1860 , during which they made the acquaintance of Thomas *Trollope and other resident expatriates, and took many drives in the vicinity and a day trip to Siena. Eliot's account in ‘Recollections of Italy. 1860 ’ gives rhapsodic descriptions both of the natural beauty of the surrounding countryside, and of the art and architecture of Florence, saturated with her consciousness of associations with *Dante , Michaelangelo, and Girolamo *Savonarola , all ‘a living...
Florence Reference library
Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
...period of Italian history and the golden age of Florentine history. Florence, interior of the church of San Miniato al Monte, 12th c. R. Davidsohn , Storia di Firenze , Florence, 1973. City States in Classical Antiquity and Medieval Italy: Athens and Rome, Florence and Venice , A. Mohlo (ed.), K. Raaflaub (ed.), J. Emlen (ed.), Stuttgart, 1991. J. Henderson , Piety and Charity in Late Medieval Florence , Oxford, 1994. A. Molho , Marriage Alliance in Late Medieval Florence , Cambridge (MA), 1994. Anna Benvenuti...
Florence Reference library
The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture
...medioevo (Florence, 1962) E. Detti : Firenze scomparsa (Florence, 1970) M. Bucci and R. Bencini : Palazzi di Firenze , 4 vols (Florence, 1971–3) L. Ginori Lisci : I palazzi di Firenze nella storia e nell’arte (Florence, 1972) F. Borsi : Firenze del cinquecento (Rome, 1974) A. Busignani and R. Bencini : Le chiese di Firenze (Florence, 1974–) L. Benevolo : Storia della città (Rome and Bari, 1976) J. R. Hale : Florence and the Medici: The Pattern of Control (London and New York, 1977) La città del Brunelleschi (Florence, 1979) G....
Florence Quick reference
Howard Sargeant
Dictionary Plus Social Sciences
...Florence ( Firenze ) A city in Italy. It lies on the Arno River and is the capital of the region of Tuscany. Famous as a leading centre for the arts, it was initially established by the Etruscans and later became an important Roman colony. Its status as a city state during the Renaissance period was consolidated by the patronage of the ruling Medici family. Artists who made the city their home and the focus of their work include Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Donatello. One of Italy’s premier tourist destinations, it boasts some of the finest...
