Republic of Florence

State · 1260–1737 CE · at its largest around 1556 CE

City-state in Tuscany that became a centre of banking and the Renaissance under the Medici family, who eventually became grand dukes of Tuscany.

On its lands while it lasted

Florence (c. 1260 CE): Capital of Republic of Florence (1260–1569), Grand Duchy of Tuscany (1797–1848), Kingdom of Etruria (1803–1806), and 1 more.
Dante Alighieri (1265 CE – 1321 CE): Florentine poet whose Divine Comedy, written in the Tuscan vernacular, is a masterpiece of world literature and helped establish the Italian language.
Giotto (c. 1267 CE – 1337 CE): Florentine painter and architect whose naturalistic frescoes broke with Byzantine style and anticipated the Renaissance.
Petrarch (1304 CE – 1374 CE): Italian poet and scholar from Arezzo, an early humanist whose sonnets to Laura and revival of classical learning shaped the Renaissance.
Duccio’s Maestà (1311 CE): Duccio’s great altarpiece of the Virgin enthroned among saints was carried in procession to Siena Cathedral in 1311 amid ringing bells. Its back told Christ’s Passion in dozens of small scenes.
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 CE – 1446 CE): Florentine architect and engineer who designed the dome of Florence Cathedral and developed linear perspective.
Medici Bank (1397–1494 CE): Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici founded the bank in Florence in 1397. It became one of the largest banks in Europe and banker to the papacy, and its wealth underpinned Medici power until it collapsed in 1494.
Dome of Florence Cathedral (1436 CE): Brunelleschi's dome, completed in 1436, was the largest built since antiquity and a landmark of Renaissance architecture.
Sandro Botticelli (1445 CE – 1510 CE): Florentine painter of the early Renaissance, working for the Medici, whose Birth of Venus and Primavera brought the gods of ancient myth back into painting.
Lorenzo de' Medici (1449 CE – 1492 CE): Ruler of Florence known as the Magnificent, a leading patron of Renaissance artists including Botticelli and the young Michelangelo.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 CE – 1519 CE): Italian Renaissance polymath born in Vinci, painter of the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, whose notebooks record studies in anatomy, engineering and flight.
Michelangelo (1475 CE – 1564 CE): Florentine sculptor, painter and architect of the High Renaissance. He carved the Pietà and David, painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the Last Judgement, and designed the dome of St Peter's.
Primavera (c. 1480 CE): Botticelli's allegory of spring: Venus in an orange grove with the Three Graces, Flora and Mercury, some 500 kinds of plant painted round them. It hangs in the Uffizi in Florence.
Mona Lisa (c. 1503 CE): Leonardo da Vinci began this portrait of Lisa Gherardini in Florence around 1503 and kept working on it for years. It hangs in the Louvre and is among the most famous paintings in the world.
Galileo Galilei (1564 CE – 1642 CE): Italian astronomer and physicist born in Pisa who pioneered experimental science and telescopic astronomy. Condemned by the Inquisition in 1633, he spent his last years under house arrest near Florence.