This contribution to the economic history of the Renaissance in Italy is based upon material in the Selfridge Collection of Medici manuscripts lent to the Graduate School of Business Administration of Harvard University by Mr. H. Gordon Selfridge of London, material never before available to the public. The work is designed to show something of the rich content of the Collection as a whole, covering the closing years of the fifteenth century, a time of great political confusion and of economic depression, and including bills of exchange, articles of association, correspondence between Florentine merchants and their agents who were located in Pera (a suburb of Constantinople), and also a glossary of business and historical terms found in the manuscripts, illustrations of certain pages, and a biographical appendix.

The Medici controlled fifteenth-century Florence. Other Italian rulers treated Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449–1492) as an equal. To his close associates, he was “the boss” (“master of the workshop”). But Lorenzo liked to say that he was just another Florentine citizen. Were the Medici like the kings, princes, and despots of contemporary Italy? Or were they just powerful citizens? The Medici: Citizens and Masters offers a novel, comparative approach to answering these questions. It sets Medici rule against princely states such as Milan and Ferrara. It asks how much the Medici changed Florence and contrasts their supremacy with earlier Florentine regimes. Its contributors take diverse perspectives, focusing on politics, political thought, social history, economic policy, religion and the church, humanism, intellectual history, Italian literature, theater, festivals, music, imagery, iconography, architecture, historiography, and marriage. The book will interest students of history, Renaissance studies, Italian literature, and art history as well as anyone keen to learn about one of history’s most colorful, influential, and puzzling families.