Curated playlist
15th-century people from the Republic of Florence
- Leonardo da VinciLeonardo da Vinci wrote most of his notes in mirror-image cursive, right to left.
- MichelangeloMichelangelo said he lived like a poor man, yet he was worth about 50,000 gold ducats.
- Matteo PalmieriMatteo Palmieri served Florence for more than four decades, yet an effigy of him was burned.
- Niccolò de' NiccoliNiccolò de' Niccoli was born in Florence in 1364 and died there on the 22nd of January 1437. He was an Italian Renaissance humanist, and he sat near the center of the scholars whom Cosimo de' Medici supported. He left almost no writing of…
- Francesco FiorentinoAfter Wawel Castle burned in 1499, sculptor Francesco Fiorentino got his first Polish commission there.
- Niccolò MachiavelliMachiavelli never saw The Prince printed. It appeared in 1532, five years after he died.
- Lorenzo GhibertiMichelangelo named the second set of Lorenzo Ghiberti's bronze doors the Gates of Paradise.
- MasaccioMasaccio drove a nail into a wall to draw perspective lines with string. His Holy Trinity fresco still shows the marks.
- Amerigo VespucciAmerigo Vespucci most likely died without knowing two continents were named for him.
- DonatelloDonatello kept a bucket of money hanging from his workshop ceiling. Anyone nearby could take what they needed.
- Filippo BrunelleschiTuscany lacked timber to scaffold Florence's cathedral dome, yet Brunelleschi won the 1418 contest.
- Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' MediciAmerigo Vespucci sent most of his famous letters about the New World to a Medici, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco.
- Lorenzo de' MediciLorenzo de' Medici survived a cathedral ambush in 1478 that killed his brother. The assassins had a pope's blessing.