A provincial elite in early modern Tuscany
Subtitle: family and power in the creation of the state
By: Giovanna Benadusi.
Series: The Johns Hopkins University studies in historical and political science ;; 114th ser., 3
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Baltimore
Language: eng
Number of pages: 259
Subjects: Central-local government relations -- Italy -- Florence -- History.; Elite (Social sciences) -- Italy -- Florence -- History.; Elite (Social sciences) -- Italy -- Poppi -- History.; Florence (Italy) -- Politics and government -- 1421-1737.; Poppi (Italy) -- Politics and government.
Description: In this groundbreaking study of the interaction between familial strategies of Tuscan provincial families and the politics of the Florentine government, Giovanna Benadusi offers a new understanding of the social formation of the early modern state.

The development of the modern state is a central theme of Renaissance and early modern European historiography, and the Florentine state was one of the first to create new state institutions, challenge municipal powers, and develop a new centralized political system.

By incorporating into her account the families of shopkeepers, wool producers, landholders, notaries, and military officers who lived in the outlying town of Poppi, southeast of Florence, as integral contributors to state formation, Benadusi not only provides a vivid look at the ways power and resistance operated at the everyday level of social relations but also redefines the context and the participants in state formation.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [205]-252) and index.