Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Firenze |
FirenzeNoun1. A city in central Italy on the Arno River; provincial capital of Tuscany; center of the Italian renaissance from 14th to 16th centuries. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Florence (Italian, Firenze) is a city of western Italy on the Arno river, with a population of around 400,000, plus a suburban population in excess of 200,000. The capital of the region of Tuscany and briefly (1865-1871) of the kingdom of Italy, Florence was long ruled (1434-1494, 1512-1527 and 1530-1737) by the Medici family. A centre of medieval European trade and finance, the city is sometimes considered the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance. Florence is famous for its wealth of fine art and architecture.
- Alternate meanings: See Florence (disambiguation)
"Giglio di Firenze" - symbol of the cityFlorence and the Renaissance
The surge in artistic, literary and scientific investigation that occurred in Florence in the 14th-16th centuries was precipitated by Florentines' preoccupation with money and with the display of wealth and leisure.
Added to this, the crises of the Catholic church (especially the controversy over the French Avignon Papacy and the Great Schism) along with the catastrophic effects of the Black Death were to lead to a re-evaluation of medieval values, resultant in a revisitation of those of classical antiquity. Florence benefited materially and culturally from this sea-change in social consciousness
History of Florence
Florence's recorded history began with the establishment in B.C. 59 of a settlement ("Florentia") for Roman ex-soldiers. The seat of a bishopric from around the beginning of the 4th century A.D., the city experienced subsequent periods of Byzantine, Ostrogothic, Lombard and Frankish rule, during which the population may have fallen to as few as 1,000.
Reviving from the 10th century and governed from 1115 by an autonomous commune, the city was plunged into internal strife by the 13th-century struggle between the Ghibellines, supporters of the German emperor, and the pro-Papal Guelphs, who after their victory split in turn into feuding "white" and "black" factions. (See Guelphs and Ghibellines.)
Political conflict did not, however, prevent the city's rise to become one of the most powerful and prosperous in Europe, assisted by her own strong gold currency, the florin (introduced in 1252), the eclipse of her formerly powerful rival Pisa (defeated by Genoa in 1284 and subjugated by Florence in 1406), and the exercise of power by the mercantile elite following an anti-aristocratic constitution (1293).
Of a population estimated at 80,000 before the Black Death of 1348, 25,000 are said to have been supported by the city's woollen industry: in 1345 Florence was the scene of an attempted strike by wool combers (ciompi), who in 1378 rose up in a brief revolt against oligarchic rule. After their suppression, the city came under the sway (1382-1434) of the Albizi family, bitter rivals but also precursors of the more powerful Medici.
The first period of Medici rule ended with the restoration of republican government, influenced until his execution (1498) by the teachings of the radical Dominican prior Girolamo Savonarola, whose disdain for worldliness foreshadowed many of the wider religious controversies of the following centuries.
A second individual of unusual insight was Niccolo Machiavelli, whose prescriptions for Florence's regeneration under strong leadership have often been seen as a legitimisation of political expediency and even malpractice. Florentines drove out the Medici for a second time and re-established a republic on May 16, 1527. Restored twice with the support of both Emperor and Pope, the Medici in 1537 became hereditary dukes of Florence, and in 1569 grand dukes of Tuscany, reigning for two centuries.
The extinction of the Medici line and the accession in 1737 of Francis Stephen, duke of Lorraine and husband of Maria Theresa of Austria, led to Tuscany's inclusion in the territories of the Austrian crown. Austrian rule was to end in defeat at the hands of France and the kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont in 1859, and Tuscany became a province of the united kingdom of Italy in 1861
Florence replaced Turin as Italy's capital in 1865, hosting the country's first parliament, but was superseded by Rome six years later following the latter's addition to the kingdom. After doubling during the 19th century, Florence's population tripled in the 20th with the growth of tourism, trade, financial services and industry. During World War II the city experienced a year-long German occupation (1943-1944). In November 1966 the Arno flooded parts of the centre, damaging many art treasures.
A Tour of Florence
At the heart of the city is the Fountain of Neptune, which is a masterpiece of marble sculpture at the terminus of a still functioning Roman aqueduct.The Arno river, which cuts through the old part of the city, is as much a character in Florentine history as many of the men who lived there. Historically, the locals have had a love hate relationship with the Arno -- which alternated from nourishing the city with commerce, and destroying it by flood. Many of the bridges across the Arno were built by the Romans.
Images of Florence
The Duomo and Campanile Tower
Combination pic of the view from the tower looking towards the Duomo.
Ponte VecchioOne of the bridges in particular, however, stands out as being unique -- The Ponte Vecchio, whose most striking feature is the multitude of shops built on it. First constructed by the Etruscans in ancient times, this bridge is the only one in the city to have survived World War II intact.
The most famous palace in the city is San Lorenzo, which has become a monument to the Medici family who ruled Florence during the 15th century. Nearby is the Uffizi Gallery, one of the very finest art galleries in the world. In addition to the Uffizi Florence has other museums which would be the premier art collection of almost any other major city in the world: The Bargello concentrates on sculpture, containing many priceless works of art created by such sculptors as Donatello, Giambologna, and Michelangelo. The Accademia collection's highlights are Michelangelo's David and his Slaves.
Across the Arno is the huge Pitti Palace lavishly decorated with the Medici family's former private collection. Adjoining the Palace are the Boboli Gardens, elaborately landscaped and with many interesting sculptures.
The elaborate Santa Croce church contains the monumental tombs of Galileo, Michaelangelo, Dante, and many other notables.
The crowning architectural jewel of Florence is the domed cathedral of the city, Santa Maria del Fiore, known as "The Duomo". The magnificent dome was built by Filippo Brunelleschi. The nearby Campanile Tower (by Giotto) and the Baptistry buildings are also highlights.
Other important sites in Florence include the church of Santa Maria Novella and the Orsanmichele.
The city's principal football team is Fiorentina A.C.
Notable people from the city
- Dante Alighieri
- Lorenzo de Medici
- Michelangelo
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Girolamo Savonarola
- Niccolo Machiavelli
- Baccio D'Agnolo
Further Reading
- Ferdinand Schevill, History of Florence: From the Founding of the City Through the Renaissance (Frederick Ungar, 1936) is the standard overall history of Florence
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Florence."
Synonym: FirenzeSynonym: Florence (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Firenze |
| Non-English Usage: "Firenze" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Finnish (Florence), Hungarian (Florence), Italian (Florence). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Per Firenze (1966) Napoleone a Firenze (1964) Arrivederci Firenze (1958) Porta un bacione a Firenze (1956) Brigata Firenze (1930) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
References | |||
Books |
| ||
Periodicals |
| ||
Music |
| ||
Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Firenze, R. Galleria Uffizi, La Cattedrale di Harlem (G. Berkeyden). Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Firenze - Chiesa di Or San Michele. La parte inferiore dal lato ovest (Arnolfo di Cambio e Taddeo Gaddi) / Ed. Alinari. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Il Duomo, Firenze. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Love or duty / chromolith. by Jehenné ; G. Castagnola, Firenze 1873. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Portrait of Norman Douglas, on the Arno, Firenze. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Firenze, Ponte Vecchio" by Piotr Kreglicki Commentary: "A picture of Ponte Vecchio, Firenze." | "Firenze socialforum 2002" by Michele Migliarini Commentary: "Giovani su pensilina che fotografano il passaggio del corteo del social forum." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| "Firenze" is generally used as a noun (proper) -- approximately 88.89% of the time. "Firenze" is used about 9 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (proper) | 88.89% | 8 | 124,375 |
| Noun (singular) | 11.11% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 9 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "Firenze" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Firenze | Last name | 100 | 72,971 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
| Country | Name |
| Italy | Aeroporto Firenze - AdF Spa |
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-e-f-i-n-r-z" | |
-1 letter: ferine, frieze, refine. | |
-2 letters: finer, infer. | |
-3 letters: erne, fere, fern, fine, fire, firn, free, friz, neif, reef, reif, rein, rife, zein. | |
-4 letters: ere, ern, fee, fen, fer, fez, fie, fin, fir, fiz, ire, nee, ree, ref, rei, rif, rin, zee, zin. | |
-5 letters: ef, en, er, if, in, ne, re. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-e-f-i-n-r-z" | |
+1 letter: freezing, frenzied, frenzies. | |
+3 letters: antifreeze, fraternize, freezingly, frenziedly, refreezing, unfreezing. | |
+4 letters: antifreezes, fragmentize, fraternized, fraternizer, fraternizes, nonfreezing, prefreezing, subfreezing. | |
+5 letters: federalizing, fragmentized, fragmentizes, fraternizers, frizzinesses, unfertilized. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)46 69 72 65 6E 7A 65 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
|
| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
|
| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
|
| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
|
Morse Code (1836) (references)..-. .. .-. . -. --.. . |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
|
Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000110 01101001 01110010 01100101 01101110 01111010 01100101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)F i r e n z e |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0046 0069 0072 0065 006E 007A 0065 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
|
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)40758471809271 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Names: Frequency 11. Names: Company Usage 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Anagrams 14. Orthography 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
