Tuscany

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Context of Tuscany

Tuscany ( TUSK-ə-nee; Italian: Toscana [tosˈkaːna]) is a region in central Italy with an area of about 23,000 square kilometres (8,900 square miles) and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (Firenze).

Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its influence on high culture. It is regarded as the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and of the foundations of the Italian language. The prestige established by the Tuscan dialect's use in literature by Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini led to its subsequent elaboration as the language of culture throughout Italy. It has been home to many figures influential in the history of art and sci...Read more

Tuscany ( TUSK-ə-nee; Italian: Toscana [tosˈkaːna]) is a region in central Italy with an area of about 23,000 square kilometres (8,900 square miles) and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (Firenze).

Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its influence on high culture. It is regarded as the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and of the foundations of the Italian language. The prestige established by the Tuscan dialect's use in literature by Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini led to its subsequent elaboration as the language of culture throughout Italy. It has been home to many figures influential in the history of art and science, and contains well-known museums such as the Uffizi and the Palazzo Pitti. Tuscany is also known for its wines, including Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Morellino di Scansano, Brunello di Montalcino and white Vernaccia di San Gimignano. Having a strong linguistic and cultural identity, it is sometimes considered "a nation within a nation".

Tuscany is the second most popular Italian region for travellers in Italy, after Veneto. The main tourist spots are Florence, Castiglione della Pescaia, Pisa, San Gimignano, Lucca, Grosseto and Siena. The town of Castiglione della Pescaia is the most visited seaside destination in the region, with seaside tourism accounting for approximately 40% of tourist arrivals. The Maremma region, Siena, Lucca, the Chianti region, Versilia and Val d'Orcia are also internationally renowned and particularly popular spots among travellers.

Eight Tuscan localities have been designated World Heritage Sites: the historic Centre of Florence (1982); the Cathedral square of Pisa (1987); the historical centre of San Gimignano (1990); the historical centre of Siena (1995); the historical centre of Pienza (1996); the Val d'Orcia (2004), the Medici Villas and Gardens (2013), and Montecatini Terme as part of the Great Spa Towns of Europe (2021). Tuscany has over 120 protected nature reserves, making Tuscany and its capital Florence popular tourist destinations. In 2018, Florence alone had over 5 million arrivals, making it the world's 51st most visited city.

More about Tuscany

Population, Area & Driving side
  • Population 3745983
  • Area 22987
History
  • Apennine, Proto-Villanovan and Villanovan culture
    Apennine, Proto-Villanovan and Villanovan culture
     
    Cinerary urns of the Villanovan culture

    The pre-Etruscan history of the area in the middle and late Bronze parallels that of the archaic Greeks.[1] The Tuscan area was inhabited by peoples of the so-called Apennine culture in the second millennium BC (c. 1400 – c. 1150 BC) who had trading relationships with the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations in the Aegean Sea,[1] and, at the end of the Bronze Age, by peoples of the so-called Proto-Villanovan culture (c. 1100 – c. 900 BC) part of the central European Urnfield culture system. Following this, at the beginning of the Iron Age, the Villanovan culture (c. 900 – c. 700 BC), regarded as the oldest phase of Etruscan civilization,[2][3] saw Tuscany, and the rest of Etruria, taken over by chiefdoms.[1] City-states developed in the late Villanovan (paralleling Greece and the Aegean) before "Orientalization" occurred.[4]

    Etruscans
     
    The Chimera of Arezzo, Etruscan bronze, 400 BC

    The Etruscans (Latin: Tusci) created the first major civilization in this region, large enough to establish a transport infrastructure, to implement agriculture and mining and to produce vibrant art.[5] The Etruscans lived in the area of Etruria well into prehistory.[1] The civilization grew to fill the area between the Arno and Tiber from the tenth century BCE, reaching its peak during the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., finally succumbing to the Romans by the first century BCE.[6] From the Etruscans, Tuscany took the name of Etruria, Tuscia for the Romans and subsequently Tuscania and Tuscany. While the areas of north-western Tuscany were inhabited by the ancient Ligures. In northwestern Tuscany, the area between the Arno and Magra rivers was culturally aligned with the Etruscans in the early Iron Age, and came under Ligurian control in the late Iron Age.[7]

    One reason for the eventual demise of this civilization was the increasing absorption by surrounding cultures, including the adoption of the Etruscan upper class by the Romans.[5][6]

    Romans

    Soon after absorbing Etruria (to the north, northeast, east, and a strip to the south), Rome established the cities of Lucca, Pisa, Siena, and Florence, endowed the area with new technologies and development, and ensured peace.[5] These developments included extensions of existing roads, the introduction of aqueducts and sewers, and the construction of many buildings, both public and private. However, many of these structures have been destroyed by erosion due to weather.[5] The Roman civilization in the West of the Roman Republic and later Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth century, and the region fell briefly to barbarians migrating through the Empire from Eastern Europe and Central Asia of the Goths (Eastern - Ostrogoths and Western - Visigoths), then was re-conquered by the revived Eastern Roman Empire (later Byzantine Empire) under the Emperor Justinian. In the years following 572, the Lombards arrived and designated Lucca the capital of their subsequent Tuscia.[5]

    Medieval period
     
    Battle of Montaperti, 1260

    Pilgrims travelling along the Via Francigena between Rome and France brought wealth and development during the medieval period.[5] The food and shelter required by these travellers fuelled the growth of communities around churches and taverns.[5] The conflict between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, factions supporting the Papacy or the Holy Roman Empire in central and northern Italy during the 12th and 13th centuries, split the Tuscan people.[5] The two factions gave rise to several powerful and rich medieval communes in Tuscany: Arezzo, Florence, Lucca, Pisa, and Siena.[5] Balance between these communes was ensured by the assets they held: Pisa, a port; Siena, banking; and Lucca, banking and silk.[8] But by the time of the Renaissance, Florence had become the cultural capital of Tuscany.[8]

    One family that benefitted from Florence's growing wealth and power was the ruling Medici family. Its scion Lorenzo de' Medici was one of the most famous of the Medici. The legacy of his influence is visible today in the prodigious expression of art and architecture in Florence. His famous descendant Catherine de' Medici married Prince Henry (later King Henry II) of France in 1533.

    The Black Death epidemic hit Tuscany starting in 1348.[9] It eventually killed 70% of the Tuscan population.[10][11] According to Melissa Snell, "Florence lost a third of its population in the first six months of the plague, and from 45% to 75% of its population in the first year."[12] In 1630, Florence and Tuscany were once again ravaged by the plague.[13]

    Guido of Arezzo 

    Guido of Arezzo

    A page from Fibonacci's Liber Abaci (1202) 

    A page from Fibonacci's Liber Abaci (1202)

    Battle of Giglio (1241) 

    Battle of Giglio (1241)

    Dante Alighieri, author of the Divine Comedy 

    Dante Alighieri, author of the Divine Comedy

    Renaissance
     
    Primavera (1482) by Botticelli
     
    Hanging and burning of Girolamo Savonarola in Piazza della Signoria in Florence 1498 - Painting depicting Renaissance Florence

    Tuscany, especially Florence, is regarded as the birthplace of the Renaissance. Though "Tuscany" remained a linguistic, cultural, and geographic conception rather than a political reality, in the 15th century, Florence extended its dominion in Tuscany through the annexation of Arezzo in 1384, the purchase of Pisa in 1405, and the suppression of a local resistance there (1406). Livorno was bought in 1421 and became the harbour of Florence.

    From the leading city of Florence, the republic was from 1434 onward dominated by the increasingly monarchical Medici family. Initially, under Cosimo, Piero the Gouty, Lorenzo and Piero the Unfortunate, the forms of the republic were retained and the Medici ruled without a title, usually without even a formal office. These rulers presided over the Florentine Renaissance. There was a return to the republic from 1494 to 1512, when first Girolamo Savonarola then Piero Soderini oversaw the state. Cardinal Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici retook the city with Spanish forces in 1512, before going to Rome to become Pope Leo X. Florence was dominated by a series of papal proxies until 1527 when the citizens declared the republic again, only to have it taken from them again in 1530 after a siege by an Imperial and Spanish army. At this point Pope Clement VII and Charles V appointed Alessandro de' Medici as the first formal hereditary ruler.

    The Sienese commune was not incorporated into Tuscany until 1555, and during the 15th century, Siena enjoyed a cultural 'Sienese Renaissance' with its own more conservative character. Lucca remained an independent republic until 1847 when it became part of Grand Duchy of Tuscany by the will of its people. Piombino and other strategic towns constituted the tiny State of the Presidi under Spanish control.

    Leonardo da Vinci 

    Leonardo da Vinci

    Lorenzo de' Medici 

    Lorenzo de' Medici

    Niccolò Machiavelli, author of The Prince 

    Niccolò Machiavelli, author of The Prince

    Amerigo Vespucci 

    Amerigo Vespucci

    Modern era
     
    Map of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany
     
    Memorial to the victims of the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre, in which 560 locals were murdered by Nazi Germans and Italian Fascists in 1944

    In the 16th century, the Medicis, rulers of Florence, annexed the Republic of Siena, creating the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The Medici family became extinct in 1737 with the death of Gian Gastone, and Tuscany was transferred to Francis, Duke of Lorraine and husband of Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, who let the country be ruled by his son. The dynasty of the Lorena ruled Tuscany until 1860, except during the Napoleonic period, when most of the country was annexed to the French Empire. After the Second Italian War of Independence, a revolution evicted the last Grand Duke, and after a plebiscite, Tuscany became part of the new Kingdom of Italy. From 1864 to 1870 Florence became the second capital of the kingdom.

    Under Benito Mussolini, the area came under the dominance of local Fascist leaders such as Dino Perrone Compagni (from Florence), and Costanzo and Galeazzo Ciano (from Livorno). Following the fall of Mussolini and the armistice of 8 September 1943, Tuscany became part of the Nazi-controlled Italian Social Republic and was conquered almost totally by the Anglo-American forces during the summer of 1944.

    Following the end of the Social Republic and the transition from the Kingdom to the modern Italian Republic, Tuscany once more flourished as a cultural centre of Italy. Since the establishment of the regional government in 1970, Tuscany has always been ruled by centre-left governments.

    Cosimo I de' Medici, first Grand Duke of Tuscany 

    Cosimo I de' Medici, first Grand Duke of Tuscany

    Galileo Galilei 

    Galileo Galilei

    Pinocchio, created by Carlo Collodi (1883) 

    Pinocchio, created by Carlo Collodi (1883)

    An Italian partisan in Florence (1944) 

    An Italian partisan in Florence (1944)

    ^ a b c d Barker & Rasmussen 2000, p. 5. ^ Neri, Diana (2012). Gli etruschi tra VIII e VII secolo a.C. nel territorio di Castelfranco Emilia (MO) (in Italian). All’Insegna del Giglio. ISBN 9788878145337. Il termine "Villanoviano" è entrato nella letteratura archeologica quando, a metà dell '800, il conte Gozzadini mise in luce le prime tombe ad incinerazione nella sua proprietà di Villanova di Castenaso, in località Caselle (BO). La cultura villanoviana coincide con il periodo più antico della civiltà etrusca, in particolare durante i secoli IX e VIII a.C. e i termini di Villanoviano I, II e III, utilizzati dagli archeologi per scandire le fasi evolutive, costituiscono partizioni convenzionali della prima età del Ferro. ^ Bartoloni, Gilda (2002). La cultura villanoviana: all'inizio della storia etrusca (in Italian). Carocci. ISBN 9788843022618. ^ Smith, Christopher (2014). The Etruscans: A Very Short Introduction. OUP Oxford. ISBN 9780199547913. ^ a b c d e f g h i Jones 2005, p. 2 ^ a b Barker & Rasmussen 2000, p. 1. ^ D Farney, Gary (2017). The Peoples of Ancient Italy. de Gruyter. p. 371. ISBN 978-1614515203. ^ a b Jones 2005, p. 3 ^ Kohn, George C. (2008). Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence: From Ancient Times to the Present. Infobase Publishing. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-8160-6935-4. ^ Benedictow, Ole Jørgen (2004). The Black Death, 1346-1353: The Complete History. Boydell & Brewer. p. 303. ISBN 0-85115-943-5. ^ "The Economic Impact of the Black Death". EH.Net. Archived from the original on 13 March 2010. ^ Snell, Melissa (2006). "The Great Mortality". About.com Education. Archived from the original on 10 March 2009. Retrieved 19 April 2009. ^ Cipolla, Carlo M. (1981). Fighting the Plague in Seventeenth Century Italy. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
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