In the space of two or three generations, from the middle of the thirteenth to the early fourteenth century, Florence underwent a rapid and fundamental transformation. What once had been a second-rank city in Tuscany around 1250 had become by 1310 one of the most populated and powerful cities of Europe. These far-reaching changes were economic, political, social, and, as the exhibit demonstrates so well, cultural in nature. The environment which nurtured both Giotto and Dante also sustained many other artists and writers who were to change the direction of European culture. This talk will both review as well as suggest some explanations for these developments.

George W. Dameron is Professor of History at St. Michael's College, Colchester, Vermont. He is the author of Florence and Its Church in the Age of Dante.