The apology for Florence’s Great Council in Girolamo Savonarola’s sermons

Abstract

After the expulsion of Piero Medici and the withdrawal of French troops from Florence, the citizens of Florence embarked on reforming the state administration. One of the most important institutional transformations was the establishment of the Great Council, which was carried out with the support of the city prophet Girolamo Savonarola. The paper analyses the sermons of the Dominican monk, which were delivered in support of the popular government (represented by the Council) during the discussion of the drafts of the reform project, as well as during the functioning of the Consiglio Maggiore. Comparison of the sermons with the “Treatise on the Governance of Florence”, written at the end of the monk’s political career, allows us to find out in which issues his position remained unchanged and where a particular evolution of his views took place.