Renaissance lawgivers: Savonarola, Machiavelli, Castiglione, and Aretino

The brief period between 1494 and 1530 marked the pinnacle of the Italian Renaissance’s artistic development and the crisis of its religious, political, and social disintegration.

This traces how Savonarola, Machiavelli, Castiglione and Aretino complemented as well as conflicted with each other, examining how they dealt with the lawlessness of nature and its emphasis on chance and freedom, and the need to master the physical world and the life of the spirit.