Orsanmichele: A Medieval Grain Market and Confraternity

Orsanmichele had a vibrant life in the centuries before the majestic fourteenth-century loggia was built. This work provides a new narrative for Orsanmichele in the era before the Renaissance. Volume One explores Orsanmichele from the twelfth century as the locus of prominent Florentine families who worked to develop a communal government, commercial enterprises, and a strong judiciary. It traces the history of the piazza and its church, which became a center for governmental actions. It examines the emergence of a court system that eventually served the larger city, and a monastery that fought for its existence as the commune grew. This Volume Two examines Orsanmichele from the mid-thirteenth century, as the piazza transformed into the city's grain market, which fed the entire population daily. It considers the market's tandem confraternity, with its stunning Madonnas over three successive loggias, which became among the most successful of Florentine institutions. This work examines the grain market and confraternity from a social, economic, political, and artistic perspective. It provides extensive data on the Florentine grain trade, daily sales at the market, and the nexus between traders, political leaders, and the confraternity. In all, the two volumes suggest that the developments at Orsanmichele during the medieval period formed the basis for the Renaissance structure so well known today.