A WINE MERCHANT OF FLORENCE 



The wine of the country is put up in these two-quart flasks and sent all over Italy, with very 



little breakage 



the conditions then obtaining in the city 

 and throughout Italy, was the one spot in 

 the world capable of producing such an 

 epoch-making upheaval of human con- 

 sciousness. 



WHY THE RENAISSANCE BEGAN IN 

 FLORENCE 



And all this astonishing genius grew 

 directly out of — business ! The city was 

 peopled by men who manufactured the 

 necessities of life, by merchants, specu- 

 lators, bankers, tradesmen, artisans, 

 handicraftsmen of every type. Business, 

 work, was a condition of active participa- 

 tion in the life of the State, and because 

 they did not work, the nobles were de- 

 barred from this. It was the burghers, 

 the people, who ruled ; and even when 

 evil chance laid the State under the heavy 

 hand of a despot, he was forced to de- 

 velop his own character to the uttermost, 

 because his rule depended entirely upon 

 his capacity as a man. The aristocracy, 

 accordingly, was that of intelligence, of 



men who became eminent because, first of 

 all, they were the best in their own indi- 

 vidual work. 



Under the practical inspiration of these 

 mental giants, Florence was recreated 

 and learned to view life from within in- 

 stead of superficially; she learned that 

 the individual is the soul of the State, and 

 that the State can succeed only when it is 

 true to the best interests of its individuals. 

 And the Renaissance, the new creation — 

 was it merely a wonderful revival of 

 learning? It was infinitely more: it was 

 the freeing of the human spirit from 

 shackling bonds of medieval tradition, 

 superstition, and misconception ; it was 

 the dawning of the mental liberty we en- 

 joy today ; it was the beginning of the 

 third distinct period Italian genius gave 

 to civilization, the greatest period and the 

 greatest gift of all; it was the launching 

 of man's greatest and most heroic adven- 

 ture. 



The severe grandeur of medieval Flor- 

 ence still gives a specific character to the: 



323 



