RENAISSANCEFLORENCE

The title of the article is structured in two short lines: the first gives a very general contextualization (“renaissance Florence”) and the second one synthesizes the core of the article.

It could make the reader curious about the article because usually people start to speak about capitalism a few centuries lather.

In the first paragraph the journalist gives an introduction where explains the work of Richard Goldthwaite, who had take the information about Florence economy between the 13^th and 16^th centuries and  leads the reader in the content of the article.

In the following paragraphs he tells about the most important resource of the city: the trade through the river Arno, that have save Florence from the bankruptcy at the time of the Black Death.

At this point, according to Mr Goldthwaite was important the role of the Medici that had encourage the development of bills and banks.

The journalist mentions the professor many times and quotes very frequently his words. This is a strategy to enforce the content of the article with the support of an expert of this argument.

He says that the merchants became bankers and capitalists and in the following paragraphs he gives many argumentations about this thesis continuing to quote Mr Goldthwaite for support his opinion.

He also gives importance to the birth of artist’s corporations and this thesis is strengthen by the support of Mr Goldthwaite and the famous art historian Giorgio Vasari that are mentioned in the argumentations.

At the and the journalist and Mr Goldthwaite say that even if the banks at this time was not leaders in Europe, Florence was however  a capitalistic city because “wealth was recycled and invested in human capital and transformed into the patrimony of urban architecture”.

The article is written in a language that everyone could understand, but in my opinion the ideal reader should be someone interested in the history of economy or of Florence because the article focuses on these points.