A Short History of Florence and the Florentine RepublicThe innovative city culture of Florence was the crucible within which Renaissance ideas first caught fire. With its soaring cathedral dome and its classically inspired palaces and piazzas, it is perhaps the finest single expression of a society that is still at its heart an urban one. For, as Brian Jeffrey Maxson reveals, it is above all the city state the walled commune which became the chief driver of European commerce, culture, banking, and art