Emergence of a Bureaucracy

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The book explores the evolution of Florence's patrician elite from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, highlighting their influence on the bureaucratic state in Tuscany. It reveals how the elite of the Florentine Renaissance Republic persisted as key figures in the urban aristocracy under the Grand Dukes, playing a crucial role in the shift from Renaissance communal governance to a more centralized regional state. This analysis sheds light on a largely overlooked period in Italian history, emphasizing the continuity and adaptation of the elite's power.