Crafting Fame: Praise and Exclusion in Fifteenth Century Florence

Abstract

This thesis examines the way that celebrated craftsmen from renaissance Florence were remembered selectively by fifteenth and sixteenth century chroniclers and biographers. With an emphasis on Filippo Brunelleschi, this study briefly explores Florence’s world of workshops, artisan contests, and patrons, before analysing comparative accounts of Brunelleschi’s social life and architectural accomplishments. The enquiry engages with historiographical scholarship concerning selfhood and individualism, and is developed through the related genres of biography, comedy, and apocryphal tale. It closes by arguing that when some men were praised others were excluded, and that fame and eminence were reinforced through humour and ridicule.