Tag: girolamo savonarola

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season three

Episode 34: The Borgia Vs. The Prophet

Savonarola may be enjoying the peak of his influence over Florence, but he’s made a relentless enemy who just so happens to be a pope and, worse, a Borgia. Meanwhile, Piero and his supporters spin plots for a Medici restoration. 

A portrait of Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) by Pedro Berruguete (c. 1492). Source: Vatican Museums.

Transcript

So my only excuse for being late this week is that honestly I caught Savonarola fever. Seriously, my script for this episode just kept getting longer and longer and I kept finding new tidbits of research that I felt like I had to include. I really, really wanted to wrap up Savonarola’s story in this episode, but I had to split it. I just like to think there is something special about the fact that, centuries after his death, Savonarola is still big enough of a figure that he took over a podcast that’s supposed to be about the Medici.

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season three

Episode 33: God’s Republic

Charles VIII marches on Naples not knowing a brand-new plague is waiting for him, the Medici adapt to the existence of the new republic in different ways, and Savonarola and his allies in government tighten their grip over Florence, even while Rodrigo Borgia closes in on Florence’s popular preacher.

Transcript

Savonarola never really ruled Florence. In fact, you couldn’t even say that he had an invisible throne like the Medici did. But his sermons captivated his audiences with how they shifted gracefully from apocalyptic thunder to gentle cries for social reform, and as a result he had a great deal of influence over both the average people and the elites. As much as Savonarola owed to his skills as a preacher, he was also lucky enough to have a chance to hedge his bets on King Charles VIII of France. As Florence and Savonarola were about to christen their reformed republic, Charles was marching on Rome to face Pope Alexander VI, and it still seemed like King Charles really would reform the papacy itself.

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Categories
season three

Episode 32: The Friar and the King

Piero de’ Medici is gone, and a new rising star is a hotshot preacher named Girolamo Savonarola. Once an itinerant preacher and lecturer, Savonarola now finds himself hobnobbing with King Charles VIII of France and even having a say in Florence’s newly rebuilt, Medici-free republic. 

The only known contemporaneous portrait of Girolamo Savonarola (1497 or 1498) by Fra Bartolomeo. Source: Museo di San Marco, Firenze.
A statue of Girolamo Savonarola in the Palazzo Savonarola in Ferrara (1875) by Stefano Galletti. Source: Dominican Friars of England, Wales, and Scotland website.

Transcript

Today, we’re leaving behind the Medici golden age. This episode marks the start of a new season, the Holy Family. It’s an era that begins with the Medici being driven out of their home city. By rights they should have faded into obscurity. Yet, ironically, this will be the time when they really left their mark on European and even world history. A Medici would assume the role of antagonist in a little tiff you might have heard of called the Protestant Reformation. The family would also, like that other great Italian family the Borgias, take a part in the story of how the golden age of the Italian city-states drew to a close and how Italy would lose much of its independence to the great powers of Europe for roughly 300 years. Basically, this season is about how a dynasty stripped of political power and the bank they founded and driven into exile just simply refused to step off the stage of history.

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