In The Third Man, Graham Greene argues that times of turmoil bring out cultural genius, citing the period of the Borgias and the Medici, when Italy produced Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, and the Renaissance.
The century of Rome’s civil wars that began with rebellion in 91 B.C.E. and continued through the end of the Republic in 27 B.C.E., leading to the establishment of the Roman Empire, saw a wonderful outpouring of literature. It included:
Julius Caesar’s Commentaries
Cicero’s letters, orations, and writings on philosophy and rhetoric
Virgil’s poems, Bucolics, Georgics, and, especially, the epic Aeneid.
Livy’s History of Rome (35 of 142 books survive)
Sallust’s historical descriptions of Roman events
Ovid’s Metamorphoses
Horace’s Satires, Epistles, and lyrical Odes
Lucretius’s poem, De rerum natura, on Epicurian philosophy
Varro’s encyclopedic writing of contemporary knowledge (little survives)
Catullus’ lyric poems to his beloved
Nearly 1,500 years later, the city of Florence under the Medici family was filled with turmoil and intrigue. In the Years of Lorenzo de Medici
The Renaissance ("rebirth") grew from the rediscovery of Greek and Roman culture through ancient manuscripts. It led to the humanist movement that emphasized life on Earth rather than the medieval Roman church’s focus on the hereafter.
The cultural Renaissance that centered in the northern Italian city of Florence reached its peak when the city was under the control of a family of merchant princes who were passionate about the arts. In fact, the Renaissance is sometimes referred to as the "Florentine Renaissance."
The assembled talent was astonishing. Lorenzo de Medici lived from 1449 to 1492. Florentine artists of just this period included Sandro Botticelli, Fra Filippo Lippi, Fra Angelico, the sculptors Donatello and Ghiberti, and the architect and writer Leone Battista Alberti, The sculptor and architect Brunelleschi, died in 1446. Michaelangelo studied there. Starting in 1504, Raphael painted in Florence.
The greatest talent of all was Leonardo da Vinci, the genius whose name springs to mind with the term "Renaissance man." He painted the "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper." As an inventor and scientist, Leonardo amazes with the notebooks that he filled with designs of aircraft, submarines, the anatomy of humans and the movements of birds and fish.
A school of musical composition flourished in Florence as well as several other cities of northern Italy. It led to contrapuntal music, which weaves two melodic lines together. Madrigals and other types of music were composed.
Among the talents in Florence was Niccoló Machiavelli, who grew up and began his career there during this period, and the mathematician Luca Pacioli, who invented double entry bookkeeping. Marsilio Ficino headed an academy that studied Plato in a Christian context. The reactionary religious reformer, Girolamo Savonarola, held power until the Florentines tired of him and burned him at the stake.
