Latest / The Story of Italy: Rome, Renaissance, and the Birth of Modern Europe — Fexingo History
The Sienese Silver Rush: Money, Murder, and the Black Death
In Episode 268, we shift our gaze from the Medici of Florence to the rival republic of Siena, exploring how the Albizzi family and their banking rivals funded the Renaissance through one of history’s most volatile industries: silver mining. We trace the rise of the Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Europe’s oldest surviving bank, and its pivotal role in financing the Papacy during the Great Schism. But wealth in fourteenth-century Tuscany came with deadly risks. We examine the violent clashes between mining guilds, the political assassinations that reshaped the city’s government, and how the…
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