Royal Courts in the Italian City-States

Could some one tell me about Italian courts in the 1500s. Were they like the England court at the same time or were they just filled with artist and scholars??
 
Technically many of these were not royal courts per se , best example is Florence- the small electorate kept on picking the Medicis.
 
I don't think there were a whole lot of royal courts in Italy bsack then. Naples, and that's pretty much it, unless you count the Vatican.

Courts were full of courtiers, most of which were noblemen and noblewomen brought up to the manner, more or less. Altogether, they were probably a bit less crude and loud than the English aristocrats, but just as violent and quite happy to play hard.

An Italian court, though, at that point gained a great deal of prestige from patronage of the arts, so it would have been filled with artists, musicians and scholars, inhabiting the rung below the courtiers proper. That was something that set Italy apart at the time, though it was moving into the rest of Europe. But these men (except for the scholar-courtiers of noble birth or ecclesiastical rank) were more paid entertainment than true equals.
 

yourworstnightmare

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Donor
City states is a somewhat bad chosen name, I tend to refer to them as just States. Anyway a whole lot of them were not monarchies, but republics (had "courts" anyway).
 
City states is a somewhat bad chosen name, I tend to refer to them as just States. Anyway a whole lot of them were not monarchies, but republics (had "courts" anyway).

Well, Milan and Florence developed into duchies in this century under the Sforza and Medici, so those courts would have been royal

Other places such as Ferrara, Parma etc were also duchies, unless I misplace my head in the fridge

Savoy, Naples (with Sicily), of course also count

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Well, Milan and Florence developed into duchies in this century under the Sforza and Medici, so those courts would have been royal

Technically the term is "Ducal" for courts of Dukes, but yes.


I'm trying to remember fully what few references to the Italian courts I've read but I believe that the Italians had less of a fascination with chivalry and such, instead focusing on gaudy, ostentatious displays and music etc. I seem to recall Italian reports calling the English "vulgar" among other things. Similarly I remember someone from around 1500 saying something to the effect of "the English drink too much, the French eat too much, the Italians are too vain" (annoyingly I can't remember what it said about the Spaniards and Germans). I think the courts also tended to be relatively small, due to the sparsity of major landlords and such.
 
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